Temple Lights

We are lucky to live within a 15 minunte drive to the Washington DC temple and during Christmas they have performances in the Visitors Center and a live nativity out front. Mark thought he would practice riding his camel. The beautiful temple with my not so beautiful photo abilities.

The live nativity scene which is really a lot more inspiring than a plastic one.

My cute kids enjoying the lights and activities.

Anna's Bath

Anna is now in the big bath and after a few attempts at putting her in with the boys, now goes solo. Between their kicking, splashing and lounging, it was just a matter of time before something bad happened. This is a photo of how quickly things can change. She was enjoying herself and playing with the water and I was focused on getting it all on film until I shot this picture and realized her finger was stuck! So much for a joyful time!

The Spirit of Christmas

Every year I tell myself that I am going to reduce the Christmas madness and focus more on the true spirit of Christmas and teach my children what is truly important, and every year I find myself totally disregarding my previous years commitment to do so. I will say that I am making more of an effort to do little things that make a difference, like not getting infuriated with the holiday traffic, longer lines in the stores, cranky customers, etc. I am trying to let it roll off my back. It takes a lot of effort, but it definitely helps. In my case, having two December birthdays does not reduce the load, but I am finally realizing that it is more about attitude than ambiance. If I am stressed, my kids are whiny and demanding, but if I just let go of some things and have a good time, things are happier in general. These are perhaps not the most profound ideas. In fact, they are probably some of the most rehearsed, but they are true. I am putting this out while I had a long list of errands to run in the ever decreasing time before Mark's birthday party and holiday shipping and I am stuck waiting for a vague 4 hour time frame for the oven repair man. The holidays are not a time to have your oven break and apparently, repairmen could care a less that it is important to get it fixed quickly. I have already been waiting for two weeks and have no true hopes of it getting repaired today. Also, right around Thanksgiving we had our camera die (at the end ot the Gettysburg trip), our printer break, and our oven crash. That is our three, I hope. What was that I was saying about letting things roll off my back?

Half Marathon

I have to be honest and say that I hate posting a picture of myself like this, especially when all of my friends look so cute, but it was an accomplishment, so here it is. Most of you know that Jackie has inspired me to train for a marathon in March. This was our true starting point for training and thanks to Callie found this half marathon where we ran from Alexandria, VA to about a mile outside of Mt. Vernon. It was a very cold day, but the blues and grays on the Potomac were beautiful and I can honestly say I enjoyed it, but I also had great company! For those who don't know, a half marathon is 13.1 miles.

Gettysburg

I put these pictures in reverse order and am too lazy to switch it out. On the long Thanksgiving weekend, we went to Gettysburg and did an auto tour (you buy a CD and follow along in your car). It was fascinating and educational. It truly puts things in a different light when one can be in the location where something took place and one can envision it so much more clearly. This picture was at the end of the day and at the place of the final battle on the third day. We had a lot of pictures, but I will not bore you with them all. The light on top of Anna's head makes her look like an angel (which she is, of course).

This is one of the many statues at the scene of the final battle, but it was also one of my favorite pictures that Alex took.

Here is Christopher inspecting a cannon.

The boys enjoyed running around. As we were listening to the information on the CD, Christopher was taking notes in his notebook. At one of our pitstops, Christopher commented that even though Alex and I might think that he was bored, he wanted to reassure us that he was listening and learning and finding it all very interesting. We were glad for the reassurance.

Thanksgiving

WE were lucky enough to have some good friends over for Thanksgiving. Jackie is a great friend and since she and her family were sticking around for the holidays, we thought it would be nice to celebrate together. Mark and Elise are in Joyschool together and they get along wonderfully. It is fun to watch them play together. Elijah is just a cutie pie and always on the go. I have a picture of Alex donning an apron while carving the turkey, but unfortunately it was blurry. He was very sexy though! We had a great time. Thank you Auna family for sharing with us! Here I am, tired after cooking ALL day, and Mark who is a cuddler and will jump on any opportunity to get cozy under a blanket.

Mark's Fort

Our boys are usually pretty tired and whiny by the weekend, so on Sundays we try to have them lay down for a "rest period" even if it isn't a nap. Well, if you look closely at the picture below, you will notice that Mark was busy building himself a fort by tucking blankets into the top bunk. It was difficult to be upset with him for not resting when he was being so quietly industrious!