Birthday party at the Fire Station

 Driving the truck (with eyes closed??)

We couldn't get a picture with Josie wearing the hat because it pretty much toppled her over.

Our Neighbor friend, Tate, celebrated his 3rd birthday with a party at a fire station.  The kids climbed all over and through the trucks, rang a very loud bell and tried on the boots, pants, coats and helmets.  We've been looking forward to this once since we got the invitation.

Welcome, Baby Bria Lynne!

Josie LOVES babies, so she was very excited to go visit her new cousin, Bria.  Congrats, Aunt Kara and Uncle Brad!

Cottage in the winter

 

I wasn't there, but this looks a bit like a figure skating routine.  What are you boys doing up there?

New interests

Once in a while we even get the diaper off and make good use of this chair's purpose.  Other times, it's just a good place to read a book and wait while Caleb sits on the nearby, bigger potty. 

"Snowapalooza"

 The pictures above were taken before the big "blizzard of 2011" .  Below are pictures of the kids helping with clearing the driveway after the storm.

GR Children's Museum

 Caleb's cream come true: A fire truck with a siren he can operate

 She's so happy to be taking in the germs from those other kids.

This is what we get when we tell her to "smile pretty". 

Better Late than Never...More Christmas pictures

 All of the cousins on Kyle's side so far...more in the works!

 All of the cousins on Rachel's side, looking decently happy (or scared) for the picture.

Josie dominating the rocking horse and the "bouncy castle"

Christmas Eve Morning (at home)

Playing a new Wii game

Pre-Christmas Activites

 Our little helper...when it's his own idea 

Gingerbread houses the kids made with Abbie (Abbie, you're wonderful). Josie was so proud of hers, she cried when I broke it apart to let her eat part of it.  Who knew she was so attached to her work?

Artwork

Caleb has entitled this work "Traffic Jam", inspired by Dawson and Jamie on the day to the beach. Seems fitting.

Here's Josie's silly pudding face. She's getting sillier all the time.

Christmas Cards

We, like Janet, are planning to use Shutterfly for our Christmas cards this year. Unlike Janet, I am not normally more ahead of the game on this—in fact, reading her blog post reminded me that I should get started on something. So, Shutterfly has a great promotion going that gives Bloggers free holiday cards simply for posting about it as a blog post. Plus I think I saw a free shipping promotional code and maybe even one for ten dollars off. If you have a blog and want to get in on this, click HERE to follow the link and get an email with the directions. I think the promotion goes until Christmas.

This year, we will be making a stationary card ( http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards ) with a picture of the kids we took on a Sunday morning after church. It was the best of many attempts, and both kids are smiling and no visible after-church windmill cookie crumbs, tears, or runny noses! We haven’t settled in on a design, so you’ll just have to wait and see. Here are our cards from last year and 3 years ago. I have no recollection of what we did 2 years ago ???

Lately...

Making forts/piles (daily)

Dressing up in evening wear

The tantrums have begun (this one is because we didn't offer her enough drink choices)

Trick or Treat 2010

Happy little monster

Caleb's ready to collect candy

hanging out with some neighborhood kids: Rowen, Grace, Tate, Josie and Caleb (look closely)