Gold medal Christmas pictures

The following pictures are the reason why the expression, "a picture is worth a thousand words," holds true.

"Oh Mitchell!"

Each face tells a great story! My fav is how Ryan's siblings, Natalie and Curtis, are the only ones actually smiling and looking at the camera.  It's like they've done this routine before where Ryan is making a scene!

Blowing kisses!

Hooray! Last picture!

Obviously nothing needs to be said...just don't forget to look at the size of the bed.

Second place is pretty much first place...almost.

Mitch and G-Pa. One of Mitch's favorite books btw. He is often heard saying "Chicka chicka boom boom. Will there be nuf room?" As his mother, I find that quite charming.

I L-O-V-E this picture.  Let's notice two things.  1) Jon has two balls stacked and neither hand is touching them.  That is quite a success. However, no one ever got the third ball stacked successfully. 2) Ryan is just as focused as Jon is. Soo cute!

Blowing cups across the floor is a hecka harder than it looks. Actually, these girls do a good job of making it look as hard as it was.

What the M&M sorting game should be.

Mitchell's version of the M&M sorting game.

Bronze Medal Christmas Pics

It was great to see my friend Brooke and her family before they moved to Oregon!  However, let's talk about how the "red-eye reduction" only worked on one of my eyes.  This might not even be bronze-medal material.  Although Brooke is way above Gold-medal material, so between the two of us, we meet at about bronze!

I think I might die for posting this picture. Hehehe. Love you sister!

In the "stack three golf balls" challenge- Todd worked to just get two.  Chin up honey.

This picture is to remind Mitch that he likes bounce house places.  I would appreciate it if on our next trip to said house-of-fun, if you wouldn't take 45 minutes to stop throwing fits in order to warm yourself up to the place.  Thank you.

I love these women and a bronze medal is still a medal, but we all look like we were busy doing other things until Mom asked us to stop and take a picture!

Mitch's New Year's resolution #1: Break arm. Check.

Whilst at Lowe's for a "quick stop" to check out the deep-discounted Christmas clearance items, I let Mitch get in the big basket of the shopping cart.  We've never yet had a mishap...until Tuesday Jan. 3rd.  While my back was turned (like it would have happened if my back wasn't turned), Mitchell somehow fell out of the shopping cart.  When I turned around, I was hit with the image of my child on the ground and I almost had time to think, "well, how the heck did that happen?" but his howls of pain prevented such a thought.  We immediately left Lowe's and raced home.  I got him inside, then asked myself why I wasn't rushing him to Urgent Care.  So we rushed to the car, and I stopped and thought a minute...
I thought to myself, "I think he probably sprained his elbow, and if he did, it's probably too swollen to determine anything right now."  So I decided to wait until the next morning to take him in.  To my utter dismay, the x-ray showed that he cracked both bones in his forearm!
The Urgent Care doctor fitted him with a soft cast on Wednesday, and then today, Friday, we went in for a hard cast down at Children's Valley Hospital in Madera (an hour drive!). He'll have it on for probably about six weeks. Yahoo.
I'm not gonna lie, he wanted the pink cast, and I almost let him, because heck, I don't care if the kid wanted pink...but I decided I wouldn't take all the criticism that would surely follow.  Someday he can tell people on his own that real men wear pink.  I don't need to fight all his battles for him, even if I want to.
Oh yeah, Todd's totally jealous that Mitch has a broken arm and "gets" to wear a cast. As a broken-arm survivor myself, I can testify that it's not that great.

Woody loves the limelight.  Just cause Mitch broke his arm, Woody had to break his too.