Yummmm

Here's my baby girl eating rice cereal! :-) This was a couple of weeks ago- she has since figured out that she only needs to "chew" after the spoon has been in her mouth- not before. :-) And as for the funny background- we'd just had a pizza picnic in the living room...with our gorgeous plastic yellow tablecloth. Enjoy!

Goofing Off

I love this picture- I took it on the Sunday after New Years. Don't they look so sweet?! What a joy to have them for EVER!!!
Katie has begun eating rice cereal. She LOVES it! She gets her little mouth going as soon as she sees the spoon... this is right after a meal- doesn't she look like she had a great meal?

Here we are coming down off the Christmas high...and the boys are getting a tad restless with all the FREEZING weather...here's a pic to prove the point. :-) I really need to find a way to get more energy out...this is right before bed! ha ha

Christmas

Logan is my self-proclaimed "Cookie Taster"- he's a great helper, too! :-)
Baking has become a weekly tradition- we LOVE making our jumbo chocolate chip cookies the most...they're almost as good as the dough.

Tyler got a drum from Logan for Christmas, and boy was he excited!

Mimi gives Logan a hug Christmas morning.

Katie loves her new baby with a blanket.

We were excited to get to spend an evening with a bunch of James' friends from High School!

James and his brothers Devin and Hal- we were so excited to see Hal, Kristel, Cody, and Hunter- we haven't seen them for 2 years! It was wonderful to reconnect- the kids LOVED playing together, and the adults had fun playing games and hanging out as well. One of James' favorite games (Cashflow) was a hit, and Devin blew us all out of the water! We also got to see Becky (James' sister) and Darren's baby Isaac be blessed by his Daddy- that was very special.

Here's a pic from the fun shopping trip Kristel (sis-in-law), Pam (James' mom), and I took to spend some extra "Christmas cash"- you can't beat less than $10 for a sweater!! :-) We had a wonderful time, and hope the next time we all get together is sooner than 2 years away!!

Prayer Request

I had a bit of a sad week as I learned that a friend of mine from back home lost her little girl Tori unexpectedly Monday. The kids and I went to my parents' house immediately, in hopes of bringing some support to her at such a tough time. I remember feeling the strength of the many prayers three years ago when Luke died, and as I talked to her she said she felt it as well. You can never have too many people praying for you, however! Please pray for Amy and her family. She wrote a beautiful tribute to Tori on her blog- you can read it if you click on "Amy and Sean" in my friends list. She's an amazing woman- strong, faithful, and an excellent mother. My heart aches for her and her loss. Please pray for her.

Merry Christmas!!

How cute are these little Christmas cuties?! :-) Couldn't ask for anything more than my sweet babies and hot honey!
Logan sure loves his sister! Katie adores Logan. When he walks in the room, she just lights up!

Twinkle Lights

We had a blast visiting the Christmas Light display at Clifton Mills this year! It was so much fun! They had Santa working in his shop, a singing reindeer, and a HUGE train set, a beautiful nativity, a romantic covered bridge, and of course lights. We will definitely do this again next year!! One of my fave traditions from my childhood was the "Twinkle Light Dinner"- a must for our family! We get everything together for a picnic by the tree with no lights on except for the tree. It was lots of fun! The boys thought it was very cool to be having dinner on the floor in the living room. I thought it was cool to be eating takeout pizza instead of cooking. :-) Yes, we will definitely do this again next year! :-)

Surprise Trip to Visit Nonna & Papa

So I've not updated my blog in quite a while (sorry, Sis. Dever!) I thought I'd get back at it and show everyone exactly where I've been the past month. First off, here are some pics from our fun trip to visit my Mom and Dad! After Thanksgiving we just hadn't had enough time, so rather than go home and come back that weekend for the Project Linus Appreciation Breakfast, we decided to just join then on their ride home and stay the entire week! James had to go back to work :-( but he seemed to get much more done without us to distract him! :-) Logan loved this drink at the new Chinese buffet in town- it's a real Chinese soft drink and the bottle was designed to hold the straw so it wouldn't fall in too far! Very ingenious, I thought! We ate there twice because it was so fabulous.

Tyler liked it as well, and you can see he was trying to lose the straw...but it never went in any further!
Here we all are at the Appreciation Breakfast- Christmas attire and all! It was the most wonderful morning- food was delicious, the kiddos were well behaved, and though you can't tell from their faces in this picture, the boys really had fun! They had a fun surprise bag they got to keep choosing from throughout the morning, and Logan even won the tree table decoration. He proudly displayed it on our kitchen table throughout the rest of the season!

Here's Katie in her new outfit from Aunt Rach. Isn't she getting big?! :-) 6 months and just getting cuter and cuter!

One of our favorite traditions is decorating the tree with ornaments we've gotten each year. I have an ornament from every year of my life- everything from Hugga Bunch to Rainbow Brite, Gone with the Wind, "Our First Christmas," etc. etc. It's a fun trip down memory lane, so we've done the same for the kids. They each get a new one each year- this year Logan got Batman, Tyler got Wall-E, and Katie got an adorable "Baby's First Christmas" one. In this picture, I asked the boys to each grab their favorite ornament and hang it. Logan chose his Superman one from last year that has a phone booth that opens on each side- one side with Clark Kent, one side with Superman. Tyler's fave is the Linus one from the Peanuts Christmas Show where he recites "What Christmas is all about" (Luke 2 in the Bible). Tyler LOVED it and pushed that little button over and over. I'm glad he appreciates hearing about the true meaning of Christmas. :-)