The ever-elusive toddler...

Taking Kate's picture - while she's smiling, while she's at the right distance away, well, when she's even looking my way in the same vicinity as the camera's focus for more than a split second - in a word, IMPOSSIBLE! Below are my best attempts, and I'm hoping the Christmas holiday brings better opportunities, and a faster trigger finger on my part!

Kate's 3rd trip to see Santa *finally* ended in her sitting on his lap, without me, and partially looking my way. It took bribing her with a smoothie... hey, I do what I gotta do!

A rare still moment...oh wait, that's right, she's eating...

And everyone can expect not to see these three amigos on any shnazzy Christmas card this year. As you can see, quite the struggle...

Nana's tanning goggles are quite funny...

Finally, a win this week! Go Ravens!

Rounding out a fun-filled weekend...

Time with Mommy...

Time with Daddy...

Our little ray of sunshine...

A few more giggles with Ev before bedtime...

And finally, some sleepy babies get a bedtime story from Aunt "Kimmie"...

Monkeying around...

Kate and Evan were having a roll-fest and I grabbed the camera in time to catch the end of it. Very funny stuff, watching these two...

Poor Diesel!

Busy busy...

Jesse's uncle has a house on the Choptank River in Preston, MD that they graciously offered to the family for a Thanksgiving retreat. It was awesome to have lots of space (and new toys!) for the holiday weekend, and the kids had a blast playing together. Some of the various activities that filled our days...

Riding toys like this "locomotive"...

Kayaking in the river, which both Kate and Leah clearly loved!

Playing house at the toy kitchen...

Everyone loves a slinky!

Rocking babies to sleep...

"Mom Mom" reading books to the kiddos...over and over!

and of course the most common - just randomly rambling about the house, chewing on things, discovering things, dancing, chattering, and being kids!

Thanksgiving at last!

The little Ev-ster, getting so big, and just now taking his first steps!

Unfortunately, this picture is the only one I was able to capture of the three Judy cousins together in one spot all weekend - leave it to a tube of Cheerios to get the attention of these three!

Miss Leah, looking oh so grown up at 15 months!

And poor Ev couldn't get even a minute of quiet time when he woke from naps. Kate was a loud greeter each time, and often "helped" feed him his bottle to be sure he's well-fed.

My friend Riley...

Kate and Riley met way back when they were just 5 months old. Mommy and Allison (Riley's mommy) went to high school together, and had the girls just 5 days apart. They live in Michigan, but were in town for Thanksgiving, and the girls were able to play - albeit more on their own than together as toddlers often do! - at Tumble Town in the York Galleria mall. More fun, however, turned out to be the arcade games in the food court during lunch!

My little multi-tasker...