Love is in the Air

I have taken the kids' pictures with this bear every year since Drew was born. This is Gigi's bear that Papa bought for her for Valentine's Day years ago.

Zeke's Birthday

Today Drew celebrated Zeke's 5th birthday at Kids First. Maddie was there too! The kids really enjoyed the running, jumping, swinging, and of course eating. I really enjoyed having time to talk with Brandi and the nap that soon followed after the party!

Gingerbread Men...Finally!

I had bought premade gingerbread dough to make gingerbread men over Christmas break. Of course, I had high hopes with a laundry list of things to do during my two weeks off. We didn't get to this. However, Daddy is out of town for the weekend, so it was time for some hands-on fun tonight! Drew had a blast!! "I am just a good roller Mommy." "I am a great cutter Mommy." He wanted to do it all! It was a lot of fun and now we have more cookies to eat--ugh!

Cutting the gingerbread men out.

Decorating with icing

The finished product!

While Drew and I worked on the gingerbread men, Caroline went off to eat Drew's leftover pizza from dinner (that is the red under her nose and on her cheek-pizza sauce) and then enjoyed a gingerbread man herself!

Snow Day!!!

Ahh, music to our ears. This is the only time when a 5:30 am phone call is okay. We had a fun day together. We started off with homemade waffles and eggs, staying in our pjs for most of the day and then heading out for some snow action! Caroline was not a big fan a couple of days ago, but she LOVED it. I think she would have stayed out the entire afternoon!

He loves to use his snow shovel!

LOVE THIS PICTURE!

All dressed and ready to go.

Trying to trudge through the snow.

Sledding down our neighbor's hill.

Caroline really didn't know what was going on. But after one time down the hill, she wanted to go again and again. She loved sledding!!

The kids and me

She insisted that she get on her swing!

So Sweet...

It is so nice to be in the other room and walk in to find this...the kids sharing a chair and neither of them trying to push the other off. Oh how long will this getting along thing last!? :)

And yet even more Christmas...

This has to be the longest Christmas celebration week ever! We headed to Columbus today to see my aunt, grandma and cousins. We ate more and opened more gifts!

Grandma with all of her grandkids and their spouses! Somehow Aaron snuck in this picture instead of the great-grandkid picture--I guess it's because he graduated from the kiddie table :)

Grandma with all of her great-grandkids!

And for dessert...fondue and cookies!

Happy New Year 2010!

Last night we had a nice and relaxing evening with Matt and Brandi and the girls. I told Brandi, it is so nice to have such good friends that we can just hang out in our sweats, have a few beers, and let all the kids play together. We enjoyed a nice Mexican dinner, exchanged gifts and let the kids wear each other out! We headed home for bed at about 9 and I think Craig and I were asleep by 10--we are CRAZY!! I am looking forward to a wonderful 2010!!You can just tell from the look on their faces...they were wound up!!

And you can tell they were too :)

A little Play-Doh to end the night! I am sorry Brandi! I do hope it is all off the floor!

It is beyond words for me to share how happy I am that my kids have such great friends already! I look forward to many years of fun for this group!