Sporting the Cookie Monster Slippers

Kevin found these slippers in Nate's closet. He put them on and Nate would not take them off.

He wore them ALL DAY.

No matter what he was doing, they were on.

A Steelers Family

Nate's First "Camp Out"

Kevin started a tradition with Brynn that she loves. She couldn't wait to start it with Nate.

They camped out last night.

Just the 3 of them.

Ok. He was actually looking out the skylights at the stars while laying in front of the tv.

That's his definition of camping out.

Nate loved it. Stayed in his sleeping bag all night.

Brynn loved that Nate slept beside her the whole night.

Kevin woke up not being able to move.

I had a great night sleep in my bed. All alone.

Christmas at Grammy's

After trying to get to Grammy's to open presents late Friday morning, we realized there was no way we could ask people to come to our house. Jean lives about 100 yards from us and we had to use the four wheel drive just to get out of our driveway.

Not a good sign when you are supposed to be having a Christmas party in just a couple of hours.

You see, she shovels her driveway when it snows.

Us, not so much.

This means, we have 5 inches of slush in our driveway.

And it is raining. Cold, cold rain.

So, it ended up being "Party at Jean's".

The kids with Grammy

This is my Grandma, the kid's Great Grandma. She is 97 years old and the most amazing woman I have every met.

Our Christmas Memories...

1. Brynn waking us up at 7:50 asking if she could check on Santa's cookies to see if he had eaten them. She completely forgot about the presents.
2. Waking Nate up asking him is he wanted to see if Santa had been here. Him saying no and crying. Then he noticed the presents.
3. Nate opening a present and being fixated on that one, forgetting he had others waiting to be opened.
4. Brynn's guitar and her face when she opened it.
5. Nate's all-too-cute hairdo.
6. Brynn's excitement and amazing joy at every little present. She is such a grateful child.
7. The wrapping paper EveryWhere!!!
8. Brynn saying that she wanted everything she got, but didn't know she could ask for it all.
9. Being able to have Family Game Night every night for the rest of our lives because of all the games they got.
10. The slush, the slush, the slush. Cold, cold rain. Moving the party from our house to Jean's house at the last minute.
11. Having the most amazing extended family ever. We are so loved.
12. Having our 2 children home with us and being so blessed by them.
    
    
    
    
    

Sled Riding!!!

We woke up to about 5 inches of snow this morning. It was so pretty.

And of course, as soon as the kids saw it, they wanted to be outside.

First of all, do you know how long it takes to dress 2 kids in snow gear?

Secondly, we figured out we hadn't bought Nate a coat to play in, so he is one of Brynn's old ones. Just a little bit of pink trim on it:)

And we realized early on that sled riding is so much more fun when you don't have to walk back up the hill.

First Presents of the season...

We and Kevin's brother and sister-in-law decided 2 years ago to buy each kid new ornaments every year for their present. This is what they got this year.

Aren't they gorgeous?

A Christmas Party hosted by Ilayna

Our friends hosted a great Christmas party complete with Santa. Their daughter is also from China and was quite the hostess.

The beautiful Ilayna

Quite a great family picture, if I may say so myself.

The Christmas Parade

A small town near us hosted a great Christmas parade. The kids loved it. The best part, of course, was that most of the participants throw candy at the kids that are along the parade route.

Waiting for it to start

Oh my gosh, there is the big guy!

Look, both kids on Santa's lap.

My first Christmas

You can't see me!

A rock concert for 5 year olds!

We are so lucky to live so close to a great city that has so many entertainmet venues. Tonight we went to see The Imagination Movers at the Byham Theater. This was Brynn's first experience at a "concert" and she had a ball.

It was a hour and half of rock music for 5 year olds. We jumped up, jumped down, turned around and sung at the tops of our lungs.

What? You don't tie bows with your toes?

Happy 40th Sesame Street

Happy Anniversary to the entire Sesame Street gang. Thank you for providing amazing television to my generation and my children's.




"F" is for foreign lands. Brynn still loves watching "Big Bird In China". And the little girl will always be called Shampoo in our house.

Why I love living in the country...

This is the view we woke up to today.

We are so blessed.

Nate's Surgery

Nate goes in tomorrow to correct what we affectionately call his crazy toes.

He isn't allow to walk on them for 2 weeks.

Should be a fun time.

Our Harvest

This was our pumpkin harvest. We had over 50 plants, but some type of blight killed most of the pumpkins. These are the lone survivors.

I say next year we plant 75 plants. Just in case this happens again.

Moon Festival Fun

Happy Moom Festival everyone.

To celebrate, we went to Oglebayfest with Amy, Jim and Ilayna. These kids enjoy each other so much.

Oglebay sets off great fireworks. Ilayna was so excited (and a little scared of them), but talked about them for days. Plus, she got to stay up a little later than normal. That is always exciting to kids.

Now, those are some pumpkins!!

My cousins grow these amazing pumpkins.

Aren't they huge?