merry christmas!

Can y'all tell I'm catching up?  I delete Facebook and BAM … 3 posts in a day.

Also my children are napping, so there's that …

But back to Christmas!  Is anyone else going through a post-Christmas depression?  Like I seriously think I may need some antidepressants this year.  Thank the Lord for XM radio and the fact that they play Christmas music all the way until the New Year and don't CUT it off like the local radio stations do the next day.  I can't go cold turkey Christmas people!!!!  I NEED TO WEAN OFF!!!

I have, do, always will LOVE and I mean L-O-V-E Christmas but it seems like it was even MORE magical this year now that C actually seemed to GET Christmas.  He was SO into Santa this year.  The two times we took him to see him he was overjoyed.  The first time?  He RAN (thank goodness there wasn't a line because I'm pretty sure he would've taken out any child/man/woman/reindeer in his path to get to him) and LEAPT into his lap, hugged him around the neck and said,

"HI Santa!  I'm so glad you're here!  I LOVE you!"

Y'all.  I almost cried.  To be honest I'm pretty sure I did a little bit.  I mean I couldn't have scripted it better.  Which was good considering this was last year's experience …

So when THIS happened (ignore his face in the first one, he wasn't thrilled that he had to stop talking to Santa to snap a picture) his year, this momma couldn't have been more thrilled (ahem, aside from little bit's reaction … here's to next year … or maybe the one after that …)

Now, can someone please tell me how to explain to a 3 year old that Christmas is over and Santa is gone and we have to stop singing Christmas carols and watching The Polar Express and Mickey's A Christmas Carol all day every day?  Because if I have to say any of those things out loud to him I may burst into tears.  

At least I have until New Year's to do so.  

Until then sweet boy, sing Jingle Bells all you want.  

{I'll post more about Christmas later - y'all didn't think that was ALL the pictures I took of the MOST wonderful time of the year did you?  For shame.}

family pictures!

I love family picture time.  My husband and children, however, act as if I'm pouring hot coals over them whilst clipping their toenails and force-feeding them lima beans.  I mean seriously.  What is so hard about dressing up nicely, acting like we like each other and smiling for 30 minutes.  THIRTY MINUTES!?!?!

Thankfully, EVERY TIME we get the edited images back my husband is glad we took them.  But for some reason he forgets this little tidbit of information EVERY YEAR when the time comes to have them done again?  I've decided it must be like pregnancy for a man, however in this case it works in the reverse.  They fight tooth and nail to do them, then love them once its done.  We fight tooth and nail to have babies, then swear after pregnancy and childbirth that we'll never do it again.  Only to forget 6 months later and begin longing for that "newborn phase" (and forgetting what 2 months of no sleep feels like).

Oh the human mind.

Anytangent, let's get to the point of this post.  It pretty much spells it out in the title.

It's all fun and games until your brother pushes you face first into the dead, scratchy grass and dirt after this seemly loving picture ...

Note the look of sheer terror on N's face ...

See how his little top lip looks a little puffy/funny/collagen-filled?   Well that's due to the face-full of aforementioned scratchy grass and dirt.  Thank goodness for photoshop.

Our photographer is amazing.  I swear she has some sort of magic over my children.  Because every year I'm convinced she couldn't have gotten one smile, in fact I'm almost POSITIVE I didn't see a single one from anyone (including myself) and then BOOM - she produces these.  Magic.  A magician I tell you.  Or she's giving them chocolate behind my back.  Either way I don't care how she does it as long as she gives me these kind of pictures every year.  And she has yet to disappoint.

Here's to family pictures 2014!  

Did anyone just hear the Mister groan? 

bye bye facebook.

Yep.  After much thought and consideration (yes, I'm serious) I've finally decided it's time to give up Facebook.  For several reasons.  The main ones being this face …

And this one ...

Oh and this one too {his, not mine} …

And because it has just gotten to the point where it is a time suck.  Plain and simple.  {get ready for a huge run-on sentence} I get on, scroll through the feed, half of which the people I know, half of which I don't know, and proceed read that one of the people I barely know liked some person's page that I DEFINITELY don't know, leading me to reading all about this person that I definitely don't knows life, which is generally something awful and/or tragic sending me into even MORE anxiety/worry/fear than I already deal with on a daily basis, which is one thing I DO KNOW that I don't need ANY more of, and end up wasting hours on all these things I don't care about knowing while ignoring the only thing I DO want to know about, which is my family RIGHT in front of me. 

You know?

But the good news?  I'll be more inspired to blog again!  Now that I'm not sharing every detail of my life on Facebook I'll be less involved in social media sites and since my family and long distance friends have expressed interest in still keeping up, it will give me more material to write about now that I'm not sharing every detail of my life on Facebook.

I'm not going to lie.  I was hesitant.  I may or may not have gotten and/or still have the shakes.  Facebook is/was a huge crutch.  Its a connection to a lot of people I care deeply about.  It's a way to be kept in the loop on what's going on in everyone's lives, events that we can be a part of, heck it's the way I've gotten my news on most occasions.   But my favorite part of Facebook is and has always been the pictures and I can get that through Instagram.  The relationships I really value I will make an effort to continue outside of Facebook (and most of them I already have outside of Facebook).  But the fact of the matter is, of the ones I value the most not a single one of them has a Facebook account.  And that speaks volumes to me considering how much time I was devoting to it.

Here's to a more hands-free, PRESENT life!  

Farewell Facebook!