The making of a subpar Christmas card

We tackled this project early in the morning. Right after breakfast. I promised chocolate to all who cooperated. There were tears and whines and grumbles and finally everyone was wrestled into fancy clothing. And then there was a dead camera battery. Awesome. You would have thought ultra organized me would have thought to charge the camera battery.  We had a back up plan. Mike used his phone camera and I used the Ipad. After 25 min we had not 1 good shot of all 4 kids. I tossed all the Samuel crying shots and the Israel punching Nairi shots. This is what was left.  

 This was the perhaps if I turn on the tv Samuel will stay still shot

 Keira with a lazy eye shot

 Keira has a open mouth  and Nairi has a weird hand shot

 Keira not looking at the camera shot

 The seating looks off shot

 Israel is blurry shot

 Still blurry in black and white ( as if that would magically fix it)

 Israel is blurry again

And the post photo shoot not posed  shot that we went with.

And now Blogger refuses to let me turn this picture so its not sideways or at least reload it. I leave you with that.

Boston Ballet date with Keira

 Every Christmas I take Keira to the local Nutcracker production. This year I really wanted to see for myself ( and bring her to see) the Boston Ballet version. We try to take the kids out 1/1 without their siblings a few times a year for various things because since they are always together its nice to enjoy them by themselves.  This was Keira's day. I am a pansy and driving into Boston scares me slightly but Mike loves the challenge. The 3 of us had a fabulous time at the Ballet ( AWESOME AWESOME PRODUCTION!) and wandering around Boston.  There is something about a big city and people everywhere and buildings super tall and squished together that gets me excited. I love spending time in Boston but we don't do it every often because well, kids. Its 10x more difficult with kids in tow.

 The Opera house was simply amazing. Stunning chandeliers and paint and gold everything. So pretty to look at.

 Pictures are terrible as our flash refused to work and it was fairly dark inside

 For $35 a ticket we even had great seats and could see really well!

 I have never been to Boston Common in the winter.

 There is ice skating on Frog pond (  our kids have played in the Frog Pond pool in the summer so it was cool to see people skating on it)

Nairi writes her name

Nairi is our fiercely independent I- can- do -everything- by- myself- kind- of- kid. She was the earliest walker, earliest potty trained, earliest to dress herself, earliest to be able to zip a jacket,  and to ride a bike without training wheels ( just shy of 3 1/2!) etc. The other day she said " Look Mom! I can write my name!" She had written an N and an A. So I showed her how to do an I and R and 2 seconds later she could write her name. She is 3 1/2!!!  She is very sharp. I think she might have Mike's smarts. :)

Thanksgiving snowstorm 2014

The day before Thanksgiving 2014. There was snow and snow and more snow. It finally stopped snowing around 4 or 5 am Thanksgiving day. Leaving us with over a foot of heavy wet snow.

 Star Wars break after playing in the snow

 Beautiful for sure but heavy stuff! My back is sore from shoveling so much. Tons of people without power. We thankfully only lost power for about an hour Thanksgiving day.

 Samuel was so excited to see the snow plow.

33

Officially 33 years old. Yikes.

Orthodontics

Keira has begun the process for getting a palate expander.  Our wallets just got alot thinner. All I can see is orthodontic bills x 4 kids in my head = $$$$

Keira's enrollment in the Sacraments

Keira has begun preparation for First Confession and First Communion. This was the enrollment ceremony. I was Chrismed as a child in the Armenian Orthodox church so I did not go through this process. She is very excited about it and I am too!

Mike Update 5 weeks post surgery

Its been 5 weeks post surgery. Mike is still under the no lifting more than a gallon of milk, no bending and no twisting order but is feeling good! He started PT and is doing exercises to strengthen his core. He walks 1-3 miles every day either around our neighborhood or at the gym. I won't go so far as to say he enjoys it because he is still Mike and will never enjoy exercise but he admits it does feel good to be somewhat active. He still has some lingering pain now and then but it is minor and normal I guess as things heal inside.  Next week the Dr should clear him to go back to work ( he has been working from home part time) and to hopefully be able to lift again.  Once a patient reaches the 6 week point the chance the re- herniation goes way down as the disk is considered mostly healed. Its considered fully healed at 3 months.  Its been tough for him to not pick up the kids and do his normal things and tough for me as  I miss his help!
 I have realized how many things he does around the house ( not including all the help he gives with the kids) I take for granted though . I have had to do many things I have never done before like leaf blow, drive the tractor ( to pick up leaves), go to the gas station and fill up the gas container for the tractor ( yes I pump my own gas but I have never filled up the container thingie before) and last but not least decorate the house for Christmas! I know its early but it was 60 degrees the day we did it and we have since had snow and 30 degree temps so I am SO GLAD I was up on that ladder in 60 degree temps and not 30 degree temps.  You can behold my handwork below. Mike had to come outside and walk me through the process of hanging the lights on the gutters, those clippy things that cling to the gutter and hold the lights up are complicated! It doesn't look like much but it took several hours and lots of time on the ladder to get things this way. I even had to use a drill to secure the lights to the house.  ( Laugh it up but I am much better at dealing with kids and the kitchen than power tools and outside work!) You can behold my handiwork below. Of course the kids were all " Why didn't you put any lights on the top of the house?" 1) Mama is not climbing up that high 2) We were out of extension cords.
So anyways we are cautiously optimistic that the worse is over in terms of Mike's back and we can put all that behind us and look forward to Christmas.

Dear Santa 2014,

Dear Santa... Legos is where its at this Christmas. Nairi also wants Lego's and Samuel loves his Duplo's.
Thank Goodness for Amazon. Christmas shopping at 9 pm from my heated house.

Trick or Treat 2014

 We took most of these earlier in the day as Keira was at a birthday party during Trick or Treat and Israel had multiple costumes he needed to try them all on.

 Yoda

 Or Olaf from Frozen

He is a bit scrawny right? Tried to stuff some pillows into his costume to make him plump but he wouldn't go for it.

 He was not impressed with costumes at all

 Just going nuts with the Frozen theme this year.

 Samuel as Yoda and Israel as Darth Vador

We have bags and bags of candy. Some people are nuts in this neighborhood and give out full size candy bars. On a nice night like last night we can easily have 200 kids come to our door.