The kids were both up bright and early on our Christmas morning. They were excited to see all of the presents under the tree and the full stockings. We let them open their gifts from Santa and then we took a few minutes to read the Christmas story from the Bible. We didn't want to rush through the morning without taking time to really remember what Christmas is all about. After opening all of the presents, we ate some cinnamon roll cake. Then we spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing with new toys.  Santa brought Ben a new 3ds game that he put on his list. Lucy asked Santa for an Ariel and Prince Eric set. She was excited to get this one with a boat. Reading the Christmas story together. Time for stockings! Lucy LOVED her new cozy socks! She kept rubbing them on her face.  What's this big present going to be?  Ben got a new Artic Lego set.  He got another Super Mario Microland set to add to the one from his birthday. ...

We celebrated Christmas a few days early (since we traveled to see our families for a few days over Christmas). So, the day before our Christmas celebration the kids helped me make some sugar cookies to get ready for Santa. When it got dark out, they put on their p.j.'s and we drove through the Fantasy of Lights.   They were both great helpers! Yummy cookies!  This was our second time going to Fantasy of Lights. Lucy really enjoyed it this year and kept yelling in excitement about everything she was seeing. They set our cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. All ready to go to sleep and open presents in the morning! 

We've stayed pretty busy this fall. Here are a few of the things that filled up our days. I can't believe that it is almost Thanksgiving. November has flown by and I'm sure December will feel the same way.  Curt took a trip to Seattle for work. It was a long week without him, but we survived. :)   Curt loves to pose with statues in all the cities he visits. Just kidding. :) Ben is getting better and better at riding his bike. It's taken much longer than I thought it would. He is very cautious (no daredevil in him), but he is gaining more and more confidence.   This is how we dress up for movie nights.  Ben played basketball again with school. They play in the fall and then start again after Christmas break. Ben loves it! What a cute smile. I wish the picture didn't turn out blurry.   Lucy enjoyed going to several practices/games. 

Ben and Lucy love dressing up in costumes, so Halloween is always a fun time to add something new to all of their dress up clothes. This year, the weather was horrible. It was freezing, windy, rainy, and started snowing. So, I only took Lucy to a few houses and Ben went down a couple streets with Curt before they were too cold to stay out any longer. Ben did come home with a TON of candy though. I guess many people were passing out handfuls to all of the freezing kids.     Lucy was Elsa and Ben was a Minion.  Ben had Bananas visiting from his class at school and he decided to be a pirate.    Bananas also stuck around to play with some Legos over the weekend.  The Vera Bradley crew always gets into the Halloween spirit. This year, Curt's group dressed up like different SNL characters.  Curt was one of the Wild and Crazy Guys. (Thankfully we already had the plaid pants and disco shirt in the closet. :) ) We kep...

 October always feels like "the month of Ben" around our house. We usually fit in a weekend trip to each side of the family to celebrate his birthday and then he has his actual birthday at home...so that's a lot of birthday cake! He wanted to stick with a Super Mario theme (again), so I just pulled out some old decorations I had from the last couple birthdays. Then I added some green, because Ben's love for Luigi and the color green runs deep.  When we celebrated with my family, my mom made a chocolate peanut butter cake that we all love! Ben got a new Super Mario blanket from my sister. He loves soft blankets and quickly added it to the 3 other ones that he already sleeps every night.  Another weekend, we went to Cadillac and celebrated these 3 cousins that all have October birthdays. Lucy always has fun with Jenna and Uncle Mark. Cousins eating cupcakes. Yay! New Legos! On his birthday at home, we had some yummy chocolate cake after he ...

Instead of a bigger friend party, we decided to keep Ben's birthday simpler this year. He really just wanted to have his best buddy Evan come over for a sleepover & go to Jungle George's...so that was a pretty easy request to fulfill. The kids had fall break a couple weeks before Ben's birthday, so that worked out great for the sleepover. Ben and Evan always have a great time together!     Yay! Time to get wild!    A competitive game of air hockey.  Evan won 100 tickets from one of the games! It was crazy to see the tickets keep coming and coming.      Ben helped pick out/put together some goodies for the party. We also had really delicious cupcakes from Courtney's Bakery, but we gobbled them up too quickly for a picture. :)