We're still here!

There are a thousand reasons I could give for not posting anything for almost a month. The same old stuff is eating up my time and at the end of the day, blogging seems to take a back seat to all the things that need to get done around here. Maybe it's the approaching holidays.

The kids are ready for Christmas. They are so excited. They have been carting around the Toys R Us and Target toy books, circling their favorite picks for Christmas. It reminds me of when I was their age, except I'm not sure Toys R Us even existed then. Either that, or my mom was smarter than I thought and steered us clear in fear of blowing the grocery budget on toys. She would hand Amy and me the JCPenney catalog and let us go wild with our Christmas lists and dog-eared pages. It kept us entertained for hours!

Another reason I haven't updated the blog is because I have been sidetracked with Facebook. Talk about addictive! It's been so fun to catch up with people that I've either lost touch with or haven't visited with in a while. I've found people from almost every season of my life. People I went to grade school with in Iowa and girls from the freshman dorm at Oklahoma. It's been great to catch up with previous roommates, former bosses, old neighbors, and favorite co-workers from my grown-up life before I became a SAHM. It's crazy to be able to just make a few clicks and get re-connected with everyone. I've been having so much fun!

One of the people I reconnected with was Gretchen. We went to high school together, but haven't seen each other since graduation many years ago. Through Facebook, we discovered we've lived in the same area for more than 6 years and never even knew it. Gretchen enjoys photography as a hobby, so after we got connected through Facebook, she agreed to shoot a few pictures of our family in the name of practice. We met her last weekend and the results were fantastic!

Eli loves this shot of the kids. Our sweet little E and her ornery brother. Look at that pose. We love the kid, but God help us as he grows up. Gretchen caught their personalities perfectly in this picture.

How did these kids grow up so fast?

Yay! We're all looking fairly normal in this picture. Those of you with kids know how nearly impossible it is to get everyone smiling and looking in the same direction when you're dealing with little ones, so we definitely consider this shot successful!