christmas 2013!

finally getting around to uploading lots of pics from christmas!   We had a wonderful time visiting family in st. louis, even with the long drive and a certain crabby teething baby.  Our travels allowed colin to have three different days of present opening, which he was thrilled about...

charlotte seemed to have a good first christmas, though of course the ornaments and wrapping paper were the most exciting to her..

we enjoyed spending christmas eve at Aunt Zoe's new house…

and colin had a great time spending time with G and Uncle Adam!

lots of pics of our christmas are at:  share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0ActG7Vs4cMWrno

my little elves

Quite the adventure this year, decorating for Christmas with two little ones underfoot.  

We had the traditional wearing of the santa caps...

Colin made up for Charlotte's lack of enthusiasm.  

We had a baby assisting with inspecting the tubs of decorations...

I'm sure this is safe.  

… and a monkey helping to trim the tree.  (yes, monkey suit is still around.  We're getting our money's worth?)

Tag team..

we had to take a break for a dance party.  This was the funniest thing to ever happen to Charlotte, apparently.

and she doesn't even seem fazed by having a tree in the house suddenly.  

 In other Christmas-y news, it is so much fun this year now that Colin really "gets" what's going on and is so excited for Christmas.  Today Mike took him to the Christmas parade downtown, where he had a blast despite the cold and snow, and got to give the mailman a letter for Santa.  While he was gone, I wrapped one of his presents and put it under the tree, where there was already one present for him.  He came home, ran straight for the tree and yelled, "TWO presents?!"  He snatched it up and then said, "Mommy!  It says, C-O-L-I-N!  That's me!  It's a present for me!"  Looking forward to twice the holiday fun this year with my two little elves.  :)

soooo big!

thanksgiving 2013

we all had a great thanksgiving with family in the quad cities… despite the stress of our first real holiday on the road with two kids.  Look how much they love each other!  Haha

we stuffed ourselves silly at grandma pat and grandpa ron's… then headed to cousin Taryn's for even more food.  Here's Colin enjoying second thanksgiving (i.e., Teddy Grahams) at the kids' table with Uncle Matt.  

checking out Grandpa Doug's mustache ….

reunited with auntie ginger...

little C's creeping on the kids' table…  look at those twin profiles!

baby lineup with cousins Madison and Elodie

 The rest of the weekend was spent having lots of family fun.  The boys had a day out at the movie theatre….

Charlotte and Grandma got some quality cuddle time...

and we all lost to colin in candy land 43700000 times.

charlotte loved seeing her first puppy dog, Junior..  and he was excited to have a baby dropping food around….

and I got lots of snuggles with my pumpkin pie.   

 so much to be thankful for this year :)

10 months a lady!

Our sweet, happy, fun loving little girl turned 10 months old today!  I gave up trying to get her to sit still for a picture and stuck her into her chair instead.  I seem to remember the same thing happening with Colin's 10 month picture.  Anyway - here she is.. getting bigger and more grown up by the day.

Charlotte is turning into a big girl before our eyes.  Now that she's figured out that she can crawl around the house, she's enjoying some newfound independence.  She loves to explore, especially when she happens upon laundry baskets, which she enjoys emptying of clothes… one item at a time.

She's starting to eat people food, though her favorite so far, inexplicably, is townhouse crackers.  This girl will crawl across the entire house for a townhouse cracker.  She's using a sippy cup like a pro.  She is still pulling up and starting to take little cruising steps!

It's so hard to believe its already been ten months, but it also feels like she's been part of our family forever.  We love this little sweet potato.

best laid plans

I was so excited for Colin and Charlotte to have their sibling picture taken at school... we've had family pictures done but I have not one single professional picture of the two of them together.

This is what I got.

I cannot stop laughing at this picture.  I am terrible.  I can't help it.  What are the chances... Colin actually looking at a camera and smiling, and my generally sweet and smiley baby, who would normally be ecstatic to be anywhere near her brother... is losing it.

I'm looking on the brightside. It will be great in a wedding slideshow someday.

as the weather turns....

How quickly we moved from fall to winter!  (Colin was very upset about the snow this morning; he kept yelling "It's fall.  It's not winter."  My thoughts exactly, buddy.).  Oh well.  We make the best of it.  Here's the lady and her first "snowfall" of the winter  :)

fall fun

Kiddos enjoying one last nice fall day this weekend...

Colin has graduated from the toddler rake to a real one.  I was thrilled.  Mike was happy to have some help.

He did some manual leaf moving as well.

so happy to be outside!

Annual kids in leaf pile pictures!

checkups for all

We spent three out of the past four days at the same doctors' offices this week.  So much fun!  They love us there! 

We had Colin's 4 year visit.  Here he is taking Buddy for a spin on the doctor's stool.

Colin continues to grow up and not out.  He is now 3'3" (about 25th %) and 30 lbs (about 5%).  But since he's staying consistent on the charts and does actually eat, doctor isn't worried.  Dr. Cates was very impressed with Colin's speech and vocabulary!  When Colin was asked whether he wanted the flu shot or the nose spray (since he was throwing a fit about the nose spray), he responded, "ZERO!!" and had all of us cracking up.  Dr. said that was the first time he'd gotten that response :)

Two days later we had Charlotte's 9 month visit.  The lady is now 27.25 inches long and weighs 18 lbs.   (both about 50%).  So, at this rate, she'll lap Colin on weight soon.  Charlotte is also doing well.  She has one top tooth that has broken through and it looks like another one will be coming through soon.  No sign of the bottom ones though, poor girl.  We also discovered she has an ear infection... her first one :(   But (here's where that third doctor visit comes in) given that I also have an ear (and sinus, and eye) infection, I think we just got a bad bug that doesn't want to let go.  

No pics at the dr. office but here's C2 showing off her newfound ability to pull up in her crib.  And right after this, we took that mobile down.  She's turned into a big girl overnight!  

crawling!!

Well, I take all my predictions back about not crawling.  She just decided to go for it yesterday, and now she's unstoppable!  Mike also found her pulled up and standing in her crib this morning.  And so it begins....

happy halloween (for one kid anyway)

Happy Halloween!!  Colin was beside himself to finally get to Halloween night and trick or treating!   

The other kid.. not so much.  I so wanted a picture of the pumpkin and the monkey together, but she was not having it tonight.  This is as good as I got.

Mike and Colin set off in a quest for candy...

and the girls stayed home to hold down the fort and answer the door.