Christmas

This year, Christmas was very busy for us! We spent Christmas Eve up north by first visiting Chad's dad side of the family. After our quick visit with the family we went out for dinner just the four of us to Applebees. After we refueled, we went to visit the famous "blue house." I don't want to know what their electric bill is!

After that we went to Chad's grandma's house for a visit with everyone.

Kristi and second cousin Asiah.

Brandon and Daddy

Kristi and second cousin Melanie.

Kristi and Nana.

Christmas morning at our house...

Good morning it's Christmas!

Opening stockings...

Santa ate the cookies and drank the milk. He also left a note saying thank you!

After Christmas morning at our house, we jumped in the car and went to Uncle Shaun, Aurora and Jordin's place.

Kristi and cousin Jordin.

Kristi and Uncle Shaun.

Cousins Jordin, Brandon and Kristi.

Grandma Sherrie with the grandkids.

After our visit we rushed over to Travis, Kerri and Connor's new house.

Grandma and Papa with Kristi.

Kristi and Brandon playing with second cousin Connor.

Brandon and Papa.

Kristi with second cousin Connor.

After visiting with Travis and Kerri, we went home for a little while and then we over to my parents for Christmas dinner and presents.

Halloween

Time to carve the pumpkins! The kids drew on the pumpkins and Chad and I carved them and gutted them. I couldn't believe that neither one of them wanted to put their hand inside the pumpkin and pull out the guts. That is one of the funniest parts of the whole experience. Maybe next year.

This year Kristi went as a beautiful queen and Brandon an adorable vampire.

Halloween decorations outside.

Trick or Treat Grandma and Papa!

Okay - let's go get some candy!

Kristi was ready to go out and conquer the block. Brandon on the other hand was just fine with the cul-de-sac. So, Brandon stayed with my parents while we took Kristi around the block.

Snow, snow and more snow!

It was so exciting to wake up Wednesday morning and see the heavy snowfall. Kristi's Ballet/Tap class and school was cancelled for the week. Her school was suppose to have their Halloween Parade and party for the kids Thursday - so Kristi was pretty disappointed that it had been cancelled. But to make the most of it, we spent a lot of our time outside playing in the snow.

Cold snowy mornings = Staying in warm cozy beds!

Pumpkin Patch

The weekend before Halloween, we took the kids out to Chatfield's Pumpkin Patch to get the pumpkins, do their corn maze and have some fun. Well, much to our disappointment we were informed that the pumpkins were all rotten from the freezing night temperatures during the past week. Also, the corn maze was all squashed down from the weight of past snow falls, so it wasn't really a maze anymore. So, we decided to walk around and see what else there was to do. Kristi and I got our face painted, we had some fresh squeezed lemonade, went on a mini nature walk and played in a tree fort.

Kristi's First Day of Preschool

Today was Kristi's first day of preschool and she did excellent. Last year she was in the "yellow room" (pre-preschool) and now she is in "green room" (preschool). There are some kids from last year in there with her which made the transition a lot easier.

This is the "green room."

Kristi playing on the indoor playground and going down the slide.

Ellie (one of her friends from "yellow room") and Kristi - What a look Kristi!

Kid's new rooms

This past month we have moved Kristi and Brandon's rooms. Kristi moved into the old office and Brandon moved into Kristi's old room. Now Kristi has plenty of room for all of her toys/dress up clothes and Brandon now has enough room for a big bed when he is ready. We did switch his crib to the crib/toddler bed and he is doing excellent.

Here are some pictures of their new rooms I painted.

Kristi's new room:




Brandon's new room: