We are having too much fun. We'll be back to regular posting soon, I promise. Merry Christmas, everyone.

here's your christmas card!

Ben's gonna like that title. haha it's his favorite seinfeld.

We are terrible people this year. All these wonderful people have sent us Christmas cards and now they sit patiently by the mailbox, just waiting for a lovely card from us, as is the tradition. Go back inside, friends. Warm your hands by the fire and know that it's not that we don't love you. We just didn't send out Christmas cards this year. But we still love you. And we really think we'll be sending them again next year, so if you can take a chance on us we'd love to get one again next year even though we don't deserve it.

Merry Christmas to you anyway!
Love,
The Tracys

all I want for christmas is a pine cone house

Benson: Mommy I think what I really want for Christmas is a pine cone house.

Me: Hmmm ok can we just make it out of this brown blanket?

Benson: No, mommy you need to make it on your sewing machine. And I want a little door, and a hall, and some stairs, and a bed in it. Ok, Mommy? Let's go look for some fabric upstairs.

Me: Ok, but if we don't have the right fabric we'll have to wait until we get to Nana's house to make one.

Benson: Ok, but that's what I want, Mommy, so I need you to make it on your sewing machine. Is that a deal?

Me: Deal.

Just a heads up there, Nana. Here's hoping he gets over the pine cone house obsession reeeeeal quick. I'm still recovering from the Optimus Prime costume.

family pictures turned ugly

Yesterday we learned a very important lesson for our family: Do not try to take photographs of the family by yourselves. Ugh. It was seriously the most stressful outing and we have nothing to show for it! hahaha At one point I'm shouting at Benson to quit hitting his brother and Banks quit climbing on that and Ben I quit I'm not doing this anymore and I look up to see a bunch of teenagers laughing at me from across the square. sigh. At least maybe it will keep them from wanting kids too early (as is the epidemic these days). None of the pictures turned out well, but a few did have us all looking at the camera at the same time, which is apparently all we could have hoped for. Anyway I figured since I hadn't blogged in a few days I should post something.

"my personal moon" credits here

Last night I got 13 glorious hours of sleep and this morning my little peepers woke up before the children and my now non-migrained brain thought, "Well good morning Thursday!"

Apparently asleep by seven and up at eight are the magic numbers for me.

Have you slept a long slumber recently? You really should try it. It's amaaaaazing for your outlook on life.

a few more

Just thought that I would share a few more delightful pictures of my beautiful wife for all of her fans to admire!!!

2 days smorgasbord

If I were to combine my yesterday and today I would have close to the perfect day:

Making Christmas cookies and paper snowmen with Benson yesterday

Yesterday's best ever(!) baked potato soup and homemade pitas with tuna salad

Today's joy school party with the children SO CUTE as they were singing

One more step in the yearly add-something-to-the-stockings project (last year was making the stocking itself--- this year was the embellishment, hopefully next year will be the names) done while the children slumbered today

Gazing at the Christmas tree in wonderment after watching A Charlie Brown Christmas last night for FHE

sigh. perfect.

And I don't mean to be one of these bloggers who paints a ridiculously perfect life for others to feel badly about so you should know that as I type this Benson is pulling on my arm, crying for me to help him clean up his toys, and yesterday I was VERY glad when the little darlings went to bed. I've just gotta write down the good stuff so I can remember these little things that are so easy to forget when everyone is crying and everything is a mess.

best friends

I have found the perfect friend. He is funny, sweet, snuggly, playful, cute cute cute, helpful, totally obedient, and always up for conversation. And you know what else? He's three.

As Benson gets older, although granted only slightly, I am beginning to catch a vision of having another best friend in my household. Ben is a great friend to me already, but he's in for some competition. As we were laying in bed last night, Benson came and hopped in for a bit, just for a little snuggle before going off to his own bed. And while Ben was too tired to talk, Benson and I had a great conversation, even as he was beginning to snore he was still trying to add to the conversation. And another thing that I love about my friend Benson is that he is so quick to forgive me it's like instantaneous. As quickly as he is upset he is saying, "Mommy, I need a hug so we can be friends again." And if he finds me crying he will always come sit on my lap, give me hugs, and wipe my tears. And the most important thing Benson does for me as a friend is that he truly has unconditional love for me, and he never quits showing me that.

This morning I woke bursting with love for the little men in my life. Banks is still a sweet little baby to me, but Benson is becoming less a baby and more my little best friend, and I hope that as he grows, he stays that. All those challenging days of meeting the many needs of a completely needy person are beginning to pay off tenfold. This motherhood thing is awesome.

red is the color of

carlsbad caverns/exploring the homeland

30 second exposure here so that little blurb of light is Benson.

This one is our favorite. Look at how happy Banks is! Hey, maybe his nightmare was about being stuck in the backpack.

Last weekend we took off and went to Carlsbad Caverns down in the southern part of our great state. I didn't really know what to expect, but it was awesome and nothing like the experience with the infamous nutty putty freak out of 6 years ago. And Benson had a great time until his little leggies got tired and I'm pretty sure it gave Banks nightmares because the night after that he fell asleep in bed with Ben and I, only to wake up screaming, and I mean SCREAMING in terror. That was fun. Not really, but the trip was. Whew. The end.