Big brother, big sister, baby sister

Grandma & Grandpa got the kids these big brother, big sister and baby sister shirts.  I've been waiting for Evelyn to fit into hers to take a picture.  They look so cute in them!

Baby sister Evelyn amused by sitting with Carter in his comfy chair

Christmas Day

The kids left Santa some cookies before going to bed Christmas Eve.  Carter had to leave a note with them this year.  The kids must have been good because Santa went overboard this year! 

The kids were thrilled to see how much Santa brought them in the morning!

Evelyn was the last to wake up that morning.

Carter's favorite present from Santa this year was his Kindle Fire.  Carter has been doing so great with his reading this year that we thought it was the perfect gift for him.  He loves it!

Audrey got the Leap Pad 2 princess edition.  She is loving it!  It has some nice learning activities on it for her as well as games, books and videos, etc.  Chuck charged and set up both of their tablets before we wrapped them so the kids could play with them right away.

Evelyn is enjoying her low tech skwish

Carter was happy to see a new bike.  He out grew his other one.  They also both got new helmets to go along with the bikes.

Audrey out grew the tricycle and now has a princess bike.  It has a princess carraige for her babies to ride in.  She put her Lalaloopsy doll Santa brought her in it.

Again there were too many presents to name and show them all.  The kids had a fabulous first Christmas in our new house.

Timed family picture take 1

Timed family picture take 2

Love this adorable face

After all the excitement the last couple of days the kids were ready to relax with a movie.  They watched The Polar Express while drinking hot chocolate and eating cookies.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is when we let the kids open their presents from everyone else to make room for Santa.  This was the impressive pile of presents from everyone!  We kept teasing the kids that Santa didn't need to come since they already received so many gifts.

Kissies for Evelyn

We managed to catch them all smiling

They each got a personalized chair from Grandma & Grandpa.  They love them!

More princess toys always makes for a happy Audrey

Carter's been asking for a Packer pillow pet ever since he saw Great Grandma Pat's this last summer.  Not only did he get the pillow pet from her but also a lego star wars watch.  The monster smile says it all.

Enoying their gifts in their new chairs

Evelyn wore her baby's first Christmas sleeper that night.  If you look close enough you can see her bottom teeth in this picture.

Audrey fell asleep cuddling with her American Girl bitty baby in their matching pjs.  She named her new baby Baby Audrey :)

 

A huge thank you to everyone for spoiling our kids again this year.  They love all their new presents.  There were just too many to post pictures of the kids will all the presents they got.  Christmas was really a lot of fun at this age.

Almost to Christmas

The kids have always been good about leaving the presents alone while they pile up around the tree.  Carter decided to go ahead and put one of his presents to use before opening it.  I found him sitting reading a book in his wrapped chair.

Evelyn enjoying some tummy time

The closer we were getting to Christmas the more Carter was concerned that we still needed to frost cookies for Santa.  The kids helped me make cut out cookies a couple of days earlier and we finally had the time to frost them.

They had to frost all of them themselves!  I only got to frost one.  They had a lot of fun frosting all of the cookies and did a great job.

4 months old

A few days before Christmas our Mini Miss turned 4 months old.  Due to the holidays she didn't get to have her check up until after the New Year when she was already 4 1/2 mos. old.  She coninues to be our big girl and now weighs 15 lbs. 6 oz.  That's the 60th percentile!  Carter and Audrey were both still in the 10th percentile at this age.  She's also tall at 26 in. which puts her in the 84th percentile.

She's trying to out do her brother and sister in everything.  Her bottom 2 teeth broke through around 3 1/2 months and she's working on more!

That day Carter had his Christmas party at school before getting out early for the break.  They got to do a craft, have snacks and play a game.  He also came home with a goody bag and a present from his teacher.  I got to go and help out since Chuck was off for the day and was able to watch the girls.

They worked in teams of 3 to race and see who could turn their friend into a snowman the fastest.

First Snow

The week before Christmas we got our first snow fall and the kids were so excited.  They have been asking for snow since it first got cold out.  Carter was still at school when it started.  Audrey was home and ran to every window telling me to come look.  She had to see it snow from all the windows in the house :)  It's so much fun to be back in the midwest.

We let them open a present from Grandma Debbie and Mike that day.  They got shovels!  They were so excited to put their boots and snow pants on and help Chuck shovel.  I was surprised they stayed out there the whole time Chuck did because the wind was awful.

Chuck's boss sent us this cookies by design arrangement.  The kiddos got to pick out a cookie that night for doing such a good job helping daddy shovel.

My kids never turn down good looking sweets

Christmas Programs

The kids had their Christmas program at church.  The boys in Carter's Sunday school class were the shepherds. 

Audrey's class were the sheep

All the kids did and nice job and looked so cute all dressed up as the nativity scene.  I was too far away to get a more clear pic but both Audrey and Carter are in it.

Later that week we had Audrey's Christmas program for her preschool.  She did a great job singing all the songs.  Evelyn was not happy to be out at night so I was in the back watching.  Carter took the camera and sat in the aisle to try and take some pictures for me.  He took this one.  Chuck got it all on video too.

Got a clear picture of her back at home

One with Carter too :)

Evelyn happy to be home again.

Matching

I had to take some pictures of my girls in their matching ballerina shirts.  Audrey loves this shirt since she is so into ballet.  She loves it when she matches Evelyn.

Audrey was in a goofy mood so all I got were silly smiles

Then she wanted to make a silly face

My smiley Evelyn.  Audrey wants her to take ballet one day too :)

Big brother had to get in the picture action too.  Evelyn loves Carter and laughs the most for him.  It's so cute!

Landscaping

The first couple of weeks in December the landscaping got done on the house.  The first week was the irrigation system then the landscapers followed behind.

When I got home from picking up Audrey from school the sod was being delivered.  She got a kick out if seeing all the grass rolled up on the truck.

The finished product.  They were able to plant the more hearty plants now and will be back in spring to get the rest of the plants done.

The fence is all up as well.  We are happy we did the columns for the gate.

The back patio and fence line.  The pathway leads to our deck.