Tree Tradition, Tooth Fairy, and Photo Flops

How's that for a title!?

Since posting has become quite sporadic, I need to jam all of the happenings into one;)

So, to start with, the day after Thanksgiving we headed out for our fairly new Christmas tradition of a real tree.  On Thanksgiving day we were walking around with no coats on and the day we went foraging trough the forest it was about 30 degrees and windy!  Needless to say we did not look for the perfect tree, rather the first one that looked like it was the right size and was not too far away from the parking lot!

Found it!

Cameron giving us the low down on how to cut it.  And notice no coat. Yep, another reason why our adventure was short lived.

This was going to be my shot of getting the boys out in their element for the Christmas card, but then I noticed Cameron had his gum sticking out of his mouth.  At least Haiden was not crying in this picture.  He was not one for being out in the cold any longer than he had to that day!  All in all I think it took us no more than 30 minutes from start to finish ;)

And then the BIG news......finally our first lost tooth. Cameron has been waiting ever since last year for any tooth to be just the tiniest wiggly and finally it happened!  He worked hard at this one!  The adult tooth was already popping up behind it.  One night he was wrestling and it jarred loose just enough for him to pull it the rest of the way out himself.  Before that he tried dental floss and pliers!  The smile on his face when it came out was priceless.  One of those little moments I won't forget!

You can see the big hole and just a little of the big tooth behind it.  And, yes, we wrote a note to the tooth fairy.  Grandma Roby told him all about it and he was sure he was going to get $3!

'Tooth Fairy, here is my tooth.  Leave me money.  By Cameron.

He did that all by himself ;)  Proud teacher mommy moment!

And just today he lost the one right next to it!  It was loose and again the adult tooth was already there.  In music class today a friend lost a tooth and he said it reminded him he needed to get his out so he twisted and bent and turned it and out it came!  He left it at school though.  Good thing.  The tooth fairy needs to find some dollar bills!  I think it's only $2 this time ;)

Oh, the Christmas card photo.

The past few years I have tried to get it taken on Thanksgiving Day.  We made a stop to my parents in the afternoon to quick try to get it done before we all became unglued by then end of the days' festivities.  I thought the background of the tress would be something different.

Trees good. Looking into the sun not so good.

Nope.

A hide and seek Christmas card?!

Add shadows to the sun and gusty winds.  Moving on.....thanks for trying, Dad!

So on a whim Sunday afternoon, round 2 begins.

And this is how it starts.

Now it's the other boy!

Getting closer....

Let's try a new position....

The very LAST, seriously the last one snapped, was it.

My new favorite family photo.

Nothing fancy, but it's us.