Best Santa EVER!

This is our first year to go see Santa... and when the kids found out that Santa was their Papa, they were ecstatic! ;) Miss Sass was a little unsure at first. After all, the last time she saw Papa he was clean-shaven. ;)

She warmed up to him though... however she hid her smile from me, of course. ;)

So, these are all straight out of the camera so they are far from perfect! But I wanted to share, so here they are. ;) This next one was fun... sort of a behind the scenes shot.

Drama Boy was so fun. He just loves the Santa story and he loves Papa even more! ;)

I really need to get a new lens... one with auto focus!!!

Then it was Mr. Cool's turn. He thought the whole thing was a blast and just told Santa everything! Lol

I think my Daddy makes a pretty good Santa. ;)

How was your trip to see Santa?

My husband can break anything!

No really, I mean that... especially if his brother is involved. So there's this company, Coleman, that made these virtually "indestructable" canoes. What they mean by that is the hull. Yeah, no one ever figures on the frame breaking... twice. Shall I go on or just tell the story? Ok, the story then. I was not there, but I'll do my best...

Daniel (the hubby), Steven (Bro-in-law), and Randy (Dad-in-law) decide to canoe the Arkansas River the day after a two day storm. --1st Mistake-- Typically, you would want two people to a canoe. Steven's brother-in-law was going to join them, but had to cancel last minute. So they decided to all hop in one canoe together! --2nd Mistake, yeah we're already at mistake #2, so you get the idea-- Apparently most of the trip was just fun and games until they hit a rather rough patch. Randy takes a tree branch to the chest that throws him from the canoe. Daniel jumps out to keep the canoe from capsizing, and Steven (the smallest by a considerable amount) simply could not keep the 17 foot canoe going from the middle seat in the swift current. By the end, the canoe's keel and one thwart (both parts of the frame) had snapped and all three of the guys went for more than one nice swim down a not-so-calm river of 5 foot rapids. At one point, Daniel was pinned against a tree... by the canoe. Then it was Steven's turn as he was the only one who had a hand on their only way home and his other hand clung desparately to a tree. Everytime he managed to pull the canoe closer, his head went under. Not exactly conducive to survival. When they finally managed to get out of the river, 500 yards downstream from their vehicle, they found the only way back was to carry the canoe through 5 football fields worth of thorny bushes. With no shoes. In addition to the scrapes, bruises, severe sunburns and previously described property damage, there were also several items lost. They include:

A brand new cooler (with lunch, 4 beers, 1 Dt Dr. Pepper & 2 Dr. Peppers)
Two seat backs ........... So, have I mentioned yet that they borrowed the canoe!?!?!
Bladder control (to which the guys have not admitted, I'm just guessing on that one)
2 Shirts
2 stabilizers
2 oars
1 pair of sunglasses
1 pair of suspenders, no, really my father-in-law loves 'em

As my husband told this harrowing tale of bravery and cunning on the trecherous waters of the Arkansas to our children, they stared at him with awed looks of terror and pride. The oldest and most inquisitive asked for a recitation of every tiny detail and a description of the damages inflicted on the canoe he has taken oh-so-many rides in. The middle child and most dramatic/creative simply asked in a gasp, "You mean, you almost died!?!" (eh, he's in Kindergarten... everyone almost dies, all the time.) But the youngest, our only girl and the princess of the house held her hands over her mouth for a long moment. When she was finally able to speak, it was in hushed tones of agony "You lost your shoe?"

4th of July applique for the boys;)

Okay, so I took about 40 pictures of my boys and this is about the best I got of the two together! They just don't care so much about the camera, especially when there are firecrackers to set off;)

Really, though, I guess I should have done a separate photo shoot with them... Okay to make these shirts... I bought the red t-shirts for 8 bucks at, I think it was Sears or Penny's. Then I took the material and used a fabric marker to draw the basic shape of what I wanted. Then I cut it out just inside the marker line.

It doesn't have to be precise at all! Next I pinned it to the front of the shirt along with some stitch'n'tear on the inside of the shirt. Then I just used a thick stitch and sewed the outline of the shape, but about 1/4" from the edge. After a few washes the edges got frayed and it looks really cute! Anyway, I really liked these last two with my niece and Drama Boy; they were SO cute together! ;)