Christmas Morning!

Getting ready to come downstairs and see if Santa had come!

Showing Grandpa what Santa brought...

Passing out presents...

The boys' opening the gifts they had gotten for each other

Grandma & Grandpa got them a little tool bench!

As you can see Mike got exactly what he wanted...a Red Ryder BB gun! He didn't wait long to go outside and see if he could shoot his eye out! Of course he's a bit older than Ralphie...so there wasn't any trouble with "icicles". ;)

My cute boys ready to go to church!

Christmas Eve 2011

Preparing the luminaries

The luminaries all lit and lighting the way to our house

I think this is the one picture that has been taken from my side since getting pregnant (and its from terribly far away)...Yep 27 weeks along!

All of these presents for 6 people and Santa hadn't even come yet!

While watching a Christmas movie Topher found something unusual to touch...Grandpa's beard!

Matt had to see what all the fuss was about of course!

After Grandma & Grandpa went to the hotel (we told them they had an early wake up call!), we had a little time to relax before bed.

Pre- Christmas activities

We all ended up being sick before Christmas so all the fun Christmas activities got pushed back until right before. We made this gingerbread house (thank heavens it was easy) on 12/23.

The holiday baking got left until 12/24! But my AMAZING husband bought me a Kitchenaid and let me have it early and it made the job of making these cookies go by pretty quick...I LOVE it!

Dec 3rd & 17th

Breakfast with Santa! Topher ate probably a dozen sausages on his own!

The parade! It lasted about 15 minutes I think...but the kids liked it!

Singing at the church Christmas party! :)

The men had their turn singing too!

We had to see Santa again!

November 2011 Fun! :)

At the Tree of Lights Festival! 11/17

Topher's pre-k Thanksgiving Program! He was a 'P'

'P' is for Pilgrim.

The songs those kids sang were so fun!

Thanksgiving was at our house this year with friends! About 15 people showed up!

Covered Bridge Festival-Indiana

I really had NO idea that this festival was this big! Hundreds of vendors- just about any type of food you could ask for (though I couldn't find anyone with an Indian taco :( too bad )

A covered bridge surrounded by yet more people- and we chose to go on a weekday! I can't imagine what the weekend was like!

The view from inside the covered bridge, Matthew was a bit freaked because he could see down to the water and had to be carried halfway through- plus there was some bounce to it.

Topher got a helicopter made of balloons- I didn't even know that was possible!

Matthew got a sword and a belt to hold it in :)

Fall! :)

We got the fireplace ready to be used! We also finished painting in our living room! So now its "done," except for the finishing touches and we'll likely re-tile in front of the fireplace.

The boys were soooo excited to use the fireplace- plus it's now warm enough to use footie pjs!

The fall colors! :) Rachel this is for you since you kept taking pics of all the foliage when you visited this summer, this is what fall looks like- from the car driving 50 mph...

The leaves are falling down! :)

Matthew is 3! 9/25/11

We took Matthew out a couple days before his birthday for a special dinner since we didn't have a party. He chose to go to Red Lobster, to make it feel like more of a celebration we let him open one of his presents. He was so excited to get this Agent P/Perry the Platypus.

The 3 year old!

Opening his other present...a tractor with a little guy and a couple of dinosaurs.

Getting ready to blow out the candles on the chocolate cupcakes that he requested!
And now...is he three! Three has been a bit hard with all the tantrums...oh well, I know I can get through it, I did with his big brother...