Penguin Parade

Mitch and I both took Monday off from work so we decided to take the kids to the aquarium. As we were taking off our coats to check them we were approached and asked if we wanted to lead the penguin parade. The kids were King and Queen of the parade and were all decked out. When it was time for the parade to start, Will and Morgan were supposed to walk in front of the penguins yelling "Here come the penguins." Instead, Will buried his head into my side and wouldn't look at anyone in the crowd. Morgan on the other hand, giggled and laughed and waved at the crowd and even yelled penguins a few times.


The rest of the morning went great. The kids pointed out all the different fish and creatures to us and just ran back and forth to all the windows. I tried to get a shot of the sharks in this tank but you can't see them all that well.

Christmas 2009 - trains, kitchens, and babies galore

Setting out the milk and cookies was pretty interesting this year. Morgan dropped the plate of cookies twice and Will drank half the milk...but they kept asking if Santa was going to enjoy their homemade cookies!





Christmas was so much fun this year. The kids just got so much delight out of all of their presents, it was just amazing to see the joy on their faces. My family has been truly blessed this year with good health and happiness!



Santa was very nice to the kids this year and brought Morgan her own kitchen set and Will a very nice train table and train set. My Dad, or I mean Santa, did a fabulous job building the train table....thanks!!



My dad also built Morgan a doll bed for all her new babies. She apparently wanted to sleep with her babies and hopped right in with them!




Later that day my sister's family came over to celebrate and have out big Christmas meal. Kailyn is finally getting her wish...Morgan now LOVES to play with her and follow her around!

**To see all the pictures from the day, click on the family albums on the right**

Cookie time and Church

On Christmas Eve, Nathan was finally getting his cast off his leg so I had Kailyn and Alex at my house in the morning. My mom and I decided we'd let the kids make some sugar cookies. It was quite a mess but we had such a good time making them and playing with the dough.


Frosting the cookies didn't go quite as well as I had planned. Will sat down and took a huge bite out of his cookie instead of frosting it. Once I explained that we'd eat them later he did a little better but I did see him sneaking a bite every so often.

Morgan on the other hand was all about eating and not at all about decorating. She dug right in to this cookie and as you can see, really enjoyed the frosting!

Kailyn was the one that enjoyed the decorating the most. I didn't get a great picture of her but she was very detailed on each of her cookies and made quite the masterpieces!

It's a tradition in our family to go to church on Christmas Eve. Before we had the kids we'd always go to the 8pm candlelight service....but that isn't an option with these two kiddos. So we dressed them up and headed to the afternoon "kid" service. It's made just for kids and includes a puppet show and lots of kid friendly songs, etc.

Success with Santa

The kids shocked me and actually enjoyed their visit with Santa this year. Will walked right up to him and promptly told him that he wanted a "blue cho-cho please." Morgan started to freak out but saw her brother talking to him and at least calmed down enough to take a picture and then give him a high five.

EnterTRAINment Junction

Will is completely obsessed with trains lately so he was in heaven when we took him to a friends birthday party at a local train store. This place was pretty cool even for me. There were an incredible amount of trains winding all over huge mountains and bridges. As part of the party, we were given a behind the scenes tour and I don't think Will blinked the entire tour. He just kept pointing and saying "Mommy, train....Mommy, look at all the cho cho's" It was pretty cute.

Fun with Friends

Now that we have kids what we consider a night out is extremely different from what I refer to as "the old days." In this particular case, I took the kids over to a friends house so I could play euchre and hang out with my girlfriends. Luckily they all have kids as well so Will and Morgan had a great time with playing with their buddies.


Towards the end of the night the kids were getting a little antsy so we popped in The Lion King and they all sat mesmorized.

Thanksgiving 2009

We spent the week of Thanksgiving in Oklahoma visiting the whole Carson family. The first picture is from our drive there. We stopped at a Burger King and the kids saw the crowns and wanted to wear them the rest of the day!


Despite both kids getting sick while we were there we had a great time. Will and Morgan got lots of snuggle and play time from Nanny and Papa.




They hadn't seen any of their cousins for awhile so it took them awhile to warm up to them but once they did they were hilarious. Will loved playing with the boys and thought it was so much fun to pin his big cousin Garrett!


All the grandkids...what a crazy crew!


**There are a few more pictures in the family albums!**

iPod's already?

I went into our office one night and found this....

I have no idea how they figured out how to use it but at least they were sharing and getting along for once!

Leaves

A few weeks before Thanksgiving, we decided to rake up some leaves with the kids. They had a great time throwing them up in the air, diving in them, doing all the things little kids should do!



Once they realized that Mitch and I were bagging some of them they decided to help us. They were both very good little helpers!

Halloween at it's best!

These pictures probably sum up the kids personalities the best I've seen yet. Morgan of course wanted to dig right in and get dirty.

Will on the other hand was and will probably always be my cautious one. He didn't want to put his hands in the pumpkin and wouldn't touch the seeds until he saw his sister doing it and then didn't want to be left out.

They both still had fun though and thought the finished pumpkins were pretty cool.

On Halloween, Debbie's family came over for a quick meal and some pictures before we went our separate ways to trick or treat. Believe or not, we did not plan this but the boys both ended up being Spiderman.

Kailyn was Super Woman and Morgan was Wonder Woman.....have you noticed a theme yet?

Nathan was the unique one of the bunch and went with a Storm Trooper costume! He loves everything Star Wars!

Not at all afraid to dig in for the candy!