Winter Photo Shoot

 Andrew 3 years 10 months

 

Elizabeth 5 years 5 months

  It was a cold and windy afternoon.  Elizabeth only smiled when she was wearing her mink cape.

The boys are trying to warm her up.

Michael 8 years 3 months

 

Love and best wishes from our family to yours.

The first day of advent brings another Christmas season.

 

Elizabeth and I made this candy cottage.  It was her half birthday and she said, "This is a great idea since I love crafts, but you are still making sea scallops for dinner, right?"

 

Santa made a visit to the Y

After visiting the big guy, they enjoyed the activities and snacks.

 

We went to the botanical gardens to see the winter show and met Santa again.  This time he was very cranky.  He wagged his finger and scolded Michael for wanting an electronic gadget.  He also asked Elizabeth why she wanted an American Girl and what was wrong with a regular ole dolly.  

Michael wondered aloud why he was so cranky, when the first time he agreed to their requests.

 We had a pajama day and decorated the house.  Michael got to put the first ornament on the tree this year.

Of course Elizabeth helped to decorate three trees and everything else too.

 

 1

Andrew was more interested in the gifts under the tree.

 

2

Children's tree

 

 3

Elizabeth did this tree nearly by herself.

Merry Christmas!

 November

Elizabeth attended a party where Pitt cheerleaders taught them cheers.

The children had a couple of days off for conferences and election day.

They chose to lunch at Houlihan's then play at a new park with friends.  

 

First snow of the season

Only Elizabeth went out to play.

Dressed up for Diwali

 

Fall is a great time to enjoy the zoo.  We took a friend after preschool on this day.

 

Popping their head out in the meerkat tunnel they were tickled to see an animal right above their heads.

 

A rare shot of us at one of the hospital parties.

At the end of Andrew's gymnastics session the parents got to watch them on all of the apparatus.

The weekend before we left for Thanksgiving Michael convinced me to make a full feast.

Cheers!

I am so thankful for a happy and healthy family.

We went to Great Wolf Lodge and had a blast.

The lobby was getting decorated for the holidays.

Best buds

 

After many hours in the water park we went to storytime in PJs.  Michael squeezed in another hour of the slides, since the lines were shorter.

Everyone had fun, we spent more time on the big slides this year.

We also love to warm up and relax in the hot tub.

Cute place setting at Thanksgiving dinner

Visiting my grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins

Andrew was smitten with Alex's artistic ability.  Any animal he came up with Alex would draw.  Then Andrew happily erased it and requested a new one.

After a whirlwind trip the children were exhausted.