Finn and the Christmas photo shoot

Finn took some of his own photos during the Christmas picture extravaganza (everything is an extravaganza with three small children)...

Thanks to Kelly (and Dan) for coming over and tackling the insanity...

Cousin Shan!

We enjoyed a brief but still lovely visit from Shannon at Thanksgiving - she'll be finishing up at Northwestern after 11 years this spring...

She's not very driven, so I'm sure she'll be flipping burgers at some greasy spoon in Nebraska. Or not...

She'll either be playing professional soccer or making the big bucks in New York working for a fancy investment bank...Just remember the people who loved you before you were famous!

Portrait of a Family in Motion

This is the picture directly after Seamus jumped up and clocked me (James) in the face with his gigantic noggin. Don't I look surprised?

Tea Party & Pretend

The boys found my teacup collection in boxes in the basement - at first I wouldn't let them hold them and then I realized they've been in forgotten boxes for more than 10 years, maybe it would be ok to get some use out of them even if they might get broken (one did). So we had a real tea party a few weeks ago and the boys enjoyed it thoroughly. Seamus asked why we didn't always have tea and snacks.

Good question. It was fun.

The next photo is from their "adventure" they're reading a "secret" book and looking for Aslan (we've just finished the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). There is nothing more wonderful than reading and a healthy imagination. No toy can compete.

Raising Kids

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass." "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply. "We're raising boys."
- Harmon Killebrew

I saw this today while I was doing some online Christmas shopping and I thought it was a very astute comment on parenting and priorities. Personally, I am a little nuts. I love my house, I love walking in the yard and looking at the flowers, admiring all the work we've done, but of course three kids can undo a lot of work in no time at all.

So it's not always easy for me to relax and let the mud run down their arms and the house to be overrun with forts. I'd often rather make the PB&J, the cake, the muffins myself, but I'm learning it doesn't matter if it takes a little longer, is a lot messier, it's always worth it to pause and enjoy the help. The most clear thing to me these days is that the joy isn't in the final product, the joy is in the work. Raising kids isn't about who you are hoping they grow up to be so much as it is enjoying who they are right now.






We made a little Christmas cake on Tuesday for dinner with Sarah and Maria. And I was telling the boys about being not too much older than they are when Sarah and I became friends. I was telling them about the hours of playing pretend, the years of giggles and secrets, and I told them I wished for them a life long friend like I have had. Here are our second generation of friends enjoying a little cuddle on the sofa (Rudolf was on TV for the older kids). Talk about joy and blessings. I have both.

MJ, Uncle Chris, and Chardonnay