Let is snow, Let it snow, Let it snow

Are you singing it? I love that song, partially because I love the snow. Partially because I love Christmas. So it's a winner in my book.

We have definitely gotten our fair share of snow where I live, and that made for a beautiful white Christmas. It also made for a wonderful setting for some photos of the kids yesterday.

Enjoy! {And remember to click on any of the photos you'd like to view larger!}









Just the girls...

Christmas 2009

We had a wonderful and very blessed Christmas this year. Of course, it's always a fun Christmas with little ones. The excitement they have at Christmastime is contagious! And since we have four little ones in our house, our Christmas is an extra fun one!

Here's three of the four on Christmas morning...



And our fourth, Gavin, experiencing his first Christmas...



Here's Dad with Gavin...



And Mom {aka Me} with Gavin...



And the presents...there were oh so many! When you have four kids, that just seems to happen!

I think the highlights of the boys' presents were their Leapster, Nintendo DSI and Nintendo Wii video games. Gabe and Cooper are video game addicts, yikes!

Chloe got a Pottery Barn Kids doll named Chloe! How cute!



And Jason got an interesting present from his parents...



Yes, I know. Attractive, isn't it?!?
They found this Shriners hat at a tag sale and thought Jason would appreciate the humor of it. Notice it says, "snacks." If you know Jason, you'd find this very appropriate, because food is a passion of his. If he was in fact a member of the Shriners, he would surely be on snack detail.

And I got many presents as well, but the sweetest gift was flowers from my wonderful husband. He knows how much I love daisies...



Merry Christmas to you and yours! I hope it was as fun as ours, and I hope you were able to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, God's gift to us, Jesus Christ! We are truly blessed!

Chloe the Christmas Ornament Caper

Chloe is a two-year-old through and through.

She looks innocent, doesn't she {notice the pile of pillows on the floor behind her}...



The clasped hands. The huge smile. Sweet, right?

Yes, sweet.

And, sneaky.

Take our Christmas tree for example. Here it is fully decorated...



But if you look closely, you can see some ornament hooks missing their ornaments, like this...



And this...



And then you can see pillows strategically placed on the floor behind the girl sitting sweetly on the ottoman...



And when you pull back those pillows, you can see the missing ornaments...



And you can see this girl 'discovering' the ornaments under the pillows you just pulled back, trying to look shocked and surprised, and saying, "How did that happen mom?"



Sweet, and sneaky. That's our two-year-old Chloe.

Cooper & Gavin

Remember when I wrote about Cooper's love of being a big brother? You can read about it here.

That was four months ago, yet time has not faded that bond Cooper has with Gavin. Cooper just loves him. He loves to talk to Gavin, hold Gavin, feed Gavin his bottle, get things mom needs for Gavin. He really just loves babies, especially his little brother.





And I'd say that judging by the smile on Gavin's face, the feeling is mutual...

Wrestling 2009

The 2009-2010 wrestling season is well underway for Gabe. Practices every Monday & Tuesday, meets the last three weekends.

As you may recall, I wrote about his success in his first season last year, and his success has continued this year. We've gotten a lot of comments about how he's just built for wrestling, or that he 'looks' like a wrestler. He's a little bull for sure, with his strength constantly amazing me. He uses that strength to win a game they play at practice called, "King of the Mat." Here is how the game works, at least the way I understand how it works...They line the kids up from smallest to biggest, and start with the two littlest. The first person to get a take down wins, and gets to stay on the mat, then challenging the next biggest guy, and so on. Our first grader, Gabe, is often the winner, going up against 'the big kids' as he calls them. But his brute strength is perfect for a challenge like that...he's built just like dad! {And I know that Dad is thinking this will really come in handy for football someday!}

Gabe definitely has natural talent for the sport. He is starting to really develop his 'mat presence' and is working on learning technique in practice. But he definitely lacks the experience that some kids have whose parents drive them to meets every single weekend, all over the state and beyond. We've taken Gabe to a few meets close to home, but that's it. He just competed in his third meet of the season. So you can imagine that when there is a wrestler that has wrestled 30 meets versus Gabe's 3, Gabe is going to be at a little disadvantage that comes from all that live wrestling experience.

But, he makes up for it in determination. I am so proud of how hard he works. He has gone out there every single match this year and given it his all, every time. He hasn't won them all, but he has tried his best for them all, and that is to be commended.

So when Gabe placed second today out of four wrestlers in his bracket, he asked Jason and I, "Are you proud of me, even though I didn't win?" And our response, of course, was a resounding, "Yes!" Gabe is hard working and a good sport. And yes, he's talented, but we are most proud of his character, because that's what is hard to come by. There's lots of talented wrestlers out there, but what's talent good for if you don't have sportsmanship to back it up? Not much in our book.

We're definitely proud of our little wrestler!





Here's Gabe with his friend Damon at today's meet...



They're cute...



And goofy...



And good buddies, having both requested to be brothers.
Awww....



And here's Damon's little sister, Bree, with Cooper. I think someone has a little crush...



Don't they look like perfect angels...



Let me tell you, looks can be deceiving. These two can both be a little bit ornery ;-)

With the season not even half over, I look forward to seeing Gabe continue to thrive and develop the kind of character that will take him far, and not just in wrestling.

What do you do when a snowstorm hits?

So, what do you do when a snowstorm hits?

If you're The Sanders Family, you bundle the kiddos up, load up in the family SUV and head out to pick out a farm fresh Christmas tree!

It may sound crazy to some, but it was fun to be out in the snowy weather getting our tree.

And the kids loved it too!

We are blessed to have Jason's parents living close by with a small Christmas tree lot. So Grandpa & Grandma helped us with our tree.

Grandma kept Chloe company...



And Grandpa helped Jason cut down the tree...



And then the boys thought they could drag the tree to our vehicle...





But when Chloe saw that wasn't working out too well, she thought she'd jump in and lend a hand...



Ultimately, it takes more than three Sanders children to load up a Christmas tree.
It takes Dad...



And there is our tree on the top of the Yukon...



Where it stayed until we got home...

Well, no, not really.

We actually lost the tree while driving down the highway. Jason said one of the bungees was faulty ;-) Thankfully, we were only driving about 30 mph due to the blizzard! But it did bring back memories of me as a sixteen-year-old, driving on the same highway, when my Ford Tempo's hood blew up, and then completely off of my car while I was on my way out to Jason's house for a study date. I remember having to drive into Jason's driveway, hoodless, and explain what had happened.

Embarrassing? Yes! But the memories are priceless.

But I digress.

Our snowy farm adventure didn't end there. Let me back up a bit.

After choosing our perfect Christmas tree, we then got to help put the farm animals away in their respective buildings that provide shelter from the storm.

We herded goats...



And pot belly pigs...




And spotted a frozen Ostrich name Big Bird...





Who watched as the pot belly pigs were herded...



And then retreated inside for warmth and Grandma's cookies...



So there was our snow day in a nutshell.
How else would one spend a snow day after all.

Another new photography blog post

I just added a new post to the photography blog. They feature photos from a recent session I had with an Italian foreign exchange student. Feel free to check it out here.

New Photography Blog Post

I just wanted to let everyone know that I posted some new photos from a recent family session on the photography blog. Click here to check it out! And make to add this new photo business blog to your followers list :)

Hope you're all having a blessed day!

Four months

Between taking photos, editing photos and ordering photos, I've been extremely busy lately. I can't complain...I'm loving it! But unfortunately, the blog has been suffering as a result. It's nearing two weeks since I last posted, and that's just not okay! I thought that since my little Gavin turned four months on Nov. 29, it's about time I gave you an update on the life of our youngest Sanders child.

I took Gavin to the doctor for his 4 month check-up today, and here are his current stats:

Height: 24 1/2 " (29th precentile)
Weight: 12 lb. 8 oz. (9th percentile)

Yes, that's right...ninth percentile for weight!

So, in addition to looking like his big brother Cooper, Gavin seems to be built like him too! What a little man!

Gavin sleeps through the night, from about 10 p.m. until about 8 a.m. We definitely can't complain in the sleep department.

Gavin LOVES attention. He gets so excited when people talk to him, and 'talks' and smiles right back at them. He's such a happy baby!

Gavin HATES belly time. He really cannot stand to be on his belly. But it is incentive for him to practice his rolling over skills, mastering the skill of rolling from his belly to his back. He's still working on rolling from his back to his belly...probably because he has no desire to be on his belly in the first place!

The doctor discussed introducing solid foods into Gavin's diet today, after which I teared up. I know, I know, it's silly. But thinking of my baby, likely my last baby, not being a baby anymore...it's bittersweet. And quite frankly, I don't like to think about it! I love this baby stage, when they love to be held and snuggled and you are their world. It goes by too fast, and I pray that God will help me to cherish every single minute.

I love this guy with his big baby blues...

Snowball Fight!

I couldn't sleep, so here's the result. You're only allowed to choose up to 5 heads, so poor Gavin is left out. I'll have to do another one soon with him included.

I do wish it said 'Merry Christmas' at the end, instead of happy holidays. {Is that too much to ask?!?} And, it's not as cute as the one my friend Valerie did for Halloween last month, but hope you enjoy it!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Chloe reaches new heights

This girl is always getting herself into trouble.

Hard to believe, right?
Doesn't she look sweet.
And innocent.

Looks can be deceiving.

We've learned that if Chloe is behind closed doors, there's something fishy going on.
Chloe holds tight to the 'out of sight, out of mind' mentality.
Like yesterday when she closed the door behind herself after she went into the boys' room.
I gave her the benefit of the doubt, but after about five minutes, I go into the room and I don't see her.

"Chloe," I call out.
And then I hear, "I'm up here mom!"
I turn my head and see this...






{I know, probably should have gotten her down right away instead of pausing to grab the camera and take some pics. But would you expect any less from me?}

You may recall that she has scaled the boys' shelves before. At least, I'm pretty sure I've blogged about this very thing before, but I was unable to find it in the archives.
Regardless, the other photo I have from several months back shows that Chloe climbed to the first set of shelves before getting caught, er I mean, before stopping.

But as you can see, she's definitely reached new heights.
There's never a dull moment with Chloe around!