Snuggling and Celebrating

I cannot stress enough how helpful my mom is when she's in town.  She volunteers for bath duty, bedtime duty, laundry duty (her choice!) and whatever else she can get herself signed up for.  It is such a nice break for us!  We love you, mom & appreciate everything you do for us!

 The boys love snuggling with Mimi for stories.

Showing off our new Christmas ornaments (Iron Man and Mater) from Mimi!

 Monday was my Aunt Debbie's birthday, so we took her to the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate!

 Debbie with her "kids".

 Contrary to how this picture looks, Taylor was a BIG help with these two during lunch.

 The birthday girl!

 Taylor keeping everyone together...

Just the girls! (Kelsie had to get back to campus.)  What a fun lunch and a yummy meal!

Happy Birthday, Kelsie Rae!

We celebrated my beautiful cousin's 22nd birthday last week with dinner at our house!  I remember the day she was born and it has been such a joy to see her grow up to be the amazing person she is today.  We love you, Kels!

Tyler's dad was the horse and Carter was the cowboy.  This was a big hit!

Two of my favorite guys!

Davis + Cupcakes = Love

The Birthday Girl and her favorite chocolate pie

Cousins!!

Kelsie & Tyler with Carter

Carter loves him some Tay Tay

My favorite Auntie!

Giving hugs & kisses before bed in his favorite Woody PJs

Carter refused to be in this picture with us...oh, well.

Birthday BBQ

We had a fun Memorial Day weekend with a neighborhood BBQ on Monday in which we had a wonderful group of friends and neighbors over to grill and watch our kids play.  I've said it before & I'll say it again--we are so blessed to have amazing friends in our lives.  It is always nice to socialize with other parents of young kids who "get it" and who can share in the trials and tribulations of parenthood...we laughed, we drank beer, we swapped stories.  I am just bummed that I got ZERO photos of that day.  

On Tuesday, we had family over for a birthday celebration for Taylor and me, since we share May birthdays.  It was great since my mom is in town this week and could help us get our party on!  

Mom & Kelsie in their fun summer colors.

Just the girls...

Davis standing in a gravel/mud puddle of Easy Street Wheat from the keg.  He knew he was in trouble, but used his super-cuteness to distract me from disciplining him.  Dang it!

The birthday cousins!

Tyler helping Davis with the pink sand (long story).

Carter showing off his sticker skills.  

Mom with her favorite nephew.  :-)

Kelsie Rae & Carter busting a move.

Most of the gang...

Sean: Grill Master

Cousins with Carrot Cake.  Happy Birthday Tay Tay!!

The boys were very ready for cake!

My favorite Aunt and her son.  Love this!

Family Christmas Dinner

We had our big family celebration on the 26th...Grampy drove into town and the Hutches came over that afternoon.  Mimi and Sean fixed a wonderful meal while I got a few hours of sleep after working a horrendous Christmas night at work.  (Seriously, none of our patients got the memo this year that it was Christmas and we are supposed to be slow for the holidays.  All of us had gotten free dinner from the hospital that night at 1900 and literally didn't get a chance to sit down to eat it until about 0200...by that time it had all gone bad and we threw everything away.  That pretty much sums up our night!)  Anyway, I digress.  

Mimi brought a fun party game about Christmas movie trivia that included a prize...movie tickets went to the winning team of Tay Tay & Aunt Debbie!  (Let me just say that Scot & I took second place, with him getting only ONE of our 25 answers.)

 Davis being silly with Grampy stuck outside in the cold.

 Tyler & Kelsie Rae, just back from their semester in Dublin!

 Mom and me

 Sisters!

 Cousins (+ Tyler)

 The boys getting ready to pounce on an unsuspecting Grampy!

 These boys sure missed their Rae Rae!

 Our first-annual White Elephant gift exchange.  Tyler got a fake burrito, Chipotle gift card & 

a reindeer that poops candy.  It was a big hit!

 Sean opening his gift.  Notice that Deb kind of hid her gift (Starbucks gift card) so people would 

forget & not steal it.  Nice strategy, Deb!

Tyler "loading" his reindeer.  He didn't waste any time getting that thing ready.

Blossoms of Light

We decided to mix things up this year & see the Botanic Gardens' lights, instead of Zoo Lights again.  The display was awesome--tons to see and a winding path that ended with a light display set to Christmas music.  The boys got 3-D glasses that projected shapes on the points of light as we walked through the display...  that was the best $1.50 ever spent!

 The Hutches taking turns pulling the boys.

 Carter was obsessed with having the glasses on at all times.

 Aunt Debbie, Mimi & the boys

Afterwards, we drove past all of my old apartments downtown and then past the City & County Building that is always decked out beautifully for Christmas.  It was a great trip down memory lane for me to see the old 'hoods, as Mom & I remembered how fun it had been to decorate all those old places with tons of character.  How times have changed!!