Sarah and James Plus Two : Remembering what is important

It's the most wonderful time of the year! But it also the busiest! School work increases dramatically as we have Benchmark testing, holiday crafts, report cards, and my Christmas Carol play on top of regular teaching, grading, planning and meetings. It's a lot to try to get done. Shopping needs to get done and I have a very limited amount of time to do it this year. My house needs to be cleaned and I am so busy doing other things that, well, it just doesn't get done quite as often as I'd like. The most important thing for me to remember right now is that I need to spend every possible second I can with Henry. He is growing up WAAAY too fast and I am running to keep up with him! I don't want to miss a thing so I'm learning to be ok with the fact that the house is a mess, my schoolwork isn't done nearly as well as I think it should be (or on time!), my shopping can wait. All those things can wait... Henry refuses to wait. I don't want to look back on this time and think, damn, I missed Henry learning how to crawl but my house was clean, I got my schoolwork done early and my shopping done! Baby Henry sure changed my priorities! He is what is important. Being there with him while he learns new things, taking pictures so that I don't forget these fleeting moments, spending time dancing and laughing and playing with my baby. THAT is what is important. I have a feeling I may have to keep reminding myself A LOT of what is important in the coming month! Here are just a few of the precious moments I've captured lately. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Henry, the carrots are supposed to go IN your mouth ;)

Duuuuuude! These carrots are like, soooo good! He is a Stoner after all!

Henry in baby jail, aka his play yard.

On your mark, get set, GO...

Backwards!

Just some close-ups of my sweet boy.

I got Henry some shoes for Christmas.

Hey! Where the hell are my toes?!?

Then, it was time to attempt a family portrait for our Christmas card this year. I say attempt because as hard as it was to take a family picture with just me, James and Daisy, it was thirty million times more difficult to take a picture with Henry! Daisy we can distract with a treat but Henry is a little more complicated. My sister Emily agreed to help us take the pictures, thanks Emily! We may end up paying for her therapy because of it! You'll see the awesome picture we ended up using when you get our card :) Here are a few takes that didn't quite make the cut.

First pose, standing in front of the tree with me holding Henry. Not a bad pic but I didn't like the way I was holding Henry. His onesie says My first Christmas (thanks Lizzie!) but you can't see it because my arm is in the way.

Second pose, sitting in front of the tree with Henry standing. Again, not bad and similar to the one we ended up using. It was just SOOO hard to get Henry to look at the camera! He kept trying to look back at me or James or in this case, the floor! Emily finally ended up using a bell to get his attention.