Merry Christmas!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then these must be worth millions! Hope your Christmas was as happy and joy filled as ours! Blessings to you in 2010!

A room to call their....

OWN! That's right, Jackson and Ryan officially have their own rooms! James and I got a wild hair yesterday while cleaning up the toy room in anticipation of things to come this week. (A big fat guy with a white beard who always wears red!!?!?) We decided it was as good a day as any to separate the boys into their own rooms. This is actually a pretty big deal, because they have never had separate rooms before. Okay, so Jackson spent the first 2 years of his life by himself, but like he really remembers the quality time spent with his stuffed animals in his crib! No, they've only known life with each other. I wasn't sure if Ryan would even go for it or not, being the younger brother and not knowing what it's like "on your own" and everything, but he was extremely enthusiastic about it when we asked them. So, we spent the better part of our day cleaning out, moving around, and throwing away stuff so the boys could have their own rooms! I have to say they turned out great and I'm loving it so far! We'll paint and decorate in the near future, but for now I'd say we have a good start! It was wonderful to send them to their rooms this afternoon for "room time" where they both fell asleep! :-) Jackson's' new digs! He got the old toy room as his room. He loves it!
Ryan's' new room. He is still in his same old room, but with everything re-arranged it's like a brand new pad!
Now Hailey already had her own room, but since the toy room is no longer, she now has toys in her room for the very first time! She is PUMPED! (Mom, not so much!)

Just singing in the rain!

Hailey was determined to play outside the other day, even though it was pouring down rain! All on her own she put on her brothers yellow rain boots, her jacket, got her umbrella and went out to play! It didn't last too long, but she sure was cute out there!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Oh Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches! We took our annual trip up to the Christmas tree farm this past week and had a BLAST playing in the snow! There was a good couple of feet of snow and we decided to make it a snow day for the kids and have some fun family time! We found our perfect Christmas tree right away, well after we shook the snow off of it, made some snow angels, and then got down to business - SLEDDING! We had to drive around a while to find the perfect spot, but we did find it and had so much fun! Hailey was the bravest of us all, tackling the big hill solo in her little torpedo sled, the boys decided to ride with Dad the first few times to get the feel of it and then went out on their own. We ended the perfect day with a yummy pizza dinner at our favorite pizza place and then headed home to decorate the tree and watch A Charlie Brown Christmas! Ahhh, I love this time of year, don't you?

So Thankful!

What a wonderful Thanksgiving we had! We got to spend it with my Mom's entire family -the first time we've ALL been together since mine and James' wedding I think! We stayed with my Gramma Bubba and went to my Uncle's house for the big day. My brother and his family joined us, along with my two cousins and one cousin's girlfriend, whom Jackson just adores! The kids LOVED getting to play with their two cousins, Lorelei and Duncan, whom Hailey fondly refers to as her friends Worewei and bebe Dunc! We played games, watched Star Wars much to the boys delight, went to the park, did a little Black Friday shopping :-), and just enjoyed being with family! Thank you to my family for hosting us and making it a wonderful Thanksgiving for us! Hope everyone had as much fun as we did!

My brother, Kevin, and our Gramma Bubba!

The kids with Great Gramma Bubba!

My big brother, Kevin and his wife, Michelle, Lorelei and Duncan!

Gramma Bubba with her kids - my Mom and Uncle Glenn!

COUSINS! We had to give Duncan a camera to play with so he'd sit still!

Hailey's "friend" Worewei! They had so much fun together!