Christmas Card 2009

I've been putting off taking a picture for the Christmas card for several weeks now...I finally had to give in (time is running short!)....I was dreading the difficulty of getting five kids to look in the direction of the camera, muchless smiling at it!!!.......
Well, they did pretty well, and actually getting them dressed was the most painful part....The first pic I took was the best...but of couse I tortured them with 40 more snaps of the camera :) Ya know, just in case... I love Kate's expression...kinda looks like she's saying "Help me! I'm surrounded by boys!!!!"

This is what WE do at family gatherings...

My family thinks they are REALLY funny..... and really they are....So in our Thanksgiving and Christmas photo albums you won't find a lot of lovely pictures of the turkey, or of a beautiful tablescape, and definitely no posed family pictures....but you will find a lot of pictures

like this one of my big bro..... :)

and this one of my little bro
aaaand this one of my other little bro and his poor girlfriend who is being pulled into all this lovliness...

and of course we have to pass along our nutty-ness to our kids...

and here is one of my little brother with is "date"....yes, you are right there is no one there...that's the joke :)

and another one of pure EXCITMENT

♥

♥

♥

Here are a couple more from Thanksgiving Day....

boys outside playing football.....

Brian now thinks he has to lay down on the ground and smile for every picture....not sure why?

Wuz up?

Here's a good one....can you see the pie in their teeth? just kidding.....
and another good one of my MIL and SIL

Well, I'm off to scrapbook these BEAUTIFUL pictures for our fall album.....I'm really sad I didn't get a picture of my brother in law....he was participating in NO SHAVE NOVEMBER...and looked a little like an 80's porn star with his "rockin' 'stache" (sorry William--just had to make fun of you one more time) :)

Raking Leaves with Snowshovels

We didn't need rakes in our treeless, snowy backyard when we lived in Nebraska....and apparently last fall we were too busy moving into our house down here to get RAKES for the boys.......So being the inventive boys that they are.....they used their snowshovels to rake leaves into GIANT piles........ Here is sweet big brother Alex working very hard to pile up the leaves for his little bros. to jump in!

We lost Brian in the pile a couple of times! :)

Our little actor wanted a dramatic "falling leaves" scene for his picture....

hmmmmm....looks like trouble.

so much fun....

Brian kept laying down in the leaves and saying "cheese"...missed the smile pretty much every time....oh well...

Kate wondering what we are doing in the backyard when she could be in her warm house! Actually she LOVES being outside....

Run (in the) Forrest, RUN!

Kate has had enough excitement for one day..

HAPPY FALL!