Merry Christmas! ...a little early

By special request, St. Nick visited our home a few days early this year (since we'll be out of town on Christmas). Apparently he was okay with this, and we had a beautiful Christmas day at home with our fam. Hot chocolate, cinnamon rolls, fresh fruit, and of course presents. It turned out to be a fun, lazy day that we don't get to have very often. Anyway, here are some pics from our fun morning. Merry Christmas!

Santa's spread that the kids awoke to... notice the plate of cookies is empty ;)

Elin ripping into a present,

and Nate just can't resist to lend a hand. Note the Lola doll- Elin's favorite.

Nate digging into one of his own- he's got this down.

Markers! (washable!)

At some point Elin grew a new tail.

Walkie-talkies- Elin's still getting the hang of push-and-talk, let-go-and-listen, I guess this is not so intuitive. But it's great fun to pick up other people's conversations around our home!

And one of my favorite parts of the morning... April surprised me with this guitar- wow! I can honestly say I wasn't expecting this one, but no complaints from me! It feels great to play and sounds excellent. Thanks April!

Elin helping Mommy open a couple of things.

Elin in her new "pretty" (hairband). I have to agree, she is very pretty.

The crew sporting their Christmas goods. I love the headlights!... we now have a TWO explorers in this house.

Cinnamon rolls and fresh fruit... yum! The kids gobbled it up.

Santa must have known that Nate out-grew his old bike. Nate was so excited for this he was tearing up the basement. Merry Christmas, Nate!

Christmas Projects...

One of my favorite parts of this season is putting up Christmas decorations. As the song says, "There's a happy feeling nothing in the world can buy..." Here Nate and I are working on one of our decoration projects. He did a great job, and was very proud of his work.

And the finished product. Our tree and kitchen are also sporting the Christmas chains. Go Nate!

Nate's Christmas train got a couple of recent additions from Papa that he was very excited about. Here's a train tunnel...

And the railroad crossing... pretty realistic, eh?

What a difference a day can make . . .

Superheros and More

So Mom, Dad and Grandpa Whitsitt were here a few weeks ago. I have been a bit swamped and haven't posted about their visit. I guess better late than never. The day after Thanksgiving we played outside, decorated the house, put up the tree and more. It is rather amazing what can get done when there are 4 or 5 adults in a house. Thanks Mom and Dad! It was also one of the very last sunny days. (Which I am quite envious of today.)

Here is Nate - sailing away. You can't see Elin, but she is flipping on the rings.

Disposing of the pumpkins etc. in the composter.

Soaking up the rays!

The moment the tree went up, Nate's new train he got with Papa last month, had to be installed.

"Gama Jan" and Elin, who has taken to now only wearing glasses like Gama Jan. They are no longer for your eyes, but decoration for your head. ;)


Really excited to see presents!

Nate's blanket, which he named "Diney" and the only picture I managed to take of the decorated tree.

Nate and Elin superhero style.




Jason superhero style.


Dad, setting a new trend with my highly sought after bows.

Nate testing out his marble track.

Thanksgiving Feast

We had a great Thanksgiving. My mom, dad and grandpa all came up to our house this year for We had family, good friends and food. What more could you want?

Kids table - Nate was proud of his centerpiece.


Nate and Jaxon scaring the guests (their sisters).

It is done! This picture is deceiving - my mom really did the turkey work. I just was helping take out the stuffing.



The spread o' food!




The perfect pies.

Sharing at it's best!


I love this pic!

A satisfied customer.



Poor Dad and Grandpa on dish duty.