A Picture Says a Thousand Words

By pure chance, I caught a classic photo today. One of those that sums up the whole story in one image. I was outside with the kids reveling in the first real snow fall of the year. I decided to take a picture of them playing, but just as the camera went off, Benjamin nailed Bella right in the face with a monstrous snowball and my camera caught this:


Seeing this picture tonight made me laugh outloud. That look on Benjamin's face is priceless. It was really fun playing outside today...except for Bella's incessant crying after that.

He had plenty more where that came from, though. Not even the woman behind the camera was safe.



Although I really think Bella spends more time crying or whining than anything else lately. What is it with three year old girls and their whiny crying all day long?? She cries over every piddly little thing. Benjamin took my toy, I can't get my shoes on, I don't want to eat that, I want to watch a movie, I don't want to brush my hair....all while crying hysterically. Mostly, though, lately it's the cold. She is a total wimp about the cold but she refuses to dress appropriately because her snow clothes aren't as cute. (She complained non-stop about them as she put them on today.) We all wanted to go to the park yesterday and here she is after 5 minutes outside:


I told her to wear pants and better shoes because she was going to be cold, but she responded with, "I don't care," and left the house. I ended up taking off my jacket and letting her sit on it with it wrapped around her. Even wrapped up, she cried hysterically the entire time we were there until Benjamin said, "I don't like this park with all the crying," and we went home. Oh Bella, we love you, but you drive us crazy.

Other Christmas season happenings: Benjamin was a shepherd/inn keeper in our ward's nativity play. So cute. I was stage mom, so I couldn't take any other pictures of the play, but I got this one beforehand with his fellow inn keepers/shepherds.


It was my job to move the sheep and the inn, whisper lines to panicked actors, and keep a certain wiseman from taking a bathroom break 30 seconds before his cue. Benjamin was so excited to be in it. That morning the first thing he told me was, "I can't believe it's going to be ME on stage!" They all did great.

I also took Benjamin to see The Nutcracker ballet. I love the ballet and I really wanted to share that experience with Benjamin. I would have taken Bella too if I'd thought she'd last through it, but she's really not ready. In a few years. But the kids and I have watched lots of ballet performances online and he's always been very interested, so I took a chance on him. It went great. He loved it and had lots of great questions and comments and was perfectly behaved the whole time. Even got this cute little pic of him on stage with the nutcracker display. The ushers got mad at us for getting on stage, but I snapped the shot before they could shoo us off. :)


Another Christmas cuteness - this is the note Benjamin wrote for Santa and told me I needed to lay with the milk and cookies.


So cute! I've actually tried very hard to not perpetuate the Santa myth. It's been one of those things that makes me very uncomfortable - lying to my kids while they get punished for lying. Yet, despite the fact that I've never talked to them about Santa and even slipped in a few "Santa is really just pretend" comments, they get so bombarded with it everywhere that they still believe. I'm not going to ruin their fun. I will definitely put out a plate of cookies and this note.

We're getting very excited for Christmas. I had them video record their Christmas wishes. That was fun to see. Benjamin wants a remote control motorcycle, a lego submarine, a violin (no idea where that came from), a metal detector ("to find treasure!"), a real camera (because breaking mine each year apparently isn't enough), and that Bella will always be his sister (melted my heart). Bella wants headbands, dress up clothes, and a real cell phone ("Christian can have my play one.") We'll see how generous Santa is this year.