Merry Christmas! 2016

 It seems that Christmas sneaks up more and more quickly around this place.  I was scheduled for two half days at school on Dec 19 and 20, and Jason ended up getting sick for both days.  I had to call out for Tuesday, which made the last day of school before break very chaotic.  We ended up taking Jason to the doctor once we started running a fever because I figured if I did nothing, it would turn into pneumonia by Christmas Eve (and if I brought him in, the doctor would find nothing wrong other than a cold!).  Turns out that Jason had an ear infection, so I'm glad we took him in.  We laid low for a couple of days and during that time, we managed to visit Santa for a quick picture and visit with my friend Katie at the mall for some playground time and pretzels!  
And then on Friday Dec 23rd we handed the younger two kids off to Margaret and Bob for some "adults and older kids" time in DC--seeing "Wicked" at the Kennedy Center!  It was awesome!  
Enjoy some pictures from Christmas Day!

Emily is forever playing school with her baby dolls so "Santa" brought her this teacher set!

Dino shirt!  Just what I always wanted!

Now that the kids can read names, they both wanted to hand out the gifts!

Jason is currently in love with his weapon set!  It came with a holster so that he can patrol the house for "bad guys".

Already in teacher mode!

Jason got a dino figurine set so he immediately started painting them.

Emily has a slight addiction to Baby Alive dolls.  Here she is with her new Dancing Darcy.

Willow was not amused by the Christmas shenanigans.

Matching Poppy the Troll nightgowns!

Everyone stayed in pajamas for the whole day and we just chilled.  Right around dinnertime, Caroline started giving Emily a french lesson (no idea why) and these two spent almost 3 hours in "French class"!  Emily can now count to 10 in French and took 3 "Quizzes" that Caroline made, all with At on them!

Christmas Eve Fun!

 We have kept up a nice tradition of visiting Peggy and Joe for Christmas Eve dinner.  Mary Jo and John made the trip with their little two so that the cousins could have some Christmas fun together.  We had a fabulous dinner of crab balls, meatballs, deviled eggs, potato salad, etc. along with Peggy's famous lemon bars and applesauce cake.  No one could move after all that food but the kids were desperate to do presents.  They also played on the air hockey table upstairs with all the talent that 4-6 year olds possess.  
The upwrapping of presents was a blur of wrapping paper, dinosaurs, puppy surprises, leap pad books, socks, underwear, sheet sets, towels, books, tools, gloves, and more!  
Enjoy these lovelies from Christmas Eve!

Thanksgiving 2016

 Since the ex-husband and I are usually trading kids back and forth throughout the week leading up to Thanksgiving, Tim and I went ahead and accepted Stephanie's invite to her house for Thursday.  Whether we ended up bringing 2 or 4 kids, we knew that it would be fun to get the cousins together and have a nice visit.  Turns out that Garrett and Caroline were able to come along and we headed to Hampton around 10 AM Thanksgiving morning.  I was in charge of bringing two pumpkin roll cakes (homemade!  I love making these things!) and a cooler full of juice boxes and 2-liters of soda.
And Stephanie surprised us with a new puppy, Maverick, who the kids absolutely adored!  Gavin and Alexandria joined up with Garrett, Caroline, Emily, and Caroline and played together like they get together all the time.  Kevin and Kristen were a nice addition as well as Aunt Jill and Camm who brought all the favorites--broccoli cheese casserole, giant yeast rolls,  sweet potato casserole smothered in mini-marshmallows...my mouth is still watering!

Basketball skills camp in the backyard

Kevin kept up the tradition of guarding the grill as 100 oysters popped open and then were promptly drowned in butter.

The new puppy, Maverick!

Family Photo Fun!

 It's been 4 years since we did professional family photos (Jason was 2 weeks old and cried almost the whole time!).  A new English teacher at our school, Marianne, used to be a full-time photographer and still does photo sessions on the weekends (lots of newborns, weddings, and senior pics).  I've seen her website and her work is gorgeous!  I asked her to book us for a weekend while the fall leaves were still looking amazing and we all met up at Alum Springs Park for some picture time!  
Marianne just sent me the link to the pictures and they turned out so great!  It's no surprise what everyone will be getting for Christmas :)  Marianne spoiled me with 67 pics (!) since only 25 were included in our package, so I'm sharing a few here and still have so many to use for our Christmas card.  I've already picked out a great group shot of the kids to get printed on canvas for above the mantel and one of each kid to print out for the wall.  Enjoy!

The best picture that Timmy and I have ever taken.  Seriously.

We did some funny outtakes to prevent "frozen smiles" from too many photos in a row!