Best of 2010

I thought I'd share a little collage of some of my favorite images from 2010. It's by no means an all-inclusive list, these are just the first dozen or so that jumped out in my mind. As you might expect, they are all of my 3 favorite people in the world (well, Rich's legs made it so we'll say my 2 1/2 favorite people in the world). :-)

I picked my favorite client images, too, which are posted over on my business blog. I had just as hard a time narrowing it down over there!

Happy New Year! Here's to a fabulous 2011!

Exercises

Last night after dinner, completely out of the blue, Hayden announced to us that he wanted to do exercises and proceeded to ask us what to do. Rich showed him how to do push-ups. . .

And flutter kicks. . .

I demoed some crunches for him. . .

And jumping jacks (which Benjamin thought looked pretty fun). . .

I showed him lunges. . .

And, still asking for more, Rich taught him how to do mountain climbers. . .

I'm not entirely sure what piqued his interest. . . we are an active family and he knows that fitness is not only important to us, but fun. He's occasionally wanted to join in on the rare times Rich or I will do some push-ups or crunches after a run, but this was 100% initiated by him. In fact, I had done zero exercise that day (not even a walk to the mailbox--boo!).

Despite what some people may think, we are not a fitness-crazed family. Yes, we do exercise, but it's so we can feel good, feel good about ourselves, and have the energy and stamina to do lots of incredibly fun things for many, many, many years to come--like skiing, hiking, biking, and running. And Hayden's interest definitely made me smile, not only because it was incredibly out of the blue and adorable, but because he was enjoying himself and taking an interest in something so dear to us.

His entire "workout" lasted all of about 4 minutes, but when he was done he announced, "I'm tired. Exercising is hard work!" and he proceeded to have one of the best nights sleep he's had in a long time!

Christmas Round-up

Our family always starts with the stockings. Hayden actually got out of bed, came downstairs, sat at the kitchen table and ate his breakfast before getting into his stocking or the presents. Ben didn't really know any better so he did the same. I was a little bit surprised at his discipline! Once his belly was full, though, he was ready to dive right in!

Maggie was pretty darn excited too!

And I was pretty excited that Hayden was just as happy with his toothpaste and flossers as he was with the candy and toys. . .

After getting through the stockings, we headed to the main event.

One of the cutest things opened was Hayden's very own wizard hat. He wants to be a wizard when he grows up, you know.

These boys also loved their books. I saw a youtube video of a 3 year old opening up presents and when he opened some books he said something like, "Are you serious?!? Books?!? What's that about. . . I want the toys!" Quite obviously, that would never be uttered in our house!

Once the toys were opened, Ben could finally get to his new bike. He was one happy rider!

The magic was definitely alive and well for us this year!

Ten on Tuesday - Last of 2010

1. This is "catch up" week for me. I feel like I need to get myself in order before the last day of the year. This mostly means with respect to personal pictures that have been neglected for months. But the house is definitely in need of a clean and organize operation, too, so it's going to be a busy week.

2. Did I mention that we've had the sickies in the house the last few days, too? Ben started coughing on Christmas Eve and progressed to a very hoarse and scratchy voice on Monday. There's nothing sadder than hearing his sweet little voice spit out all the words he's learning with a raspy and sickly tone. :-(

3. Hayden started sputtering on Monday and Rich and I felt the throat itchies today. I'm hoping it clears out of here tomorrow, cause I've got a lot of other catching up to do this week!

4. As part of "catch up" I updated the "What's Cooking at the Shertzer's" tab on the sidebar. Quick, easy, and tasty was my inspiration this week!

5. I'm also trying to catch up on blogging. Since I turn my blog into a book and consider that our "scrapbook" I try to blog just about every event/thing I photograph. I want it all to be preserved in the blog book! So as I catch up with photos that have languished in some dark folder on my desktop I'm blogging them. But, I'm blogging them on/near dates that the events actually happened. If you happen to be interested, you can check out 4 posts in super-secret spots here (Chico Hot Springs), here (Lassen, CA), here (Olympic Valley, CA), and here (Santa).

6. Since I still have to finish up the pics from our October road trip and that camping trip we took back in August (oh, and some from our trip to Florida in Nov 2009) I'll have some more super-secret posts in the next few days.

7. I recently caught up on my 2010 365 project It was a bit of a roller coaster for me, some days loving it, other days dreading it. I tend to be compulsive (maybe I should say determined) and feel like I have to finish what I start. Looking back, I'm so glad I did. I can't wait to turn the project into a book and hope that one day my kids (or maybe my grandkids) will appreciate all the effort. Even though I would love a little break, that is motivation enough for me to continue the project in 2011.

8. Also to catch up on this week: Christmas Day Pictures. I have evidence that Santa (and some excited grandparents) were at our house, leaving quite the pile of loot. . .

And the stockings were hung by the fire with care. . .

But the pictures of the excited kids ripping into all those gifts still need to be processed.

9. Having nothing to do with Christmas (other than I took this picture Dec 25th). . . I finally got our mantle pictures updated! Erin took our pictures while we were on our beach trip in South Carolina last June and I finally got some prints made and up on the mantle. I love them!

10. I can't end the year with at least one resolution . For 2011, I'm resolving to not get to a point that I have so much catching up to do!

A Perfect Christmas Eve

We had just about a perfect day today! It started out with the boys watching a Christmas show after breakfast (probably Rudolph & Frosty's Christmas in July, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, or Polar Express, not sure which but all of those have been in the rotation).

Then, we got some fun photos. . .

And headed over to our friend's house to decorate some cookies to leave out for Santa. Santa loves dinosaur cookies, you know.

We headed out to the late afternoon service at our church and Hayden participated in the Christmas Pageant. He's the spotted cow!

We headed home and had a lovely dinner after a few more photos. . .

And the boys got to open up their stockings from Grandma and Papa!

A few minutes later, while Rich and I were in the kitchen cleaning up and the boys were playing with the stocking stuffers, the quote of the evening came from Hayden, "Daddy come quick! It's an emergency! Ben just drank from your wine bottle (glass)!" We can't confirm that any wine was imbibed by our 19 month old, but we can't deny it either, since neither of us saw him with the glass in his hand. But we did see a few drops of red wine on the carpet right near the edge of the coffee table where the glass had been sitting.

After tending to the "emergency" the boys settled in for a reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas"

Hayden helped me get a plate of treats ready for Santa, and quote of the night #2 came out of his mouth as he headed up the stairs to bed: "Daddy, we put out a pachycephalasaurus for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer!" The kid sure does know his dinosaurs!

Can't wait for the fun and excitement to come!