Happy Birthday, Lincoln!

Happy 2nd Birthday to the most amazing boy I'm honored to ever know!

Love, Mommy

xoxo

CHOO CHOOoooo

Remember this awesome gift from Uncle Ryan & Bryan from two years ago?

Well, it's BACK!

Linc is old enough to enjoy it :-)  Ava is outgrowing it :-(

Ava & Honey also set up this train...

Linc is in train heaven!  

It's beginning to look a lot like...

CHRISTMAS!

Ava absolutely positively could not wait to start decorating for Christmas! She stayed up until 10 p.m. the other night to finish putting the tree up. The very next morning Chris found her sitting downstairs, by herself, with a flashlight shining on each ornament and singing Christmas songs. She's drunk on Christmas!

We finally found an appropriate tree topper!

Decorating with Daddy...

With every single ornament that we took out of the box Ava said,

"Oh! I LOVE this ornament!"

I'm not exaggerating either. She said that every single time.

Every time.

No exaggeration.

Linc helped too, kind of. If you call this helping...

We had to take a break 1/2 way through to nourish our bodies. We were glad that Honey made 17 pies for Thanksgiving so that we could take this entire apple pie home and indulge in its goodness during our decorating session. I think I smell a new tradition in the making :-)

Ta da! The proud decorator beside her masterpiece!

(Obviously she's still in her "pose" mode)

Getting the Christmas countdown calendar ready!

Ok, this was a heart breaker right here. How sweet is this child? Let me tell you... We set up this little light-up town on this table and plugged it in. Lincoln spotted it and admired it for at least ten minutes. He kept saying, "Woooooooow!" I mean, it's just too good to be true in Lincoln-land.

Then...

...he did THIS...

*GUSH*

He parked all of his cars, and a token block, in front of the little town!!!!! C'mon, that's adorable. Chris and I almost cried. Seriously. It's just too cute.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving! I am thankful that my entire immediate family was in attendance for Thanksgiving this year. I'm thankful that my Mom knows her way around a kitchen as well as she does. I'm thankful that my Dad is a willing and eager helper outer. I'm thankful that my parents still welcome their three nutty children and their families with open arms. I'm thankful that I like my brothers. I'm thankful for freedom of speech. I'm thankful for the sun and the moon. But mostly, I'm thankful for my two beautiful, healthy and amusing children!

On with the pictures!

Behold the bird!

Linc was really excited about the bird (boy does he love turkey)...

Have I ever mentioned how much I love this boy?

Lincoln also likes sparkling cider ("Mo cider peas!")...

Ava loved the sparkling cider this year. Cheers!

(love HER bunches, too)

Silly girls...

Card tricks with Uncle Jeff...

Fancy (and somewhat creepy) girls!

The boys exploring the neighbor's yard.

Lordy, we have got to watch those boys every second!

Eh, I'm thankful for this guy too...

This is pretty much how Louis spent the day...

The "after party" back at home...

What a day!

Swinging with Linc

Look, Yoda!

Look at what FINALLY made its way into Ava's room!!

Flashback Friday

Sorry, Duckle.  I couldn't resist ;-)