Christmas...sort of

Here is a post about our Christmas. It appears (from looking at my camera) that we did not take many pictures of all of our Christmas celebrations. I think having a near 5 year old and 1 year old twins doesn't allow for much picture taking. I guess with 3 kids who are mobile, we are too busy chasing to stop to capture the moments. We will try to do better in the future! Here are some pics from Grandma and Grandpa's house.

The twins really loved climbing on the presents more than opening them.  Little bro proudly stood on top of this box after this picture was taken.

Sissy really loves this present, even though it is for her brother.

Here is the poser, getting ready to see Nikko man.

This is probably one of the better pics I have of the 5 knuckle heads.  I guess it will get easier, as they get older. 

The best part of the evening was when the kids discovered Santa stopped by while we were at Nikko's for dinner.  They were so excited, and I think the neighbors could hear them screaming!

Buddy got a bike and dream lite from Santa.  Bro got an Elmo chair, and Sissy got a doll stroller.  I think the stroller is by far her favorite gift!  I will have to post a video of her pushing it around soon.  The term "hell on wheels" comes to mind when I see her pushing it!

Little Bro's New Look

Little Bro got his first haircut in time for Christmas!

Before...

...after.  I think he is very handsome with his new "do".

Weekend Fun

We had a fun weekend, full of activities!  On Friday night, we had Shelley, Derek, Sarah, Uncle Matt, Grandma, and Grandpa over for a little Christmas party!

Here is little bro playing in his jammies!

Buddy got lots of fun toys, including these toy guns!

Sissy got her very first doll from Shelley.  I love the look on her face.  She is already really sneaky!

We had some Left Right Center action, as that was one of the gifts in our gift exchange.  Grandpa wanted to pony up $20's, but we stuck to dollar bills.

On Saturday night, we took Buddy and his friend Ethan to the KU basketball game!  They had a lot of fun!  On Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa took Drew, Alli, and Buddy to A Christmas Carol.  The kids did great and enjoyed it!

Fun Pics

We did some Christmas shopping last weekend, and we ran into Grandma and Grandpa at the Topeka mall (they were shopping too).  They have a cute little train that runs through the mall. 

Uncle Matt came by the other night, and Buddy showed him where the elf was hiding (right in our tree)!

A family friend, Shelley, retired from KU last week.  We went to her surprise retirement party this past weekend.  I think we definitely surprised her!  Congrats Shel-ster!

ICL Party

Here are the kids with Santa at the ICL Holiday Kids Party!  We are surprised Little Bro wasn't scared of Santa!

Buddy even got a Rudolph balloon hat!

Black Friday at Crown Center

We went to Crown Center for black Friday!

We got there early enough to see Santa arrive!  He pulled up in a horse-drawn sleigh.

The kids wanted to wait in line to see him.  They literally waited an hour and a half.  Here is Buddy telling him what he wants!

What a great looking Santa he was!

Buddy and his cousins with Frosty!  We had a great day and did a little shopping for Christmas decorations!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving!  I didn't take a ton of pictures, but here is a recap...

We went to Daddy's aunts house for Thanksgiving lunch.  It was yummy as usual.  It also happened to be cousin Logan's 21st birthday, so we had a little birthday party too!  Buddy hardly spent any time inside because he was running around with Barrett, Harper, and Megan outside.  We also got news that cousin Chelsey is expecting another baby!

Later in the day, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's (on Mommy's side).  It was fun to get together with everyone and play with all of the cousins!

We were excited that Granny was well and could come for a bit.  She hadn't seen the babies in a while.

Here are 3 of the 4 babies playing in the toy box!  We missed Liam this time, but we hope he will be around for Christmas!  Buddy was so busy playing with all of his cousins that I wasn't able to catch any pics of him!

Bubble Bath

Daddy decided to use our big tub for a bubble bath.  Buddy found him in there and dove in!

Here are the 2 Santa's with their beards!  If you can't tell, they are saying "ho, ho, ho!"

Twins' First Birthday Party

We had a party for the 4 babies that were born last November on Mommy's side of the family. It was a bowling party (to entertain all of the little kids, not the babies!), and we all had so much fun!

The yummy cupcakes my cousin made!  Mommy especially loved the chocolate ones!

Little bro in his cool bowling shirt my aunt found!

A beautiful pic of sissy that my cousin took.  She takes great pictures with her fancy camera!  Notice her cute bowling shirt too!

I thought this was a sweet pic of the twins!

Here are the four babies getting ready for cupcakes.  Mommy and her cousin made the girls' tutus.  They turned out great and only cost $5!

Here is a pic of the bunches of cousins!  Mommy's side of the family just keeps multiplying!

KU Game

We won free tickets to the KU game on Friday! Daddy went hunting, so Buddy and Mommy got to go!

Here is the big trophy from 2008!  It was fun to tell him the stories of how little he was (6 weeks old) and how we took him to Mass Street after the game back in 2008.  Buddy asked after the game if they won another big trophy since they won the game!  Let's hope we do get another BIG trophy next April!

Our seats were pretty good.  We even had seat backs!  Thanks grandma for watching the babies so we could enjoy the game!

Happy Halloween!!

Here is our pumpkin for this year!  I think Frankie turned out pretty good!

Can you tell which baby is which?  Who is baby #1?

Who is baby #2?

Halloween Parade 2012

We went to the annual Halloween Parade this weekend!  The sheriff and his prisoners took first place!

We were lucky to have Alli and Drew join us for the parade!!  I think all of the kids had fun and enjoyed getting an extra day to wear their costumes.

Here is the creepy picture I took of Drew, the alien!  I thought it was spooky!

Night of the Living Farm

Grandma and Mommy took Buddy to Night of the Living Farm at Deanna Rose!  They have trick-or-treating, story tellers, hay rides, flashlight scavenger hunt, and much more!

Here is the 'sheriff' and Buzz!

The 'sheriff' and Mommy on the hayride.  Buddy even enjoyed the scary hayride with the chainsaw man!

Pumpkin Patch

Another plus to being a teacher... field trips!!

Buddy's class went to the pumpkin patch this week, so Mommy tagged along too!

Here he is with his good friend Colton.  What a weird coincidence... Colton has twin sisters!

Buddy with his "girlfriend", Ava!  She is such a sweet girl, and it's crazy to think they already have girlfriends/boyfriends in preschool.  I heard her tell Buddy one time, "I put on lipstick today like you said."  I work with her dad, so they get to hang out quite a bit before school, at ball games, etc.

KU vs. OSU

We took Buddy to the rainy KU vs. OSU game last weekend.  Some teacher friends went to support one of our former students who "plays" for KU.

Here are Buddy and Stephanie, his favorite teacher friend of mine.  She is an okie stater, but we love her just the same.

Here they are at the game.  Seriously, these 2 are BUDS.  She has mentioned more than once that we need to let her keep him for us sometime.  We will have to take her up on that offer soon.  By the way, she kept trying to get him to make the gun with his fingers.

Eventually, he was saying "go cowboys" and went over for a pic with Pistol Pete.

To prove he is still a Jayhawk, we took a pic with Big Jay!

Playing Outside

I was trying to get sissy to smile and bro did instead!

 

This was about all I could get from her as far as smiles go!

All bundled up and ready to go out in the yard!

Buddy helped dad pull my flowers that were zapped by the frost.  They lasted us all summer and were beautiful, but it was time to say goodbye.  Dad commented how it must be nice that I have my own personal gardeners!