Face it.

It came. It's going. It was all too short.

Jon's vacation is nearly over and it really has gone too quickly. While it is nice to have a vacation in the summer, we try to get his vacations near Christmas so we can spend this time of year together and celebrate the season as a family.

This afternoon Jon wanted a few uninterrupted hours to work in the garage. I took advantage of this time and packed the kiddos up to head out for a few errands. On our adventure we took a drive to where we used to live to visit our previous neighbors, Paul & Violet. They were both fantastic neighbors who we grew quite close with while we lived "across the river." Paul was diagnosed with Alzheimer's a few years ago and while we were living there we saw a gradual decline in his memory. Today when the boys and I walked in the door he had completely forgotten us. It was truly heartbreaking. In high school I spent quite a bit of time researching Alzheimer's for the paper. It was a topic that interested me and struck a certain chord. At that time I had no clue why. Now, 10 years later, my life has been touched a few times by this "Long Goodbye." Seeing the man who was always out on the front porch to wave us off... the man who Shawn would yell out the screen door "Paul! Paul! What are you doing?"... seeing him confused and completely unaware of who we were, the neighbors who lived right next door for five years, was hard. This was yet another moment in my life where I saw all too well how precious life is and wanted to hug my children a little tighter.

Visiting Santa at the mall.

This year versus last year.
(plus a poinsettia from "Mom"/Chris)

2008.
Shawn 2 1/2. Landon 6 months.

2009.
Shawn 3 1/2. Landon 1 1/2.

Shawn asked to use his dry erase book.
He must have forgotten where the book was.

Scrub-a-dub-dub!

Squeaky clean... and erasing the day's artwork.

Moments like these...

The Mop!

Christmas PJ's

My two little men.

The Great Chase.

Totally not wanting to sit there for me to get just ONE shot of them.

Stompy.

The Cue.
This is Landon's way of saying "Guys, I am so ready for bed."

And a few videos... Daddy took this first one of Red. The 2nd, yet another hilarious baby moment provided by Landon & Delilah.