Christmas Card Outtakes

Well.. our Christmas Cards finally made it out the door, so now I can share my photo experience with you all :) If you haven't received it yet, I'm sure it got lost by the post office, and hopefully you will get one next year (no, seriously, I'm sorry but I don't send cards to blog stalkers... I just didn't have enough this year!!)

Anyway, I had a lot of fun trying to get the perfect picture for our Christmas Card. My lovely husband wanted to do a 'joke' card this year with a ridiculous photo and a funny tag line. I told him no over and over, but since I didn't have a great alternative, he was winning the battle. Well, one morning I decided I would force the boys to take a cute pic. It took about 35 minutes and a whole lot of pictures, but we finally ended up with a pretty cute card. I thought I could share some of the rejected shots with you. (Please remember, I'm not creative at all and I'm new to taking pictures, so forgive me if you are a photography expert :))

One cute smile.. one is looking for the dog

Again.. one cute smile.. one is pretty serious.. twins!!

Blurry.. but both looking and almost smiling

Playing with the stockings.. this was pretty popular

Could've been a winner.. can't really see the names though

The stockings were just too fun

And they tasted good too

Don't even know there is a camera flashing

So sweet.. almost holding hands

Trying to suck on brother's hand

Really holding hands.. (I get to see this daily)

Can't quite get it together while holding hands though

I tried the Christmas Sweaters too late.. they were so ready to be done. I didn't even have time to put pants on them... I knew these weren't going to work!!

Landon is sick of the pics!

So sad!

Kinda fake smile with a big kick from Jordan

Both are just so done!

The winning Picture

The final result

Merry Christmas to all!!  We wish you all a joyous and happy holiday season!  Remember, the reason we celebrate is Christ's birth!  We are so thankful for what our Savior did for us, and we are so blessed to be able to celebrate year after year!

Daddy and Landon

Daddy has figured out the perfect ways to make Landon laugh. And this isn't just a little baby giggle, you can see from the pics below, it's a serious belly laugh! I love how you can see the pure joy in his eyes! I wish I had this on video because his little laugh is almost too much!! I love how Landon tries to grab Daddy's head the whole time!! (Disclaimer - this was before bathtime, hence why Landon has no clothes on!)

Early Christmas

We had a wonderful weekend this past weekend.  We started out by going to our annual holiday hockey game.  We enjoyed watching the Flyers beat up on the Rangers with a 4-1 win and ate some delicious Chickie's and Pete's at the stadium.  Then Sunday, we got together with Adam, Lyndsay and Mom and Dad Schmidt to celebrate Christmas.  Lyndsay and Adam are headed out to IN this year to celebrate with the Mayo side, so we got together to exchange gifts and celebrate Christmas.  We always have such a wonderful time with family, and today was no different.  The Eagle's come from behind win didn't hurt either :)

Lynds and Adam got each of the boys a push and ride toy.  It says 9 months+, but of course we had to try it out.  Both of them loved all the gadgets on it, and even thought it was pretty fun to ride on.  They aren't even sitting up on their own yet, so they weren't quite ready to push it, but some assistance from Aunt Lynds, they could ride on it!  Landon did a little better staying on, but I think these toys will quickly become the favorites!  Thanks Aunt Lynds and Uncle Adam!  We love you guys!

Landon tried it out first

Yeah!  Having so much fun :)

Jordan couldn't quite balance yet

But it was still pretty cool to try it out!

 

We love our Aunt Lynds and Uncle Adam.. have fun in IN!

This past Friday we also got a chance to have the boys meet Santa.  We went to mall with some friends on Friday afternoon and there was no line at all!  The boys did great with Santa, and having no line gave us a little more time to get a good pic.  We enjoyed catching up with the Lutz's and seeing their boys who are getting so big!  I didn't take my camera so I don't have pics of them, but they sure are cute!  After the Santa pics, we got to enjoy lunch together and relax - hopefully we'll be seeing them more especially once all 4 boys can play together :)

Santa Comes to TEVA!

This Saturday we headed up to TEVA where Eric (and his brother Adam) works. They were having a special breakfast with Santa and then the kids could take pictures with him! We missed a nap to do it and by the time we got to Santa, the boys were pretty tired, but it was our first try this holiday season :) We plan on going to the mall still to try the traditional Santa pics, so we'll see if those turn out better.

The best suprise there was they had one of our favorite characters, buddy the ELF! You might recognize him.... :)

All of us waiting in line to see Santa!

Buddy stopped by for a visit

Wow.. I can't believe he was in Horsham :)

Nana and Grandpa wouldn't miss this!

We are getting tired

Thank goodness for paci's

It's hard enough to get one to look.. not gonna happen with 2

A little better.. gonna try again :)

Purcell Thanksgiving

Well, after our weekend trip to Minnesota, we turned around on Tuesday and headed out to Cleveland for Thanksgiving!  The boys did awesome in the car and slept the whole way there and back!  Needless to say, we MUCH prefer to drive now that we have 2 little monsters!  We headed out early in the week so we could spend as much time with the family as possible!

We started out the fun family week celebrating my nephew Jack's 4th birthday!  It was a wonderful celebration with awesome surprises!  Drew and Keri made another fabulous dinner and we truly enjoyed every second!  Thursday came quickly as we prepared most of the dishes ahead of time and the boys geared up to fry our turkey for the first time ever!  It was delicious and Doodle bug did a fabulous job.  We enjoyed spending time with the Nettleton side of the family and as usual the sisters were out of control!

Thanks for hosting, Drew and Keri - you put on a fabulous holiday!  We also really enjoyed our time with Keri's mother, Patsy.  She helped out so much and it really was a joy to spend some time with her.  She gives Drew a hard time, which I truly enjoyed!!  Here are some pics from our fun weekend together!

Jack blowing out his candle's with his biggest cheerleaders!

Uncle Joel brought a cool gift

All the men on the Purcell side

Silly Jack played almost all weekend

Patsy holding Jordan enjoying the birthday celebration