Seven Years Strong

Today Sean & I are celebrating our seven year wedding anniversary.  I can't believe how much has happened in the past seven years.  I feel very blessed to have had my wonderful husband by my side through it all...

Mimi pampered us by keeping the boys overnight while we went out downtown & stayed at this awesome hotel--thanks, Mimi!!!  We did a little shopping on the 16th Street Mall, listened to some great Jazz at a club downtown and then stuffed ourselves at our new favorite restaurant--Tamayo (thanks to Josh & Natalie's recommendation).  I'm not sure what we enjoyed more-the fun out on the town or being able to sleep in and watch all the HGTV we could handle at the hotel (we don't have cable).  It's a toss up. 

 Our awesome room for $52.80, including breakfast!

 Loved how modern this place was.  Very fun.

 Happy Anniversary, Sean! Thanks for putting up with me for the past seven years...hope you're up for another 60 or so!

Zoo Lights 2012

In keeping with our annual holiday tradition, we took in Zoo Lights with the family.  Sean opted out because he was sick over most of the Christmas break.  Our other negative was that we picked a really COLD night to go & probably didn't plan as well as we should have.  Some long johns would have been nice.  Anyway, the lights are always amazing and we had a good time despite the icicles forming on our noses.

Taylor was on wagon duty-score!

Entering the mouth of the hippo...

Posing with my boys in front of the Penguin house. (FYI: Nobody bothered to tell me I had crazy hair with my headband on!)

Riding in the sleigh with Kelsie Rae!

Georgetown Holiday Fun

On the day after Christmas, we drove up to Georgetown for their "Holiday Lights Train", complete with hot cocoa, Christmas music & SNOW!  It was wonderful, and one of my favorite days of this holiday season.  

Carter told us that he might decide to grow up to be a "rock star"...we'll see!

 

 Getting ready to board the train. Brrrrr!

 Here comes the train!

 Starting to warm up in the Parlor Car.

Beautiful view!

After the train ride, we headed to the Alpine in Georgetown for some yummy pizza, beer (iced tea for Sean), live music & ceiling trains--does it get any better? 

 Davis & Mimi having fun

 Future pool shark?

(Waiting for his ball to drop.  We did this about 20 times.)

 A good time was had by all!  PS: See the cool shirts the boys are wearing? Merry Christmas from Aunt Christy. :-)  Thank you, Sister!

 While we were eating dinner, is started to snow! So beautiful.

Finally home and into our warm PJs for story time & BED.  

Merry Christmas!

This year, I made a true effort to scale down the amount of gifts our boys received.  I tend to get easily carried away with the gift buying and the thought that "more is more" when it comes to Christmas day.  Last year, it was painfully obvious that our boys were overwhelmed with toys and before the big day, I actually gave away some of last year's loot that was barely played with.  Lesson learned.  We had a low-key Christmas morning which was wonderful. 

 Carter got a two-wheeled scooter & remote-controlled jet from Santa, just like he asked for!

 Davis got a Pizza Planet toy (from Toy Story) and a stick horse from Santa.  Fun!

 Sean got an electric snow blower...yep, it's electric.  He's already used it twice!

 The boys both enjoyed playing with Hex Bugs on Christmas and this set up has provided us with hours of entertainment.  Those little critters look pretty darn real.  Creepy.

 We were so happy to have our dear friends/neighbors, the Buyrns, over for Christmas.  They are like family to us and our boys love playing with their girls.  It was wonderful to share the holiday with them.  We had a tasty meal (thanks to Mimi for all the help and Megan for bringing a yummy ham) and then had a blast playing our new favorite game, Telestrations, afterwards.  It is a hoot! We hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas too!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a big day!  My mom, Aunt Debbie & cousin Kelsie all headed to the Buell Theater for a matinee performance of "White Christmas", one of our favorite Christmas movies.  It was fun to get dressed up and go downtown.  The show was a little slower than the movie, but still fun and very festive.  

 Sisters in front of a poster of their favorite number...

 After the show, Sean and the boys met us at church for the Christmas Eve candle light service.  It was a "family friendly" service, complete with live nativity, bell choir, children's activity books and glow sticks instead of candles for the little ones.  Genius.

 On our way home, we drove by the Capital to take in the amazing light display.  The boys loved it!

 When we got home, it was time to get ready for bed & leave our cookies & milk out for Santa.  Mimi bought the boys these cute matching PJ's.  They couldn't wait for the big guy to get here!

Christmas Cookies

This week, we dusted off our aprons and baked cookies for Christmas!  We may or may not have cheated and bought the mix from my dear friend, Betty Crocker.  Either way, the boys loved helping me mix, roll and cut the dough.  I have two little helper elves in the making!

 Baking fun! (AKA: a two-headed preschooler)

 Putting on the finishing touches.  Even Daddy got in on the fun!

 And the next morning, we discovered that Alfie had gotten into our cookie stash.  As Carter said, "Elves LOVE sugar!" 

Santa Sighting #2

The boys have gotten a lot of mileage from their coordinating Christmas sweaters.  Let me tell you, finding cute holiday clothes for boys is not easy and not nearly as adorable as all of the girl stuff.  Trust me. Anyway, we did about 20 takes for our Christmas cards before coming out with one that would work.  Here are two of my favorite "misses".  

 And last night, we put on the sweaters again to go see Santa at Daddy's office!  He visits there every year and it is such a sweet event.  Each child gets a book and stuffed animal, plus however many cookies they can eat (in Davis's case, that's a lot).  They boys sat on Santa's lap and Carter even drew a picture for Santa.  The Big Guy will be here before we know it!