One of the shots from Kenton & Emery's Christmas photo shoot at Target. We had the pictures made very late--one of the last days you could get them back before Christmas. The photographer looked to be about 15 years old, but was very patient and very good with the kids. They're a difficult pair to photograph, though. Next year we'll have pictures made much earlier and hopefully it will be a much less stressful experience!
It's Christmas Eve! Our beautiful children spent a fun-filled, action-packed week visiting family, but were happy to get back home yesterday. We went to the Chambers family get-together at Aunt Bobbie & Uncle John's house this afternoon, then came home and tried to wind down. I think both the kids are finally asleep now (at 11 pm). I love this picture of Kenton & Emy in their new jammies talking in front of the Christmas tree. He was so excited tonight--I hope he doesn't get us up before daylight!
I don't know what Kenton was checking out here, but he found it far more interesting than the songs he was supposed to be singing. His buddy Weston appears to be in the middle of an air guitar solo. I kinda felt sorry for the little girl between the two of them who was really trying pay attention and to do what she was supposed to.
The kiddos checking out the closets in the house we're buying. Kenton wore his pjs and snowboots to lunch at McDonald's and then on to the house for the inspection. Having lived mostly in old houses with little or no closet space, our children find the closets in this house endless fascinating. They're going to be really disappointed when we move in and actually put stuff in them. Thankfully that green color is only in the closets, not on any of the walls.
Kenton has seemed a little disturbed by the idea of Santa this year, especially the notion of him coming into our house while we sleep, so we haven't made a big deal out of it. However he was very excited to go see him tonight. He wasn't scared at all to sit on his lap. He laughed and talked to Santa and told him he wants "an ABC computer and a boat that goes in the ocean." That's what he says every time you ask him what he wants. We're not sure when he decided he needs a boat, but he's quite clear that it should be a big boat that goes in the ocean, not a little one for the bathtub. Santa knows the LeapFrog computer would be a good idea, but I don't know if he's going to be able to fit a big boat like that down our chimney.
Kenton and I got crafty this afternoon while Emy napped and put together this "gingerbread" house from a kit we bought at Michael's. He was surprisingly helpful, but struggled with some of the smaller pieces. I should have known better than to open the glitter, though. It's all over our dining room.
New pictures! After a couple weeks of everyone being sick, I think we're finally getting back on track here. We packed the camera last weekend when we went to Granny Cardin's for Thanksgiving but didn't remember to take it out of the suitcase and use it. We had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday and hope you did, too. Edward got up before the crack of dawn and did a little shopping today, and brought home donuts and bagels for those of us who stayed home and slept until a more reasonable hour. Kenton thinks there are few things in the world more awesome than an frosted, sprinkle-topped donut.
Kenton finally got to see snow today! We were finishing up lunch when I glanced out the window and noticed that the rain had turned to snow. Kenton ran to the front door to watch it and Edward told him if he got his shoes and coat they could go outside. Kenton went flying down the hall yelling that he was going to get his snow boots. He was terribly excited to finally get to wear them. I know it's not a great picture but it's the only one we took where you can tell at all that it's snowing. 
I bought some fingerpaints for Kenton a couple of weeks ago, planning to keep them for a Christmas gift. However, I had a change of heart today and decided to let him give it a try. We were afraid he might not like it because sometimes he doesn't like the way things feel or gets upset where there is something sticky on his hands. He absolutely loved fingerpainting, though. He painted for nearly an hour, filling up five big sheets of paper, and we made to make him stop so we could clear the table off for supper. Unfortunately the pictures didn't turn out too great--I think my camera doesn't like the light from the overhead fixtures in our kitchen. Maybe if I take it off the auto-everything setting and figure out how to really use it, I can get some better pictures in the house.
The weather was so nice yesterday, we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood before supper. Along the way Kenton picked up this piece of twine off the sidewalk. He's been losing and finding this same piece of string for about a week now. For a couple of days it stayed on our front porch and he would pick it up every time we went outside. He dropped it a couple of blocks from the house on Saturday when he stopped to pick up a stick, so we thought we'd seen the last of the twine. Clearly, we were wrong. Notice his footwear in the picture--he has on his snow boots. He begged to wear them when it was 70 degrees, but I bet we'll have to fight to get them on him when it's actually cold outside.
We went to the Dayton Model Train Show today, and Nana & Papaw and Aunt Bobbie & Uncle John met us there. We had brunch at Cracker Barrel first, where Emy showed everyone just how much food she can put away and how demanding she can be. There were lots of really elaborate, detailed layouts at the train show but Kenton was most interested in the larger-sized ones that were on the floor. I guess being close to the action is a lot more appealing at his age. Em kept trying to grab them and was quite frustrated that we weren't letting her do so. We all had a good time and really enjoyed getting to visit with family, but the kids were exhausted by the time we left. Em was asleep no more than a mile down the road and Kenton didn't last too much longer.
Tonight was trick-or-treat for us (or Beggar's Night as it's called in this part of the world). Both of the kids have colds and Emery's has been pretty yucky for the last couple of days, so we decided that we weren't going to take her out tonight. Kenton decided he didn't want to go either, so we stayed in and gave out candy. Kenton had a great time--absolutely loved it! He got to eat some candy as he was handing it out, of course, but he was just thrilled every time someone came to the door. He didn't want to go to the bathroom because he was afraid he might miss someone, but we finally made him when he started doing some serious dancing around and holding himself. Then he came streaking out of the bathroom with his pants and undies in hand because he was so afraid he might miss someone at the door that he didn't want to take time to pull up his pants. We had a little talk about nudity and privacy after that.
Kenton and Emy in their Halloween costumes--he's Super Why and she's Princess P. Click the link to see a picture if you're not familiar with the show. We got all dressed up this afternoon because the weekly Kroger ad had advertised free cider and donuts, a costume contest, "trick or treat street", pumpking-carving and lots of other fun-sounding things in the store starting at 4:00. Apparently the people working in the Xenia Kroger didn't read their own ad because there was none of that at our store. We were a little irritated and Kenton was disappointed because he was expecting candy. However, he got over it pretty quickly once we told we'd go back home and give him some candy. Emery seemed perfectly happy since she was getting lots of attention in her princess costume. She really enjoys being the center of attention. Kenton can wear his costume to school tomorrow for his Halloween party but he says he doesn't want to. He's not really into getting dressed up. Which is kind of disappointing to his mother since she went to all the trouble to make his costume.
We went to Meijer this afternoon and they were having a Halloween-fest in the store with trick or treating from department to department and free pictures in the photo department. We didn't realize it would be going on, so our kids weren't in costume (and I haven't made their costumes yet!) but we still took advantage of the freebies. It's not a great picture, but they're both looking at the camera, which rarely ever happens.
We headed to Edward's hometown of Glendale (population 300) this weekend to visit with family and take in the annual Crossing Festival. The festival brings about 25,000 people to shop for arts and crafts from the 300 or more vendors who set up and, most importantly, to eat lots of food, much of it deep-fried. After a normal breakfast at the house, I kicked off my festival dining with a cup of chili at about 9:30am and proceeded to eat until I went to bed. I somehow missed the booth selling deep-fried twinkies and snickers, though. I'm going to have to ask Nathanael to help me find it next year, because I really do need to try a deep-fried twinkie.
I had the day off since I work tomorrow, so we headed out to the very beautiful Wegerzyn Gardens in Dayton. They have a formal garden area and a fabulous children's garden. They're also holding a scarecrow-making contest, so there were lots of scarecrows on display. Some of them were really cute. We'll have to enter next year.
