Close....But Not Too Close

We held this years' first attempt at Santa pictures yesterday. It usually takes a couple of tries to get past the jitters, and it looks like this year will be no exception.
Here is Liam listing off his Christmas requests (walkie talkies are topping his list this year) while Sarah considers the beard from afar, and musters up some confidence.


Nope, that's as far as she goes. Here is the best of our 2011 photos "with" Santa (Round I):

Bring On The Snow!

We are back from a weekend spent playing in very fresh, very deep, very powdery snow at Mt Baker. We threw snowballs, we threw fits (ok, only Sarah did that) and we threw kids into soft (did I mention deep?) snowbanks. Matt and I haven't slid down snowy hillsides in many years and I'm pretty sure we had more fun than the kids. (Hooray for slippery snowpants!)

So Cute, It's Scary!

These two rocked Halloween. Seriously.
They practiced all day. It sounded something like this....

Sarah marches up the stairs. Loudly. At the top she shouts "Ta Da!" Liam says "You want some candy? Okay. Do you want sweet candy, salty candy, sour candy, or tuna?"

Not sure how tuna got on the menu, but they were getting the idea.
At lunch time, I put Sarah's plate in front of her and she squealed "Tinker Food!!!" She was in character and ready to go before noon.
We headed outside to take a few pictures "in character" before nightfall.....

Tinkerbell gets a police escort...


You see a twig, she sees a magic wand....


Better watch out for this guy!....


Uh-oh, looks like Tinkerbell is headed for the slammer.....


But she pulls out the charm....


All is well in Pixie Hollow....



So when the trick-or-treating hour finally arrived, we were more than prepared. Oops, forgot one important thing!:


They ran door to door shouting "Trick or Treat!" and winning smiles and candy at each one. They (usually) remembered their "Thank-you's". Sarah's little legs were moving as fast as they could and she never once asked for help. Liam should be a little bit taller this morning from all the stretching he did to reach the doorbells.
Matt and I just went along for the ride, in awe of how big the kids seem....how little help they needed, and how much they "got" the idea of Halloween. Just last year Sarah was a confused little lamb, being carried everywhere and heading home early to sleep in her crib. And only a short while before that a certain little turtle kept toppling face-first while I tried to take his photo!
They made a good Trick-or-Treating team.....and yes, there was a temporary candy free-for-all. A one-night-only event that I will surely pay for today....

Now....bring on CHRISTMAS!!!