Still kickin'

My blog has been one of the furthest things on my mind. I just keep piling things onto my plate. We had a great Christmas as my parents house, which was just wonderful with my brothers and their wives all there. I know I took pictures, but haven't even looked at them yet. I made an album for my family with pics since my parents wedding day through each of our weddings to current day. It was awesome and I spent a lot of time on it, and I was so excited for Christmas morning to give it to everyone. I also made one for Michael's parents (and the one fam whose name we drew) from our family reunion's the last 10 years.

Our home lot has been cleared, has form boards down so we can see where it will sit on the lot and is getting plumbing run this week. Its been in the 20's in Texas, but still high 30's in the afternoon all week. Michael and Tyler are cuddled in the next room (10:56pm on a school night) watching the end of the UT game. Its a close one. Tyler loves his longhorns. I even snapped a few shots. Maybe I'll post them someday.

Yesterday my head was spinning, today it has slowed down. Sometimes I think I'm crazy with all I load onto my plate. Other times I think I'm adventurous. Cali isn't sleeping great and I'm feeling awful having her cry it out. When I relent and go in, she is on her 4's (did I mention she is crawling in full force now?) and it makes me feel worse. Or once, she was just sitting there...crying. My new plan is to go, pick her up, talk to her, then lay her down. That seems to be working better.

Well, the longhorns lost. Oh well....life goes on.

I liked this blog post on FOCUSING. This gal seems to say everything I want to say, do everything I want to do. I look to her for inspiration on how to mother in a fun way. She does a lot with traditions and rituals in her home with her family to keep things fun and consistant. I like that. Her children smile for the camera--I'm working on that one, too.

Here is a few picts I took the Sunday before Christmas, my girls in their matching pinks (and I found something to coordinate). Let me just add that Michael was totally against me forcing the children into another family photo shoot, but I assured him this would be quick and painless. I'm pretty sure it was neither, but look at the cute shots that came out of it! Another goal of mine this year is to pull out my "nice camera" to take more everyday shots of my kids instead of my pocket camera. I have since convinced Matthew it is actually cooler to cut off the pokey sideburns. Actually he wanted something out of the ordinary and I told him he could have it if I could cut off those crazy sideburns. I'm still trying to convince Tyler.

In no particular order...

Notice Matthew offering something to Cali....

I love this...

Cali loves Matthew's watch band. He is always taking it off for her to play with. He adores her.

Matthew shoving Alyssa aside--this is his time in the limelight with Cali. (He actually wanted a few shots with just the two of them "Take a picture of me and Cali.")










Cali kept looking at me...this is cute. She looks at me, Matthew looks at her.