the obligatory family christmas picture!

i am saving you all the trouble of walking out in the freezing weather today (or foggy yet 75 degree weather as the case may be here!) to check your mail... here is our christmas card from our family to yours. i know that last year, i resolved to get christmas cards mailed out this year... but there's something about being in my third trimester of pregnancy that sounds like an awfully good excuse to have dropped the ball again this year! this picture was taken before church last sunday morning. we actually got up early and pretended that we had to be at church 30 minutes earlier than we actually needed to be there. (novel idea! we should really try that every sunday, and perhaps we'll be on time for sunday school one of these days!!!) this was a much better approach than attempting the after-church-imminent-meltdown-due-to-hunger-and-fatigue photo shoot of ye days of olde. and the "you can have a cookie on the way to church if you'll just look at the camera" motivation worked beautifully this year. maybe i should have thrown in a "you have to smile" stipulation for caroline, but i'm just glad that she's looking at the camera! :) our new camera has a great feature on its self-timer where it does not take the picture until everyone is looking. very very cool. i think there were a few times during this photo shoot when that little green light was blinking for at least 30 seconds, but hey, everyone is looking! :) we'll really put that feature to the test next year with 3 little ones!!! as you can see to the right, the smart little green light caught sweet caroline smiling in at least one picture... but i don't think the rest of us looked too great in that one!

i hope you are all having a wonderful weekend as we count down the final days till christmas! ethan is so excited that he can hardly stand it.