It's That Time...

Christmas time is here!  Which means time for an attempt at a family photo that his halfway decent to send out to friend and family.  Sometimes easier said than done but this year we were lucky and had happy smiling boys and even a cooperative dog - who knew!  Thanks to our awesome photographer (my dad!) for these great silly and fun pictures.

I mean that's talent to even get the dog being silly!

This year was a fun year with the tree because the boys virtually did the whole thing.  I'm definitely not the type to stress about where ornaments are or how great the tree looks, which made it much more enjoyable to let them decorate how they wanted and to admire their work:).

 Labors of love to say the least but we all have a good time, sort of...I will admit I am a little OCD when it comes to these!

 We had 2 shepherds and a not pictured innkeeper this year in our church Christmas pageant.

 Reindeer dust time!

 Merry Christmas!

 We spend Christmas morning at home but then headed to Fayetteville to visit with Nana, Chuck, Ashley and Andrew.  We had a great time and I learned that I actually like egg nog, at least the way Nana makes it!  After a few days of work we headed to the mountains for what the boys call 2nd Christmas.  As always we had a great time visiting with Brian, Sarah, and LC.  We sledded and played the days away and rang in the new year with our tradition of fondue, silly pictures and of course a little champagne.

FOUR?!?! and Halloween

We had quite the entourage on Halloween with Captain America, Neymar, and Cooper the ghost.  I think the days of coordinated costumes are long gone but at least they enjoyed themselves and had loads of candy to prove it.  As we were nearing the end of our trick or treating, Hudson notice the clouds and told us they were witches clouds and we needed to get home quickly before the witches came out:)!  It was just the incentive everyone needed to high tail it home!

 Hudson had to be just like his brother and have a bowling party for his birthday.  He loved having his friends there and was thankfully and surprisingly sweet!  I guess anyone would be when all eyes are on you and everyone brings you gifts!

 Celebrating a strike!

 Simulation ride with an awesome uncle!

I take my "good" camera with me less and less these days but we did also go to Busch Gardens for Hudson's birthday and a little surprise getaway.  We woke the boys up at 7 and hopped in the car without telling them where we were headed.  It was a lot of fun to hear them guess and hypothesize!  We had a great time and had some tired boys on the drive home that night.  We will definitely be going back again hopefully!

Fun Run and Lucy Clay's Birthday

Carter and Cooper's school have a fun run each year to raise money for the school.  Each child has 20 minutes to complete as many laps as possible around their track.  Carter had been sick and only came to school the day of the fun run but was a determined little jogger and did the most laps in his class and fought through some pesky side cramps:).  Cooper's cramps were too much to handle so he walked on and off but they both had a great time and did the most laps in their class.  Thanks to some supportive family they also both raised a lot of money for their school and lucky duck Carter won a Kindle Fire in the raffle.  Needless to say he was a tad excited!

Carter has the nicest teacher who cheered him in on his last lap!

It was so nice having all three boys play soccer at the same fields and the same day of the week this year!  Hudson was happy to finally have his turn in a sport and I hope learned that tackling is for a different sport all together:).  He got a medal at his last game and still has it prominently displayed on his dresser!

 The little boys and I went to the mountains to celebrate sweet Lucy Clay's first birthday.  As always, Sarah and Brian did an amazing job and everything was perfect.  She was precious and we loved having the chance to be with family!

 Cooper of course took care of the pinata for everyone!