A little impromptu photo shoot before heading off to the candlelight service at church…

I can’t believe it’s almost 2009!

While waiting for the kids to wake up Grandma & Grandpa I took a few shots of the tree…unfortunately, the top row of lights on the tree burned out the night before…

…just a little excitement in the air! For some odd reason Cole decided that he & Harper had to get dressed before they opened up their presents…hence the t-shirt & jeans…

…and the yellow skirt — in addition to the scarf, gloves, and leg warmers which were all from Santa — as well as the puppy in the purse and princess stickers. Really, what more could a girl ask for?

Christmas is here!

Speaking of happy, here’s Mark’s dog, Bruiser, who also came along to visit us. He’s a very well-behaved dog and Harper, especially, is happy that he’s here.

He’s not a big fan of the antlers, though…

My parents & brother are here to escape the endless snow & cold of Minnesota…or maybe they came to see us for Christmas. Either way, we’re enjoying having them here, except my brother just said, you need to update your blog.

Happy now, punk?

I felt like the Price is Right there for a bit looking at all those “bids” for the bird. Thanks for playing!

Here are a few photos of Harper from this morning. I cropped these in close to protect the privacy of her classmates. And yes, the shawl (or cape, as she calls it) is on backwards. And she refused to wear a dress. So instead she wore red & white striped pants and resembled a very cute (though only sometimes sweet) candy cane. Now she is just plain sticky from too many Christmas treats at their party.
In an hour, when Cole comes home on the school bus, it will officially be Christmas break. That sure is a long time to be out of school, don’t you think? Hmmm….

We took the kids bowling for the first time a few weeks ago. To say they enjoyed it would be an understatement. Harper was SO excited before we even got there – we asked her what she thought bowling was and she said, “I don’t know, but I soooo esscited!!” You have to love that enthusiasm!

The bowling alley had this neat sort of dinglehopper to help the kids bowl (I have no idea what it’s actually called, but it helps them launch the ball down the center of the lane.)

Cole tried it a few times and then he decided he could do it all by himself.

And he did a great job! He had this funny little swagger after he released the ball – he’d casually walk or skip back to the scoring area and then turn his head nonchalantly to see how he’d done. Look at that, another strike. We all had fun (and for what it’s worth, I won each time, mainly because Mark is really, really good at throwing gutters.)

We received a sweet card from Sarah & Ryan the other day. I love the definition on the front. It says: Thank You — the phrase is simple and the words are few, but behind them lies a world of appreciation.

And just in case you didn’t know, we wanted to thank YOU – our wedding & portrait clients, family, friends, and journal readers — for your support, trust, sense of humor, comments and praise this past year. ‘08 has been great and we think that 2009 is looking pretty good as well. We SO appreciate you.