"Christmas Card"

Just so everyone knows, we're not sending out Christmas cards this year (like last year). It's a pity... but really, like every helpful passerby likes to point out, "You've got your hands full!" Yes, astute-non-toddler-toting-person, we do. And then some. I wouldn't trade it for the entire world, but we do in fact have our hands full.

I know. That is such a pitifully lame excuse. In fact, last week I thought-- MAYBE we can swing this. I put the boys in their adorable matching Christmas sweaters, crammed 'em all on a chair and MADE them pose with with much loving encouragement from their photographer mother: "SMILE, DANG IT!"

*ahem*

It didn't go so well. Shocker. ;) PS-- right before nap time is not a good time to take pics of your baby.

Just so you know- IF we were gonna send out a card from that batch of pictures. THIS is the picture I was gonna send. So. Pretend you just got our card in the mail. A loving, personalized inscription, just for you, dearest reader, and then check out my little beauties:

Aww! Don't they just make you want to snuggle them all up?!

Take 1... Wait. Missing a kid.

Take 2. Son #1 NOT happy... and Son #3 is escaping.

...just grateful that Son #2 is enthusiastic about having his picture taken.

Almost a winner, composition-wise... except for the minor flaws that the two faces are so sad, and Son #2 is blinking.

William is recovering from the trauma. Andrew is just winding up. Cameron is... um. What the HECK is he doing?

Finally freed Andrew after that award winning shot up top. I thought this was a tender shot of these two best buds.

Tender moment over-- they're back to being the goofballs that I know and *love*.

December Festivities

I've been so lazy about taking my camera anywhere with me this month! We've done a few things here and there, decked the house with [only] our toddler-resistant Christmas decorations, and even put up a tree and... Oh, actually I think I have a picture somewhere of the purchasing of the tree... I'll have to look. ;) I did get out the camera for some shots of my beautiful boys (all four of 'em) as we were headed out the door to the ward Christmas (and pajama) party. :)

Not one shot turned out. Maybe I'll burn time and work on some head swapping and cropping out my diaper bag there on the left? haha!

I put the boys in their matching Christmas Eve pjs from last year. See how tiny Andrew's are! haha! Cameron WAS in his... until he wet his pants. I switched which room he and William slept in and since then his 3 months of being potty-trained are gone. Pampers Co. LOVES the Hancock family. Pampers and Amazon; things we should have bought stock in.

Paint

About once a week or so, my boys return to me from school looking something like this:

A very jaundiced bunny.

Other times it's a tiger, butterfly, pumpkin (I've seen that one about 5 times...), etc.

Sweet Cameron. He's always anxious to get it off as soon as we get home, but man-- he looks hilarious with it on. In this pic he's ticked at me for taking his picture instead of immediately taking off the paint! Haha, I'm such a cruel mother.

Every time I see their faces painted, I'm grateful to their teachers for taking the time to fulfill special requests and give my boys that attention. They go to such a sweet little school. If only I could be bothered to learn German, I might even make some friends amongst the mothers.... ;) Most of them speak English, but there is a pride thing there, which I totally understand... I'm certain if I were them I'd feel the same way... And yet. In my rare free/quiet time, I chose to do something like blog rather than study Deutsch. ;)

Heidelberg Thingstätte

A thingstätte sounds intriguing right? It's an amphitheater... which if you're me, you pronounce "AMPitheather" and if your Nathaniel (and apparently everyone else), you pronounce "AMFitheather". Whatever. ;) SO.. after our adventures at the Technic museum we headed towards Heidelberg. It's always a fun city to visit, but I was excited to be visiting something new.

William still holding his ticket to the technic museum.

Best attempt at a shot of all three. It looks like C and W are discussing something important. Maybe the pinecone?

Andrew was positively GIDDY with all of the leaves. It was like every little boy's dream land with a foot of fresh leaves to kick and jump in.

Ta-Da! Isn't it amazing? The Nazis built it in 1935 as part of some initiative to built thousands of them all over the country to use for rallies, etc. Now it's used for concerts, festivals, etc. It's really incredible... pity it's got the Nazi association which can't help but dampen the coolness factor...

Cameron wanted a scarf, but with little kids I always worry about that strangulation hazard, not to mention the annoying bulky factor. I came up with this option (ravelry.com helped). I need to try again with a softer yarn.. this one is a little to scratchy for him.

My most accommodating model!

Maybe it's all the listening to a new favorite album called Stairwells, but I took about 30 pictures of stairs on this outting. :) On this stairwell I couldn't help it. The light was delicious.

As were these two handsome guys.

If you hike to the top of the amphitheater there are some ruins from 1070ish of an old monastery. Super cool.

A good day. All the kids even fell asleep in the car after a gourmet lunch of McDonalds. :)

Speyer

Pronounce that "sh-pie-uh". :) Love German, right?

The boys and I have visited Speyer before to go to their aquarium with Annie. It is a cute little city! On the drive down that time I remembered passing a museum with airplanes everywhere! Made a mental note to return some day... and forgot. Until a few weeks ago. Nathaniel had a day off so we set off for adventures as a little family. :) We had so much fun here at the museum (which was part 1 of our day-- part 2 to come shortly). Planes, trains, and automobiles are right up our alley!

Why do kids do this? "Mom! take a picture of me like this!" x 100 (all in the same pose).

William's Angry face. So. Unfortunate (and hilarious).

Ah! A much sweeter face. Naturally. The child is conducting a train!

Um. I'm so glad my camera fits in my purse...

There were a few of these carnival-type organ things that rotated in which played. We were walking right above this one when it started up. Cameron started dancing and when I turned to take his picture he immediately struck this pose:

So. Silly!

He was copying a picture from Halloween that we had up on our computer desktop for quite a while:

Such a classic picture. I have no clue why William struck that pose, but it cracked me up when Cameron tried to copy it (he almost got it!). Cameron is crying because hours after this picture he came down with a fever (later found out he had a double ear infection-- poor boy!).

... Back to the Technik Museum!

This is a giant Luftansa jet that they have raised HIGH up in the air. If you hike up to the platform there is a super fast slide down to the bottom. If you hike up one more set of stairs you can climb around three levels in the plane. They positioned the plane at an angle.... and it was a bit terrifying. You can even walk out onto one of the wings... as in YOU could... I didn't.

Facing the back of the plane

While Cameron and I hiked up to the plane, Nathaniel took William for his first driving lesson.... good thing he still has 12 years to learn. He was terrible. *wink*

I have about 8 pictures like this. Why, child? Why? Okay... it is a little cute.

Angel boy.. finally freed from the stroller.

Poor kid has to wait 4 more years to be old enough to ride this. He took the news pretty well though!

I'm a lucky girl. :)

We found some smaller go-carts that I ran around the course with the boys helping them steer. They seemed to get the hang of it for their last lap. Such fun!

The Kitchen + Andrew = Crazy Momma

I know.... it's cute. He's sooo cute. But.... no. It drives me crazy. This kid is too smart for his own good. He finds a way to get to anything he's got his eye on. I'm kicking myself for not bringing out our play kitchen-- we left it in storage. I think he'd love it! ... maybe for his birthday I'll just get him one anyway (can you believe he's going to be TWO??). Today I finally outsmarted him and figured out a way to gate off the tiny (21") entry way into the kitchen. He's not super happy about it, but after a flooded sink and broken plate on the tile yesterday... I'm just done trying to intercept him dragging our dining room chairs in there so he can achieve his mischief. Blessed angel boy that he is. :)

I think this was before he realized he could push the chairs into there. The smartie would even drag the kitchen mat out of there so it wouldn't block his chair.

And my William. He asks me to take his picture every single day. Love him.

Bird Park

I did so bad with taking pictures in November! These pictures are courtesy of Nathaniel. :) He took William and Andrew out to a neighboring bird park to give me a little break (Cameron was napping). This park is so cool! It's free (always a bonus) and the birds are so chatty! Andrew LOVES them.

Ah! He's so cute.

The monkeys at the entrance to the park. It's funny, there are all these signs with visual warnings that the monkeys bite. They're fun to watch though.

My favorite picture. Such a cute kid.

This kid! So silly. :)