Sunday, December 23, 2012

'tis the season for lots of pictures

Goodness, there's so much to catch up on.  Sorry for doing one of my oh-so-frequent uber-posts, but I wanted to get everything out there before The Big Day.  Here's what we've been up to!

Every year our ward hosts a Christmas Breakfast instead of dinner.  I love the casualness of it and that it doesn't take up valuable evening time during the verrrry busy December month.  The downside? cranky morning kids.  Then again, who am I kidding?  You have a 70% chance of my kids being cranky at anytime of the day.  That average has been bumped way up due to Georgia's 90% grumpiness rate all on her lonesome.  As I'm sure you'll be seeing from the pictures, Georgia lived up to her reputation and didn't disappoint ;)...

Note that this was while she was in line to see SANTA CLAUSE. It takes some balls to be this naughty before talking to the big man himself.
 
Oh, and the irony of the shirt...totally not lost on me.

Neither boy was particularly happy for this picture.  Oak because I wanted him to sit on a creepy old man's lap and Ezra because he had already done the Santa thing (I missed the photo op) and didn't want to have to pose again.

We finally got a semi-smile out of her for this one.

What can I say?
Scarlett has a knack for awkward pictures.

Ahhh, much better.
Cute little thing talked his ear off...as she does with most people.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No Christmas season would be complete without a visit to the Crown Center! We look forward to it all year and, once again, it didn't disappoint :)

The kiddos playing in Santa's workshop before we head out into the cold:




Ahhh, I love that big ol' dimpled grin

Who can resist a photo op with giant Lego people?
obviously not my children:

.

Finally, we made it outside into the cold night air.  As I mentioned last year, outside the Crown Center, they've set up a bunch of kid-size wooden vehicles and buildings...on top of concrete.  Here in the midwest we don't care about liability too much.  I'm not complaining, though!  A good knock every once in a while will just do them good ;)  It was funny, this was the first year the kids were reeeeally into posing.  Every time I turned around there was one of the kiddos yelling at me to come take a picture.


In case you're wondering, that's Spencer in the background all creeper-like.

 Who can resist a good planking?

  

 


Ezra insisted on taking this picture, regardless of his younger brother well-voiced opinions and wishes.
 I suppose that's what older brothers do :)

 
  
 

 I love this picture of Oak.  He was enthralled with the lit fountains and would stand watching them for as long as we'd let him before moving him out of the way of the spray.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This past Saturday evening (the 22nd), Georgia and I went on a date to see The Nutcracker put on by a local youth ballet company.  We were pretty excited as neither of us had ever seen it before, not even in movie form.  I was a little nervous about how well Miss Gee would sit for it, but she really did do smashingly.  The elderly couple a few seats down from us just oohed and ahhhed over how well she did.  Not only did she sit through the whole thing (other than the occasional ballerina imitations she couldn't resist doing during the particularly exciting parts...luckily we were on the back row of our section, so her arms weren't waving in anyone's face), but she actually watched it.  I was so proud of her and I can't wait to make it a Girls Night Out tradition that Scarlett will join when she's older (knowing her general wiggliness and short attention span, we'll probably have to wait a few years on that one ;)

My general consensus as a first-time watcher of The Nutcracker?  A little boring during the first half, especially the party scene, but if you can sit that out, it vastly improves during the second half.  It was so entertaining and lovely the entire second half.

 Georgia was so darn excited for the much-anticipated night to arrive.  She could barely contain herself!

 She's showing me her much-practiced Ballerina pose here

A quick self-portrait before we take our seats


She wanted me to take a picture of her "holding up the stage" during intermission
(and thank heavens for it!  Intermission was a great chance to get all of her little girl wiggles out)

Oh, goodness, do I love that girl.  She is, hands down, my hardest kid right now, but she can be so charming and bewitching when she's happy.  I look forward all month long to our alternate monthly dates (dad gets the other month) and she always proves to be so much fun to hang out with.  Really, honestly, the whole reason we started the whole monthly date thing was for this girl.  She just blossoms with the one-on-one attention.  She certainly shined for me on Saturday night :)

Well, I think that's everything for now, at least Christmas related.  I'm sure I'll be posting our Christmas card and possibly a Christmas Eve jammie, though, tomorrow or the next day.  Check back soon!

5 comments:

Jenni said...

Love it! You have the cutest kids! It looks like you guys have so much fun!

Kristin Hanson said...

Oh man, at least Georgia would see Santa. Evie still refuses, at nearly 5 yrs old, to go anywhere near Santa. She hates him. Well, people dressed up as Santa. I like to think she's just too smart and knows its not really Santa. Scarlet is so much like you, although, I have never seen an awkward picture of you. Girl has got talent :)

Kim said...

Yes--more posts very soon! That is what I like to hear :) That's such a cute idea to go on dates with the kiddos. Sounds so fun.

So I know I say that I miss your kids so much all the time. But something that doesn't get said enough is that I miss you, Whitney. I could always use more witty banter from someone as knowledgeable and opinionated (don't worry, it's a good thing) as you. I miss it. That's all.

And you can trust that I'm waiting for your next post...

Cindy said...

The Santa pics make me laugh. I love the different personality of all your kids!

Aubrey said...

Looks like you are having so much fun and I'm so jealous of your Mommy-daughter date. Looks like fun and Georgia looks gorgeous.