Quiet Cahoots

The kids were playing so quietly the other morning with nary as much as a threat of a scuffle or squabble in ear shot. I should have known to be suspicious. When I finally went to investigate their goings-on, this is what I found! Apparently, those two were in quiet cahoots to unload both of their bookshelves into a giant heap on the floor in Marci's room. It was such a sprawling mess that I could merely capture a small portion of it without a mega-wide lens!

All About the Game

We went to lunch with Hamilton and his family after church on Sunday, and I snapped this picture of the boys catching some Sunday football just as we were getting ready to leave. I love this picture because they could be 7 and 4 or they could be 77 and 74 . . . sporting the same clothes, same poses, same expressions, etc. No matter their age, these boys are clearly all about the game. I guess it's in their genes!

Wigged Out

Not sure what they're talking about here, but it looks pretty serious.

Maybe they were plotting a wig intervention. Rock on, big brother!

Christmas with the Cousins

We had an early Christmas yesterday with the cousins. Marci and Osten had the best time playing at Gramma Sue's house!

Jack has gotten so big! It's hard to believe that he's halfway through the sixth grade . . .

Osten had a great time trying to keep up with Nathan.

The kids played and played in Gramma Sue's room. Of course, Marci insisted on bringing along her Tinkerbell pillow . . .

The Very First Christmas

The kids participated in our church's annual Christmas pageant reinactment of the very first Christmas this morning. Here's a shot of our two sheep on the altar. For whatever reason, neither one of them would wear their ears.

Some "sheep" play . . .

Naughty sheep!

Our sheep with the rest of the cast minus a few sheep, shepherds and angels . . .

Behind the Scenes

Here are a few shots from the Christmas pageant dress rehearsal.

What well-behaved sheep!

Here's Hamilton as Joseph.

The full cast . . . give or take a few shepherds, kings and livestock!

Silly Sandwich

We had a nice visit at Gramma Sue's this afternoon. Here's a silly sandwich shot of the boys.

Marci had had no time for such silliness. She and Gramma Sue were too busy playing with her new magnetic dress-up doll.

Christmas Step-by-Step

Osten had his school performance, Christmas Step-by-Step this week. It was absolutely adorable! Here's the choir of three- and four-year-olds. Their little voices were so sweet.

Here's Osten (with his mouth open and just singing his little heart out) with the flock of sheep and the shepherds (or presherds as Osten likes to say).

The sheep were front and center to show off their marching feet, running feet and quiet feet on their way to Bethlehem.

Here's our favorite sheep after the show. Superstar!!

Christmas Step-by-Step (cont'd)

What did the sheep do after the show? Gave his sister a big choke-hold hug, of course!

He also posed with Billy and Ms. Casey . . .

. . . and Ms. Cherissa.

But best of all, he and Marci got to play in the stable!

Sitting with Santa

We went to see Santa this week, and the kids wound up sitting on his lap for about five minutes. They were such good sports! The woman was having some camera issues, and of course, the battery in my camera died after I shot these two photos so we hung around to make sure that we went home with an updated photo for our Santa frame. (As it turns out, my photos turned out just fine so we would have fine to leave empty-handed, but better safe than sorry!)

Osten was especially excited to talk to Tanta this year. Here's his list: a Thomas the Train choo-choo house (?), a Batman stroller (!) and a Batman bike. What's on Marci's list? A princess and bookies. Santa, if you're reading this, they've been very good this year! They were especially good at the mall and at Macy's and Wal-mart for a few final gift purchases.

Counting Sheep

Speaking of counting sheep, it's way past my bedtime but I had to post just one picture from Osten's Christmas performance at school tonight. Here's our little sheep with the rest of the flock. Isn't he cute??!!

New 'do

Check out Osten's new 'do! While it's certainly easier to manage, he sure doesn't look like a little boy anymore . . .

. . . but Osten certainly doesn't seem to mind!

Sharp-Dressed (Wo)Man

Look who got a hold of a Sharpie permanent marker today when Mommy wasn't looking! That crazy girl even gave herself a mustache.

She was pretty proud of her handiwork! Luckily, most of it came right off with nothing more than a wipe. Whew!!

Trimming the Tree

I still can't believe how excited the kids were this year to trim the tree. They couldn't get those ornaments on the tree fast enough! In fact, in their haste and excitement, we had one minor ornament casualty. We had to slow things down a bit after that . . .

Osten loved digging through the ornament box, and he even found a number of ornaments that he made (like the orange one in this picture).

Marci took her time placing each ornament on the tree, just right (mostly all clumped together near the bottom of the tree)!

Even Wrigley got in on the action!