christmas card picture: take 1.

a couple of weeks back, when we took eden to the park for her birthday, we decided that we would try and take some pictures for our christmas card.  the scenery was great and the kids were dressed cute enough for a picture although a little stripe-y looking back, but hey, stripes are in, right?  well, we found out right away that jonah was in no mood for a group picture.  all he wanted was to run free and chase as many ducks as he could.  jack was trying to be helpful by trying to get jonah to sit still and look toward the camera.  this just made him even more mad and you can see how it all plays out by looking at the next series of pictures.  just look how jack's sweet face changes from happy to pain and sadness...

jonah used his only form of defense, his long sharp fingernails that his mom had neglected to cut, to attack jack's face in order to free himself from jack's kung fu grip.  poor jack.  i felt so bad.  he had a huge fingernail cut on the side of his cheek.  what's even crazier is that eden and ava acted as if they had no idea what had just happened.  ava just gets up and is like "ok, i'm done".  and jonah's facial expressions... priceless.

it's safe to say that we chose not use any of these photos for a christmas card.   although, i can't say we didn't think about it.  there is so much truth here and we really would be keeping it real.

ava loses her first tooth.

i should've posted this a month ago, when it actually happened but better late than never.  little miss ava lost her first tooth about a month ago and she was so determined to to pull her tooth out that instead of waiting until we got home from a baptism, she wiggled and wiggled that tooth until came out... in the car.  luckily, we had some left over napkins on hand.  she was very excited especially since her big brother, jack, had just lost his first tooth six weeks before her and now it has become a competition.  it's a race to see who will lose their second tooth first.  these two are the best of friends and yet each others biggest rivals.  they remind me of me and brother when i was younger.

school christmas programs.

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ava had her very first school singing program.  she was so fun to watch.  she sang all the songs and did all the actions and was very into it all.  afterwards, i got to go in her class and take a little peak at all the things she had been working on.  she showed me her little letter she wrote to santa and she was very proud of her work.  and so was i.  she is so studious and loves school.  really.  she gets mad if she has a half day or a day off.  kinda crazy.

jack's program was later that night and as usual, he acted as if he was bored out of his mind.  the kid cracks me up.  he will occasionally sing a word here or there and then he will scratch his nose and stretch a little and then just stand there and stare into the audience. i guess you could say that his program is fun to watch in its own special way.  when i went to pick him up from his teacher after the program was over, she told me that the principal asked if jack was feeling okay during the program and if he knew any of the words to the song.  i had to laugh because he was perfectly fine and then explain to her that jack does that during every performance.  she said she was surprised because during practice he sang all the songs and knew all the words.  huh.  welcome to the world of jack who says he wants to be an actor in movies but gets stage fright in school programs.

jonah and the christmas tree.

jonah seems to be very fascinated with the christmas tree.  especially the shiny balls that are hanging from it.  apparently, he thinks they are bouncy balls and he tries to bounce them off the hardwood floor.  well, that obviously doesn't work and soon we aren't going to have anymore ball ornaments left on the bottom half of our tree.  did i mention that he thinks its very funny too?  not funny, jonah. not funny.

a birthday party in the park.

for eden's birthday, we decided to spend the afternoon in the park.  we loaded everyone in the car, headed to the cupcake shop where we all picked out a birthday cupcake to share with eden and then it was off to freestone park.  and thank goodness arizona is known for its beautiful december weather because that is exactly what we got.  it made for a perfect day at the park.

when it came time to light eden's candles and sing her a little song, jonah had a little freak out session because he couldn't grab the cupcake right that very second.  luckily, it all went very fast and before he knew it, he was happy again with a cupcake in hand.  by the way, those cupcakes were some of the best we've had.  d-licious!  next, eden opened her presents and when she saw it was a princess castle she was very thrilled and insisted i put it together that very instant.  so, i did and the kids played princesses for a while, including my 8 year old boy, jack.  sometimes i wonder about that kid.  we finished off our little birthday celebration with some rides.  a train ride around the park, some old school ride-ons and the ferris wheel that all four of them wanted to ride on over and over and over again.  jonah was so cute to watch.  he had a big smirk on his face the whole time.  i think he thought he was such a big boy sitting there riding with his older brother.  very cute.

what a fun day we had celebrating with eden on her fourth birthday.  i can't believe how fast my baby girl is growing up!  she is definitely the class clown of the family and makes us laugh all the time.  she is very determined and independent.  she knows what she wants even though its not always what her mama wants (like, when she wants to pick out her own clothes and shoes that don't make any sense or when she wants to pour her own milk and then spills it all over). but i sure love her to pieces.  happy birthday, eden bear.

eden turns four.

like most kids, eden has been counting down these past couple of weeks until she could finally call herself a four year old.  so, when she woke up on december 1st, not only was she finally four but she received a special note from our elf, charlie red, and santa claus (who i think misspelled his name...oops) and some giant birthday balloons from the north pole.  she was one happy four year old.  she took the red balloon with her all over the house that day and was very proud of it.  such a sweet silly girl, that one.  hope you had happy birthday, eden bear.