Fourth of July

We had a very fun-filled Fourth of July with our friends! Our friends Elisabeth and Jerry invited us all over to their new house which has a pool. "Us" being 8 adults, 6 kids and 2 babies...plus the two hosts!! It was crazy but lots of fun! So fun and busy that I didn't take any pictures until they end of the evening. After a long afternoon of swimming and then a yummy dinner all the kids laid down to watch a movie. I thought it was so cute and had to snap a picture!

After the party we went to the fireworks show in Lewisville, which was amazing as usual! The boys ooh'd and ahh'd and it was wonderful!

Holiday fun

I always wanted to make a gingerbread house, but never had. So, I thought it would be a fun holiday activity for us to do with the boys. It was fun watching them use their imagination and create their masterpiece (with assistance, of course). They had so much fun and of course enjoyed a few pieces of candy here and there!

Brendan:

Collin:





The finished product:

Putting up the tree

This year the boys were actually pretty helpful in putting up the Christmas tree. Although I did have to do a little rearranging of ornaments! It was a fun time.






Collin being silly


This was me saying, "stand together and smile"...


The almost final product

Hmm, it seems I forgot to snap another picture once we got the ribbon on and the star on the top! Oops! Well, it was pretty!

Trick or Treating

Our superheroes had a great time trick-or-treating this year! They were really good about saying "trick or treat" at each door, and didn't want to stop! I didn't take too many pictures because I was so tired from working all day...but here are my superheroes.

In the Halloween spirit

We carved a pumpkin for the first year with the boys and they had a blast. Mike complained about how long it took to carve Cookie Monster though, so we only got one pumpkin carved!

Please excuse the clothes-less boys, but pumpkin carving is messy!

The final product, Cookie Monster:

And a pic of the boys in cute Halloween PJs that Aunt Mandy got them:

Christmas Cheer

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has started a great New Year! We had the best Christmas. The boys are at such a fun age, the pure joy that they had was infectious. :)

We spent Christmas Eve at my parent's house, with them and my sisters. We stayed the night and had a great time! That morning before we left we let the boys opening their stockings at home (I know, before Santa even came :))


We opened the family presents that night- here are a few pictures from that:
More stockings from Grandma:

Teamwork:

Collin:

Brendan:

O
Oh the trouble they can get into with these stools Aunt Mandy gave them!

Aunt Shelley gave them a double-sized easel which is perfect for my aspiring artists:

Happy Faces

And then there was Christmas morning-Santa's gift. The boys left cookies and milk for Santa, but he didn't finish them so they did that morning - it was the first thing they spotted! Then the presents...


Christmas Day we headed over to Mike's aunt's house for his family celebration. As always, it was a full house! We had a blast and filled the car up (again) with way too many toys.




We had a very nice New Year's as well, but I didn't take any pictures! We are sad as our 2-week vacation with Mike home is coming to an end - now back to reality. :)

Merry Christmas!

We would like to wish all of our friends and family a very Merry Christmas!!! I hope everyone stays safe and happy. Here are a few of our photos over the last couple of weeks.

We saw Santa! They were very excited about the idea of him but once they learned they had to sit on his lap, they weren't too excited! At least they didn't cry.



They also got to help us put up the Christmas tree a few weeks ago.
Brendan really wasn't too excited about it. He just wanted to play with his toys.

Collin was a lot of help!

Here they are helping Daddy:

And a finished one of the tree:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to everyone! The boys had a great time. They were very into it once they found out they got candy at each house! :)

Brendan is Pluto and Collin is Mickey Mouse: