Christmas Parade #1

Sunday was a relatively fair weathered day so the kids and I headed to the parade. Roland was sick so we made him stay home and rest.

Leah is at the "phase" where she doesn't want to be contained for very long so I tried to keep her happy and I was glad that we didn't walk down too early.
Seth was all smiles as he waited for the beloved candy to be thrown.

To our surprise our friends came walking down the street so we weren't alone for the parade!

It is hard to believe that Leah was the size of Noey one year ago! WOW how times is flying by!

Once the parade started all was well in the world of Leah.

There were 3 Santa's in the parade which not only confused the adults, but definitely the kids wondered why Santa could clone himself!

Festive Family Fun

Saturday night we had the whole family over for appetizers, pizza and a movie night!

I'm not sure what concoction Justin was trying to create, but he successfully got it into his mouth with utter enjoyment!
Pure bliss!

Gramp's whiskey sours...the BEST!

Let's torture Uncle J before he goes back to FL!

Seth is even heavier than Leah weighing in at 45lbs.!

We ordered from OIP and let me just say...it is the best and we love this pizza!

Matching Christmas Jammies

Out of 7 of us, 3 of us fell asleep during the movie. Can you guess who fell asleep?

The Hunt for the Perfect Christmas Tree

On Saturday morning as the wind whipped and the snow fell we suited up in layer after layer of warmth and headed out to the middle of nowhere in the search for the perfect Christmas tree! It was the first time that I had put actual snow pants on Leah as well as boots and I have to say she looked so stinking cute. She is also in love with mittens so when she saw the ones that I bought her to play in, she was in heaven!

Seth it so grown up that he could put all of his own snow clothes on by himself, it was GREAT!

We took along some reinforcements because cutting down your own tree isn't as easy as it might look, but it is all part of the "experience"!

Copenhagen got sooooo much more snow than we did in Watertown. It truly looked like a winter wonderland.

The snow is all new to the Beaner so she was checking it out.

Justin must have lost his snow skills after being in Florida for the past 5 months. He was a bit cold in only jeans and rubber boots by the end of the day.

I'm surprised that Leah was able to move her arms or legs she was so bundled up.

Seth was in snow heaven, he had a blast!

Last year Ro used a hand saw and it wasn't easy so this year we brought in the big guns and used the chain saw. Men always have fun with power tools.

Tree #1 ~ Mom and Tom's tree

Tree #2 ~ Our tree

It was the perfect day and we all found our perfect trees!

We are VERY Thankful!

We have an extra lot to be thankful for this holiday season. We have the best family we could ever ask for, good jobs, a wonderful house, excellent friendships and most importantly our health. It was a rocky fall, but our hope is that when we go back on 12/21 Roland will be free and clear. Thank you for all of your support over the past couple of months. All of the thoughts and prayers definitely went noticed!

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house once again and it went off without a hitch. The food turned out wonderful and the company was even better!
Thank you Aunt Laurie for the beautiful dress, she looked so stinking cute in it and we loved it!

These 2 are trouble when they get together!

The master of the turkey!

My Gram never knows what to do with herself when she is in someone else's kitchen. Relax is not in her vocabulary!

A few glasses of wine later we started the kitchen dance party!

The dessert table was larger than normal this year and delicious as ever!

By the end of the day we were all pooped!

Thank you to everyone who made this day such a success. We love you all!

Welcme Home Justin!

After 5 months and 21 hours in a car the size of a roller skate Justin is home!

In true Mom fashion there was a huge sign on the front door waiting for his arrival. It was a good thing that she put it up early because Justin decided to drive straight through and only stop for about 2O minutes on his 21 hour journey!
We had him over for dinner on Tuesday night and by request he asked for grilled pizza. I have to say that it turned out fantastic!

Mom went out with a friend so we didn't want Poppy to be alone and we asked him to join us too!

We even broke out the Wii after dinner, but it was short lived because we were all too stuffed and could hardly move let alone dance.

Happiness is...

Seth dressed like an Indian
Leah being a diva with multiple headbands on

Notes from far away friends

Being a big girl and sitting at the table

Now if we could get her to eat her dinner then I'd really be HAPPY!