While we were waiting for everyone to come upstairs I snagged a photo of Spencer and Josh. Hey! Not bad! Things were going to go well!
While Lance was dragging Cole up the stairs I got this picture of Miss Tess. I realize that it is blurry, but it seems to be the only photo of the day where she is actually smiling. Please note that Tess chose all of her accessories this morning.
We took several shots in front of the tree. This one, sadly, turned out to be the best. Dang, Tess! Why'd you have to close your eyes?!
So I tried a different tactic. Perhaps they would behave better on the couch? Well, the boys did... kinda mostly...
Okay, yes, you may make silly faces. Cole took this to be "Yes, you may run away".
"Please! Just one normal shot!" After this I gave up. Blasted children.
Tess did not like the idea of me taking
At all.
Sad girl. She really knows how to use that bottom lip to her advantage.
So what do you do with a sad little girl who needs a distraction? You take a picture with her!
Whatever happened to self-portrait Tuesdays? I have no idea.
Our ward is awesome because we only had Sacrament meeting today, probably making us the only congregation in the world to actually have less church for Christmas.
However, as Lance so aptly put it on the drive home, it still felt like we were there for the full 3 hour block. Our kids were So. Rotten.
Cole has figured out that if he's loud enough he will be taken out of the chapel. When we do this we do not let him run around and have fun. We make him stand by a wall or sit on a chair or something equally boring and un-fun.
He does not care. For some bizarre reason, he would rather be bored out of his skull in an empty classroom instead of in the chapel quietly coloring or playing with cars.
So Cole hollered and yelled and fake-cried for a majority of the meeting, which we tried to ignore because we did not want to reward him by taking him out. (Our apologies to the rest of the congregation.) Tess was just ill-tempered and tantrumy. Spencer and Josh were okay, but they weren't angels by any means. And for whatever reason, each child felt a special to need to lift my skirt and/or pull my neckline down at least once during the meeting. It was like I was fighting a constant battle to stay decent and not flash anybody. Now that would have been a Christmas gift for everyone. Oy.
Needless to say, no one was in a very Christmassy mood at the end of the meeting.
Oh wait - there was one good thing. All of the Primary kids went up to sing a couple of Christmas songs. For whatever reason, Cole decided he needed to go up, too. He kinda zipped up there before we could stop him, and we figured it'd create more of a fuss if we fought him to come down. Miraculously, he stayed by Spencer and Josh and behaved himself the entire time. He even sang one of the songs!! (True story: later in the day when we asked why he didn't sing the second song, Josh said it was because Cole didn't know it. Spencer was adamant that Cole did, in fact, know the song. In order to keep the peace I interjected that perhaps Cole didn't sing the song because he didn't want to sing the song. Was there a song Cole would have rather sung? "Perry", Cole immediately replied. I am completely and totally in favor of the Primary kiddos singing "Perry the Platypus" for Christmas next year! Which is probably while I'll not have any sway in that matter whatsoever.)
Anywho, we all survived and made it home. We even started to like each other enough again to make some Christmas cookies. The boys were all too eager to help unwrap each Hershey kiss we needed. And no one ate a single Kiss during the unwrapping process. Will wonders never cease?
Mmmm... chocolate cookies with Candy Cake Kisses. Yes, my kisses are a little melty. But I like them that way - much easier to eat.
Lest you think our Sunday adventures end here, think again. While I was putting Tess to bed this evening, Cole snuck into my room and used a pair of scissors from my bedside table to snip a lovely hole into our brand new sheets. He also came close to destroying a very intricate felt flower I've been working on. I came very close to throwing him out the door and into the snow. Okay, sure, I probably shouldn't have left the scissors there. But in my defense, he had been playing downstairs for a while and I had no idea he'd be coming up and wreaking havoc.
Santa had better get here fast; all our good behavior is slowing ebbing away and being overtaken by sheer naughtiness.
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