My friend Shana from Life as Wife and Mom blog and her two sweet boys met up with us to do our Christmas Card photos. She is so talented! She really captured our silly family moments and made us look good. My favourite thing about these photos are how easy and fun they were to take. Rather than feeling posed and awkward in front of the camera, Shana captured moments of us just being a family.  

This past week has been tough. While everyone else was enjoying everything the Christmas holiday entails (turkey dinner, wrapping and opening presents, playing in the snow), we were in and out of the hospital.

Travel has taken its toll on our relationship as well as on our daughter. I feel for those of you who have to hold down the fort while your spouse is away, often times for weeks on end. It's a tough job and I'm so thankful that this past work trip Chris took was the last one.

The day started out normal enough: I got up early, took the dog (Hank) out for a walk, and got ready for work. Pretty normal....Charlotte is sitting in bed, looking sad and somewhat nervous, maybe even a little bit guilty ... I was going to be a dad!

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