Random assortment

I realized there were some great pictures I haven't shared - so here they are in no particular order.

The boys doing some work on New Years Day

Mr. Potato Head's glasses are Sean's favorite

 Technology is big around here...

 These guys get a lot of love - and a lot of hiding spots

 puppy love

 more technology - watching power rangers on the kindle while reading the paper - totally normal 4 year old activities

 Sesame Place right before Christmas

This is really hard to see, but Dylan and I went on the swings - I have never seen his smile so wide

 Sean loves his Sesame friends

Happy Valentines

I finally realized that maybe taking holiday photos in the morning when everyone is trying to get to school / work might be a little crazy.  So we went with Sunday night this time...much more sane (kinda)

Sean was blowing a kiss

 There's Dylan giving a kiss

 And a little hugging / wrestling - it's a fine fine line

Merry Christmas!

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...