A picture says a thousand words

Today was the dreaded "Santa photo at the mall day." I take the kids every single year, but I just had a feeling that things were not going to go as I planned. Last year, we got lucky and got an awesome pic of the kids. Carson is 15 months old and any parent that has had a 15 month old is aware of stranger anxiety & separation anxiety. Well, as Alex says, "I think Santa was really freakin' out Carson." HA! He screamed bloody murder the entire time. I kept saying, "just take the picture" because I knew it was impossible to get a smile from the little guy. I am usually sweaty by the time I leave from jumping up and down and trying to get the kids to smile. This year, I just stood there and laughed. These are the photos that end up in the rehearsal dinner videos!
Alex was a total pro and stopped every person she could find on her way to the mall Santa to say to them, "Do you like my beautiful dress? I am going to see Santa now." She was so into it and twirled in circles and was just so proud in her fancy Christmas ensemble. When she finally got to Santa, she ran up and gave him a huge hug and said, "Oh Santa, I've been really missing you! Can I just have everything for Christmas this year?"
Needless to say, I never had to coerce Alex to smile. So, here it is. It just makes me laugh every time I look at it. This perfectly defines our stage of life and we are loving it!

click on photo to enlarge and get the full effect

Can you see Alex trying to hold his hand? Such a sweet, mess of family we are!

Play dates

We have had some great play dates over the past few weeks. First, Alex & Kaitlyn get together every Friday...and it seems that every Friday provides a photo op. These two are HILARIOUS together. The pictures say it all:

Silly princesses

Make a crazy face

Sass

Just love this of Kaitlyn!

Sweet friends

Thanks for all of the fun play dates Jaime & KK!

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Then, my prego friend Sally (also a Baylor gal) drove from Waco with her son Jackson to play for the day. Sally is due soon, so this was our last hurrah for a while. Don't worry Sal, I'll come see you! Jackson and Alex were adorable. Jackson was really shy at first and Alex was offended he didn't want to play. We were a little worried...but soon enough they were best friends. They even ate lunch on the patio alone. So cute. Here is a series of photos. Need I say more? We think they have a crush on each other now. I did hear Alex ask Jackson to be her handsome prince and to kiss her. Unacceptable!

Step 1: Ask the princess to dance

Step 2: Show her your sassy moves. Jackson's got game FO'SHO!

Step 3: Make sure you hold her hand

Step 4: Compliment her and watch her swoon

Step 5: Get some hugs...you are doing good buddy

Step 6: Throw her on the ground

Step 7: Hmm, REALLY? REALLY? What is going on?!

Step 8: Pillow talk is always a bonus

Nice job, Jackson. Your da man!

Picture Diva

Here are a few shots of Alex I took the morning of school picture day. I can't wait to see the real photos!

Alex and her usual prop, Macy

Look at that mischievous grin. Love both of these bow heads!
Practicing her pose??

My absolute favorite. She is such a hot mess!

Watch out world!

Carson's Dedication

I Samuel 1:27-28
I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life, he will be given over to the Lord.

On Sunday, November 9th, 2009, Carson was dedicated at Fellowship Church. We had a wonderful day celebrating our faith and our commitment to raising our kids in a Christ centered home. The ceremony was very sweet. One of the teaching pastors shared words of wisdom about the journey and blessing of parenthood. Then each family came to the front of the congregation and prayed a prayer promising that we will bring Carson up to know the Lord. They even gave Carson his own Bible. It was a wonderful to day to be Carson's mom. Carson's Godmother, Jaime, came to celebrate with us and she brought her daughter, Kaitlyn as well. Alex was thrilled to have a friend there because she could have cared less about what was going on. It was too funny. Any room filled with 100+ babies and parents trying to keep them quiet for over 5 minutes is tragic. Here are pictures from our day:

My handsome boys

Pete & Repeat
Daddy gets some cuddle time

Proud mommy

I think he looks a lot like mommy too :)

On stage praying over Carson

Jaime gets her loving in

Alex & Kaitlyn were having a blast together

They are hilarious!

Here's what Alex really thought about this whole day.

Our blessed, blessed family

Daddy in heaven,

Thank you for the beautiful children you have blessed our family with. We will do our best to raise them in your will and in your presence. You have given us the two most amazing masterpieces. We will love them as you love us.

Doctor Darby

Alex's pre-k class had "what do you want to be when you grow up" day this past week, and she decided she wants to be a doctor! She dressed up as Dr. Darby and requested to be a doctor that, "saves all of the animals to make them better so they don't get sick and die."
We had these killer pink scrubs to accomodate her request. Too cute, huh? I think she is the cutest med student in town!

She will be a stud Dr. Darby, don't you think?

Orange, The Butterfly

We had another incredible butterfly hatching in our home this year. I don't think we will ever be able to top "Kellah" but we certainly enjoyed the entire experience. You have to go back and watch the video at the end of last year's entry:
see: http://darbyfam.blogspot.com/2008_10_26_archive.html
(One of my favorite videos of Alex!)

Alex named her "Orange" before we even brought her home. It was such a wonderful learning experience and an even better lesson on the art of patience. Unfortunately, Orange hatched early on Wednesday morning and both kids needed to be at school at 9am, so we didn't get the hours of play time in like we did last year. But, here are pictures from our exciting morning.

Day 1: cocoon is jade green (hibernation period)

By that evening, the cocoon started to become more transparent
Our first meeting of Miss Orange, freshly hatched

Of course, Alex got to her first :)

Alex is SO happy!

Orange was patient and let us all touch her

Isn't she beautiful?

Mommy took a turn

Of course, the puppies had to meet her too. First, Macy

Then, Emmy (see Carson in the background?)

"What the heck is stuck to my forehead? I just woke up!"

I love Alex's expression in this pic

We took Orange outside to let her go...

And just like that...

She flew away! Bye! Alex was so amazing this year. Last year the devastation went on for hours. This year, Alex shouted and ran behind her, "We love you Orange. Good luck finding your family. Thanks for being at our house. Byyeeeeee!" What a difference a year makes!

Boy Crazy!

It's official...Alex is boy crazy! She talks about getting married all the time and wanting to kiss her handsome prince. She is usually still wanting to marry daddy, but there have been several boy crazy moments lately.
On Tuesday, when I picked Alex up from school was she acting shy and coy. I asked her about her day and she told me, "Mau gave me the most special gift I've ever gotten. He found a heart on the playground and gave it to me. I have Mau's heart now. He is such a special boy. He thinks I am beautiful and he is my favorite boy. Maybe I will marry Mau."

On Thursday, Alex was playing with a boy at her school on the playground named Drew. They were having a great time and holding hands and pushing each other on the swings..pretty innocent, right? Well, on our way out Drew runs to the fence and yells at the top of his lungs, "Hey, Alex can I have your phone number?" AHHH! I was dying! Too funny!