Like most of you in East Texas we woke up today to a bit of snowfall.  The kids went nuts and we canceled school and declared it a “Snow Day”.  Here is a bit of our morning fun in PJs and mix-matched gloves.  Also, be sure and notice that even the death of winter could not keep Sara from wearing her tiara.

So it’s been about 1 year since Eli was born. 1 year and 1 day to be exact. It’s crazy how fast it’s gone by and it’s been a blast to see the other 3 welcome him into the the litter.

I hate to bore you with photos of my kids, but really, the boy is 1. I insist. :)

Not the best looking thing right from the get go, but thankfully he improved as the year went on.

Jo took to him right away.

Here he is “dressed up” for a family photo we took.
Don’t even ask.


He’s happiest when he’s eating.

He had a dino cake for his party. (How awesome is my wife at making cakes?)
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AlexM

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OK, so if you follow me on Twitter or are a Facebook Fan, then you know I’ve been talking the last few weeks about my new “toy” that will be available for 2010 weddings.

Well you only have one day left to wait. :) I’ll be unavailing all the juicy details tomorrow.  But before I do, I thought I’d give you a little tease.

I photographed my kids with a few of the “parts” to it. :)

Come back tomorrow morning to get the full scoop.

(I have disabled the comments so no one gives it away.)

Before I take a little break for the holidays, I thought I’d share a Christmas tradition we have around my house. :) Every year we load up the kids, drive around town, and look for a nativity scene. Then, we jump out and have the kids stand by it while we take their photo. :)

We don’t do this because we think people who believe in Santa Clause are evil.

We don’t do this because it makes us more “religious.”

We don’t do this because we are anti Christmas Tree. (Proof)

We don’t do this because if you switch the letters of Santa around you can spell Satan.

We do this because it’s fun, our kids love it, and it’s a little reminder of what Christmas is about in our house. Like most traditions, as the kids get older I’m sure they will start to dread it, but my hope is that we can keep it going ’til they are in high school. How awesome would that be?!

Anyway, here is this year’s photo as well as a few from years past.

And, to show that we don’t discriminate against Ol’ St. Nick, here is a little video of our kids at his workshop.

Merry Christmas, Happy New year, Bah Humbug!

I know that none of you really asked me for marriage advice, but guess what, you are about to get some! Right now, as a bride, the last thing in the world you may be thinking about is how to keep your marriage together. I’m sure it may seem like it’s all Disney Princess fairy tales and mushy gushy moments. The reality is at some point, one of you will wake up and look at the other person next to you and think, “I can’t believe I married this person.” (In my case it was Danielle looking at me.) Anyway staying married has little to do with how you physically look, how much money you make, or how fancy your wedding was.

Staying married is about learning to live with someone who gets on your nerves.

Staying married is about changing yourself and not the other person.

Staying married is about Amy Adams, Ben Stiller, and a Digiorno’s pizza.

You may think I’m kidding, but I’m not. One of the best choices Danielle and I made was to have a date night every other week. Now, every other week may seem like forever to some crazy young kids like yourselves. Going on a date every other night and staying up till 3:00AM talking about life together may be “normal” now, but at some point that will go away. Couples don’t grow distant overnight. It happens slowly.

One of the things we have done since we were married was have a date night. We look forward to it, plan our week around it, and ignore all incoming phone calls while we are on it. The past 3 years have been extra easy because of our friends the Sokolowski’s. We have been “trading” date nights with them. We watch their kids, they watch ours. (We were tied for kids when we started, and now we kinda feel bad when we drop off 4 kids and they only drop off 2.) Here are the 10 of us standing next to a Dark Knight punching bag.

Anyway, last night we dropped the kids off, came home and watched Night at the Museum 2 and had an exquisitely delicious Digiorno pizza. That would be a 6 dollar date for all of you keeping score at home. Sure the movie was cheesy, so was the pizza. (And that joke.) The point is we spent time together, we talked, we laughed and we fell in love a little bit more. I’m not an expert on marriage or relationships, but I do know that Amy & Ben helped my wife and I stay together.

Make time for each other. Hang out. Keep falling in love.