Happy New Year!

We celebrated Dave's birthday with the kids on New Years Eve.




The Kids on January 1, 2012

Christmas Morning

I love Christmas in general, but I really love it with kids. They are both at such a great age. Carter has been so excited for Christmas and Santa, but really did not mention presents and what he wanted much at all. I love the innocence of it. I know in the future I will be faced with kids asking for things and circling things in catalogs (or I guess making on-line lists or who knows what in the future) like I remember doing. So I really enjoy not having to deal with too much of the commercialism this year. That being said, both kids must have been good, because they got pretty cool presents!

Christmas morning Carter wanted to see if Santa ate the cookies and if the Reindeer at their food.

Then stockings and presents













Christmas Day we went to Uncle Brian's for dinner.

Carter took some toys to bed with him

Christmas Eve

This Christmas Eve we were fortunate to spend with a lot of friends and family. Nana, Uncle Brian, Aunty Erin, Connor, Alanna, Rylie, Tom, Kate, and Maura all came over. Here are the kids getting ready for their guests.






We had a lot of fun eating and playing. Mason's favorite song is Dominic the Donkey and we listened to it about 100 times.



The kids made Reindeer food



We opened some gifts for the kids from and to Maura and the cousins




Finally we put food outside for the Reindeer and left cookies out for Santa



Santa came!

Christmas Cookies

The kids and I made Christmas cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve morning. I have been making cookies with Carter since he was really young. This year it was amazing at how good he was at it! He rolled out the dough, cut the shape, and frosted/decorated them all on his own. Mason also frosted some cookies but he ate most of it. I'm trying to wean him off sugar now. He is learning new words every day now and currently his favorite word is "candy cane." We had to move all our candy canes to the very top branches of our tree because he was grabbing them.

Carter's Vacation Memories

Our love for travel (which I wish we could do more) has definately been passed on to Carter. This past summer we went to Story Land for one night and to Martha's Vineyard for one week. Carter is still talking about both. He likes to lay in bed with us in the morning if Mason is not up yet and talk. He also likes to have us in his room before he goes to bed to talk about his day or whatever comes to mind. The past few months the topic of conversation always turns to our vacations and what we did. His memory amazes me. They are very specific and he remembers things I didn't even necessarily remember. It makes me so happy we have been able to take our kids on vacation and can't wait to do more.

Christmas Tree Hunt

We got our Christmas Tree last weekend. We started the morning by taking the kids to Demet Doughnuts.





After a breakfast of sugar we were off to find our tree.



Decorating







The kids are both really excited for Christmas. We listen to Christmas music all the time. Carter loves Dominic the Donkey and Mason loves Feliz Navidad. We have been having a lot of fun with this little guy too, who keeps appearing in the most random places!