Three Christmases - Christmas #1

This holiday season was quite the whirlwind for our family!  We did some traveling to Nky to spend time with my family, and then also got to stay put to celebrate with Evan's.  The 2-week time span was filled with packing, unpacking, sugar, presents, laughing, cookies, games, food, and very little sleep!  We wouldn't trade any of it though, as the kids had an amazing time and we did too.  I can see how the holidays continue to get better as our kids are getting older!  Here is our story of Christmas 2011 told in 3 parts, namely by pictures....

Patiently waiting for the party to begin

Mommy, Aunt Katie, Nana, Jane, and always Teddy

All 3 grandkids loved the musical Santa

Jane trying to get close to Keegan

The closest we could get to a family picture

Neither child wanted to be sitted for a picture.  Clearly.

The real-life version of this picture was adorable.  Both kids hugging me, cheek-to-cheek

Enjoying a special Christmas cookie that were amazingly within her reach

Jane was loving playing with Great-Grandma's necklace on Christmas morning

Christmas #2

Immediately after getting home from Nky on Sunday night, we put the kids to bed, unpacked the car, and crashed.  We woke up the next morning to celebrate Christmas here at home!  Although our house wasn't as festive this Christmas as it has been in years past, we still enjoyed a wonderful celebration together.  We opened presents, made breakfast, sat around in our pajamas all day, and just relaxed.  It was exactly what we needed to re-group and get ready for the week!

Since getting both kids to sit for the camera proved nearly impossible, I had to take separate pictures of the kids in their matching Christmas pj's.  Jane of course loved hers.

Luke still somewhat asleep

Luke is eyeing the first gift Jane opened....

...a giant floor puzzle which she has already nearly mastered!  She loves puzzles and is surprisingly very good at them. 

Now it was Jane's turn to eye one of Luke's gifts.

Still working on the posed smile thing

Jane is vacuuming in her new boots

Luke loves Little People so this Barnyard set was right up his alley

Jane loved that her boots matched Mommy's!

Christmas #3

Our 3rd Christmas this season was spent with the Gottschalk family here in Rochester over New Year's weekend.  It was a great time and fun getting to see Jane and Luke interact with their older cousins from Arizona!  Jane ADORES Maddie and Katie and they are so good to her - she designated them to always take her to the restroom, and they actually agreed every time!  The weekend was filled with lots of fun, and food, and laughter.  We didn't capture as many pictures as we were hoping, but have a lot of wonderful memories!

Grandma with her 3 granddaughters

Jane received some play food and loved it!

Here she is diligently cutting her food

This picture is for my dad - reminds me of "The Christmas Story" bunny suit!  This was a Halloween costume from the Forman girls and Jane wanted to put it on

Jackson is not sure what to think about Jane in her get-up

Luke has no problem loving on her!

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Random Pictures

I love having my blackberry (for a million reasons), but one of them is for capturing candid photos at the right time.  I've been collecting a few and finally emailed them all to myself.  Here are some of my favorite random pictures from the last few months....

Nothing extra special about this picture, but I wanted to have one of him sleeping - he looks so peaceful all curled up.

Jane slipped and fell on our floor and got a huge bump.  So we decided to put her Elmo ice pack for boo boo's on; the caveat though was that she wanted to keep it only on the OTHER side of her head.  She's rather persistent.

Very classy.

We love this picture with our friend Ann

Striking a pose for the camera.  She loves being sans clothes.  Could she be any skinnier?!

Finally, a smile for the camera!

This picture is priceless!  He was trying to crawl away from me, and stopped to see where I was, and apparently held the pose long enough for me to snap a picture

What a beautiful face!