it's been done

A family picture involving 4 smiles and a dog....

 and I said it couldn't be done.

We even had a few to choose from

 Then Dylan wanted us to take one in front of "his" tree in the playroom

 Ok - here is the secret...popcorn - it's in a tin in the bottom of every picture.  I'm not above bribes

 This is the Dylan self portrait...

outtakes

I just stamped the 100th Christmas card so now I can share the outtakes that I didn't use from out various card photo shoots.  It is NOT easy to get 2 crazy boys to smile at the same time within camera range

I tried a very fancy "looking for Santa" shot.  Sean was appalled.

Nobody was thrilled with the "reading the Christmas book" shot

 Sean liked sitting on the fireplace (because he loves to climb up there and get in trouble) - Dylan became a total cheese

 The very popular "playing with the lights" shot - fail.

 A nice family shot?  Not so much

 Dylan doing great - Sean screaming

 I really did think about just using this one, but I figured Sean would hate me forever

 During practice shots Sean was doing great.

 Pretending to decorate, but not thrilled with me saying "look at the camera"

I'll let you decide if you like the one (or 6) we finally got when you get your mail this week.

Maximus is here

Maximus SparkleSox that is.

You may have heard about the newest Christmas trend - The Elf on the Shelf.  A little elf comes with a book about how he appears in your house after Thanksgiving and every night he flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa.  When he flies back in he lands in a new place everyday (this is the part I like).  You can't touch him though or he will loose his magic and won't be able to report to Santa - then you get sock for Christmas (in our house underwear is a big deal so that is no threat)

I have to disclose that we did not purchase the brand name 'elf on the shelf'.  We have a Christopher Pop-in-kins - solely for the reason that the elf is not cute and Christopher is.

So anyway, Sunday morning the elf (who I named Maximus SparkleSox since in previous conversations Dylan had indicated he would name him do-do or poop) appears rappelling from the kitchen chandelier. He brought with him Christmas placemats, plates, cups and special North Pole snow covered doughnuts.  It was a big hit.

The magic is working...

Happy Birthday (no - really)

So Sean has been singing a tune the past couple of days.  I wasn't sure what he was saying, but I finally figured out it was Happy Birthday.  He sang it all morning - right up till I got the camera  out.  But he did a little for me...

fall boys

The colors on the leaves were so beautiful on Friday I decided we had to have a photo shoot in the yard. It was pretty cold, but pretty cutee

Is he really this big?

So in addition to a party this year Dylan's Aunts and Uncles bought him a big boy bike with training wheels.  A Lightening McQueen big boy bike - does it get any better than that?

 He was so excited.

 Grandma and Grandpa even let him ride through the kitchen to test it out- how cool is that.

 And he can ride it...how did he get this big?

 And of course this little one is dying for a turn

Rock Star Birthday

So with Dylan in school he has been invited to a lot of birthday parties in the past year.  About 6 months ago he caught on that he had never had a kids birthday party (ooops!)   So this year was a big deal.  We invited all the kids from his class and all his friends (read his parents friends) from outside of school.  We had about 24 kids ranging from 1 to 6 - obviously this party was NOT going to be in my house.  We booked a party place that basically is like a little club for kids (without all the drugs, alcohol and whatever else might happen in clubs these days).  It was awesome.

Dylan was super excited!

 All the kids lined up on the red carpet to go in...

 Lots of loud music and dancing ensued

 Of course there were bubbles

 Dylan's highlight was when Grease Lightening came on - he went crazy with his inflatable guitar

He was compared to Tom Cruise in Risky Business (with his pants on of course)

I don't know where he got his moves

 Sean was loving it to

 Cake and all - it was a great party and all his friends loved it.  Now it's like Christmas here with all the toys