Here’s the update on the Christmas card picture — they didn’t turn out well. The main problem was Jacob. He was very mad about the whole thing and wanted to let us know just how mad he was. Because of that, most of the pictures turned out something like this:

If he wasn’t screaming he had his hands in his mouth:

or he was practicing for the opera:

The one time he did smile, he was blocking Lauren:

Now, the whole time Lauren & Beth were being very good, and we were able to get some great pictures of them together:

So, through the miracle of modern technology, we give you the Christmas picture that never was:

Merry Christmas from our pretend family. We only wish our kids were as good as the picture might lead you to believe.

Not only is today Thanksgiving, but it’s also the day that Jacob & Beth turn 21 months. This milestone is significant because the twins themselves were born on the day Lauren turned 21 months, so they are now the same age Lauren was when they were born.

We all had a good Thanksgiving. It’s too bad we couldn’t travel to be with family this year, but I had to work Friday morning. We are planning a trip to Cincinnati in December. We spent part of today trying to get a good Christmas picture for our card. We’ll see how they turn out. We weren’t getting a lot of cooperation.

The famous monkey in the high chair dropped us an email and a picture, so we thought we’d share it with everyone. We notce that Monkey is eating, as usual. The arrival of this picture also means that Grandma has her camera working, so that’s good news, too.

Yes, the longly-awaited school pictures have come. Beth & Lauren seem to be happy, but I sense that Jacob isn’t thrilled about the whole idea. Here are the pictures themselves (click on each for a larger version):

Our home has been lucky to be the recipient of some very fancy and exclusive artwork. The artist, who prefers to just be called “Lauren,” has allowed us to reproduce some of her work here. The picture below is titled “Lauren’s Turkeys.” We hope to have more posted in the near future.

After upgrading the operating system on the computer, I finally had time to get around to re-configuring the program to acquire video and images off the video camera. Here’s a look at some activity from today. First, Beth plays and sings songs with momma. She’s getting to be a pretty good singer (Beth, not her momma). Jake Does his favorite thing in the whole world, play ball. Lauren can’t get enough of the tent.

Here’s the story on the tents for those of you who haven’t heard. Two weeks ago we got two tents (actually one teepee and one tent) that connect with a pretty cool tunnel. All the kids loved it. Lauren even slept in it at night a couple times. Less than a week after we got it, everyone was so wild with it that they broke into a bunch of pieces. I had it put away until today. While Lauren was napping (after going to the movies with Jen) I set them both back up. The kids are pretty excited about them.

For some reason Beth got the idea that it would be great to walk around with a diaper on her head. Of course everone else in the family (except dada) had to try it out, too. Beth loves to look at herself in the mirror when she does this kind of stuff. We’ll be adding more family “diaper-head” pictures soon.

What is a blog? It’s a web log. My hope is that this blog will be updated more often than the full Donnelly web site has been (about once every 6 – 12 months). Anyway, we plan to post stories about what the kids are up to. Feel free to check in often.