Finally...a full night's sleep.

Jake has been coming in our bed every night for what seems like forever. It's probably been 2 weeks. He will either call out to us or just walk in with his pillow under one arm and cozy under the other. He's determined. He's staying. This is some kind of cyclical thing with him. He'll do this for a few weeks, and then we'll have a few weeks of uninterrupted sleep. When Kate was little, we were a lot more strict about this. We would let her join us for about 10 minutes, then Dan would carry her back to her bed. We've chilled out a bit as we've aged. All we care about is sleep. So when Jake joins us, we all quickly fall back to sleep for the rest of the night. I'm not sure if we did the right thing then, if we are doing the right thing now, or if there is even a right or wrong with this. It just felt good to have a full night of sleep last night. I feel refreshed today!

Over the weekend we met Dan, Kathy, and the boys on Main Street. Kathy was hoping for a few pictures. Sam wasn't too interested, but we got some cute stuff anyway. Main Street in historic St. Charles is a magical place during the holiday season. The decorations are gorgeous, and there are people dressed as storybook characters, Santas from around the world, and Victorian carolers. When the kids approach these actors, they are presented with a collector's card from each one.

 I had to use my external flash on the bottom shot because we were losing our light quickly. I am happy with the results. It's my first time to use external flash on an outdoor shoot.

I've been promising a sneak peek of my preschool shots.  I spent two mornings at Jake's school taking these shots, and it really was so much fun. It really was funny to see which kids would willingly pose and which shots I had to take on the sly. I'll never tell. Let's just say that they kept me laughing and guessing. They are such a darling bunch!!