Christmas Card Photos...a thumbnail view

Earlier this year...we had our photos taken by a local photographer for our Christmas card. I posted the link in a previous post...but since this is Henri and Lili's digital scrapbook...I'm also posting the thumbnails as well. Hope you enjoy!

Mom and Dad and Auntie Dimpy are here visiting. Shamani and Pandeni just left...so we are behind in everything. We will try to catch up with the blog soon...so many great photos from our first Christmas together as a family. Happy New Year!



Almost Christmas....

Here are our little Christmas Reindeer. We finally had a weekend at home, and finished getting our house decorated for the holidays. Henri is in love with the lights...when he sees lights on houses, fences, anything...he says "wow!" And...when he comes home to see our Christmas tree not plugged in, he looks at me and says, "uh-oh." It's very cute.

Here is little Lili...who is developing quite the personality these days. She loves to laugh and joke with you. Here she is...our female reindeer:

The laughing and joking...just over the past few weeks, she has really started to tease. She loves to make everyone smile. Here she is, crawling into her drawer as I put her clothes away, laughing and making a mess.

I wanted to be mad at her...but how could I? With that cute little clenched bumkin?

She was so proud of herself. Another two pounds..and the drawer is not going to support her. Oh well...until then...we pick our battles. :) 

We woke up early on Saturday and finally decorated our tree. We have had it up in the stand...just au natural for the past few weeks. We heard that Martin Luther actually started the tradition of celebrating with Christmas trees. According to the woman dressed as a German frau at EPCOT, Luther was walking through the forest, and the snow on the branches of the tree was glistening in the moonlight. It reminded him of the Star of David, so he cut the tree down, took it home, and placed it in their house to celebrate Christmas. We decided since Luther brought the tree inside...we would leave our tree outside...and save ourselves from Henri trying to climb the branches. Note most of the decorations begin two feet up. :) To Henri's credit, he did help decorate, when he wasn't climbing in the wagon, or on his bike waiting for a push. :)

Our tree at night. I love Christmas time!

Here we are at Church. I had to help clean-up from communion. Henri and Lili (and Jeff) are my official Altar Guild helpers. This was taken in front of our tree on the Altar. 

For those of you that know us well...know that we love Disney...and we love Vinylmations. These crazy little plastic Micky Mouse figures that are decorated in various themes. Well...a new holiday collection was just released...and being a proud Cobber grad of Concorida College (yes...our mascot is a cob of corn...aka Kernal)...I was able to trade for the corn cob. I'm so proud! It might be my favorite one yet. :) 



Well...off to look for sissy's shoes. She loves to tease...and hide. Unfortunately, she can't tell us where she hides items, and lately it's socks and shoes. Needless to say, we are missing both purple shoes, and one gray shoe. It's really cramping our fashion...not to mention she can't go to school without shoes and we are down to one last pair. :) I think the gray mary jane was lost at Disney...I'm still holding hope we can find the purple pair...if not...Santa might be bringing Miss Lili shoes for Christmas.

More soon....

Away in a Manger....

Our kids love music and love to dance. Here is Henri...jamming to his Nativity Scene..playing "Away in a Manger." You'll also see Miss Lili...aka Miss Mouse...with her baby doll. She loves her dolls. Enjoy!

We've meant to post these almost a month ago...but November was absorbed with ear aches, pink eye, coughs and infections. So...now that we have our camera downloading....here you go. Away in a Manger...take two:

More soon.

Birthday weekend...

It's official. I am 37 years old. :) In honor of my birthday weekend, we spent two days down at Disney (we love Disney) and just relaxed. It was a treat...and so nice to be able to get away for a few days.

We tried three times to get the kids picture taken with Santa. Either...the line was too long, Santa was on break, or this morning...it was a downpour and we were not going to wait in the rain. So...here are the kids outside of the Santa line. So sweet.

And now...here is the shot from behind...Henri was given Mickey stickers. Apparently, he thought his hair would be a nice place to put one. From the front...no one notices...from the back and side...everyone was laughing as we walked by. 

PS...notice the black spoons. Our kids are the only children who regularly visit Disney and all they want for a present are the black spoons from restaurants. Thankfully...we don't mind. :)

Ah...37.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree..

It has been very cold here in Orlando. For FL standards...very cold. For those of you that still remember me as a Montana girl, you remember that one of the biggest reasons I didn't want to move to Florida was having to eliminate my scarf, hat, and mitten collection. :) Luckily...I've been able to bust out a few over the past few days. Here are Henri and Lili all bundled up coming home from school. Ironically...that is Henri's warm coat...size 24 months..already too small. :) Jeff is going tomorrow to buy him a new fleece. That boy!

Again...for those from my MT days...might remember that Christmas is a big time of year in the Fleharty home. Growing up...we used to have multiple Christmas trees, including one in the window of Kallie's playhouse. Ah...those were the days of driving in the mountains with a tag from the forest service (or not) and cutting your own tree. I still love Christmas. I make Jeff buy the biggest tree we can fit in our tiny house, and love to play Christmas music while I decorate. Two babes, under the age of two, have changed my Christmas strategy. This year...we bought a tree...the smallest we have ever bought...and put it outside on the patio. I'll upload photos as soon as it is decorated. For inside...I reluctantly agreed to a fake tree...I know...I feel it is blasphemy....but...it was nice not to have all the pine needles all over the floor. Here is Henri and Lili taking a peak at the new addition to our home: 

Henri kept saying, "wow" as he looked at the lights. He loves the Christmas lights. Then...he ran over to his book pile, and brought out the $1 Target coloring book we just bought. He wanted to show us a picture of the Christmas tree. :) He is so smart...hard to believe he is just 18 months old:



And sweet Lili. Here she is with two of her newest favorite things...the tree, and her sippy cup. :)



So many exciting times of late! We'll post more soon....