Merry Christmas!!!

I think this year's Christmas was a success. Everyone was healthy this year (me being the exception with a cough), the kids were excited and Santa came! Our day began kinda late as all the kids slept until 11 o'clock this morning! They stayed up extra-late on Christmas Eve, so we weren't surprised. No naps today (except for me and Austin) so maybe they'll be back on schedule in a few. =) We opened gifts; the kids first, then Mark, then me. Austin wasn't terribly excited to keep opening gifts. He kept taking what he got and going around the corner to stack them up. He is such a funny little guy. We let Garrett open Austin's last two gifts because he wasn't interested anymore and Garrett wanted to keep going.

We watched Kung Fu Panda (twice) and started The Bee Movie. I think they watched it all; I fell asleep on the couch. I just woke up a little while ago to kids playing (arguing) with their new toys. At least they are still entertained by them. Possessiveness is at it's best (or worst!) on Christmas Day. By tomorrow they will have forgotten who all got what and will play happily with each other's toys. Except maybe Emily, she's pretty attached to her first Barbie stuff and thinks it's "only for girls". LOL! Here are some pics from this morning:

Austin unwrapping his first gift after not being too sure of the process.

Emily was only too happy to pose for a pic this morning. I think she likes Christmas!

Garrett wouldn't get with his own gifts to take a pic. He preferred being with Emily's Barbie boat.

I was very excited to give Mark this Alabama sweat shirt. I knew for once he didn't guess what I had gotten him. Me thinks he likes it!

There will be no pics of me this Christmas. I look like hell. Only 9-10 more weeks until baby comes, then I will be happy to have someone else behind the lens. For now though, enjoy the other members of my family.

Love to ALL and a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Card Pics with 3 kids, need I say more?

Here's the scenario: Mom has great idea to take the kids photos herself. The past few attempts in a studio stopped just short of blood shed. Mom thinks doing the pics at home will save a trip to the ER. Mom finds cute candy cane/peppermint wrapping paper at the dollar store. Mom hangs wrapping paper on wall as the backdrop. Mom thinks as an extra incentive to sit still for pics, she will give each kid a real candy cane to complete the "look". Mom hopes to use the caption, "Hope your holiday is sweet!" Aww, isn't that cute?

Apparently it is impossible to get three kids smiling, looking at the camera and still at the same time for a 3 second photo. Or at least it is impossible for my three kids. If I wasn't pregnant, I'd be hitting the bottle right about now. I'll keep that idea in mind for next year, for I'm sure I will have another brainstorm photo idea.

Here is a small look at drama from last night and this morning (yes, I tried this feat twice!):

Notice one crying child and two happy ones?

That stick is Mark trying to entertain the kids.

Apparently tickling your brother's feet is infinitely more fun than taking a picture with him. And no, the kids do not have shoes on. For one, it was making Garrett cry and two, we already did this once last night and three, the feet weren't supposed to show anyway. *sigh*

For Christmas cards, I ended up just using a template with 3 photo areas. I looked through my stock and found a decent individual pic of each kid. They are on order now and won't be ready until tomorrow morning. Yeah, yeah, I know it's the 22nd. All I can say is I tried.

Maybe next year.

Introduction

With so much going on now in our lives, I thought it would be nice to have a way to share it. First things first and I guess that would be the cast of characters:

• Mark, my wonderful husband
• Christi, that's me!
• Emily, our almost 8 year old daughter
• Garrett, our 3 year old son
• Austin, our 20 month old son
• No name yet, our daughter due sometime in the next 10-11 weeks

Emily had her last day of school on the 19th. She is not just out for Christmas break, she is out of the public school system for the "foreseeable future". After many months of thinking on it and many, many issues with her elementary school, Mark and I have decided she should be homeschooled. This is taking a very serious leap into the somewhat unknown. I am confident I can teach her what she needs to know. I am less confident in my ability to do so while caring for 2 (soon to be 3) other children, the house and everything that goes with it.

These next two weeks, save for Christmas, will be spent getting the house organized and purged of excess. We need to do this before the baby comes anyway. Our house is a nice size for a family of 5, but adding one more member to it will stretch it at the seams. Hopefully, with the purging and organization, the house will hold us all for another year or two. I also have this deep desire to paint all the rooms. The previous owner thought it would be genius to paint all the walls this crappy khaki color--and he used FLAT paint. I don't know about you, but this is the worst kind of paint for a family home with toddlers. I wouldn't mind the color so much if it wasn't in every freaking room. Feels too industrious to me. A while back I did make a little progress in that department though. I painted Emily's room a periwinkle, the playroom a sunny yellow and one wall in our bedroom a dark burgundy/red. Ok, I confess my mom greatly helped with Emily's room and the playroom when she and my dad were visiting after Austin was born (Thanks mom!).