Holden and Daddy

Chris and his little boy. These were taken the week of Christmas. I think this is the second year that I've posted pictures of us playing in the leaves at Christmas time.

Marvelous Maverick

In December Morgan's first grade class performed at her school's Rise and Shine on a Friday morning. It is basically a little pep rally that classes take turns performing at and also one student from each class is recognized as a "Marvelous Maverick" for working hard, being a good student, etc.

Here is Morgan with friends from her class - Karsten, Avery and Ani.

Her class performed the Rudolph Rap and wore these cute antlers. Morgan and one of her best buds, Carson.

Morgan was the Marvelous Maverick for her class that day too! Here she is with her teacher Mrs. Young. Morgan loves her!

Rewind to Thanksgiving

Had to rewind back to Thanksgiving so that this was in my kids "blog books" some day! My brother, sister-in-law and their two kids came to visit us for Thanksgiving. They came earlier in the week and overlapped with my parents for a couple days who came on Thanksgiving day. The visit was a blast! Hopefully it is one of many future cousin visits and hopefully my other brother's family will be with us next time too!

So the pictures I ended up with aren't that great and really random, but priceless nonetheless. That may have been due to the stomach flu and food poisoning visiting multiple people during the week...Hmmm....really, did that have to happen with 11 people in this house? But we made the most of it. We had amazing weather for the first part of the visit so the kids spent a lot of time outside.

Here are Carson and Gracie in the sandbox. Not sure about Carson's smile here, but Gracie looks cute!

Morgan and Gracie cozy during some tv time. The two girls will have to stick together with four boy cousins!

Uncle Eric reading to Holden and Milo.

Grandma P. and Holden

Grandpa P. and Holden.

I had to cut Morgan out of this picture because she wasn't dressed, but Milo's face was too great to not post. Uncle Eric had them jumping off the chair onto pillows below.

Holden walks!

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Happy 4th Birthday Carson!

Today is Carson's 4th birthday! It was just too fun looking for an old picture of him, so I had to post all of these. 2 months old in the pic above. Only about 2 more months to go in that car seat.

Happy 1st birthday! The day before our sweet friends moved to WA.

Both of these were around 1 year. I see Holden in both of these.

Almost 2 years old, pre-haircut.

A couple days before 2nd birthday. Watching snow/ice outside.

2 years old!

Almost 3 years old.

3 years old and LOVING the backyard.

3 and 1/4 years.

Almost 4!

Almost 4 and ironing!

Carson, you had your first party this year, and had a monster truck cake just like last year. You requested no singing and no candles, lit or not (at home or at the party). You are sick of getting your picture taken so I don't have many from your birthday festivities at home. It snowed today in Texas though! So we'll have lots of pictures of that. If you lived in Michigan, you would get used to the snow and LOVE it! We love you so much, even though saying that you test our patience is a huge understatement. We love your passion for things you love to do, your energy, your love for your sister, and your laugh. I say quite often I wish we lived on a big piece of land so you would have all the room you needed to play with sand, dirt, bikes, geckos and anything else you could find. I think you really do love school, you love your teachers but you're just not sure about all that learning stuff. We think you're taking it all in but aren't ready to admit it yet. You really are a pretty simple kid. If it were up to you there would no errands, no eating out and no going to any of the other places I drag you. Just stay home and play! Wow! 4 years old! We love you!

Carson's Birthday Party

Today we had Carson's first ever birthday party. He will be four tomorrow! We invited his preschool class and a few of his other friends that we play with a lot. It was at a gymnastics place and these pictures are of Morgan and Carson in the huge whale bounce house.

Holden when they turned the music on.

Starting to dance and clap.

Carson wouldn't do the zip line or swing into the pit, but he loved the trampolines and the bounce houses. He paused very momentarily for a picture!

Morgan was into everything, surprisingly!

"I am a big boy too!" And I'll walk when I'm ready...

Carson in the other bounce house.

He requested a monster truck birthday for the second year in a row. We bought the cake and made extra cupcakes. My friend Mariah helped me spruce up the cupcakes and made adorable decorations.

3 out of 5 smiling isn't too bad...

Carson with one of his gifts from the party. Thanks a lot! :) The shirt came off about half way through opening his gifts and the pants weren't far after. Who knows!

Park in January

Want to blog...but there are too many pictures to go through from Thanksgiving and December and it overwhelms me! So here is a picture of Holden at the park today. I know my friends and family in Michigan were sledding today...but we were at the park. Makes me happy and sad at the same time.