Christmas in Texas

This year we traveled to Texas for Christmas.  Knowing that we were expecting (and expecting twins at that time...Wow, that got me choked up just thinking about it), we figured it would be a good long time before we attempted a Christmas trip to Texas again.  With it being so far, we have to fly if we want to be able to spend more than just a couple of days there, before turning around to drive back.  This flight with just the two boys tested our patience a bit, so we could only imagine what a trip with 4 young ones would be like. 

Anyway, I digress...we traveled to Texas for Christmas and had a good time visiting with the family(ies).  The kids had a great time opening their presents together on Christmas morning and playing with all of their new toys together.  Well, most of the time, that is!  :)

The best picture I could get of all of the cousins.

Having fun opening some "crackers".

Adorable masks that Aunt Rachael made.  I was totally surprised that mine would wear them.  Don't they look adorable?

Nick and Kalee on Christmas Eve night.

Opening their Christmas Eve gifts.

Nick and Kalee again...they are very easy to get pictures of, unlike all of the littler kiddos.

Nick and Kalee with Luke and Ty (notice the only two looking at the camera?)

Kalee and Lucas.  He really liked her!

Anderson clan with our two cuties...they made a Christmas tree.  :)

Santa came...

Boy did he come...

 Daddy filming the action.  The boys had such a great time opening and discovering their gifts, that we actually forgot to take pictures.  Can you believe that?

He loved ripping the wrapping paper.  Can you see his fat lip...he tripped up the stairs and got a nasty, boo-boo.  In typical Lucas fashion though, it didn't really slow him down, too much.

The little "helpers" wanted to assist everyone else in opening their gifts, too.  Lucas, of course, was the Lead Helper!  

All in all it was a wonderful time and we were glad to be able to have everyone together.  Maybe next time we do this, we can have everyone visit us here in Va.!!

Christmas in Virginia

This year, we traveled to Texas for Christmas.  Since we were not going to be home for Christmas Day, Santa made a special stop at our home in Virginia a couple of days early, since he knew it would be rather hard for us to get the boys gift home on an airplane.  :)

 They were SO excited about this toy.

Unfortunately, this was just a day after our first 12+ inch snowstorm, so taking it outside for a spin was out of the question.  So...we tested it out in our basement!!  Thank goodness it had seatbelts!!  :)

Family Picture Favorites

Here are my favorites from our family portrait session back in the fall, that I promised I'd post after our Christmas card went out.      

And here was our Christmas card...if you like, be sure to look me up next year, so I can design a card just for your family.  Sent With Love Designs

Birthdays Present fun

The boys had a fun surprise today, when they received some birthday presents in the mail.  So much fun to "re-celebrate" a birthday.

Luke running to me, for me to open his book and Thomas train.

He sat right down in my lap.

He loved "coloring" with his aquadoodle.

Tyler got to open his when he got home from school...he was equally as excited.

He wanted to play his fishing game right away.  Too bad the kind of battery it takes was the ONLY kind of battery that mommy couldn't find.  :(

Choo-Choo's and Fun in the Leaves

It's no surprise to anyone who knows me, that I love pictures.  I love taking them mostly...but it's hard to take a "family" photo of yourself.  So, after lots of searching I finally found the perfect photographer for our family.  This lady is awesome.  Beyond her great photography skills, she believes that the images should belong to those who she photographed!  This was a great plus for me, as I was hoping to use one many of the images from our session for our Christmas card.  I was kind of fearful as to how the session would really go, since my boys no longer seem to enjoy being photographed.  Well, not that they don't like it...they are just SO busy, that the thought of having to sit still, look at a camera and smile doesn't really seem to intrigue them much.  But Carla was so fantastically patient with them.  She really made our day fun and it totally reflects that in the pictures.  She chose some great locations and really took time to get great images for us.  Here's a peak at a few...I will share ALL of my favorites AFTER I send my Christmas cards out.

Happy Halloween from our Disney Kids

We had a great Halloween with the boys.  It was such a good time to carve the pumpkins with them and to take them both trick-or-treating. 

Tyler dressed up as Lightning McQueen, surprise surprise!  He had wanted Lucas to be a little Chick Hicks, but since we couldn't find a costume that would fit Luke, he was Tigger instead.  He was so cute.  The first time we tried the costume on him, he loved it.  He did fuss a little when we put it on him to go out for trick-or-treating, but he got used to it and was just fine.

Tyler did so well, considering that his costume was a bit heavy.  He walked up to all (except for the two with scary monsters handing out the candy) the house all by himself and said "trick-or-treat".  By the time we were about back to our house, he was ready to ride in the wagon.  Lucas did walk for a little while, and he walked up to several houses, holding his bag out and mumbling what I'm sure he thought was "trick-or-treat".

Tyler had such a good time helping us carve the pumpkins.  Lucas wanted to help, too.

 

 

Our thematic jack-o-lanterns!

 

Howdy Partner

Wow...it's been so very long since my last post.  Not a lot going on...but at the same time, we're still very busy!  I guess just with not as much fun stuff as over the summer.  Last weekend we had family pictures taken for our holiday cards, which I am so VERY excited to get back.  I may share a few...but you'll probably just to wait for our card...it's sure to be fabulous!  Hehe.  Well, maybe I'll share a sneek peak...we'll see.

Today though, we did have some fun.  Tyler's school hosted their annual Harvest Hoedown.  I volunteered to do pictures of the horse rides, so I was able to be there for the fun, too.  And a full day of fun, it was.  Each class got to search for pumpkins, take pony rides, play on a big tractor, sing some fun songs and enjoy rootbeer floats!  It was a fun day for all.