And with that, my 2009 Project 365 journey comes to a close.
I've had a lot of people ask me if I'm going to do the project again in 2010. The short answer is NO!
The long answer is, while I love the idea of having a book like this every year, I'm burned out. By the end of the year (the last several months in fact) I just didn't know what else to take pictures of. If there wasn't a specific event to document, everything felt repetitive. I can't even count how many nights, an hour before sending the boys off to bed, I realized, "Oh no! I haven't taken a picture yet!" and had to scramble for an idea. While the project was absolutely rewarding, I feel it wouldn't be as special to do it again this year. I don't expect the day-to-day life will change much from last year to this year. I'll still take pictures, and somehow I need to figure out a way to get better at scrapping them (I'm still torn between traditional paper and digital scrapbooking... and I take SO MANY PICTURES that it's hard to decide what to scrap and what not to... I'll probably never figure this out!).
I do want to share though... I do think I will do another Project 365... someday. One of my 2009 P365 friends (Hi Margaret!) who came up against similar struggles by the end of the year suggested the idea of doing it again in 5 to 10 years. And I looooove that idea. I'm thinking 2014... what a fun way to document how the day-to-day changes over time.
For now, I have a few other photography challenges to conquer for 2010... not the least of which is continuing to pursue the building of my own family photography business (link in the side bar). I am also planning to participate in a weekly, theme-based photography challenge (although I already missed out for week 1). And hopefully I'll still find something to blog about here and there. :)
Thanks to everyone who followed me through this journey! I'm sure I'll take pictures of the finished book to share when it arrives!
While cleaning the boys' bathroom last week, I was nearly knocked over by the smell of the boys' bath toys. I knew our water and years of baths had done a number on them, but I didn't realize just how bad they were. Sooo... we decided to use some of the boys' Christmas money to buy new bath toys. I threw away a ton of the old, stinky toys, and replaced them with some new ones. There was a bit of a fuss about the toys that were tossed, but overall, I think the boys are enjoying the new lineup!
For Christmas, Jack and Brayden got sleeping bags from the Easter's. With all the craziness of the new toys the received, they kind of forgot about their sleeping bags until tonight. I unrolled their bags for them and kind of showed them how sleeping bags work. Immediately, they decided they wanted to change into their pajamas, turn off all the lights (except the Christmas tree), and have a pajama party! We set their bags up by the tree and they had their little party. It didn't last long, but it sure was adorable!
The past few days... maybe because of some of their craft-related Christmas presents, the boys - especially Brayden - have been very into "coloring." Something that has never held their interest for very long. Still, they sat and colored in their old Tonka coloring books for at least an hour tonight. Brayden chose to use markers in his book, and Jack opted for crayons. They were both very serious about the task at hand, and did not want to put their coloring stuff away when it was time to eat dinner!
New Year's Eve! It's hard to believe the year is already coming to a close... the time goes by so fast! We spent our morning at Monkey Bizness with our neighbors so they kids could all play! Then the Johnson's had us over for dinner and games, and this was the sight outside our front door as we left to walk over to their house. A full moon, the last full, "Blue" moon of 2009. It took me a few tries to get my settings right, but I love the outcome of the photo. We had a great New Year's Eve, and a fantastic 2009!
The boys were long overdue for a haircut, so we gave them our usual "at home" haircuts tonight. Although tonight was different, because they were both completely miserable about the whole process! The whining and complaining started before the scissors even came near their heads. Usually haircuts are a slight hassle, but tonight it was like pulling teeth! Jack pouted and complained of hurting feet, Brayden cried, and Rob and I were generally stressed out!
Brayden randomly started playing "Santa" tonight... he was using the love seat as his sleigh, and had packages (block boxes) in the back to deliver to all the good boys and girls. After we caught on to what he was doing, I put one of our Santa hats on him - "Santa Brayden!" Of course, then I tried to get a picture and the fun ended. Still, if even for a moment, he was very cute driving his sleigh yelling "HO HO HO!" over and over again!
On our agenda today was baking and decorating gingerbread cookies. The boys helped roll the dough and make the cut-out shapes. We had gingerbread men, snowmen, snowflakes, and Christmas trees. They love helping with baking projects right now. Then our whole family together had a great time decorating the cookies after dinner. I think the end result was one of our most creative batches of decorated cookies yet!
At long last... Christmas Eve! We mostly spent a low key day at home... I did some baking while the boys played and Rob rested his back. (It's not Christmas without Rob's back acting up!) We went to mass at STM, then had my mom over for dinner. She gave the boys some gifts, then they changed into their new, annual Christmas jammies! We left a snack for Santa and his reindeer, read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," and hurried off to sleep so Santa could come!
Merry Christmas! Jack was up at 6:01am (earlier, but that's when he got out of bed!) despite telling us the night before he was going to sleep until 8 or 8:30! Ha! Brayden, however, slept till 7:30! We headed downstairs to see the goodies Santa left for us! It was truly a magical Christmas with the boys this year. We had a nice morning at home, and took (via self-timer - thus, not focused well) our annual Christmas jammies family photo. Then we headed to Uncle Brian's for the afternoon and evening with the Roe's. 
Over the course of the holiday, we did our fair share of baking... and also acquired, as gifts, even more baked goods and sweets. On the counter is the collection of our spoils... gingerbread cookies, sugar cookies, shortbread cookies, brownies, peppermint bark, chocolate covered pretzel sticks, skittles, reese's pieces and peanut butter cups, milk duds, tootsie rolls, salt-water taffee, and more... and not shown are the leftover apple pie and pumpkin cheesecake in the fridge. 
I went into Brayden's class today and decorated cookies with the preschoolers! Each child got to decorate three cookies with icing and sprinkles. They all had so much fun! By far the favorite part was the sprinkles... as you can see by Brayden's plate! And most of all, Brayden was thrilled I finally helped in his class!
Every year, the boys make little craft ornaments for their teachers, family, and friends. This year's ornaments are little foam wreaths which the boys decorated with foam stickers and glitter glue. I added a picture of the boys to the wreath's opening when they were dry. There is nothing better than stickers, glittle, and glue to these two!
An impromptu dance party broke out in our home tonight... dancing to the music on one of the old toy cell phones. Brayden's dancing was complete with wearing the toy goggles that go with our Snoopy stuffed animal. Wearing them, everything looks green. The faces he makes when he is rocking out are hilarious! The song selections were mostly classics they know from the Little Einsteins.
We took the boys to the Wildlife Experience tonight for their "Winter Wonderlights" display. It was nice because they had the lights outside, then activities inside too, to warm up after the cold! The boys wrote letters to Santa inside... here Jack is writing, "I have been very good this year." We finished the trip off seeing The Grinch on the big screen!
We hosted a pre-Christmas dinner for the Martin families at our house this evening. The kids all wanted to sit at our already-to-small table, so we improvised and had our infamous picnic dinner instead, while watching The Polar Express. Carter and Noah joined the big kids for a quick photo... Carter was so cute resting his head on Jack's back! All in all, we had a great family night!
During our get together last night, the kids all opened their gifts from their aunts and uncles. The boys love the play food they got from Uncle Chris and Aunt Sarah, and the Shel Silverstein poetry books from Uncle Ryan and Aunt Pam. Jack was asking to read poems from "A Light In The Attic" all day, and Brayden spent his day "grocery shopping." He's carrying his bags to the checkout here.
At long last, we've worked brushing teeth in the morning into our "get ready for school" routine. Jack has gotten very good at brushing his own teeth, but Brayden still usually needs some clean-up work. This morning though, he was trying to shard to do a good job and get all his teeth clean! And the bed head is tremendous!
Tonight the boys (finally, a little late!) made their construction paper ring countdowns to Christmas. Brayden had fun making the first couple of rings, then he was ready to move on to other things (like playing cars). Jack, however, was very dedicated to the project, and wrote numbers and drew little festive pictures on every ring! I love his little Santa!
I bought this big piece of brown fabric awhile back to make myself a big "blankie." I've used it as a photo prop a few times, but finally decided to sew it up into my blanket. All was going well till I attached the satin border... which didn't really match and was super difficult to put on straight. So now I have a big ugly (warm) blanket, and need a new photo prop!
Brayden has become quite the whiner and pouter in recent days. I can't remember exactly what he was whining to me about, but my camera was right there so I snapped a picture of his pathetic whiney face. Which, for whatever reason, caused him to crack up. So I got a picture of that too! I like the happy face better than the whiney one! 
We had a playdate at the Gumm's house today. Alyssa and I went down to the basement to check on the playing boys, and were surprised to find that, of all the things they could be doing, they were all playing together in the play kitchen area! They were cracking themselves up making "water soup." Who said that playing kitchen is just for girls!?
Basketball continues to be a lot of fun! Today was the second to last practice. Rob has been working with Jack before the formal practice begins on shooting from his chest. His technique really is improving... we really can see changes from one week to the next!
Brayden's preschool hosted a "Preschool Science Night" tonight for the kids and their parents. There were three rooms with different experiments using water, gas, and solids. The boys' favorite was this one with a ketchup packet in a water bottle full of warm water. If you squeeze it, the ketchup packet sinks! Brayden had to use ALL his muscles to squeeze the bottle enough to sink the ketchup!
It's December! That means we can break out the Advent calendar and start the official countdown to Christmas. I made this paper craft Advent calendar a couple of years ago. Each day you take a tag out of one of the numbered pockets. Last year Brayden didn't really get it, but this year he and Jack already have a plan for Jack to do the odd days, and Brayden the even days, all the way to Christmas!
The boys both love their dry erase "workbooks." Brayden did handwriting at school today (specifically the letter "C"), so he wanted to do more letters when he got home and busted out the workbook. He was holding his marker invertedly, and didn't want to correct it, but I finally talked him into holding it "right." He was very proud of himself! And then had to concentrate VERY HARD to trace the rest of his letters! (I think his mommy makes the same face when concentrating!)
Rob and I went on a date this evening... Christmas shopping at Target and dinner at Olive Garden at Southlands mall. We got a lot done and then had a delicious meal. We both tried something new off the Olive Garden menu, definitely two new favorites. We even got a free dessert because my meal was a little delayed in the preparation! After dinner we drove down Southlands Main Street to get a closer look at the beautiful Christmas lights and decorations. A great date night!
Saturday mornings are still basketball mornings. Some weeks are harder than others for Brayden, who has to sit on the sideline. Usually our neighbor Lisa is the on the sides with us because her son Marcelo is on the team, and Brayden likes to play with her iphone. She wasn't here this week so Brayden was sooo bored. It's hard to just sit and watch. Toward the end of practice he noticed the balance beam on the gym stage. That kept him busy and happy... for a few minutes, at least.
One of the games the boys like to play together is "hospital." One of them ends up sick in bed at the hospital, and the other is the caretaker. Or sometimes it's the stuffed dogs that are sick. They get out the play doctor kit and take care of each other and their dogs. Lunch was ready today when I found them upstairs playing hospital on their beds. Brayden is looking after Jack's dog, Numbutts. :)
It's Thanksgiving week, and I've decided to undertake some baking projects. Last week Sarah made us pumpkin rolls and they were delicious, so I decided to attempt to make them myself. It was one of the messiest, most illogical recipes I've ever made! They aren't nearly as pretty as Sarah's were, but they are still delicious! It's like cheesecake and pumpkin bread all wrapped together!
Because the pumpkin bread wasn't enough, I decided to attempt my first cheesecake - a pumpkin cheesecake - for dessert for Thanksgiving dinner with the family. It was much easier to make than I expected (although I did need to buy a special pan for it!). It smells good and it looks good... I sure hope it tastes good too!
We spent Thanskgiving this year with the Martin side of the family, at my mom's house. We had a nice laid back afternoon together, and dinner (well, a late lunch) was wonderful as always. And the cheesecake... success!!! After lunch and everything, I took Noah's 3 month photos. He's so handsome! This is my favorite shot of him from the session, but really, it's hard to take a bad picture of my gorgeous nephew!
Is that a naked child under the Christmas tree? Why yes, yes it is. I don't know exactly what Brayden was pitching a fit about, but it was probably something about getting dressed... something he doesn't do agreeably right now. So today, he took off MOST of his clothes, and crawled under the tree to hide and avoid putting on his clothes. SUCH A MONKEY!
During this long weekend, Rob took the boys to the park three mornings to play soccer and football. It was great that they had a chance to get out and run off some energy, and do what they LOVE to do the most right now - sports! Then this afternoon, even though it was freezing out, Jack went out in our front yard to play football with some of the bigger kids in the neighborhood. He had a great time, and really held his own with the big boys!
