santa came to our house!

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. Leading up to the big day, Linc had numerous questions related to Santa.
How do the reindeer fly?
Where do they land?
What is a sleigh and how does it work?
Where is our chimney? and That's how Santa gets into our house?
I could go on and on...

On Christmas Eve, we sprinkled reindeer food on the driveway so that the reindeer were sure to lead Santa to our house. This was a concoction of oatmeal and sparkles (courtesy of the kids' daycare). We were also sure to leave cookies out for Santa. And Linc even went to bed like a good little boy. He wanted to be sure that Santa didn't skip our house so we all had to be asleep in order for him to come!

On Christmas morning (6 a.m.) we saw that there were gifts under the tree, but those could've been from mom & dad so we had to check the cookie plate to see if Santa had been to our house. He had indeed...and he ate ALL of the cookies!

Here are a few pics from Christmas in the Gough house this year. First up is Linc in his Christmas pj's opening gifts.

Next is Cassie getting piled high with gifts.

Here are Dad and Linc with one of Linc's new Leapster games.

And here is Cassie on her tippy toes trying to get to some of Lincoln's new superhero action figures. She doesn't mind being the bad guys while Linc is almost always one of the good guys.

And here's the best family pic we got. Note that we are joined by Cassie's new Jessie doll as well as Linc's long time buddies, Woody and Buzz Lightyear.

Linc's favorite gift this year: the Superhero Squad truck that dad picked out. Like father, like son.

Runners up: Superhero Squad action figures and cars, Leapster and games, legos, lots of cool board games and puzzles. The kids got so much stuff that there's no room under the tree. We've been very busy trying to play with it all.

Next year I'll report out on Cassie's favorite gift as she'll be better able to clue us in at that time.

Happy Christmas!

cousins.

Got a cute pic of Linc and his cousins at the Mitchell family Christmas gathering. Cassie was busy playing with the adults upstairs so she didn't make it into the pic. Here are the Mitchell (plus one Gough) kids. Christmas 2009.

Madison, Riley, Allison, Lincoln, Sam, Nicole.

7-11.

Each year, my girlfriends and I get together before Christmas to celebrate the holidays and our friendship. This year, instead of a wild night out, we opted for a gathering at my place with our kids. Seven friends were there and among us we've got 11 kids. Check out the pic below. I don't know how we - the girls from college - have made it to a place where an entire couch is filled with little munchkins. It kind of blows my mind. Long gone are the days of crossing the border to go to Canada or making the rounds at local karaoke bars. We are now having our gatherings at 10 a.m. with our kids. What a change! Not that we don't know how to have fun anymore. We've got Jen's wedding in 2010. We'll be able to tear it up there - thank goodness.

Here's to great friends and our lovely kiddies.

rudolph.

Linc had his debut singing performance this year at The Learning Tree (the kids' daycare) Christmas party.

Here he is all red-nosed before the performance.

And here is a clip of Miss Rhonda's preschool class singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Linc also got to have a chat with Santa at the Christmas party. My favorite part of the below pic: his nervous little hands all twisted together.

one year.

Cassie will be turning one on 12/15. I don't know why, but it's just not hitting me that a whole year has gone by already. The time is simply flying. It seems not long ago that I was sitting at this very desk working last year thinking, "I might be having contractions, but I'm not sure." I had a doctor appt. that afternoon so I figured the doc would tell me that they weren't contractions, that it was just wishful thinking on my part. Matt met me at the doctor that afternoon. Since I was a few days past my due date, we figured we might talk about being induced (again) and we wanted to talk about the best date for that (yes, let's schedule it on our calendars - haha, babies don't work like that). Well, we got to the doctor, he told me I was indeed having contractions and that we could head over to the hospital. We were going to have a baby that night! Whoa. I wasn't really expecting that. We then rushed around - Matt picked Linc up from daycare and took him to my folks house while I went home to finish packing my bag for the hospital. Yes, I was driving while in labor. We got to the hospital and about 4 hours later our beautiful baby girl was born. Again, the time has flown. It just doesn't seem like that was a year ago.

Our baby girl is now practically toddling around. She has grown and changed so much in the past year, as has her brother. We celebrated Cassidy's first birthday on Saturday with our family. Here are the requisite first-cake-eating pics.

Cassie enjoyed seeing all of her cousins cheer her on!


There was no need to coax Cassie to touch the cake. She pretty much dove right in and explored the frosting on her own.


Mmmm...frosting.


Shoveling it in...


Maybe I can just lick it off the plate...


Here is Cassie spending some time with a younger man at her bday party (6 months younger). Jack is my best friend, Becca's, little boy. Cass liked him, but Jack kept giving her the pouty lip. Maybe he's not ready for an older woman...yet.


Cassie in her jammies with mom and dad at the end of the night.

santa babies.

Here are my little Santa babies.

Lincoln baby...

and Cassie baby.

ho ho ho.

Yia Yia took us to breakfast with Santa this year. The kids got balloon animals, got to sit on Santa's lap, and got to chat with Santa as he worked the room while we ate breakfast. Here is the pic of the kids on Santa's lap. Not too bad. Cassie sat on his lap just fine, though it was for a brief period. I think if we had left them up there much longer, she probably would've started to fuss and wonder why in the heck we had left her with this strange man!


While we ate, Santa walked around the room and talked to the kids. Here he is having a lengthy conversation with Linc & Cassie's cousins (Alli & Nicole). While this was going on, Linc was busy eating his bacon and eggs. He couldn't be bothered with Santa (see the bottom picture). He truly is his father's son. Food always comes first.



"No time for you, Santa, I'm busy eating!"

I guess he did finally finish the food on his plate and he had a chance to tell Santa that he'd like some superheros for Christmas this year.