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 :)