As many of you know, or have deduced by my extensive flickr page, I like taking pictures…

Most of the time, I prefer scenery, nature, buildings, etc…  I do like taking pics of the kids too… mostly candid shots.  I’ve never really tried to have the kids sit still for a picture together. Now I know why…

I never imagined it could be such a wrestling match to get 2 kids to sit still for 3 seconds.  I need to work on my imagination.
We had a nice fire built up in the fireplace for ambiance, but by the time the cameras were set up, and Teo stopped fussing, it had gone out.  Then, some shots, Teo was smiling, and Bela wasn’t.  Than Vice, versa…  Then Teo started crying.  He kept crawling towards us, making the picture be out of focus.
Here are a few shots from the adventure of trying to get a Christmas picture.

Finally, we ended up with a slightly out of focus, but very cute picture.

Good thing too.  Mateo crashed 14 seconds after this pic was taken…
Now we have our Christmas card!  I’m hiring a professional next year.

Hey everyone.  We sent out an email letting you guys know that the computer that had our addresses saved crashed.  We are re-building the database…

If you have not sent us your address yet, please do so!

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I found this list on the American Family Association reguarding national reatilers and their attitude towards Christmas.  Found it enlightening…

Based on current advertising, below is a list of companies that avoid, ban, or use the term “Christmas” in their advertising.  We will continually update the list, so check back often.

Criteria – AFA reviewed up to four areas to determine if a company was “Christmas-friendly” in their advertising: print media (newspaper inserts), broadcast media (radio/television), website and/or personal visits to the store. If a company’s ad has references to items associated with Christmas (trees, wreaths, lights, etc.), it was considered as an attempt to reach “Christmas” shoppers.

If a company has items associated with Christmas, but did not use the word “Christmas,” then the company is considered as censoring “Christmas.”

Color Code:

Company uses the term “Christmas” on a regular basis, we consider that company Christmas-friendly.

Company refers to Christmas infrequently, or in a single advertising medium, but not in others.

Company may use “Christmas” sparingly in a single or unique product description, but as a company, does not recognize it.

A company may be removed from the “bad” list by providing documentation to AFA.

SPECIAL ALERT! AFA is calling for a “Christmas” boycott of Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic stores.

http://action.afa.net/Detail.aspx?id=2147486887

To think 6 months ago Mateo was born!  He is so big and strong! He hasn’t shown any signs of  complications from the meningitis that he had when he was first  born.  Bela is still loving be a big sister!  The only problem we have now is that she loves having him on her lap but he is so big it doesn’t work any more!

We are still searching for our house so keep praying that we find that house for us.

We have had a very busy summer, with our perpetual house hunting, me traveling for work, moving to Bethany, and an active 2 year old, and rambunctious 5 month old.

Last week I took off of work and we headed to Split Rock State Park for a relaxing and fun camping trip.  Bela had a blast with all of the hiking and throwing rocks into Superior, and Mateo is already an outdoors pro with 3 camping trips under his belt in his 5 months.

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We visited 4 state parks in total last week, and had so much fun, that we are going on a quick one nighter this weekend before it gets too cold.

We are working on our summer newsletter, so stay tuned for that.  Thanks for checking in!

P.S.  We just cleaned off our cameras and came across some photos we have not uploaded yet….  You can find them here!