christmas 2010.

As has become the norm, Christmas was busy, but was very fun. We had two family gatherings the weekend before Christmas and then spent Christmas Eve with the Mitchell's and Christmas day with the Gough's.

Here are some highlights...

All of the kids at the Mitchell gathering (Cassie, Madison, Lincoln, Sam, Allison, Riley, Nicole). It's so fun to see them grow and change each year.


Linc on Christmas morning checking out the tree.
Cassidy with her new baby doll stroller.

Linc opening RC (the remote control car from Toy Story). He had been wanting this gift since his birthday in June. It was on every Santa list that he made this year. On Christmas Eve we were talking about the whole naughty vs. nice thing and Linc said he knew he had been naughty and wondered what Santa was going to do about that. Luckily, it seems that Santa is a pretty forgiving guy and he believes in the spirit of children and their ability to continually learn and grow. Because of this, he brought Linc exactly what he wanted. And Linc was thrilled.

Cassie got Linc a Superhero Squad Play-Doh set. Cool.

Cassie showing off her Dora the Explorer Dominos while wearing her Dora jammies.

Cassie showing off her necklace.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Lincoln thoroughly enjoyed everything the holiday season had to offer from making wish lists for Santa to helping pick out a gift for a 4-year-old boy in need and everything in between.

Type of gifts he received this year include: remote control RC car, magic wand (something he had been asking for), Batcave, Tag book reader and books, a football, tinker toys, a Lightning McQueen sleeping bag, and the Wii game system (so far he really enjoys playing tennis, sword fighting, ping pong, and mario kart).

Surprising gift that offered much excitement: a pair of NFL pajamas. Linc was geeked when he opened these pj's from Grandma. They have the helmets for all of the NFL teams pictured on the jammies and Linc was proud to look them over and name most of the teams! He's a football fanatic just like his dad. How old do you have to be to play fantasy football? I'm sure he'll be ready pretty soon.

While Cassidy didn't care much for Santa this year, she really has come into her own and she enjoyed Christmas. She opened gifts on her own and she's enjoyed all of Linc's gifts as well (she really seems to like the Batcave). Some of her gifts included: dolls and doll accessories, kitchen items, a play piggy bank, and Play-Doh stuff.

Hope you all got things from your wish lists. And, more importantly, we hope you enjoyed the giving spirit of the season and hope you were surrounded by family and friends.

the final visit with santa.

The final visit with Santa this year was at The Learning Tree's family Christmas party (where the kids attend daycare). This year at the party, Santa stopped in for a visit, we got to have dinner in Lincoln's classroom, and had the pleasure of hearing Linc's class of pre-Kindergarteners sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Twelve Days of Christmas. They did a fantastic job.

Here are Papou and Linc waiting to see Santa.

Linc & Santa. We didn't even attempt to put Cassie on Santa's lap. She was content to admire him from afar.

Reading a story with Mrs. Claus.

There's nothing cuter than a class of 4-year-olds singing Christmas carols.

breakfast with santa.

On our second visit with Santa this year, we had breakfast with him! Cassie loves to eat, so here she is enjoying a big plate of breakfast food.

And here she is when Santa came to our table. She's doing all she can to leap out of my arms to get as far away from the breakfast table as possible!

At the other end of the breakfast table, the bigger kids (Alli, Nicole, and Lincoln) enjoyed a talk with Santa. Santa even encouraged the kids to touch his beard, which Linc thought was pretty cool. We found out from Santa that he likes chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin (ick!) cookies and that Rudolph likes carrots. We took a mental note so that we were sure to leave the appropriate goodies for the big guy on Christmas eve.

Linc and his twin cousins.

Linc on Santa's lap:
Dear Santa,

Look at my sweet, innocent smile. I promise that I'm a good boy all the time. I never push my sister down or take toys away from her. I always listen to my mom and dad. I behave well at school. Really. Please bring me a magic wand and a remote control RC (from Toy Story). Pretty please? I also wouldn't mind having some video games and a Batcave.

Your friend,

Lincoln

feeling the spirit.

Both kids helped decorate the house for Christmas this year. They were especially helpful as we put the tree up. I couldn't get the ornaments out fast enough for the kids to grab one and find a branch to put it on. Of course, we had to do a bit of rearranging since we didn't want the tree to have decorations only on the bottom, but it was really very cute to watch them.

Decorating the tree always bring lots of memories to the foreground as most of our ornaments are reminders of places we've been or things we've done, of people who have given us ornaments, of teams and characters that we love, of things from our childhood, etc. I imagine that everyone has feelings of nostalgia as they decorate their tree each year. I often think back on what it was like to decorate the tree with my parents -- my dad putting the lights on first then letting us each put our favorite ornaments on (the ones we made in school, of course!). He'd then put the silver garland on. Fun memories. I hope that as Linc & Cass get older, they'll remember putting our family tree up. I'll surely remember this year...watching their little hands add ornaments to the tree.

In the midst of decorating, Cassie pulled some old stockings out of a box and thought they belonged on her feet. Makes sense if you think about it, I suppose.

kicking off the holiday season.

This year we kicked off the holiday season by heading downtown Detroit for the Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Campus Martius Park.
Here are two buddies, Brendan and Lincoln, enjoying the festivities. Their dads, Mark & Matt have been friends since they were little so it's very cute to see the next generation of boys together. They're both the spitting image of their dads, too!

This was the first of three visits with Santa this year...Brendan, Lincoln, and Juliana got to chat it up with Mr. Claus. This is the first year that Linc has really had a list for Santa and the first year that he's been super excited to see the big guy.

After enjoying the tree lighting, having a visit with Santa, and going wild in the bouncy house, we all packed into the minivan to head home - there were 7 of us. Linc mentioned that he wasn't feeling well. Must've been too much bouncing because on the way home he puked all over my van! Poor Mark, Katie, Brendan, and Juliana. Seems like we always experience the worst things together. Ah well...we'll add it to the list of "things we'll look back on and laugh about later" right?

two.

We celebrated Cassidy's second birthday with family and close friends on Dec. 11th (my dad's 72nd birthday). Below, she is surrounded by her cousins singing Happy Birthday to her. I could tell that she wasn't digging it by the very concerned look on her face.

As the singing went on, the look of concern turned into all out hatred for the situation. Interesting how every other kid in the picture below has a smile on his/her face! I'm already looking back on this moment and am laughing. Poor, sweet Cassie didn't know what was going on.

Here she is on her actual birthday (Dec. 15th) surrounded only by Matt, Linc, and myself. We had leftover cake and sang a nice, quiet rendition of Happy Birthday to her. This went over much better.

And here I am simply enjoying my baby girl on her special day. She's getting so big. She's in a big "mommy" phase right now, which can be trying. Having a nearly 30 lb. growth on my side at all times is not exactly enjoyable for me, nor for others who have to hear "my mommy" all the time. I keep telling myself that this is a phase. I know that it'll pass and that someday she won't want anything to do with me. With that in mind, I try to enjoy having that 30 lb. growth with me while I can.

Cassie is talking like a champ now. She hears the garage door open at dinner time and says, "Matt's home." She's empathetic and can express her feelings and needs nicely. She's sometimes demanding ("Sing mommy. Louder"). She's gaining independence as evidenced by her often saying "Cassie do it". She loves to eat, though she's extremely messy about it. She's a singing queen and loves to dance. She still loves to have a blankie with her and she loves her pacifier, though she seems to slowly be weaning herself from it. All in good time, right?

Favorite songs: Jump Up and Down, Twinkle Twinkle, ABCs, The Muffin Man, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Frere Jacques.

She's my little dolly. Happy Birthday sweet Cassidy!

unstinked.

So I'm driving home with the kids yesterday and out of nowhere Linc says, "Mom, when dinosaurs aren't around anymore, it's called unstinked." I laughed out loud, my heart smiled, and then I went on to explain that the correct term is "extinct". He practiced saying it the rest of the way home.

trick-or-treat and the debut of a new superhero.

After much anticipation, Halloween finally arrived and the kids (well, Lincoln) couldn't have been more excited.

Here is Minnie Mouse (complete with pacifier - who knew?) all ready to go trick-or-treating.



Below are this year's pumpkins. Linc's is the scary face and Cassie's is a kitty cat. Mom did the little polka dot punkins.

So, I had a feeling that Matt had a costume this year. Linc sort of mentioned that dad was going to dress up and he had told his teacher at school that "mom and dad like to dress up for Halloween" which I thought was weird because we've never dressed up to take the kids trick-or-treating. Matt must've let Linc in on his secret. Well, the big reveal came after the kids were in their costumes: Beer Man arrived. He came complete with a superhero cape (which Linc loved), beer holders and beer goggles. Check out my two superheros below...

This is what Cassie looked like most of the night. She was wheeled around in the wagon - couldn't have cared less about getting out to get treats and she really didn't need to because Linc kept filling her bucket with treats. All Cass wanted to do was eat the treats. I'm telling you, this girl can eat!


Here she is again...at the end of the night...munching on some snacks.

And finally, she came inside to take stock of her bucket.

Batman knows that he needs to protect his treats from Minnie Mouse!

All in all, we had a blast trick-or-treating. The weather was a bit chilly, but how can one complain? At least it didn't rain. Linc did a wonderful job this year shouting trick-or-treat, properly saying his thank you's without too many reminders, and even sharing his treats with his sister and mom & dad.

Happy Halloween!

neighborhood party.

Our neighborhood throws a really nice Halloween party for the kids at our local elementary school. They have food, games, and a trick-or-treat costume parade (complete with scary monsters outside). Best moment of the night was during the costume parade when Linc got scared by a monster and took off like a bolt of lightning. I've never seen a kid run so fast. After a few tears passed, we made it past the next monster together and we complimented each other on how brave we were. And then Batman talked for the rest of the night about the monsters and how he wanted to see them again and how very brave he was! Super cute.


Here's Cassie in her Minnie Mouse costume showing off her balloon poodle.



Here is Linc playing his favorite game -- tug-of-war with the snake. If you win, you get a piece of candy.



You can tell he's concentrating on winning this tug-of-war...his tongue is out...a sure sign that he's in it to win it.



And here's Batman playing a race car game.

At the end of the night, he dumped his loot and enjoyed some treats! Cassie was, of course, snoozing in bed.

classroom fun!

Linc had a super fun Halloween party at daycare this year. They had a helicopter "healthy treat" drop. Yup, a real helicopter flew over the field behind the school and dropped treats for the kids to grab.

Here is a pic of Linc's class in front of the helicopter (Linc is on the far right).

And here is Linc with the helicopter.

After the helicopter fun, the kids made their way back to their classrooms for Halloween fun. Here's our little Batman all ready to party.

Next you can see Batman making a popcorn ball. Well, he's supposed to be making a popcorn ball. Instead, he sat and ate most of the popcorn!

Next up, Linc got to make Halloween goo....eeewww...

Finally, the kids all played musical chairs. The showdown ended between Batman and Spiderman and our little Batman won the game. Here he is celebrating!

jump.

Because our yard doesn't have many trees, the only fall leaves we get are those that are blown from our neighbors' giant trees. The kids love to go to Yia Yia and Papou's house since there are many huge, old Oak trees on their lot. Papou blows the leaves into nice piles for the kids to jump in. Here are a coupla pics of them enjoying one of the best things about fall.

the best time of year.

I absolutely love the fall and got to spend my birthday at the cider mill - what more could a girl ask for?

Here are the kids this year - Linc is 4 and Cassie is almost 2!


In the pumpkin patch...

Check out our pumpies (that's what Cassie calls pumpkins)!

Cassie playing in the corn. She absolutely loved it.

Peeking through the huge tractor wheel.


Family pic.

When we went to the same cider mill last year, we had winter coats and hats on. This year, the temp was in the 70s...absolutely fantastic.