A few Christmas pictures

OK, now I'm caught up. Here are a few pictures of the kids opening presents. We still haven't made it to Louisville to have Christmas there but I will post pics from that holiday when we make it there. Everyone had a great time. We were supposed to go to Louisville for the whole weekend but everyone here was sick and the weather was terrible so we stayed home. It was nice except that the fridge had been emptied and no stores were open and all we had to eat was a giant ham Ben brought home from work. We ate lots of ham and cookies. Ben didn't see what the problem was.

 

 

 

 

I am a good Mom, really

 

 

Sam's Christmas program

I am going to be so glad when Sam is too old for these Christmas programs. I hate them. I'm sorry. I have an energetic 5 year old and every year it's the same stomachache leading up to the event. "What's he going to do this year? Dive off the stage into a pile of blankets bound for orphans? stick out his tongue? leave the stage?" The lead up to the big day was no different this year. Talks with his teacher confirmed that it was just too much to ask that our dear Sam sit still and behave himself with 74 other kids in a gymnasium. We were beginning to dispair when Mrs. Herring (dear Mrs. Herring) came to our rescue. She was Sam's personal chaperone for the program and gave Sam special jobs to do. He handed out programs as all the parents arrived and he ran the tape recorder. He helped all the all the other children up onto the risers and off and sang his part like an angel. It was a real relief. And it's over for another year. Until Easter,...

 

 

 

 

Cookie fest '08

I just don't think this needs much of a comment. Lilly has a famous sweet tooth (just see following posts) and she ate more of the decorations than made it on the cookies. The cookies were great, if just a little weird and manhandled.

 

 

 

 

Lots of snow

We have had lots of snow over the winter here and Sam and Lil have had tons of "on sled" time. We have a small hill in our backyard that will do for this year but won't hold them for long. Beyond our fence there is a sheer drop into the ravine, very desirable for sledding kids and terrifying for Mom's.

 

 

 

 

Just to catch up

OK, the kids are constantly interrupting so I am just going to blog, shotgun style. Here are pictures from December and the beginning of January in no order. I will post Christmas pictures separately, they aren't very good anyway. You know how that goes with kids. You try to keep it organized and take nice pictures and 10 seconds later you are wading through a mountain of paper looking for a doll's shoe or some tiny Lego car part....

 

 

 

 

This is as good a place to start as any

So, I haven't posted in a while. It's been pretty busy here at the Hartley house. My Etsy store was busy for the holidays and Sam was home for Christmas break. It was very snowy here and cold. We made lots of Christmas Cookies this year. Lilly had her first beater, it took about an hour to clean it off completely. She got a bath afterwards....