A rare treat

I took the kids to see Toy Story 3 the Thursday before the 4th as their reward for doing so well at Sharon's wedding. I don't think I shared the story of how they walked down the aisle did I? Sammy walked down all by himself but Julia hung back so PapaBear went back up the aisle to walk with her. The next time he walks her down the aisle, him in a tux, her in a white dress, it will be her wedding day. Gulp.

But back to the movie outing rundown:
We went to a 7:30 show a few towns away. We took along their blankets and a stuffed animal for each of them. Their eyes got HUGE when they saw how much popcorn came in a a large tub. We sipped water and watched the previews. Sam asked, "is it going to start now?" at least three times.

Julia's chair squeaked and she wasn't heavy enough to make it stay open. Figures.

The kids enjoyed the movie - except for the parts where Sam covered his eyes. It was a little intense in my opinion.

After the movie we went grocery shopping. Yes I know it was 10pm but we make it a point to do at least two things during every trip to town. Gas is way too expensive to not stick to this rule. Shopping was fine - the store was nice and empty so we could get what we needed and head out. Julia said she heard thunder but that didn't make any sense because I could see stars.

The thunder was fireworks! On a Thursday? We went with it and sat and watched them from the Perkin's parking lot before making the long drive home.

Not a typical Thursday or a typical summer vacation day in the least, but it was a good one.

location, location, location

We had planned to take some photos at our park but it was HUMID and in the upper 80's. Instead we stayed at the church and took advantage of the beautiful architecture and landscaping. If only all my 'back up' photo locations were this stunning!

On the other side of the lens

Many many thanks to Hilary for being on the other side of the lens from me much of the time! She did a fantastic job and it is always a joy to work with her!







Speaking of joy... You know how some weddings just have an abundance of joy? This was one of them. Sharon and Jamey's day was picture perfect and I'm not just saying that because I was one of the photographers.







Sharon & Jamey - Hope you guys have a wonderful time in Jamaica! I'll be posting some of the photographs I took in my next post. Love you guys!!!!

to a *T*

Sam has been playing T ball for a few weeks now. First three practices and then last night was his second game. The weather has been PERFECT every time (unlike this very moment with heavy downpour and high winds). Did I mention we only came to the office with umbrellas? They aren't going to do us much good with sideways rain. Anyway...back to yesterday's how we spent our summer vacation post....we spent the early afternoon at the beach until I couldn't stand the misbehaving kid that wouldn't leave Sam and Julia alone. I know I shouldn't judge, but his mother had no clue how to handle her child. None. I know kids have bad days, I KNOW BECAUSE MINE HAVE BAD DAYS TOO. But. This kid was ripping toys out of other children's hands, throwing sand at people, and splashing little kids. All of those things happened after she threatened to make him leave 7 different times. Ugh...

It was much safer and calmer at home on the slip-n-slide. Julia has more fun puttering in the garage and in the flower beds than scratching herself up on the slip-n-slide so for once they aren't fighting about something. Going to VBS next week will be good or them. They haven't been apart in a week. We're on a modified schedule through tomorrow that doesn't include rest time (if it's nice outside) so they are together every.waking.moment.

After a quick dinner we headed to Sam's game. Conor is old and grumpy and absolutely HATES it when we leave the house without him. We have to let him out and then coax him back to his cord so I can make him come in. This time he pulled his collar off so I said forget it and let him jump in the van. Other than a Christmas here and there, he never gets out so it was fine that he came with. I like the challenge of getting Sam and his gear, a 3 year old, a purse, a camera, a chair, and a hyper dog to a T ball game in one piece. Yeah right. Thankfully my SIL joined us so I had an extra pair of hands.

Sam played first base for the first time so I took lots of video to show Daddy. He hit the ball on the first try and ran as fast as he could while dodging the other team who swarmed to every ball that was hit. Made me thankful that Sam's coach has the kids spread out more and they (for the most part) stick to their own area.

I had 'one of those kids' after the game when Julia flipped out about not getting fruit snacks like Sam did. She wailed all the way through the grocery store where Sam decided to pick out his check mark reward. We stopped at the library to drop off coloring entries and to request a few books for me. I've read most of the historical christian romances that I know of in our library so the librarian helped me find some new authors. My criteria are Bethany House Publishers and historical christian romance series. Know of any good authors that fit that bill let me know! I'm trying a new author, Stephanie Grace Whitson right now.

Across from the library a baseball game was being played so we grabbed the dog and wandered over. It isn't very often that we get to do stuff late at night like that but the weather was so nice and I've been letting the kids stay up later this week.

Yet another sign of summer!

taking the good with the bad

Summer vacation is not always sunshine and pretty flower beds. Sometimes it stinks. Sometimes instead of being able to lay low with my kids I have to leave the house to get some work done. Yesterday was one of those days. I opened the park gate, did my yoga, ate two pieces of toast and then I was out of here. We have the cutest little coffee shop/gift shop in town that every once in a while I spend the day at. It was cold and rainy which beats having to sit inside on a nice day when I'd much rather be at the beach with my kids. Instead I worked my behind off to get some blog book work done. Two hundred pages thankyouverymuch. It was a daunting task to say the least but it had to get done...you know...so I can get paid. Getting paid is nice. It comes in handy every once in a while and since book projects can take months to complete there are sometimes long gaps between invoices.

After work I met up with my SIL, my MIL, and a cousin to tackle some wedding necessities. Oh what fun we had! It was a bright spot in what was otherwise a down day for me. I rolled back into town after nine pm and then realized I still needed to go grocery shopping. THAT wasn't fun at all. Kinda glad I'd forgotten about it as we talk about childhood trips to grandparent's houses over dinner. I didn't feel the need to rush and if I'd remembered what I still had to do when I got back it wouldn't have been as relaxing. The grocery store isn't that busy at 10pm but I was still in the store for an hour. We REALLY needed food and so I stocked up on two weeks of groceries before heading home to finish up park duties for the night and then collapse into bed at 11.

I hardly saw the kids all day and I never like days like that. Today wasn't all that much better but I'll save that for tomorrow's how I spent my summer vacation post.

Have a great night everyone! Don't forget that Alphabitty Moments is tomorrow - the letter D. I have a perfect word but need to get a picture to go with it still....

What day is it again?

It's been a LONG day and I don't have any pictures to share tonight. I'm even questioning the point of posting since I can't even remember what day it is let alone what I did yesterday. For the sake of our 'how I spent my summer vacation' series I'll do my best.

Let's see...in the morning Grandma brought catapillers so the kids could watch them turn into butterflies. It's one of those reliable kits so we should get some results. The kids were over the moon about being able to watch them turn into butterflies.

I went with my SIL to pick up bridesmaid dresses for her upcoming wedding. They are stunning in every way...color, style, material. I L.O.V.E them. It also helps that I can wear shoes I already had in my closet and I don't need to hem the dress. So what if the shoes are 11 years old! They are silver and were only worn once for a wedding.

The kids went to a library program in the morning and then I took them outside after naps to look for bugs. This is turning out to be the summer of bugs in case you hadn't notice that trend. :) Who knew that dragon flies could fly THAT fast? We did end up with a couple of moths and little flies eventually.

We ate my favorite meal on our wrap around porch. (couscous with green pepper & chicken kabobs) Then we read bedtime stories in the hammock. Sam chose Swimming with Sea Monsters and Julia chose a book about Owls. Both are adult books but they LOVE the photos and learning about whatever they happened to be interested in that week.

I tried an earlier bedtime in hopes that they would get all their coming-out-of-their-rooms out of their system BEFORE 9pm. I was worried that it would prolong bedtime but it didn't have that effect. The last couple of days I've been exercising when I get up in the morning which is really nice come evening when I want to get some blog book and/or photography work done before I collapse into bed. All this fresh air is wiping me out! Wish it would help my kids sleep past 6am though!

Monday Musings

It has been so long since I wrote out my thoughts that many memories I had hoped to preserve are lost in the recesses of my mind. More times that I can count I've had great intentions of writing on a certain topic and then never have the time to do it. And now that I have carved out a few minutes, of course my mind would go blank. I can't remember what I wanted to say. Figures.

I was going to say something about the fact that I have 328 unread items in my Google Reader, something about how I've lost control of Twitter, and have to stop following so many people, something about the series I found at the library on Saturday, something about how I dropped Sam off for his first school friend birthday party over the weekend....oh wait! that I remember:

It was at McDonalds. The day after I watched Food, Inc. Nice. The McDonald's employee asked Sam if he wanted a hamburger, cheeseburger, or nuggets to eat. Of course he jumped at the cheeseburger since I only ever get hamburgers. She asked him what he wanted to drink and my little man said "water". OK, at least I haven't lost all my influence! I tucked a baggie with a couple of wipes into his pocket so he could wash his hands before he ate. He forgot to use them. He did eat apples instead of fries.

The McDonald's party was one of two parties we attended on Saturday. Thankfully both were local. PapaBear's cousin and his wife turned 50 this year and their children threw them a giant surprise party. 150 people were invited and nobody sent their regrets. It was packed in there! Julia fell asleep in my arms at 8pm. We're wild and crazy like that. Sam couldn't stop talking about the Olympic skiers he saw on the TV in the bar area. They go 60 miles an hour Mama! he exclaimed while we were visiting the ladies room. Mom - this isn't the men's room! I explained that there was no way I was sending my 5 year old into a bar men's room by himself and he quickly changed the topic back to the skier who crashed.
He had gone skiing earlier in the day and was so excited to tell me about the hills he went down. We don't have big hills in the park, but the ones we do have are plenty adventurous for him.

Speaking of Sam....he got to go ice fishing for the first time this season. He goes more for the treats Grandma sends with than for the act of fishing, but when it comes time to eat the fish, then he's 100% on board. He's his father's son. He loves to eat fish. Lake trout, salmon, walleye, sunfish....he loves it all. I think I see a trip to the Boundary Waters in the near future for him.

What else is happening in BearCountry? Well let's see....I took a weekend off for the first time in forever. I turned my computer off at 3pm on Friday afternoon and didn't log back on until I was done with a taste test I participated in this afternoon. You know when I was contemplating getting a smart phone and I wasn't sure if it would be a help or a hindrance? No doubt that it's a huge time saver. I can make sure I'm reading emails in a timely manner and can return the urgent ones on my phone. Not feeling the need to keep my computer running keeps me from getting sucked in.

The kids have been on their best behavior lately and I'm sure having an attentive mommy helps. We've been playing board games, restaurant, and hanging out with friends. We are still renting skis on the weekends and it looks like that won't be wrapping up any time soon. We get more skiers on one weekend this year than we did all of last winter. At this rate we'll be lucky to get a 4 week break before the camping season begins, but at least our friends and coworkers, Dennis, Maryann, Jo, and Howard will be here to lend a hand. It is such a blessing to know that the camp hosts from last year will be returning. We miss our summer family during the long cold winter months.

Speaking of family....our family has grown by one with the addition of a brother-in-law. PapaBear's sister got engaged this month and wedding plans are already under way. While weddings are always fun to plan - knowing that she's found 'the one' and will be settling down a mere five miles from us brings tears in my eyes just writing about it. Sam and Julia loved him from the get-go and don't see what all the wedding fuss is about. Little do they know that their wedding attire has already been the topic of of discussion on more than one occasion.

I'm about out of time and don't really feel I've gotten even half of the stuff tumbling around in my head out, but this is as good as it gets for now. Bible study starts in an hour and I have some more homework to finish up. (I'm meeting with some local women that met through Kristina to do Beth Moore's Fruit of the Spirit study.) I've really been blessed by the women in my life lately. Women who I cherish even if I haven't known them that long. Remember the dinner with girlfriends I tweeted about last week? Raw, funny, encouraging, real women who I admire and can't wait to see at our next gathering. Don Pablo's here we come! And then there are my friends Jenney and Susan. I can't think about girlfriends without their faces popping into my head. They listen when I need to vent. They email me when they haven't heard from me in a while. They encourage, they trust, they are my friends and I am blessed to have them in my life.

And there you have it - my Mundane Monday Musings. It's Life in BearCountry. It's full of coffee, work, play, job searching, pizza, movies, board games, laughter, skiing, co-sleeping, baking, sledding, & hustling to meet deadlines. One of these days I'll get caught up on my blog reading. I miss you all and hearing what's new in your corner of the world. Thank you for sticking with me while I do mostly photo posts and Alphabitty Moments. I did manage to get a post up on my Blog Book site if you are interested in seeing what a travel book looks like. I've also been cooking up an idea to host a digital scrapbooking gathering for those of you who would like to set a whole day aside to work on your scrapbooks and/or blog books. I am thinking of hosting it here at our CommunityRoom sometime after we are done renting skis for the year. Let me know if you are interested in such a get-together by leaving a comment on this post or emailing me directly. Another direction my brain is going is towards New York City - yes I'm considering going to BlogHer in August. I have proposed a Blog Book making seminar in the Geek Lab, but it requires enough votes in order to be asked to participate. If you are signed up for BlogHer would you consider logging in and voting for my room idea? I love teaching and sharing the {God given} talent I have with others and what a treat it would be to do it in NYC!

OK, Bible study awaits....

Have a great week everyone!

Sharon!

We're sending hugs right back at ya Sharon!


















Hope you had a fun and relaxing birthday (weekend)!




Love,
us.

What a bummer

Summer vacation is over. I feel like I missed it almost completely.

Bummer.

Target doesn't carry my favorite hair dye anymore. I have to use a brighter color.

Bummer.

I can't find a fireplace insert for our fireplace for under $500.

Bummer.

There are beautiful fireplaces on CraigsList, but we only need an insert at this point.

Bummer.

We picked the very last apple on Monday. Sam declared, "Apple season is over!"

Bummer.

We tried to go pick wild grapes on Monday, but the mosquitoes drove us away.

Bummer.
I found clothes in the basement that Julia would have fit into all summer long had I known they were there.

Bummer.

I took Friday through Monday off from work, but spent a decent chunk of my vacation cleaning and organizing the house.

Bummer.

My SIL is going to miss out on Fall Camping. It's the highlight of our year.

Bummer.

The mosquitoes have been feasting on Julia for the past two weeks. She has 18 places where she's made herself bleed.

Bummer.

We almost had an empty campground for the first time in 5 months. (until one lone RV pulled in tonight and decided to stay a couple of nights)

Bummer.

I can't go to my 10 year college reunion because it falls on the last weekend of camping.

Bummer.

Sam starts 3 day a week pre-school tomorrow. My baby is growing up.

Bummer.

What are you bumming* about?

* The definitions I read for the word bumming were much more depressing than I originally intended for this post to sound. You know when you have all this stuff swimming around in your brain and you just want to clear the slate? Well this post was my round about way of doing that.

mI would be bummed if you got the wrong impression.
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Alphabitty Moments - the letter Z

We did it ladies! We made it all the way through the alphabet! When I started Alphabitty Moments back in February I had no idea how attached I would become to this very special memory book. Sure, come Wednesday night as I often scrambled to find the perfect word to go with the letter of the week, I might have questioned what in the world I was thinking, but I knew it was worth it and I'm more than ready to get started all over again!

Thank you to those who have participated over the past year - one week or every week, you have inspired me to keep looking for the little things - to savor them, to photograph them, and to take the time to record them here on my blog.

Don't forget that next week we'll be posting our cover designs for those who eventually will be turning their pages into an album. There was some discussion in my Forest Forum about using the Alphabitty Moments button for a book cover option so leave me a comment if you want me to email that to you. You are welcome to edit it however you see fit to make it work with your book - if that's the route you decide to take.

And now on to the final letter.....I feel like we should have a drum roll, but since it is almost 1am, I doubt PapaBear would appreciate it as much as I would.

This time around Z is for.....

The kids were able to enjoy more of the county fair this year thanks to a certain aunt of theirs. (THANK YOU!!!!!!) Some day they won't be excited to putter around in a circle or enjoy the simple pleasure of a giant slide so while they are little we'll make the most of the little kid rides that zoom around in circles just fast enough to make my stomack churn.

My goal was to insert the 4 images as circles like this next picture but I couldn't figure out how to crop the image correctly in photoshop. The background is transparent, but it imports into Booksmart with white around the edges. Any thoughts on how to crop to circles? If I don't figure it out before I print the book I'll have to come up with a different design. The squares over circles just aren't going to cut it.

Wordless Wednesday - What goes up

For the Love of Family (Portraits) part2

I didn't mean for this post to be such a tease. So without further adu, here are some of the photographs from a very special session I did the day before Easter. Enjoy!

This Morning

* I only had 2 minutes to hustle downstairs and outside to unlock the gate before 7am.

* Julia had a huge blow out

* I did my hair and makeup for the 4th time this month

* I was on time for both schools

* We had a FANTASTIC discussion during parent education about our expectations as parents. After 4 years of Early Childhood Education, I have a large arsenal of tools and techniques for parenting, but what I didn't get until today is that I don't have to fix everything RIGHT AWAY in the heat of the moment. Lately we've been struggling with whining and the kids wanting more of everything and I was getting very frustrated.

Julia's emotions are off the charts and I feel like Sam is old enough to understand that he should be grateful for the two pieces of candy instead of whining about wanting more. Our lesson today at school was to show empathy when our kids are upset and leave it at that. It can still be a learning opportunity even if things aren't tied up with a neat bow at the end. Teaching the kids to get a handle on their emotions and taking the time to empathize can (over time) do wonders. I'm looking forward to trying this out this week.

What else did we do this morning?

* I ran into my SIL and had an impromptu lunch date at Target

* Julia refused to eat anything

* Instead she asked to go home and see Sammy. I had shopping to do so she asked to get in a cart instead of walking.

* She laid down in the big part of the cart while Sharon and I ate lunch.

* She napped for 45 minutes - in the grocery cart.

* We stopped at the garden center to scope out the organic fertilizers and seeds for our straw bale garden.

* We played baseball in the yard (It's 65 and sunny out FINALLY)

* PapaBear ran and got the hardware to hang a second hammock in our yard.

* We hauled 3 heaping laundry baskets of outgrown clothes downstairs. (My friend is going to sell them at a garage sale for me next week in exchange for a photoshoot. Now I won't have to list 75 pieces of clothing and 18 pairs of shoes on Craigslist! Wahoo!!!)


And that was just our morning. Can't wait to see what the afternoon brings!

For the love of Family (portraits)

Can I do that? Can I use the title of my blog as a post title? Does it tell you anything about how uncreative I'm feeling right this moment? If you've been reading my tweets that have been coming in spurts over the past few days you already know that I haven't been getting much sleep lately. Both of my businesses are keeping me busy until the wee hours of the morning. I have a long list of posts to catch up on one of these days and an even longer list of blogs to read.

First things first. PapaBear's parents and sister are coming over for a photo shoot with their grandkids. Yep, you read that right. We gave them invitations the other night when we decorated Easter eggs to come over specifically so I can take portraits of them with the kids. We have snapshots galore, but I want the type of portraits I do for clients. The kind we can hang on the wall.

I guess that means I better go pick out some clothes for the kids before they get here.

Have a blessed Easter everyone!

Caution: Dinosaur Crossing Ahead

For almost two months now Sam has been devouring information about dinosaurs like never before. In fact, he was rather indifferent about them before. His obsession started when PapaBear let him watch bits and pieces of Jurassic Park and Sharon gave us the Disney movie, Dinosaur.
We've check out a bunch of books from the library and especially enjoyed the movie, Walking with Dinosaurs. My favorite one to read is called, Dino Hockey. So cute!!!

I bought, Sammy and the Dinosaur, at Once Upon a Child because of the boys name, but now it's a favorite. Grandma & Grandpa gave Sam a personalized dinosaur book for Christmas that I wish I could have found to put in this pile of books. The problem was I took this picture in the dark. We went in to check on Sam and found him like this:

His dinosaur nest literally at his fingertips while he slept. I had to run and get my camera and while I was there I snapped a photo of some of the books he chose to read tonight.

Yesterday I got a bee in my bonnet about getting Sam some dinosaurs to play with since he was constantly playing dinosaur. Selfishly I wanted to use toys instead of having to crawl around on my hands and knees all the time. That, and the kicking, pretend clawing, and bashing involved with dinosaur fighting was starting to concern me. Julia didn't care for the violence either and would get upset when Sam would cling to my leg and pretend to eat me.

I figured if we got the Toob of 15 dinos from Michaels for $7 we could call it a Valentine's gift that the kids could share. THEN I got to thinking that I should check Craigslist first. When I didn't find much on CL I went to Ebay. Holy dinosaurs Batman! We could get 100 for $15! That made us reconsider spending $7 on a few, but the desire to get him one right away won out.

We haven't bought the kids anything since Christmas and with as much use as they'll get we decided to go ahead and stop at Michaels Craft Store. I wish you could have seen the look on Sam's face when we told him he could get a dinosaur. He said he was going to pick a stegosaurus (that's what's on his PJ's). We decided to purchase this set off of Ebay for $12.50 as well.


Pretty much as soon as I hit "confirm" I started to question our decision.
What kind of example were we setting if we rushed out and bought something just because we liked it for the moment?
Why buy SO many when he would truly be happy with a couple?

But then I came to my senses and realized it was TWO MONTHS ago that we brought home our first dino book from the library. That's not exactly rushing out to buy something.
He didn't ask for dinosaur toys. He's just SO good at using his imagination when he plays that we wanted to encourage that. Notice we didn't get any battery operated ones. I guarantee he will play with these toys for a LONG LONG time.
When we told him he could get a dinosaur he requested one. We aren't going to spoil him with the entire set at once. I already have plans to set some aside for Easter. I'm going to put some of the littlest ones in the plastic eggs we have for their Easter Baskets.

Parents have to walk a fine line and I'm praying that our walk with dinosaurs will be an educational AND fun one.

The fruit snack test

I've always been very cautious about what I let the kids watch on TV. Now that they are exclusively watching movies, I don't have to worry about commercials, but simply the content. Violence, guns, bad language, etc... are found in just about everything these days. One of the reasons I don't like kids TV shows and movies is all the products that are associated with them. We avoid the whining and begging for clothes, shoes, food, and more toys that always come along with the latest movie or cartoon.

Until very recently we only had two Disney movies in the house. Sam was 4 before he watched Finding Nemo. Of course this means, Julia is watching stuff at 2, that Sam never, ever did. The perk of being the second child I suppose.

Tonight, (I mean yesterday...I'm scheduling this to post in the morning so I can stick to my new routine), Sharon brought us 15 movies that she didn't need anymore. Don't tell the kids, but she also shared a bunch of brownies too. Most of them are Disney movies. Why the sudden change of heart? I realized that once the hype is over the chances of stores pushing slippers, pajamas, t-shirts, action figures, or fruit sacks plastered with the characters in the movies is pretty slim.

So as long as there isn't a princess involved (we don't do princesses) and there isn't a fruit snack on the shelf with the characters faces - we're good to go. Obviously this doesn't mean they'll be watching R rated movies anytime soon, but we're loosening the reins a bit on the rest.

Sam is sleeping with Treasure Planet and Dinosaur tonight. I think he's excited about our new entertainment options. THANK YOU SHARON!!!

A Public Service Announcement

If you've ever tried to download any of my photographs before you might have noticed that the images are protected. This is for the safety of my family and it provides me with copyright protection on my photography blog.

Yesterday a reader asked me how I do this. I thought rather than replying to only her I would share this valuable nugget with everyone.

Please note that you can't just copy and paste this as a page element. First you need to add a "<" at the very beginning, then in the very first line should have a "<" before the /script and a ">" after it. If I type it out correctly the computer will put the code to use, rather than display it for you.

script type="text/javascript">
var message="Protected image can not be saved.";
function click(e) {
if (document.all) {
if (event.button == 2) {
alert(message);
return false;
}
}
if (document.layers) {
if (e.which == 3) {
alert(message);
return false;
}
}
}
if (document.layers) {
document.captureEvents(Event.MOUSEDOWN);
}
document.onmousedown=click;
/script


This little nugget of info works most of the time. My SIL can download photos to some of her computers at work, but not all. I figure every little bit helps though.

Speaking of code...I once found a very easy way to make photos on my blog larger. All I had to do was change the second 400 in the photo info to a 720 and sha-zam - bigger images. Then all of a sudden that method didn't work anymore. If you are a photobucket user there is a way to make the photos larger, but that's way too much work for this mamabear. Does anyone know of any other tricks to make images larger?

4 the love of Christmas

Esther answered these 25 questions on her blog and I thought it would be fun to answer them for our family. The snow is falling outside and I'm about to curl up in the library next to our tree and do my devotional, but before I do, here's our family's version....

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. Next year I want to try these for some of the hard to wrap gifts. Sometimes we use gift bags - if we have them from previous years. I've never bought any for Christmas gifts, only reused them.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Both. When I was growing up we had a fake one every year except the year our farm was paid off. That year I insisted we go out to the woods and cut down one from the property. It was the ugliest tree, but oh so special. When we got married we picked out a real tree from the Snyder's Drug Store lot. When BrotherBear was a baby we went to Z's Trees to cut down our own. We did that until SisterBear's second Christmas when we purchased a tree from a lot, 'planted' it in Grandma and Grandpa's yard, then went out to 'chop' down our tree.

This year we chose a wild balsam from a nearby Christmas tree lot, but because we had a few artificial ones we've accumulated and our house is so big, we put a fake one up in the living room and one in Sam's room. Our other fake one is at my sister-in-laws apartment this year.

3. When do you put up the tree? I really like to wait until the first snow fall so it varies each year. Sometimes I get to anxious and get a tree without any snow on the ground. Last year it was December 10th - too late in my book. We've always had great luck with our real trees being up for a whole month and not dropping very many needles.

4. When do you take the tree down? It depends. I like to wait for a weekend where PapaBear can keep the kids distracted so I can work uninterrupted.

5. Do you like eggnog? Like doesn't even come close to my feelings about eggnog. I drink it by the gallon - straight from the container. It is in my top three on my favorite foods list. It is my main protein source for the month of December. I'm not the only one who loves it.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? The only thing I can think of right now is a 10 speed bike I got at my Grandma and Grandpa's house.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My father-in-law. Once I figure out what to get him, it's clear sailing from there. SisterBear has been difficult to buy for until this Christmas. She started liking art activities around her birthday so that saved us then. Now that she's starting to pretend with dolls and the play kitchen I've got some direction to go with her gift list. We don't do Princesses or Barbies in our house so that shortens the options quite a bit.

8. Easiest person to buy for? BrotherBear. If it has wheels, he'll like it.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Three of them. Two for the kids to play with and one that we keep up high and put the baby Jesus in on Christmas Eve.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. If I'm going to see the family over the holidays I save postage and give them their card in person.

11.Favorite Christmas tradition? There are so many! I can't pick one so here are some I can think of off the top of my head:

Driving around to look at Christmas lights
Singing Carols with PapaBear's extended family before PapaBear reads the Christmas story
Decorating Christmas cookies with PapaBear's family
Unwrapping a Christmas book each night in December
Writing a letter to Santa each year (they are displayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house)
Giving the kids an ornament each year
Making ornaments for PapaBear

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas. A Christmas Story. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Charlie Brown Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? The day after Christmas. Seriously! I find some great deals and then spread out the rest of the spending throughout the year.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? You bet.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? See #5.

16. Lights on the tree? White. Always white. We have some poinsettia garland over a doorway that has green and red lights and SisterBear has pink lights in her room, but our trees and outdoor decorations (none this year, hopefully next year) will always be white.

17. Favorite Christmas songs? "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." Always makes me laugh. Of course I do like the more traditional ones too, but this one I don't hear that often so I'm not sick of it.

18.Travel at Christmas or stay home? Growing up we either had to travel 3 hours or 6 hours to spend holidays with extended family, but our kids won't have to do that. We live 15 minutes from my in laws and no more than an hour or two from any of my family. The downside of this is that we can make it to two gatherings in one day. Hustling from place to place takes away from the magic of the day, yet I feel blessed to have so much family to spend holidays with.
Last year we spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house so the kids could experience what we did as children. We brought all our sleeping bags and slept downstairs by the fire. We even brought our stockings to hang on the fireplace. Now that we live in a park we have to be home to open and close the gate each year.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Sure I can, but what I really want to know is whether it's Donner or Donder.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? A star. A Moravian one. Unless there isn't room - I like my trees to reach the ceiling if possible.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? The four of us open gifts on Christmas Eve morning if there's going to be enough time. This year I have a photo shoot Christmas Eve morning so we might have to wait. We spend Christmas Eve with extended family and open the gift from the gift exchange that night. On Christmas Day we get our gifts from Santa in our stockings. We spend an afternoon/evening with PapaBear's parents opening gifts anywhere from the 23-26th. It all depends on the schedule that year. It's nice to spread things out and not be rushed. We'll spend an afternoon at my mom's new house on Friday, visit with a big group of friends this coming Saturday, and have my FIL's family over here the Sunday after Christmas.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Keeping up with the rest of my life's responsibilities. It's easy and fun to do all the Christmas traditions, but things easily fall apart around here when I don't stay on top of the cleaning and cooking. Last week was rough in that department. This week I planned my menu around the crockpot so things are running smoother. The other thing I struggle with is that we give homemade (food) gifts and I want them to be as fresh as possible. That leaves me scrambling the week of Christmas to get everything made and wrapped.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? We don't have a color theme to our ornaments. What I do is pick ornaments for the kids each year that relates to something they are interested in. This year Sam is getting a knit sucker. The kid loves candy so this one fits him perfectly. I found a J that looks like a cutout cookie with frosting for Julia. She learned how to say her name a few months ago (she'd been saying JoJo for a year). I write the year on each ornament so they will know how old their were when they received it. I still hang my ornaments from my childhood on our tree, making for a more old fashioned look to our "bony" tree.

24. What do you want for Christmas this year? An electric fireplace. The snow is blowing into our house. Need I say more?

25. Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? Giving of course. That's not to say that I don't love the gifts we receive. We are blessed with a generous family and a Savior who gave us the best gift of all.

While you were sleeping

Mommy and Daddy were driving six hours away to spend their first nights away together in over 2 years.

While you were getting dressed, we were paddling across the first of 2 lakes.


While you were eating breakfast, Mommy was resting half way through the 190 rod portage.


While you were painting pumpkins, Daddy was carrying the canoe (and the food pack) around some rapids on the South Kiwishiwi River.



While you were eating hamburgers and ice cream cones at McDonald's, Mommy was catching our lunch.




While you were making pizza with Sharon, Grandma, and Grandpa, Mommy and Daddy were enjoying the view at their campsite.



While you were watching Whinnie the Pooh, Daddy was catching big fish.


For the record Mommy had a bigger bass on her line until it broke the line.


While you were eating tacos, Mommy and Daddy were eating fresh fish.



Really fresh


While you were getting ready for bed, Mommy took this picture for Stellan's gallery.



While you were sleeping in your beds, we were sleeping in this tent.

In fact, we were probably sleeping before you were! We were in the tent most nights by 7pm.

While you were sound asleep, Mommy and Daddy were paddling and portaging in the dark so we could get home to you faster.


While you were eating breakfast, we saw an eagle fly over our canoe during the last 5 minutes of our time on the water.



While you were napping, Mommy and Daddy were driving home to see you!

Correction: Daddy was driving. Mommy was sleeping.

We missed you!