Trip to Chicago!

Yeah!  We got to visit Nonni and Grandpa Jim's house for the first time!  We were all so pumped up to get up there and play in the snow, build snowmen, make snow angels, go sledding.... And we did have a wonderful time visiting with Nonni and Grandpa Jim and Uncle Ryan and a few other friends!  It was a great trip!  :)  BUT...we completely missed the snow!  Literally, the snow melted the day we were driving up there, and it didn't begin snowing again until we were pulling out of the driveway on our way home!  What luck!  :)  So we didn't have the snow experience, but we did have ANOTHER Christmas celebration and an overall great time!

What's that?!  Someone got Whiffer out of Brenner's arms?!  Nonni knew that Brenner also loves crocodiles, so she got him Chomps for Christmas, and he was a surprising hit!  He has even replaced Whiffer in the bedtime routine on a few occasions!

Of course, I ask Aile to hold up her gifts, and she giggles over the chocolate!  A true woman in the making!

Everywhere we go, Brenner can hone in on any collection of cars and trucks, big or small...

Caelum bonds with Uncle Ryan as he meets him for the first time!

The hot tub drew huge smiles as well as providing huge relaxation!

All the kids had a really great time with Uncle Ryan, especially when he spent so much time playing with them and getting to know them! 

The two redheads!  People are always asking where he got his hair color from...

There were a few things we did at Nonni's house that warrented their own blog post...so this is to be continued...

All the Little Children

Two weeks after Caelum was born last March, his cousin Ashlyn came into this world.  Four weeks after that, they were both graced with another cousin, Claire.  So this year, Oma needed to have all her grandbabies together on Christmas.  What a houseful! What a fun time!  :)

Santa Claire:

Little Elf Ashlyn:

Caelum was feeling a little outnumbered by all the girls!  

Christmas in Calhoun

Before heading north for Christmas this year, we went down to celebrate the holidays first with aunt Mary Jane, uncle Don, and cousin Ashley.  Caelum's first Christmas was fun--he was very curious about the tissue and wrapping paper!  (Much more interested in those than the actual gifts, actually.)  And he didn't mind wearing the deer antlers!   :)

This was a fun year with Brenner as well.  At this age, he is soaking it all in, and immediately integrates what he learns into his playtime.  He is full of life, full of fun, and full of silliness!  But he also has a tender and loving side that just endears you to him immediately.  He's quite a character!

Aile develops her own unique personality more and more each day!  She loves to be spontaneous, she loves to be dramatic, and she loves to know everything about everything!  This year I am aware more than ever how quickly my little girl is growing up!  I have so much fun every day teaching her and learning from her!

Kirk's Wedding

A wedding marked the beginning of the holiday celebrations for us this year.  Sean's life-long friend Kirk was married in the shortest marriage ceremony I've ever attended (maybe 7 minutes), followed by several hours of celebrating. 

Caelum was just as social as ever, smiling and willing to meet lots of new people.  Brenner was also his normal self--social to a point, then he was ready for some time to himself--which he took in the form of a nap, as you can see...

The new Mr. and Mrs. Kirk and Andrea Clements:



Aile had a super grand time at this wedding reception.  There were a couple other kids her age, and when the music started playing, she felt very special when "Uncle Kirk" danced with her!  

Caelum's New Obsession

Caelum has discovered the undeniable joy a child can get from playing with bouncy balls.  Give Aile a doll any day, give Brenner cars and trucks.  Caelum--he'll take a bouncy ball!  (Lucky for him we have an overabundance of them...)

A New Holiday Fun Tradition

This is the first year I have gotten the kids a gingerbread house to decorate. On our family night, we had fun "constructing" the house, "painting" the house, and then putting on all the decorations! I even convinced the kids (momentarily, anyway) that the candy was for decoration only! :) Bonus: The gingerbread smelled really good and the house makes our house smell good too!

Christmas at the Zoo

Two of Brenner's favorite things! Christmas lights and the zoo! He was very excited the day we got the postcard in the mail inviting us to come to the zoo for a special night to celebrate Christmas with the animals! So we headed off to see what we could see...

This was no ordinary Santa. As we discovered, he was more popularly visited by people's pets than people's children! People brought all kinds of pets to the zoo to see Santa! (Aile was quite fascinated by the ferret. Hmmm...)
Although we do love Chimps and Lions, as shown in this picture, our favorite animal on this trip was the cougar! (Mainly because he was eagerly prowling the fence trying to get a better glimpse of the guy's dog that was next to us! Having people's pets at the zoo added an interesting dynamic.) It was also pretty interesting to see the animals at night. Of course, some of them were sleeping. But I've never seen others of them so active! The most interesting was probably the wild turkeys and peacocks. You have to cross this train trestle thing, and about 6 or 8 turkeys and peacocks were up on the beams over our heads as we passed through! (We were careful not to stop directly under them...as one little boy near us shouted so bluntly--"we don't want poop on our heads!") :)