Cousins

We had visitors from Ft. Wayne on Monday.  It was so fun to see the kids playing together, especially Kate and Sarah.  I wish I had better pictures but there was a lot going on.

 It is hard to believe that in less than 3 years, Kurt's parents went from zero to five grandchildren!  They are the envy of many of their friends.  Here they are with the first four . . .

 and an attempt to get all five-

 Close ups with the 2010 additions . . .

 Grandpa and Luke

 and then Grandma with Kaelynn (4.5 months)

Memorable Monday

A slightly different take on Memorable Monday this week.  Do you see any resemblance?

Christmas 2008 - Kate 13 months

Christmas 2010 - Luke 10.5 months

2010 Ornaments

Ornaments are a special gift in our family.  We've continued Kurt's tradition growing up of gifting ornaments signifying the past year.  So far with the kids it has been easy and a lot of fun.  We've found ourselves with too many options for them.  It gets harder with adults.  They don't have "work" ornaments or "changed a lot of diapers" ornaments.  We do try and write the year on the ornament when possible, but I thought I'd do a summary of the ornaments we exchanged in 2010 for the blog for posterity.   

We gave Grandma a beach bag with towels and flip flops to remind her of our trip to Florida in May

We gave Grandpa an avocado to remind him of Kate's smiles when he makes guacamole.

Grandma gave Grandpa a Chicago style hot dog, one of his favorite treats.

Kate gave Daddy a basketball to signify all the hoops they would shoot on the back deck.  Daddy also uncovered a double meaning since he won the EnDuWaRaBuWi family March Madness tournament in 2010.

Daddy gave me a beautiful Simon Pearce babble to remind us of our annual dinner date at the delicious Simon Pearce restaurant in Quechee, VT

Grandpa and Grandma gave Kurt a grill.  Very sparkly a shiny.  

They also gave me a tennis ball, but I don't have a picture of it. This too has double meaning since we made what we hope is the first trip of many to the US Open in NYC in September.  

I gave Kurt a coffee machine.  We have really enjoyed our Keurig coffee machine in 2010 and Daddy definitely needs his coffee to fuel his day!

We gave Kate two ornaments.  A Shedd Aquarium globe with a nemo like clown fish inside.  Kate loves Nemo and we really enjoyed our Shedd Aquarium membership in 2010.  We also gave her a dalmatian since this was her Halloween costume.  Aunt Christine gave her a dalmatian too- great minds think alike! 

 

And lastly, we also gave two ornaments to Luke.  Grandma and Grandpa had baby's first Christmas covered (although I forgot to snap a picture) complete with birthday and name.  We gave him a sea turtle to remind us of the turtles on his crib bedding.

And a giraffe to remind us of his first Halloween.

These 2010 memories will live on on our Christmas tree for many, many years to come.

More Christmas

 This face pretty much sums it up.  At three, every gift was exciting.  Even new clothes.  Albeit, they were purple

 I just loved the matching PJs!  Thanks, Mimi!!

 Somehow in the chaos of it all Luke ended up with a bow on his bottom.  

Christmas Morning

So, I've decided to break up the Christmas Day photos into a few different posts.  This is what I'll call the first glimpse photos where you can see the sheer joy and excitement in Kate's eyes.  Luke was enjoying himself certainly, but was honestly more concerned with his next meal and next nap.

 

 

Kate has developed quite the love the sweets.  She was a big fan of the Christmas morning cheese danish that Daddy picked up special from Weber's Bakery by Midway Airport- delicious!

 

 Santa's presents were all big hits.  It seems they are fun right away but should also stand the test of time and be good things to keep growing into.  May they bring us hours of play for months to come!

Christmas Eve

A few of my favorite pictures from Christmas Eve-

Cookies and milk for Santa.  Kate decorated the cookies herself that afternoon.

He came!!