a christmas card to you, blog-style...

merry christmas from our family to yours! maybe one of these years, i will send out a family picture through the actual mail... it's just one of those things that i have never done. i love receiving all of your beautiful families' cards, and they are proudly displayed on a photo collage board in our kitchen, but i just haven't ever mailed them out from our family... ok, that sounded really selfish... so i will try my best to be on the ball next year!! anyway, here is our 2007 family christmas picture. these were taken after church while our biscuits were baking. :) we set up the tripod, and for every picture, i hit the button on the camera, picked up a child, and ran to sit in place all within 10 seconds. whew! so in some of the pictures that didn't make the cut, i look a little windblown. :) ha! but we love the self-timer b/c our kids are enamored by the blinking light... so it didn't take too many until we were happy with one. plus gerber's puffs (or "stars" as they're called at our house) are enough motivation for our kids to smile!! you can see one picture of daddy dishing out the goodies in between shots. i attempted to take some pictures of the kids afterwards, but it quickly became obvious that the kids were ready for lunch!!




the picture below was a close runner-up to the one i chose. ;) is that the epitome of taking christmas pictures of your children or what!??!?


here is ethan talking to nana & pappy while brian was setting up the tripod. this is the first time that he has had the phone all to himself (vs. us holding the phone, prompting ethan and translating to the listener). we got so tickled at him propping up against the wall and just shooting the breeze with nana on the phone... he was tapping his fingers, too! brian already had the camera on the tripod, so i was happy enough with this shot from behind. below that picture is caroline with the only ornament she has taken off the tree thus far! i have been very proud with how she has treated the tree. and in her defense, that ornament was very low and was just begging to be grabbed... plus, everybody knows that peppermints go in your mouth, right!??! :)



i'm also including the family picture we took with brian's side of the family. the guys did not plan their wardrobe, so you can imagine the laughs when they all three showed up in the same shirt & red tie! we took some family pictures at church as well, but they weren't all that great. but tammy did get a precious shot of caroline... oh, i could just eat her with those curls! and you can see that nana & pappy tried to get a portrait with the grandkids, but they were done cooperating! i was tempted to email this picture to brian's parents and write, "ok, we're going to disney with jeff & kristie this weekend! have fun with the kids!" haha...




so there ya have it, our family pictures this year. thank you to those of you who were so thoughtful to send your family's picture our way. have a very merry christmas, and i've got more pictures coming up soon...