Christmas Day

Hope everyone had a great holiday! It's so hard to believe that another one is over.

Christmas Eve

Every Christmas Eve we go out to my mom and dad's house. My grandparents come up from St. Louis too. It was a long day for the kids and I! When we returned from my mom's house, santa had left each of us a new pair of pajamas and a note for each of the kids. Then we left out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for his reindeer. By the time we got to all of this, it was near 10:00, and Mason was ready for bed. As you can tell.

Santa

Casey is in love with Santa. She has a stuffed Santa that must remain on her bed all year, she watches Chrismas movies all year, and can't understand why I won't let her wear Christmas shirts in July. Even when she was a baby, she would sit on Santa's lap and we'd almost have to have her surgically removed. These are the pictures from Santa at State Farm this year. As you can see, Mason does not share this infatuation.

Apparently, crying and screaming is exhausting.

Gymnastics

Casey is now in gymnastics and loving it. She goes to Dance Sensations, in the old Bloomington Junior High. Her teacher, Ms. Katrina, is the mother of a little girl from my first year of teaching. Casey loves her and she makes class so much fun!

My ornery little man

I often speak of just how ornery Mason is. It's usually followed up with some sort of comment about how smitten I am by him. Any mother with a son knows exactly what I am talking about. He can be so mean and adorable at the same time.

Example 1:

Example 2: Time Out Spot

Example 3: CHEESE!

Snow

I hate snow and I hate being cold. You can imagine how happy I am that winter is here. Anyways we got about 6 inches of snow yesterday and the kids had a ball playing outside. Mason refused to leave his gloves on!

Happy 50 Anniversary

My Grandparents' 50th Anniversary was on November 23rd. We had a party for them at mom and dad's house. It was great getting to see everyone on that side of the family.

No Training Wheels

Casey kept asking us to take her training wheels off of her bike. Today we were finally brave enough to try it. I guess we figured my mom was in town now if we needed a babysitter to run to the emergency room. We went out to mom's and she did great. Within 15 minutes we went from this:

to this:

Happy Halloween

We had a great Halloween and wonderful weather.

Thursday night we carved pumpkins. Both Mason and Casey loved the opportunity to get messy.

Casey got to wear her costume at school. This is her with her friend, Isa.

Our annual tradition of trick or treating with Nicki and Amy's kids was held again. This year we got pumpkin shaped pizzas too! The kids had a great time!

Mason

Mason gets his love of cake from Starkey. This was him at Mackenzie's 2nd birthday. Thanks for bringing your camera, Amy!

Trick or Treating at the Miller Park Zoo

We went with Nicki and her kids to the Miller Park Zoo. Kids could go in their costumes. They gave out some candy, had face painting, and it ultimately got us out of the house.

Busy weekends

We took the kids to Rader's Pumpkin Patch last weekend. It was a beautiful day. I didn't get many pictures because my batteries died.

Starkey had another competition on Saturday. Supposedly it's the last one until April. Anyways, the kids had a blast in the hotel room. The carney came out of my children and they played with the desk chair. Casey was giving Mason rides on it.

Casey apparently stole my camera and took a picture of Kit. Enjoy.

Annual Pumpkin Pictures

My grandma bought me this giant pumpkin the year I was pregnant with Casey. Every year I take her picture by it. It's been neat watching her grow up beside it.

Casey attempting to catch a ladybug.

This would be the usual ornery Mason.