Christmas Pictures

A mix of pictures we took while in Arizona for Christmas...

2.

On Wednesday our guy turned 2.




Henry and I had come to Arizona the day before, so we held a small birthday party for him on Wednesday night at my parents' house with Bill, Alyson, Syd, Mia, and Kennie. The party featured loads and loads of balloons (with only a few mild injuries sustained while blowing them up), Henry's favorite Christmas album by Bela' Fleck and the Flecktones, a Frosty the Snowman cake, and a special guest appearance by Dad via Face Time on our phones. Henry had a blast dancing and jumping around all the balloons with his cute cousins. The video doesn't do justice to how much fun he had that night -- the boy can dance -- but it's the best one we ended up with. Thanks to everyone for the well wishes on his big day.

Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfDfGM7DECs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7fE3eCP_hQ

thanksgiving in dallas

We tried to take some family pictures while we were in Dallas for Thanksgiving. Be serious. It was 35 minutes full of tears, wiping Henry's nose, feeding him marshmallows between shots, and shouts of, "Henry! Look! Truck!" and, "Henry! Look! Plane!" and, "Henry! Look! Cows!" Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for being such good sports about it. Here are some of the winning shots. Really.

(check out Grandpa's shadow on the tree. Very artful. An instant classic.)

Mom, how did you ever manage to do a family picture every year with three kids and Charlie?

Hooray!

We put up our tree this week, and every morning when Henry wakes up he runs out to see it glowing in the living room, jumps for JOY, and shouts, "Hooray!" (Thanks to Daddy for turning on the tree lights each morning, before heading to work, before the world is awake.)
It usually goes something like this, minus Dad, minus the sunlight.

SMK

The second half of our trip was spent in Arizona. We hit a beautiful patch of weather (even more beautiful than usual!) and spent lots of time at the park with Sydney, Mia, and Kendall, the three of whom Henry now talks about all day, every day. The week went by too quickly, and we can't wait to spend Christmas break with them next month. Unfortunately I somehow didn't get a single picture of Henry and Sydney together. I think the only time I pulled my phone out for pictures was during her gymnastics class! We love you, Sydney.


Henry and Mia


Henry and Kendall


Video of Henry with Mia and Kennie

St. George

Our trip to visit Charlie, Cassie, and Jaynee in St. George was a blast. Some of our very best memories as a family involve visits to see Charlie and Cassie. We really love them, and I hope Jaynee's cheeks have healed from a week of me kissing them incessantly.
Jaynee and Henry are 5 months apart and they played together better than I had even imagined they would. It was so nice for Henry to have someone his size and age to play with, for once. They are so funny together; just a couple of little monkeys running around all day. We were especially sad that Josh had to miss out on our trip. Here are a couple of the moments of them playing together that I was able to catch on my phone.

• Ring Around the Rosie
• Riding Jaynee's Bicycle

How to kill time with your two-year-old during a flight delay at Phoenix Sky Harbor

(I can't believe we missed seeing S,M, &K for this)