Because I am too lazy to do separate posts. . .

It seems that I find myself with lots of little stuff that I want to put on the blog, but then I wait too long and end up lumping it all together because I lack the mojo to do a bunch of different posts.

Let's start with our annual tradition of wrapping our precious children in cheap lights. While not the safest thing to do for a photo op, we feel like we can't break the tradition now. Carter is a more willing participant in the silliness.

I wish that Evyn would remember how to smile and look at me all at the same time. In the mean time, you will have to settle for one or the other. She looks like such a little girl to me in her velour jogging suit. It just doesn't get much cuter than this.

In the interest of keeping it real, I thought I would post a picture of one of my better parenting moments. Both kids looked really cute on this particular day, but neither one seemed to have a happy heart. Because I am mother of the year, I threatened Carter to smile or else. You can see the results below.

When we came home from church today, the kids got distracted by the leaves that had fallen in the front yard. They were playing so sweetly together that I had to run in and get the camera.

Mike will be home late Tuesday night from Morocco. We all miss him when he is gone. This has been the first time that Evyn has really seemed to notice that Daddy is not here. She keeps walking through the house saying "Daddy whereareyou?" and "Daddy in rocco?" I think we are all looking forward to having him home!

One last random thought to end with. . .

Carter loves candy canes. He begged me to buy some of the little ones at the grocery store. Like any 5 year old, he much prefers for the candy cane to be in one piece. I threw two of them into my purse to keep him busy in church this morning. We were sitting with a friend, and Carter took the candy canes out. He examined them and noticed that one was broken and one was not. I watched him look at the candy and then look at my friend. Then he handed one to her. I assumed that he decided that the broken one was not worthy of consumption, so he generously "shared" with her. I was speechless when I realized that he gave her the whole one and kept the broken one for himself. I thought of all the times that I keep the bigger brownie for myself or eat the cinnamon roll from the middle of the pan. It was a sweet reminder that we should give out of love and not out of obligation or with selfish motives. Amazing how much you learn from your kids.