Merry Freakin' Christmas Cards

I never sent out a birth announcement when Lucy was born mainly because time slipped away. So, I had a great idea to get our family pictures taken and order Christmas cards and all that good stuff. So, a few weeks ago we attempted a photo shoot with a very talented and fun photographer, Hannah Vickers, hannahvickersphotography.com. The kids got new clothes and we all dressed alike, sort of. She took us to this place at ACU that has these cool rocks with scripture etched into them and a little fountain, very cool. Anyways, it was a diaster! Miles was running a way from us and crying and trying to climb into the fountain and Lucy was very scared of Hannah's big camera and NOT happy about me not holding her. In our family's defense, the pictures were at 5:00 pm on a Thursday night and the kids were hungry and John had had a long day at work, yada, yada. So, Hannah emailed me the proofs and offered at least five times to take the pictures again. Yeah, they were that bad. So, I took her up on the offer and rescheduled. I mean c'mon, she has got a business to run and I'm sure she didn't want to put her name on those pictures. We went Saturday at 3:45 - we had nothing else to do that day, both kids napped, it was after nap time...
It was a disaster. It was the coldest day Abilene has had in a while and my kids were both a little sick (now a lot sicker - or is it more sick?). The wind was blowing, Miles was throwing one fit after another, Lucy didn't cry that much but she WOULD NOT smile either. She was very concerned about her surroundings. So, about 15 minutes into the shoot, John and I just started laughing. We decided to let her take a few pictures of us smiling holding two crying kids because that was more what life was like right now. Although they turned out cute and really funny, you can't very well send that out with Merry Christmas at the bottom! What a downer! :) John says, we ought to write "Merry Freakin' Christmas." I do think that is funny, but I'm not sure that is the message we want to send out this year. :) Oh well.

Here are some recent pictures I took of the kids!


Can you see what the future holds? Lucy is laughing now but in a few years...


Lucy and her boyfriend Simon are dressed up for Halloween. He is only 3 months old and he is as big as she is! Aren't they cute?


Lucy as a ladybug with her daddy


We carved a pumpkin and dug out all the seeds and roasted them. Miles had a great time and the roasted seeds were very tasty!


Miles in his Spiderman costume