MMXI

There is a lot we could say about 2011.

Family milestones. Fun events. Birthday parties and family celebrations. Holiday outings and adventures with the kids. Work successes, challenges and rewarding experiences.

But at the end of the day, at the end of the year...

...this one is healthy...

...and this one is happy...

...and that's enough for us.

Happy 2012, friends.

Merry Christmas!

Nine Months

Luke William.

You are nine months.

That is a hard thing to say about you. It seems like just yesterday that your bassinet was next to our bed. You're growing up so fast!

We usually post your monthly pic sitting in your chair, but we decided to post a picture of you doing what you love the most - standing. You are so close to walking and it kills us. You've been crawling since you were 6 months - much to our chagrin. We never did "tummy time" with you because we didn't want you crawling too soon. You did it anyway.

It just proves what we've known for several months now. You're a man with a mission: to follow Big Brother.

You continue to amaze us with your ease and complete happiness. You fuss when it's time to eat, when it's time to go to bed, and when you've been in the car too long.

You are in the 95th percentile on height, 80th on your head circumference, and the 50th on weight. You're skinny and long. Just like your brother.

In fact, you're longer than your brother. All of the clothes he wore his first Christmas are not quite long enough for you. And you're only 3 days away from exactly where he was three years ago, so things should be fitting nicely. You're gonna give him a run for his money. And that's okay. I'm taller than my big brother, and it's GREAT!

And speaking of Big Brother...you just can't get enough of him. He makes you laugh. He makes you cry. But you are fascinated with him.

Last weekend Ben went to Pippi and Poppa's and you were alone in the backseat of the car a couple of times. You strianed your neck looking for him. And when he joined us on the ride home, you lit up like a Christmas Tree.

Yesterday you rode together in the "Car Buggy" at Kroger, and Ben loved it. You were hungry, though...and all we could do was shove cheerios down your throat.

You love to eat - nothing tastes bad to you. You're on formula every three hours, with oatmeal in the morning, fruit and veggies at lunch and dinner, rice cereal at bedtime, and handfulls of cheerios, puffs, and dried yougurt bites all through the day.

You're cruising all over the house, and you're falling some. Photo editing software allows us to post these pics without fear of contact by SCAN, because your head is covered in bruises. But you're a tough little guy, and nothing slows you down.

And finally - you love...L-O-V-E to play Patty-Cake. You clap and clap and laugh when we "throw 'em in the pan..."

You are the sweetest, most well-adjusted little guy, and we can't remember what a day without you was like.

Pancakes and Peppermints

A few months ago I sat down with one of my core leaders in our children's ministry. I was really wanting to finish the year with a bang, and I really wanted to do something fun for our kids, and not necessarily make it a community wide event like VBS or the Easter Egg Drop.

After brainstorming, we decided to try a Pancake Breakfast with Santa. Within a few days, everything fell into place, and we figured (with the busy season) we would plan on 70 or 80 people for breakfast.

Our chairman of the deacons, along with his wife, are a well-known Santa and Mrs. Claus in Central Arkansas. They quickly agreed to not only appear as our special guests, but to tell the Christmas Story to all in attendance.

We planned for breakfast, photos, crafts, a sing-a-long and a story time.

We planned the decor, the menu and the schedule for the morning.

We planned the invitations and "save the date" cards.

We didn't, however, plan on over 300 attending.

Luckily, I had the invitations require an RSVP for the event. Only 50 or so showed up without RSVP-ing, so it was a great idea to make them register.

The invitations that were printed and mailed to all 2BC Families

(we also provided extras for our families to invite friends or neighbors)

Our North Pole.

This was before we added bows to all of the gifts.

The dining area. We had planned on more elaborate table decorations when we were planning for 70 or 80 people. At the last minute, we decided to run long strands of velvet ribbon down the center of the tables. It worked GREAT.

Guests seated while Santa and Mrs. Claus shared the Christmas Story.

Kids down front during the sing-a-long.

I love when kids bum-rush the stage.

Our craft time included beaded candy canes, hand print reindeer, sequin-covered trees made from popsicle sticks, and a "reindeer food"-making station.

Our little Luke cooperated very well for Santa - Benjamin, on the other hand, ran off screaming. He did, however, take his bag of Reindeer Food back to Santa to share with his reindeer. The kid is SO GIVING. He loves to give gifts. Which I guess makes up for his screaming at Santa and Mrs. Claus.

I have to give special thanks to Todd Owens, one of our amazing local photographers and church members. He not only donated his time, but he provided every family with a complimentary photo of their child with Santa.

In all, I could not have asked for a better event. I had an amazing group of volunteers help with everything from craft planning to decorating, cooking and clean-up. The best compliment we received throughout the morning was "This looks like we've (the church) been doing this for YEARS. It's so well planned..."

I wanted to end the year big - and we did. We're already making plans for next December. We really hit on something that works for our families, and the fact that the kids were able to combine the fun of Santa Claus with the True Christmas Story was just icing on the cake.

You win some...you lose some

We just can't win. On a rainy, cold December day, we wrestled Ben for 10 minutes to get him to sit in my lap for a church photo. I think poor Luke was just worn out. This will be a favorite for years to come, I feel. Still, I love my two precious boys.

And I must add...I have an AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL wife.

Two Thousand.

If a picture is worth a thousand words...

Thanksgiving Week

Jenny and I split our time this week between both families. Monday I dropped she and the boys off with her parents, and I went on to my parents' for a couple of days. Then Jenny and the boys joined us on Wednesday, we stayed with my parents until Saturday morning, and we headed back with a stop back in for a full Saturday Thanksgiving Meal with her family.

These pics are all out of order, but here's a recap of our week.

Friday morning we had our first ever Elf on the Shelf Party. My niece's elf, Krispy Kreme, made his first appearance. Ben's Elf, Tiger, was waiting for him back in Conway.

Krispy Kreme left Luke some Cheerio's.

He brought snowballs (powdered donuts), chocolate covered marshmallow snowmen, hot chocolate, and a Christmas ornament for all three kiddos. My mom uses Fiesta as her everyday dish and Krispy Kreme knew just how to make it look great.

Speaking of Mom and Dad, I helped mom Monday and Tuesday as we got their house ready for Christmas. With Ben coming on Wednesday, we wanted to get as much of it taken care of as possible before he arrived.

I've been threatening to outline the entire house, and the picture doesn't show the scale very well, but their roof is taller than the two story house two houses down, and my parents will not let me do it. Guess with two knee surgeries and a broken ankle I should stay away from slopes and heights.

It is really stressing me out how so many people's Christmas Trees are starting to look just alike. I'm happy my parents' is still how I remember it. They began collecting Hallmark Keepsake ornaments since 1976. Not many people buy the series anymore, and their collection is just down to a few new ornaments each year, but it used to be far more than just going to Hallmark and buying random ornaments.

Every year they added to the same running collections:

Rocking Horses (they have all but the 1st one)

Frosty Friends (they have the entire series)

Nostalgic Houses and Shops (they have the entire series)

Here Comes Santa Clause (they have the entire series)

Tin Locomotives (they have the entire series)

Some of these puppies are worth a few hundred bucks - from an original price of about 12.95 back in the 80's.

We have our favorites, and they simply have too many to put on the tree. This year we put about a third on there.

I also love the angel. She doesn't have a single sparkle or piece of glitter on her, but she's just the way I remember her.

This one's for Dad - a Here Comes Santa. This particular year he was in a golf cart.

Here's mom's favorite. Another Here Comes Santa Claus...this year in a bumper car. She loves this because of a particularly memorable bumper car episode when we were at the State Fair of Texas as kids.

My favorite - Here Comes Santa Claus in a sleigh with brass reindeer. I've always loved it.

And of course, John's favorite. Here Comes Santa, in a Jeep. John's favorite vehicle of all time. This is as close as he has ever come to owning one.

Its funny - all of these are from the same series. Something about Here Comes Santa Claus, I guess.

This is my niece's tree in the den. You can't see but it's all red and white candy ornaments. These were the ornaments her mother used before she passed away, so we put them on a tree just for Abby. And we put it in the den because that's where everyone hangs out most of the time.

Mom and I were really proud of this. A few weeks ago they were in Conway and I took them to an antique shop where I had scouted a couple of things. The 1950's Toboggan was the base for our centerpiece, with presents and ornaments and snow piled up.

If you'll look closely you'll see the real inspiration - a set of graduated sleigh bells from the mid 1800's. I saw these and gave them a ring and knew they had to have them. The lady in the store gave dad a really good price on them, and they were totally worth it. I love to think about Ben and Luke hearing them ringing for years to come.

And this is Mom's masterpiece. She has seen these everywhere and learned how to do one on Pinterest. She was a little intimidated by it, but it was actually really easy to do. I just stuck the pins where she told me. The first morning it was out, her neighbor was out for a walk and had to come get a closer look. We've seen them in the store for 150.00 +, and this took about 40 bucks to make.

My sweet little niece Abby by her tree in the Den.

Here is our little family heading out to Thanksgiving with my dad's family.

And who could resist this little Turkey???

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving Week.

Our Little Pilgrim

Ben's Mother's Day Out program was the Thursday before Thanksgiving, and our little Pilgrim did great. He sang, did the motions, and did not show out (too much).

Grammy, Granddad and Pippi came to watch, and they all stayed after for the MDO Thanksgiving Lunch, which was a hit.

He stayed in his seat before the show...even when he spotted all of us.

He did all of the motions correctly...

Stood in place with the rest of his class....

And he only yelled out "Hi Grammy...Hi Pippi!" a couple of times.

This one was contemplating ways to get the attention off of big brother and back on to him. He didn't have to work very hard at that............he's pretty much a show stopper all by himself.

Catching Up

So we have been really bad about posting until the last few days, and we've posted several times. I'll try to do better about posting - it's just so hard. So, so hard. With two.

In the past few weeks...

Luke has moved out of his carrier into his big boy seat. He's still facing backward, but he has more room. And no, we won't be facing backward until two. Our boys are too tall. His knees are already to his chest in the car. We'll probably flip him around January/February.

We went to my parents' for a couple of nights. The trees were really starting to turn.
I love their neighborhood, and taking our dogs on long walks while we're there.

Luke was invited to his first birthday party. Here he is with his buddy Sawyer.

Here are the birthday kids...twins from Luke's Sunday School Class...

These twins have different birthdays - one was before midnight and the other after.

So cool.

Ben and I carved a pumpkin...

...scooped out the middle...

...and then he turned 12.

When did he grow up? He's not even supposed to be able to climb up on the couch. He's wearing size 12.5 new balance. Not stride rite. Certainly not Wee Squeak or Robeez. Size 12. And a half.

My parents have a bar-height counter between the den and kitchen, and I looked over and Ben was 2 inches taller than the counter. What is happening?

In Only Happens Once a Year

Last Tuesday I popped in Starbucks to find this...

(I don't know what's up with the image...)

But you get the message.

'Tis the Season.

Which Pumpkin is Which?

Benjamin and Luke...

...they just look nothing alike.

Who's That Lady?

Sadie. She's That Lady...

Or, "Sadie, My Pretty Lady" as Luke refers to her.

They're going to marry each other. And have a half dozen little Razorbacks. Running around our houses at Christmas.

They're getting married here...

The Rehearsal Dinner will be here...

And the cupcakes at the reception will come from here...

Geez, we better start saving.

Sadie isn't too sure about Luke. Luke's comfortable enough, however, to caress her thigh...

Sadie is an emotional roller-coaster...

Now she's upset.

Now She's Happy.

Now she's a pumpkin. And she's happy.

Oops, there we go again. Now she's upset.

Oops, no - now we're okay again.

And here we go again -

And doing better again...

Oops, no...spoke too soon.

And we're completely gone now...

Nope...False Alarm. All is well!

No, Wait, Wait...here we go again.

Someone has to keep a level head in all of this wedding planning...

It's tough being a ladies' man.