Christmas Day

 Opening a few gifts at home, before Mass.

 The tree at Nana's.

 Waiting to go open their presents (and the only good shot I have of their Christmas outfits!).

 Oh my gosh, look at all those presents!

 With her new Tangled doll.

 Getting in the ATV for the first time.  

The bike she had been asking for since her birthday.  It does NOT have training wheels (she can do everything but start on her own) but it does have a doll seat.

Overall, it was a nice day surrounded by family.  The kids had fun, ate mostly cookies, and were worn out pretty early.  

Jesse Tree

Ok, so I have been saving this one to share for a while.  Way back in the summer, I organized 23 other moms to do an ornament swap so that we could all have a complete Jesse tree set for the 24 countdown days (of december) to Christmas.  Here is some info on a Jesse Tree.  Anyway, each mom/family made 24 of the same ornament, sent them to me, and I reorganized them into 24 complete sets and sent that back. 

Each ornament has a bible verse to go with it.  The kids really enjoyed the middle stories, but had a harder time relating to the O Antiphons at the end.  Regardless, they enjoyed hanging the ornaments everyday.

A little holiday fun!

So these pics are from my cell and aren't the clearest, but you get the idea.  Back in pre-kid era, my office had a holiday door decorating contest.  My officemate and I came up with this Mr.Potatohead style gingerbread cookie idea.  We laminated all the pieces and stuck them on the door with a roll of tape.  People would come by and rearrange the pieces all the time.  We won the contest, but even better, I got to keep the pieces.  I finally broke it out this year, and the kids had a blast. I used painters tape and stuck all the pieces on the backside of this post.  They got pretty goofy with some of the arrangements, but Rose was pretty much a stickler for keeping it pretty orthodox.

Holiday Cheer

Tiny Tots Concert

 She really got in to it!

 They let them see how the instruments worked after the concert.

I have been taking the kids to the Tiny Tots Concert at the high school Dan and I graduated from since Rose was born.  But this was the first year Rose was actually excited to see all the costumed people coming around.  The highlight might have been getting to hug them after the concert!  James on the other hand was slightly afraid of them and had to be dragged around after his sister, hiding behind me the whole time.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent the weekend with our cousins and had a great time.  Sadly, the only pictures I got were of the annual gingerbread house making and one of the four of them together.  I'll try harder next year!

Happy 2nd Birthday James!

A Memory to Keep

Cuties in their footy pajamas

Fall Fun

Early Morning

It's taken two years, but now it's blindingly apparent that James is a morning person, while Rose is most definitely NOT a morning person.  Of course a two-year-old can't be a morning person all by himself.  For that reason, rather than sleeping peacefully in bed on Saturday morning, James and I are watching Elmo's World at 630am. (Dan)

Quiet Time with Daddy

Everyday Fun

Happy Halloween!

 

Eating an early piece of candy!

A bike ride

The big girl got a balance bike for her birthday so we go out whenever we can.  She is getting really good at the balancing part.  Although she still asks where the pedals are (this way I don't have to do the run behind the bike trick while she is learning).  She loves her wheel in front and wheel in back bike.  And James is pretty psyched about getting the trike hand-me-down.

WAY FAR BEHIND!!!

So SORRY!!!  I don't really know what happened to October, but I plan to back post, so make sure to scroll down to make sure you don't miss anything.

I will try harder in November.  I promise!

Happy 4th Birthday!!!

On her actual birthday, we drove to her favorite park (which is actually a good 30 minutes away, plus traffic since I have to get on the Beltway).  She loves this zip line.  I think she swung back and forth at least 30 times.  It was a little chilly, but we managed to stay there for over 2 hours.  

 Absolutely adorable!

Birthday Party!

We had Rose's birthday party the weekend before her birthday so her friends could make it.  The requested theme was Tinkerbell, so....the girls got to make their own fairy houses.  I think they had a lot of fun.  

 This was one of the two cakes made by Nana.  Rose desperately wanted to pull Rapunzel out of the middle, but that was for the family party the next day.  In fact, she kept waking up all night saying she couldn't stop thinking about the cake.  Except for the lack of sleep, it was funny.

After the fairy house making, they sat down to watch Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue until their parents came.  

Back to the Farm!

We had fun again this year at the local fall festival/farm.  In fact, we went twice.  I took a lot less pictures this year, so no slide show ;)