Dancing under the tree

The kids have been getting really worked up waiting for Christmas. The energy is almost pouring out of them!

My men

My two adorable men!

Bilzzard 2010

For the last 24 hours, we've been stuck in a blizzard. This is the strongest wind I remember here in Connecticut. It just whips around the house and stirs the snow up into little dervishes.

We ventured out to clean off the driveway and to send Maddie sledding with her friend. I took my new camera lens out for a test drive....

My sous chef

John's been helping me bake lately. We're deep in the "me do it" phase. It's been so much fun watching him grow up the last couple of months. It's shocking how much he has changed recently.

Maddie's Christmas Day

Maddie had what may be the best Christmas of her life! It was truly a magical Christmas. She's old enough to anticipate opening the presents -- Christmas Eve she was so excited I was afraid she was going to give herself a seizure! She couldn't hold still.

Christmas morning she was the first out of bed. She handed out presents all morning. It was fun to see how excited she was for everyone else. Then she opened her big present this year -- and hardly let go again --

I think she stayed on the couch all day playing games. The present was definitely a success!

Christmas Eve 2010

We started out the day with haircuts for Jared and John -- it was freezing outside! John was so patient since we wouldn't let him wear his coat (we didn't want it to get all dirty). After he was finished he rode his bike around for a while.

We delivered breadsticks to a few friends -- a family tradition.

We lined up the stockings with care.

One of my most favorite of our Christmas Eve traditions is to sing carols, read Luke 2 and have the kids act it out with the family nativity sets.

After this we put the kids to bed, relaxed in front of the tree, watched a movie and then put all the presents out.

What a great day!

John's Christmas Day

John finally gets it! On his birthday in November, he really did not like opening presents. After the paper was off he'd get really excited, but refused to open anything. Here he is, opening his first present this year:

Now I know why they warn about zuzu pets and hair! I guess it's a good thing he got a hiarcut on Christmas Eve!

Happy Birthday Mom!

We pulled off the greatest surprise for my mom's birthday! We had to plan ahead for months and then we couldn't even tell her how excited we were. During November, mom visited each of our families in CA, TX and CT, and we didn't even slip-up and tell her about her surprise! It was so hard to keep it a secret! I couldn't even write on my calendar for fear she would see it.

Jeff, Kristie and I were all able to fly in to Salt Lake on Friday night and celebrate together for a whole weekend. It was just like being a kid again! We went to some of our favorite places, went shopping, ate some absolutely fantastic food, and thoroughly enjoyed being together! We even went to visit our old house -- it was so fun to find Jen taking very good care of it.

It was such a great time -- I don't know if we'll ever be able to top it!

Lunch at the Cheesecake Factory

My parents came out to visit for Thanksgiving, and on the way to the airport we all stopped at the Cheesecake Factory. I just love this picture of Maddie and my parents. Happiness. Just happiness.