Fingerpainting

Grandma Porter was so nice in giving us wonderfully messy finger paint. It was actually minimally disastrous thanks to Alex's lack of participation for 75% of the time. Either way it made for some great photos.

This doesn't look good, why is he using his hands to paint?

Ahh!  Can't he see I'm trying to keep these paints clean.  He's just getting more and more messy!

So fun!  This is great!

I would love to do this with my food.  I can't believe I'm getting away with this.

Alex decided he wanted to join.  He asked for a brush a few times and then gave in to using his fingers.  I believe it's the first time he has finger painted.  Guess he gave into to peer pressure, wondering why Luke looked like he was having so much fun.

Yikes, messy.

Not so bad.  I have messy hands to show too.

Snow Landscape

I have come to the realization that my boys will soon grow up and I will not have their cute faces to photograph. So, I have decided to take photos of other things and perhaps when the day comes that they run from the camera I will not be so sad. I like how these came out.

Snow, Snow, Snow

The snow fell after Christmas as well. Which has made for a daily activity while daddy has been home this week. Luckily I have a husband that loves to play in the snow as much as a kid. I'm not a fan, too chilly for me.

Luke prefers to go down on his belly.

Underwear Model

I'm pleased to announce that Luke has been completely potty trained at the wonderful age of 31 months.  He has been accident free for the past three weeks.  Way to go Luke!  Therefore the Phibbs household no longer has use for the diaper caddy that has been sitting in our home for the past four years.  It has been wonderful no longer buying diapers. 

Christmas 2012

On Christmas we went to 9am Mass and were amazed that there was not the usual mass crowd. It was quiet a relief. I find the huge Christmas/Easter crowd makes good church behavior very difficult. So, it was a nice beginning to the day. We later went to Kris' moms that morning. We went home for a well needed rest and then to my parents house. I guess I ran out of steam for taking pictures. I only took a few there. I used the other camera this year for video at the various events so I feel like I have it pretty well documented.

Melts my heart :)

The best Christmas presents I could ever ask for.  My sweet boys.  I didn't even have to bribe them to take this!

Daddy face!  This is a really cute game.  He got it from Theresa, but she went shopping in my stash in the basement.  I typically buy the boys birthday presents when all the toys are on sale during the Christmas season. 

Christmas Eve

Santa came on Christmas Eve morning since our Christmas Eve is typically a late night and we have a packed Christmas day. I like having our own time as a family to take hours to open presents and eat breakfast with our pajamas on. Not that there are that many presents, but it seems the kids enjoy opening a present, playing with it a bit and then opening another. The process took about three hours this year, but the kids played the rest of the day with their new toys, making getting ready for company that night very easy.  The Phibbs came over to our home that evening. I have no idea why these pictures are primarily out of focus.  I put it in auto, so that I would generally have a good picture and not mess up the settings.  I did not think metering settings could affect the auto setting, but perhaps they can.  From now on I will set it to the factory settings before the rush of a big event. 

Remote control Thomas!  What he asked for over and over again so excited to get it.
He saw this in a advertisement and never forgot about it. He asked Santa for it when
we visited him and told everyone that he wanted a remote control Thomas that blew
steam.  It did not disappoint.

Air born excitement over Thomas

This was another hit.  Alex has played with this for hours for the past four days and Luke has not had a turn yet, but I think it's a little difficult for Luke still.

Luke's building toy.  I tried to get toys that mirrored skills/themes but were on their skill level.