i've dreaded this day

see that face??


that's the "i'm about to become a lot of trouble" face.

see that blanket??

that's where i left him.

but apparently the robot that was several feet away proved just too tempting, and he had to have it! i have not been looking forward to the day when reed realized that he could roll over more than once and in turn get places. but, despite my dread...he figured it out.

it's funny because with the first kid, you just can't wait for them to do this stuff. by the third one, you know better!

now i have to figure out a way to keep him from learning to crawl!! :)

a very, merry christmas

christmas morning started for us around 5am. everyone knows not to come out of their rooms until their sunshines come on, but that didn't stop the masses from singing and bouncing off the walls at 5am. so basically, we were up at 5am. i guess we should have just gotten up and started the festivities, but....it was 5am.

nevertheless, things soon got underway. and that pile of stuff under the tree was soon obliterated!


waiting at the top of the steps for the ok to come down and check out the loot...


first gift giddiness...


old school toys are always fascinating...


stockings are hard to resist. we had to stop immediately and open them!


electric toothbrushes were a hit...


the riprider! everyone...big and little...has had more fun on this thing. and everyone...big and little...has been tossed off of it! that thing will spin like crazy!!


again...reed just sat on the couch and took it all in. william and wes kindly opened all of his presents from santa and showed him what he got.

and then they went back to their stuff! william has had this on for days!


and wes has slept in his new sleeping bag for days!!


reed even enjoyed the sleeping bag!


utter disaster!


playing with poppa on the race track...


sweet, tired faces on christmas afternoon...


a little wii action before supper...


the obligatory family christmas photo...

it was a fun day...even if it was a day early in our house! but, a day early or not....i'm glad it only rolls around once a year!! bring on january!!

twas the night before christmas...

ok, so it was really 2 nights before christmas, but who's counting? chase had to work on christmas day this year, so santa visited our house on the 23rd. lucky for us, the little people are too little to know the difference!!

william has been asking when we could make s'mores in the fireplace again ever since it got cold outside. so, i decided that we could make that our christmas eve thing. we eat s'mores for dessert, and then santa gets some when he stops by a little later. i'm sure santa gets tired of cookies, and s'mores are a nice change up, right?

here's the eagle scout putting his skills to good use...

ready to dig into the finished product!


(no idea why william decided to be the ups man on this night....but, it probably had something to with the fact that the real ups man rang our doorbell and delivered something about 4 times a day during the month of december...we really should have hung up a stocking up for the poor guy!)

much tastier than a cookie!


reed didn't care too much about s'mores!


setting santa's snack by the fireplace for him...


(i promise this kid owns some pants, but most of the time they aren't on.)

we get to open one present on christmas eve, and both were thrilled with their probots. (for those of you non-nfl watchers, that's those robot/football player things at the bottom of the screen that jump and move when there's an nfl game on! yes, i live in a house of testosterone...somebody help me.)


reed preferred to eat his present rather than open it!

soon afterwards, everybody under age 4 went to bed. i'd like to say, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse....but, come on. is that possible?

henson christmas

the weekend before christmas, we headed for jackson and got all the cousins together to celebrate. considering that there were 7 kids under the age of 4, it went pretty smoothly! and with that many kids, at any given time there were people asleep in every bedroom, the laundry room, pantry, closets, and bathrooms. i'm glad they are pretty adaptable!!

in all the chaos, i only broke out my camera when the little people opened presents, but what did you expect??

waiting on william to open a gift...


wes' turn...


sara beth got a raincoat with matching boots and umbrella, and it was "just what she really needed!!"


sweet reed slept through all the chaos of the opening of presents...


chef leigh showing off her new apron...


william and wes putting on a concert on alexandra's new piano...


wes was in love with new dinosaur. he ran off to the kitchen to hide from everyone and keep it to himself.


uncle zeb gave ariana some lessons on her new guitar...


from the time we got there, william kept telling everyone that he wanted a batman. this was the first time that anyone had heard anything about batman, and of course, there was no batman under my tree!! since G gets up at the crack of dawn (excuse me, several hours before the crack of dawn), he took it upon himself to check out wal-mart, cvs, and target during the wee hours that people are supposed to be sleeping in order to find william a batman! thankfully, target pulled through, and we had a happy william!


this is the only way to get them all to sit still in the same place for any length of time!


but i think next year, we are all going to have to go in and get honey a bigger couch!

and maybe a few more closets for naptime!!

canton 2009

merry christmas!

mama got some photography books for christmas,

and now i'm starting to learn how to operate my camera!! i haven't been this excited about reading since the baby-sitters club series in the 4th grade!

see those backgrounds?? who knew somebody that didn't get paid to do that could actually do that?!?

so, if you can't find me...i'll be curled up with a book and a camera!