Getting that Christmas card picture = pain in the butt

It's the time of year when I start thinking about Christmas, not seriously yet, but I'm thinking about it.  I start thinking about gift ideas, decorations, if we'll get lights on the house this year, how I'm going to deal with Christmas cookies on my new diet (remember, I have an illness when it comes to cookies... might as well be crack), and Christmas cards.

Then I start to worry because everytime I try to get a picture of my 3 kids together, someone looks weird, mad, or doesn't look at the camera at all.  I started sifting through pics throughout the year of my kids together... here's what I found:

Babydoll looks adorable, Little Man looks fine, Sweet Pea... not ready

These two shots were cute, but there's a big bright spot from the window, and blurry spots from a smudge on my lense.

LM looks ok, BD looking at the Easter bunny, and SP not excited to be having her pic taken with the Easter bunny

Apparently 7 was too old for that.

Near success, but though Christmas and Easter are most certainly related, sending a Christmas card with the Easter bunny on it is not quite my style... close, but not quite.  Funny, but not the pretty picture I want.

great picture of my kids dressed up at the Rennaisance Festival, but for some reason, SP with her belly showing is just not Christmas card material.

This is an option, not sure though.

I love this picture of me with the kids, but we can't send out a Christmas card with me and the kids and not Spence or people will get the wrong idea.

I love these pictures we took the other night of the kids in their new pj's.  In this one LM's smiling but his thumb is in his mouth, and when we had BD hold his hand he'd just lunge for it

This is one of my favorites of my kids together.. I love it.  Christmas card? maybe?

I'm sure this would be Spencer's pick for the card, but I don't like how mad LM is here, he has such a bright smile, I didn't want to lose it for the card.

So you can see I've had a bit of trouble getting that "perfect" Christmas card picture (not that I'm under any delusions that my family is perfect and should be represented as such, I just want my kids to look like themselves - cute, happy, and beautiful.

I think I've figured it out, and I have a card design done but not yet ordered, I may just get the "perfect picture" yet!

Once I get them finalized, and eventually sent out, I'll post it here for anyone who wants to see what I ended up with!



I'm Still Here

I'm still here.

I'm just busy:o)

This blog will return to it's regular scheduled programming soon.

Thank you!

Movie Trivia Time!

edited: answers are now at the bottom.

I put this up on Facebook for fun, and because I didn't blog on thursday or friday last week, I'm putting it here too for fun. 

Now if this blog made any money, and I had spare cash to give away, there would be a prize for the winner.  But Babydoll's birthday is tomorrow and the little dear wants a present, and a cake.  She's so demanding that way. 

So the prize is praise, aknowledgement, and your name next to "And The Winner Is..."

Name the movie quotes, without looking them up online.


‎1. Well I may be an outlaw, darlin', but you're the one stealing my heart.


‎2. As your leader, I encourage you from time to time, and always in a respectful manner, to question my logic. If you're unconvinced that a particular plan of action I've decided is the wisest, tell me so, but allow me to convince you and I promise you right here and now, no subject will ever be taboo.

‎3. Now let's cut the stupid cake because I know the fat guy's gonna have a heart attack if we don't eat again soon...

‎4. George: This is Jack. Second in line to the throne. And that one's Michael. He's only five.
Michael: And I'm in prison for it.

5. Please excuse my father. It makes him feel young and powerful to treat us like idiot children.

6. You know how they say we only use 10 percent of our brains? I think we only use 10 percent of our hearts.

‎7. So it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be really hard. We're gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, for ever, you and me, every day.

8. What's his type? Wilting flower? Bright and bubbly? Or smoldering temptress?

‎9. --- Do you know if the hotel is pager friendly?
--- What do you mean?
--- I'm not getting a sig' on my beeper.

10. There's a lot of people out there, and they ain't just gonna go away. They got voices now and they're goin' to be listened to. Putting them in jail is not going to stop them. That's the power of the press, Joe. So thanks for teaching me about it.


****Nobody played on the blog post, but I got people guessing on Facebook, many of the quotes were figured out!  Here are the answers!****

1. Thelma and Louise


2. Kill Bill

3. The Wedding Singer

4. Finding Neverland

...5. Legends of the Fall

6. Wedding Crashers

7. The Notebook

8. Moulin Rouge

9. The hangover

10. Newsies

Wishful Wednesday and a Theater Plug

I wish I had unending energy.

I wish all diet food was like Diet Dr. Pepper, by this I mean I wish diet food tasted more like regular food.

I wish I didn't have crumbs stuck to my feet right now, we just finished lunch.

I wish all of my children slept as well as Little Man does... knock-on-wood.

I wish for an awesome weekend of theater for my friends who are in Dracula and Side by Side by Sondheim this weekend! Can't wait to go see them!  I'm particularly excited to be seeing Dracula with my dad!

Sister Wives??

A few weeks ago I started watching a new train wreck reality show on TLC called Sister Wives.  My first thought - "Are these ladies nuts?"  Actually my first thought was, "Ooo, it's a real life Big Love!"  Then it was, "Are these ladies nuts?"  Followed closely by, "Is this guy nuts?" 

Who would want to share their husband with 3 other women?  I mean, sometimes I get sick of my husband (as I'm sure he occasionally gets sick of me) but I don't think I could handle other women claiming him 3 out of 4 nights.  I love the fact that I am the most important woman in the world to my husband, and couldn't imagine him splitting that up between 3 other wives.

And as far as the guy goes... we as wives generally have a lot on our plate, and if our husbands aren't keeping up with it, we can get a little aggravated.  Why would a man enter a situation where he has to support and keep happy 4 different women?  I mean there are some obvious advantages for the husband to having multiple wives when it comes to... eh hem... night time, but there is so much partnership that goes into a marriage, how does he think he can do that partnership justice with 4 wives.

I recently proclaimed on Facebook that, and I quote, "I could totally handle it all if I had a full time housekeeper, cook, accountant, chauffeur, nurse, and masseuse." (meaning taking care of kids would be a breeze if I didn't have all that other stuff to take care of).  The one advantage I could see right away to having sister wives would be more moms/wives/housekeepers/cooks/accountants/chauffeurs/nurses/masseuses to help out.  Although would it all be negated by the fact that this particular polygamist family has now 16 children?  Having another woman in the house that was part of the team would probably be pretty darn helpful, but is the trade-off of sharing your husband worth it?

While watching the first season of Sister Wives it seemed clear that the greatest hardship seamed to fall on the first wife, and the incoming wife.  The first wife openly talked, repeatedly, about her jealousy.  And the incoming wife struggled to find her place in the family, to bond with Kody (the husband) without stepping on the other wives toes.  And all the wives had a hard time when Kody started courting Robyn (the incoming wife) with the fact that he was gone so much more and that he... (gasp)... kissed Robyn before they were "married".  The weird thing, well one of the weird things, was that it was the first wife who suggested that they all consider adding Robyn to the family!

I guess the nice part though was the bond that the sister wives share.  They truly seem to be best friends, or sisters.  They all seem fairly normal, outside of the polygamy thing.  I think I'd rather my best friends not live with me though, and not share a husband with me.

What I really don't get though is how this Kody guy managed to get 4 women to agree to marry him!  He's kind of a dense idiot and clearly doesn't brush his long mane of hair.  You'd think if you were getting married you run a brush through it, but apparently not for your fourth wedding, even if she did spend the entire day running around like a bride does getting everything ready, ugh.  And the hair thing is really no big deal compared to the man's denseness when it comes to his family.  For example, while the first wife was trying to make her husband understand her "jealousy issues" she asked Kody how it would make him feel to see her kissing another man.  The level of hypocrisy then witnessed was ridiculous, he wouldn't even answer her because the thought of her taking another husband or lover was so disgusting and awful.  It's hard to describe how moronic he seems to be, I'd like to, but trying to type it out is giving me a headache.

That's it, my rant.  And because I work at home and don't have a water cooler to stand around chatting about reality tv, and the short people I spend my days with would rather talk about Arthur and Wizards of Waverly Place, I'm really wondering if anyone out there has watched this show, and what you thought!

Random Things I've Learned

Some random things I've learned:

When you take your kids places where they get free suckers, like the bank, it's best if all of the children get the same flavor.

Don't follow up a cough drop with coffee... doesn't mix well.

It's best not to watch the Food Network when you're on a diet and have already eaten your calories for the day.

I can't expect myself to get anything productive done while my husband is away at a wedding reception and I'm stuck at home.  It aint happ'nin.

Bring your own childrens books to the pediatricians office, you don't want your kids touching any of the entertainment there!

I had others but have totally blanked on them, I'll just have to save them for the next Random Things I've Learned!

Candid Moment

Me and Babydoll

She turns 4 pretty soon.