Christmas

This year we stayed home for Christmas.  It was so relaxing and the kids had a blast!  Happy First Christmas Lincoln!
It was love at first sight when Evie opened this ballerina outfit.  She wore it all day, slept in it that night and wore it the whole next day.  I had to do some coaxing to get her to not wear it to bed again.  Little to say she loves it.

Kaitlyn opening her Saint Lucia wreath for Kirsten.  Kaitlyn and I read the book together a month or so ago together.

Evie opening her "Tinker Bell".  Her reaction to opening this was priceless.

Reuben is the master artist behind this gift wrapping!

I think it is so neat when Reuben and my Dad put legos together together.

Part of the finished product.

Christmas Eve

This is my only picture I remembered to take on Christmas Eve.  We received a package from Devin and Marsella which was awesome!  Thank You!!!  We played Jenga over and over again the whole day!  It was so fun!  That evening we had our traditional steak dinner, mash potatoes, peas, and a green salad and Dickens Pudding for dessert.  The kids opened up pajama's from Grandpa and Grandma Ellsworth, thank you!    

Country Lights

I am a little behind on my blogging... On the 23rd we were able to go to Lake farm park for their Country Lights program.  This was our second year going and the kids loved it!  The kids get to pick a wooden toy to help make with Elf assistance, their was a model train to watch, a horse drawn ride to look at Christmas lights, Santa, and a horse show.  It was a full night.  This year my parents were able to come with us, which was a treat!

Eve was SO excited to see Santa.  She really wanted to make sure he knew that she wanted a Tinker Bell for Christmas.  It was heartbreaking when our turn was over.  Eve cried and cried because she didn't want to leave Santa.
Reuben picked a top gun, Evie picked a school bus, and Kaitlyn picked Tinker Bell.
They really went all out with the decorations.  It was so fun!

Happy Birthday Mom!

We were so lucky to celebrate my Mom's birthday with her this year!  The kids made her a poster and here is a photo of her chocolate cake with peppermint chocolate ganache frosting.  

I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful mother!  She is one of my closest friends.  I love to be able to just hang out with her, cook, or do crafts with her.  Everything is fun with her!  I love you Mom!

He's Mobile!

This was Lincoln two days ago.  He could only crawl backwards and pretty much rolled to get wherever else he wished.  Now... Lincoln is crawling!  He is officially mobile!

I just had to throw in this picture!  I don't know why but bead head is just so cute on little babies!

Gingerbread House

Last night we had our annual gingerbread house night.  It was so fun to all work together and make our house!

I was clearing the table from dinner and turned around to find this.

Amazingly he was eating it!  He wouldn't from me but he loved Evie feeding him!  

This is one of my favorite pictures!  I was just down loading for our Christmas cards and I thought I'd put it on the blog.  I am always so drawn to pictures of Mary and Christ.  I just love how you can tell how much Mary loves and adores her son!  It just makes me get warm fuzzies! 

Day 5 of Our Trip

We ended up our trip with a visit to Milwaukee Frozen Custard.  

Yum!!  The best custard!  (The kids took some of these photos) 

Saying our goodbyes!  It was so hard to say bye to our friends again!  When we got back to our house Evie asked if we could go to Ashlyn's house.  I wish we still lived close!  We love you Thompson Family!  Hopefully we can get together again soon!

Day 4 of Our Trip

We started out our day with going to a parade near my parent's house and then headed over to Five Guys for lunch.  They have the best burgers!  One of our definite highlights!  Then we headed over to D.C. to see some of the outdoor monuments.    

Vietnam Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Reflecting Pool

Korean War Memorial

World War II Memorial

Thanksgiving

Believe it or not but I don't have any pictures of Thanksgiving!  My Mom put on a mean Thanksgiving dinner.  All the fixings and six pies to boot.  Thank you Mom!  My friend Michal did get some pictures if you want to check out her site.

Day 2 of Our Trip

The next day was our prep day for thanksgiving.  My Dad, Ryan and the kids raked leaves while Mom and I made pies.  We went out for a scrumptious lunch at The Tortilla Factory.  That evening our friends the Thompsons arrived!!  The kids were in heaven!  The kids just went right to playing like when we lived close.   

Thanksgiving Week

On Tuesday we headed down to D.C. to visit my parents for the Thanksgiving break.  The kids were great for the drive, Lincoln even took a three hour nap which I think is a first for him! :)  After the kiddos were put to bed Ryan and I dashed out to see Twilight.  It was SO fun to go on a date with the love of my life, just the two of us!  Ryan decided to read the book a couple of days before we went, which made it so much more fun to talk about the movie and what we liked and what we didn't.  Overall I must say I was disappointed with the movie.  Books are SO much better than the movies ever seem to be!