Family pictures

'Tis the season of family photo Christmas cards. I love them! I love getting them. I love sending them. For quite a few people, these annual cards are how they get to see our family grow and change.

This week, we recieved a card from some of our close friends. It has a beautiful picture of them on it. Gorgeous family, great setting...absolutely perfect. But, I have to admit, it made me more than a little jealous. They are wearing white...sitting in the grass...barefoot...everybody is looking the same direction...everybody is clean...everybody is smiling. That picture would NEVER happen with my little brood. I believe my kids are also quite beautiful, but if that were us ~Hannah would very likely be rolling her eyes at one of us, David would undoubtedly be covered in something brown (mud, chocolate, colored skittle drippings - take your pick), Ben would be crying and Dave and I would be looking in every direction but the cameras to try and corral the kids....but that is who we are and rather than try and fight it kicking and screaming, I've decided to give in and accept that nobody will EVER get to see us sitting beautifully under a tree, wearing white...it just ain't gonna happen.

BUT, what we lack in put-togetherness we make up for in adorableness...here are a few of my favorite family pics through the years...

This is from the days when my family was just me and Hannah. Obviously not a professional pic, but still one of my faves.

And then there were 3. This was the Christmas before our wedding....Look at that! We DO have a pic of us in the grass AND I'm wearing white! Maybe there is hope for us.

Hey! More white! But I do remember that within 30 minutes of this picture, David had ketchup on that shirt.
And here we are this year. Look at how much everybody has changed! That is why I love annual family pics...I think our pictures represent us well!

Ummm....

Well, it seems that going to nursing school full-time, having a husband, a 10 year old, a 2 year old and a newborn is a little more time consuming than I first thought. I knew I was going to be busy, but I had no idea HOW busy I was going to be. It started off so easy. Ben was sleeping through the night (ALL the way through the night) at 3 weeks, Dave took 8 weeks of baby leave, Hannah was back in school and David was so in love with Ben. Then at the 2 month mark, something changed. Ben decided he was missing too much by sleeping all night and thought waking up every hour just to check on things was a great idea, Dave went back to work, Hannah joined Chorus, Soccer, Student Council and an academic group and David realized that Ben was sticking around and wasn't quite so in love anymore.

But, WE made it through Block 1 with an A!!!! I say "we" because it was definately a group effort. Dave rearranged his work schedule, mom and dad spent 10 days here to help during my clinicals and nana and Julie put in more hours than I can count. We ALL earned that A.

So now I find myself with a little more "free" time. Lets see how long that lasts.