Cheeeeese!

Every day we were there, Grandpa Vic went out and played ball with them right before dinner.  Of all these games, I have this one picture.

Hmmmmm.

My carefully honed Mommy-senses are telling me...

That SOMEBODY was attacking the mulberry bush again.

These kids are such hams.

I mean, really. They veer from being so hard to photograph..

... to completely cheesing it up for the camera.

Doesn't matter how many times you say "That flower doesn't actually *have* a smell", she's gotta try it anyway.

No idea what's going on here. Other than him deliberately laying on the pool cover, that is.

Oh come on. Like you've never climbed into a big cardboard box to read a story to your brother before.

And here we have the Big Bridget Visit of Dec 07.

Made extra special by Santa Claus,

getting to climb into a helicopter,

getting to "drive" the helicopter,

and getting to go see The Nutcracker (hence the fancy shmancy outfits.  Not that getting dressed up to visit helicopters would be out of the question with these princesses...)

Well this is quite a festive look!

As is the striped Santa shirt and bow... what are we doing here?

OOH!  It's Santa at the library!

Mom - I really just prefer the librarians to read the stories. I'm not so sure about this fat guy w/ the beard.

Look at this poor kid.  He's not crying, but he is trying to hold himself as far from the big guy as he can.  Maybe next year we'll finally get that "on Santa's lap" shot.

Christmas cookies!

And again with the striped shirt and bow.  That was pretty much her uniform this holiday season.

I think the deal was something like "If you write 5 words, I'll give you a candy-cane."

Or maybe it was "If you write 5 words and then let us take 38439847398 pictures of you and the words, I'll give you a candy cane."

Talking to Bridget on the phone.

I LOVE the crossed legs in this one.

Why am I getting flashes of what life will be like around here in about 12 years?

Here we have pictures of me trying to avoid the camera...

... while Joe tries to get pictures of the kids and me making more cookies.

It was first thing in the morning!  No make-up!  Bed hair!  This is much better - cookies in front, cute Twink in the back, messy Mommy off to the shower.

Yeah - note to self.

Self?

Next year?

Don't wait until bedtime on the 24th

to try and take the kids Christmas photos.

Because if you can't get a good picture...

it's really too late to try again.

What?  These weren't for me?

OOOH!  BARBIE!

THE PINK MERMAID ONE!

What do you get for the man who has everything? 

Matching Superman pajamas, duh!

Ok, I have like no pictures of the present opening this year.

But I do have these lovely pics of my Twink in her Tink costume.

Thanks, Grandma, it's a hit. =)

She also got this camera.

And these binoculars (but she's a good sharer.)

Taking a picture of me taking a picture of her.

He needs a closer view of exactly what she's doing.

I'm not sure why this one made the cut - it's their backs.  And the tree.  And their backs are even a bit blurry.  But it's here now, and if I delete it it'll throw off my whole 3/2/3/2/3/2 pattern...

What's even better than a candy cane?

A candy cane Tootsie Pop!

Yes, it's true.

My baby is big enough for a big-girl bike.

And pretty damn pleased with it, too.

When riding your princess bike,

you really need to wear your princess sweatshirt,

and princess elbow pads,

and princess jeans (though not your princess helmet, apparently.  You can always tell when pictures are taken by Joe instead of me.)

He's TWO!

Hmm.  It seems that they only need to be two for a couple of hours before going completely insane.

Glad I knit that hat so big last year,

so he'd have such a nice-fitting one this winter.

Can't.. think.. of...caption.  Struck.. dumb.. by... beauty...

Pink helmet, check.  Pink shiny vest, check.

Brown polka-dot sweater and pink plaid pants... check and check.  Huh.

Two years old, and suddenly he looks ready for kindergarten.

Or worse - drivers ed!

No, see, you have to push this button right here...

Oh!  This one!

He might look big - but keep him out 20 minutes past nap time and you find yourself with an unconscious kid on your living room floor.

I love how every time I'm taking pictures of him sleeping in fun places, she has to horn in..

and fake being asleep, too.

It's prrrresent time!

Jonas isn't sure what's going on today, but he's pretty sure he likes it.

He just did this present thing 2 days ago, so he's got it figured out.

This, right here, is the start of a beautiful freindship.

Holy cow, Mom!  I can't even see over this thing!  SCORE!

These are the only two cake pictures I have this year.  Drinking milk...

and whining for more.  Hey - they can't all be first birthdays with 398438 pics of an icing-covered baby. We wanted to get back to playing w/ the presents!

By "we" I, of course, mean Jonas.

I mean - who else would be eager to play with the new cars?

Ah.  Of course.

This toy is really cool - it's just mega blocks (like big giant starter-legos),

but you can build ramps for your cars with it.  We play with it all the time.

Sometimes, we play with it without pants.

Before we call it a night, I needed to get at least one picture of me with my big two-year-old.  Maybe one picture with me, my big two-year-old, and no finger on the camera lens...

Yay!  Happy birthday, baby.

Let's PARTY!

Question: What's more fun than wearing your party hat on your face? (They were being birds.  Cute, huh?)

Answer: seeing how many M&M's you can fit on the top of your one, allowed, cupcake.

(It's possible to fit a LOT, if you really make an effort.)

There's the birthday boy!

He's very dainty with the frosting.  Dip the finger in,

lick the frosting off.

Unlike his sister, who's been to a few more cupcake parties than him and knows how to devour as much sugar in as little time as possible.

Whoa, slow down lady!  You're going to get a cupcake headache!

(He freaking loves these noisemakers.  He still asks for them whenever we're in the party section of the store.)

PRESENT TIME!

The older kids play "the nap game" while he opens them.  Geesh - we didn't mean to bore you, guys.

More cars!  Wahooo!

My friend put a very funny picture of her children on the front of the gift bag - Jonas had to stare at it for 10 minutes before he would open the bag to see what was inside.

Ok.. what have we got?  Finger paints.. mmmhmm... WAIT!  What's this!?!

Mmm.  Chocolate.

Exactly what I needed.

I was just thinking that that cupcake was wearing off...

Now I feel... energized. I feel....

Like doing YOGA.  (This is your toddler.  This is your toddler on sugar.  Any questions?)

I asked her to get dressed in a "party outfit", this is what I got.

I also got a bunch of pictures of her with her mouth open, because she couldn't stop talking long enough  to smile for me.

Oh!  There's one! And it's twice as nice, because when she's smiling.. she's QUIET! =)

Yeah.  Fingerpaints don't just sit around in this house.

We open those suckers IMMEDIATELY.

This is why you never buy shirts that have text in a language you don't speak - who knows what it actually says?

What are you talking about, Mom?  Does my shirt say something dumb?  I certainly hope you know better than to put me in a dumb shirt. Don't MAKE me have to use my "angry face".

My genius child. Because sliding down on your butt is such a *one-year-old* thing to do.