The Magic of the Holidays...

I love this time of year... Lots of food, presents, family, and the magic of the season. My boys had an absolute blast with our "Elf" that came to keep an eye on them until Christmas Eve. They were sooooo good that Santa loaded the house with a zillion presents. Christmas Eve morning the boys were both up at 4am.. Nanny said Matthew had gone downstairs around 2am and asked.. "Nan, are you awake?" her response "No buddy, go back to sleep..." hahahaha That bought us an additional 2 blissful hours.

Christmas morning we were all up, presents were unwrapped, and breakfast was on the table by 7am.. Yep... We have early risers which is perfect. My mom, myself, and the boys are so in the spirit of the holiday.. we were all up early in great anticipation to what Santa had left us!

Jake was so interested by the tree and all the ornaments. He loved to hold them and watch them swirl... The innocence of a baby exploring his world.. Precious!


Matthew loved decorating cookies, tables, chairs, and even the floor had sprinkles!!!! So fun!

To my surprise we had a lovely White Christmas! I feel like it has been years since we had snow on Christmas!!! It was awesome! Nan and Pap had to leave a bit early to beat out the blizzard, but it was great!

My baby's first birthday!

Happy First Birthday Jacob! I love you my dear Jake.

You light up my life with that wide, bright eyed smile of yours. Your silly antics like climbing on your chair and then up onto the couch to harass your brother. Carrying your Woody doll all over the house, playing ball with Matthew, and pulling Murray's tail... You are one of the happiest, light hearted, loving people of my life and I thank every day for you. You are so snuggly (when you want to be), super silly, and you definitely know what you want.

I am excited to see the man you will become and I am a little sad to see that little baby growing up so darn quickly.

My wish for you sweetie pie, is that life will take you on a never ending adventure. I hope that I am always there to help you up when you fall, hold your hand when you are scared, and relish in that smile when you have done something that you and I are proud of!

Happy first birthday bright eyes! We love you!

Additional Turkey Day fun.....

We also had a super fun visit to Hershey Candylane one night. We bundled up and headed out for cocoa, lights, rides, prizes and fun! I won Matthew a really cool little Elmo Elf and Gpa won the boys little stuffed sharks! We had Warm Nuts (hee hee), popcorn, soft pretzels, and cocoa... YUM!

We visited with Kristin and her awesome family of 5 (kids that is...) Matthew loves playing with the boys and Zoe and Jake kinda hit it off...

Thanksgiving was AWESOME!!! All the kids, cousins, grandkids, and great grandkids spent the day at my Aunt Terri's and Uncle Jeff's house (Lindsay's too)! We had delicious food, a whole lotta laughs, presents ( a mini xmas for the kids) and some perfect family time. The kids both got some awesome presents and got to spend time running around with their cousins. Exactly what Thanksgiving should be!

I am so thankful for all my family and friends!

The only bummer was Jake's first visit to the ER. He had croup and a terrible ear infection. He was a little trooper though it all...

Vaca to PA..Turkey day, Candylane, and a whole lotta fun!

So we had our annual drive to PA for Thanksgiving week. It started off with the boys and I driving the 7 (oops 10 hours) to PA. We had a super fun stop at the Crayola Factory. (Jonny flew down a few days later.. he is not a driver ;)) We had an awesome visit with my family and some old high school friends!

My dad built an amazing boat... You saw an old post on my blog I am sure. It is amazing. Pictures do not do it justice.. He swears that Jake is going to be the sailor.. so here is a super cute pic of our little sailor!

We headed then to Monkey Joes this amazingly fun warehouse for kids, full of the biggest, most gigantic bouncy houses and slides ever!!! Matthew and Jake had a blast. Nanny, Gpa and I were worn out but the end of that trip! We also had a trip to the mall to build a super cool Abominable Snow monster and Snowflake! We also has a ton of fun playing in the leaves and blowing gigantic bubbles!

Jake was also baptized in my Uncle's gorgeous church the day Jon flew in! He wasn't the happiest baby that day! Here is brother Matthew trying to make him feel better!

(more in the next post....)