Christmas

This is a shot of the kids on Christmas morning getting ready to burst out and see what Santa brought for them. It was a really magical Christmas. I think the kids are at the perfect ages to make everything so much fun. It was a great celebration.

I'm almost ready to resurface!

Okay-those of you who thought I would never return-I'm back! No pictures yet but I am definitely feeling the blog bug coming on, and I'm getting the finishing touches on Elise's book. I can NOT tell you how much I Looooooove digital scrapbooking. It beats the pants off the old fashioned way (IMHO) because you can actually get DONE!!!! Anyway, I will post some pictures really soon!

Signing Off (for a while)

Hey folks! I am getting ready to take a break from blogging for a month or two. I have a goal to finish Elise's first year scrapbook by her birthday. I find that I either have time to blog or do her book, not both. I'll be back and do an update post after Christmas sometime. If I finish her book early then I'll be back sooner! BTW, I have no idea how this ended up blue, and underlined :)

Here's a little catch up post overviewing the past few very busy weeks.

Halloween...

Decorating the tree...

Christmas outfits snuck in out of order....

Home School Science Fair

Lunch with cousins, also out of order. :)

Carter Loooves Grandpa Twitchell!

Our new family picture- Thanks Kari!

Three guesses what this is...

Okay, give up? It's Elise's ear mark-literally. When she sleeps with me, she apparently doesn't move an inch for quite a while because she very often leaves this amazing imprint of her ear on my upper arm. Wow!

The O'Fallon Cycling Club

The kids and I went with mom's cycling group on a bike ride. I had Elise, Carter, and Lauryn with me on a weekend to St. Louis and I brought my bike trailer along. We hooked it to mom's bike and she said she'd pull it and I put Elise in a double sling on my back. Mom was such a trooper. The picture below was at the halfway point just before we turned around. We took a little breather :) Not including the trailer, she was pulling at least 95 pounds! You can see Lauryn's face smiling in the trailer window. Go Grandma!

I love this shot of mom emerging out of the tunnel, you can almost hear the theme song from 'Chariots of Fire' in the background! :)

I think I can... I think I can... I think I can...!

This is Elise peaking out of her pouch on my back.

She sat in the sling for the whole 45 minutes while I rode down the trail. She just looked around at the beautiful scenery. Never made a peep.

Lauryn's Dance Class

Lauryn is starting dance. She takes Ballet, Tap and Jazz from a little local studio. It is really good for her to have something of her own and she's taken to it well. She definitely has the posing down. These are two of about 10 different oh-so-graceful-and-beautious poses! :)

A Post For Grant

I started noticing that there weren't really that many pictures of Grant on the blog lately, so I took him to the front porch and did a little impromptu photo shoot with him. He's going through such a cute big boy phase. He's growing up so fast, but still the sweet guy he's been since day one. I feel like a lucky mom to have him. :)