Why?

Why do Santa pictures cost $20? And why did I ever start a tradition of getting them done? I have them all framed and get them out for display every year. Every year, when the picture is worse than the year before, I say I'm not doing it again. And yet, when I get all the pictures out, I convince myself that I'll be sorry if I don't continue it. As of right now, I'm just sorry I don't have my $20 back.

Please feel free to laugh. At all of them. Sure, Rhett is the most obviously funny, but if you know what my girls really look like, it's kind of funny too...Reese looks slightly psychotic and Avery has the Chandler Bing "freeze-when-a-camera-appears" smile.

The silver lining: Bringing the Santa pictures out in twenty years!

General Store

I had to do some baking this morning and it's freezing outside so it's an "indoor day." I didn't want the kids to watch TV all day and I sure didn't want them to be bored, because, as we all know, boredom leads to fighting with each other and asking Mom 400 questions per hour. So I tried to think of something that they could do together that would take a while. The Princess cash register in the middle of the floor gave me the idea: Pretend grocery shopping! Oh how I loved to play grocery store when I was a kid. I LOVED to unload my mom's groceries while tapping away on an adding machine of some sort. My one unrealized dream is to be a grocery store checker. I know, I know, I could probably be one really easily right now, but the automatic scanner ruined it for me. I need to be able to punch in numbers really fast to enjoy myself.

Wait. Where was I? Oh right...grocery store for the kids. So, I set up the "store" in the kitchen, got them some grocery sacks and told them to get after it.

Honestly, they weren't that excited when I mentioned it, but they got pretty pumped when they saw it all set up and realized I was letting them use real groceries.

First things first, of course: Reese had to make a list.....

Note: The "Health and Beauty" section is kept separate from the food section. Even a pretend store has to be somewhat organized if you want to streamline your shopping experience.

Rhett did some shopping at first, but gave up after Reese made him be her baby and then became impatient with him. That could not have been part of the game. How in the world would she ever get the idea that a mom gets impatient with her precious child at the grocery store?

Clearly, Reese had business to take care of, so as soon as Rhett balked at being her verbally abused baby, she forgot all about him and got busy shopping.

I think my favorite thing is that she actually read the list she made.

She looked at it every time she picked up an item. I had to get a close up of the list, without her knowing, just so you could see why I find it hilarious that she referred to this list a gazillion times this morning.

If you ever need to get something done, or if you are just in the mood to laugh at your kids, set up a store. It's worth what little time and effort it takes to set up and clean up!

Sweet Girl

She and her big sister are coloring at the table...most of the time has been filled with silence as they both concentrate on their "art." Reese spoke after at least 10 minutes of quiet: "Avery, I miss you when you go to school." Back to silence.

These are the moments that erase all of the arguing, crying, screaming, fussing, and time-outing that goes on in any given day.

The newest family member...

This is my sister's baby, (her 3rd boy, bless her heart!) born at 9:30 this morning. Isn't he the sweetest thing? It's times like these, I wish I had never moved to Texas! It kills me to be 5 hours from this little face!

We interrrupt the scheduled post...

It snowed yesterday. For about an hour. I got a picture of Avery and Reese out in the snow and it's pretty cute. I was sitting down at the computer to post the picture, along with a long diatribe about how Rhett was afraid of the snow at first and it was all adorable and blah, blah, blah.
But I was interrupted mid-post. Reese is rubbing my back as I type (I pay her in chocolates. Seriously.) and she came to my bra strap. I said "That feels really good" because, you know, that strap gets a big tight and it feels nice to have it all scratched. I closed my eyes to enjoy the moment, when her little voice came from behind me. "I like this fat part the best, Momma."

Forget the snow picture...I'm headed to the treadmill.