Merry Christmas!

We had a GREAT Christmas this year! This was the first year we've had our elf come to our house. (I'll post on that soon!) It was Nora's first Christmas and Andrew's first Christmas really getting into Santa and knowing the true meaning of Christmas. It was so nice having all of my siblings and their families all together. I love spending time with family!

On Sunday we went to church with my parents. It was so nice to listen to all the music and spoken word. My grandpa spoke in church - and man, was it a great talk! I'm so grateful for him and his sweet and strong spirit. 

(between sleepy kids after church, bad camera settings, and a low battery for my flash- this was the best pic we got. So glad we got picture of all of us though!)

We spent the holiday with my family. Here's a great picture of all the McKinney cousins. What a fun group of kids!

On Christmas Eve we had the kids act out the Nativity as my Grandpa read out of Luke 2.

Gavin and Kayla as Joseph & Mary, and a doll as baby Jesus.

Andrew was a shepherd and Nora was a sheep! Brooke, my niece was also a wandering sheep.

It was really nice having a Christmas program. We sang songs and remembered Christmases past.

The next morning Santa came. It was so sweet as I was putting Andrew to bed, you could easily feel his excitement for the arrival of Santa. I could hear him giggling as he was going to sleep. He even woke up at 5:30 wanting to go downstairs. Thankfully we were able to get him to go back to bed for another 2 hours.

Santa brought the kids a new play kitchen, fully stocked. They got a few more toys to play with as well.

I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas too!

She'll hate me for this one...

While Morgan and I were cutting Andrew's hair....

... Nora grew a goatee.

Finger Foods!

Nora has entered into the wide world of finger foods. She (and I) and loving it! The other day Andrew was snacking on some clementines and Nora went right up and helped  herself. I was a little worried at first since she is still pretty new with finger foods - but she did great!

7 Years!

(and itch free!)

Circa October 2004. 

Love that man!!

She's a climber!

Want to hear something crazy? Both of my kids, at 9 months of age have learned how to climb stairs... at their Mimi and Papa's house. 

What fun! (besides the part that they are actually climbing stairs) 

Nora, November 2012

Andrew, July 2009

Man, I love 9 month olds! 

We, three Jeans.

While in Maine, we were able to go and see Morgan's Grandma. It was nice for Grammy to see her namesake! Her name is Jean, Kim's (Morgan's mom) middle name is Jean, as well as Nora. (Morgan also has a cousin, Hillory whose middle name is also Jean). Lots of Jeans in this family!!

I think Nora had her Great-Grammy wrapped around her finger pretty quickly.

 I absolutely am so glad to see how this picture turned out! I'm so glad we were able to make it out to see Grammy!

Thanksgiving trip to Maine!

Over Thanksgiving Break (one of the few perks of still being students... holiday breaks!) we were able to head up to Maine to visit Morgan's parents. We had a GREAT time! It was Nora's first time going to Maine, as well as flying. 

We were extremely lucky the flights there and on the way home....

 ... we had both kids sleep most of every flight! (Now, the drive from Boston to Maine was a completely different story...)

A few of the sights from the trip...

Andrew enjoying breakfast with Minnie, Bananas, and Sims (the cat that lives at Mimi and Papas)

Seeing Santa during the Thanksgiving Parade

While in Maine, Morgan's best friend from high school got married. Morgan was in the wedding party.

 Little scenes like this were found all over the house. Little evidences of Andrew...

Morgan's parents had left the trampoline up in anticipation of having us come up. Every morning right when Andrew woke up he'd ask to go out to jump. Thankfully the weather was pretty moderate that he was able to jump to his little hearts content. Nora even got in on the fun. She would just cackle away as she'd be bounced around.

Silly face on Papa's sliding glass door.

Nora has quite a fondness for her Papa Stinson. It was so sweet to see them interact with each other!

Nora getting to know Sims....

Daily walks around the neighborhood... especially to the river and train tracks. Or the "RR Sign" as Andrew would put it.

NO visit to Maine would be complete without Pat's Pizza and a visit (or two) to Governor's.

Seriously, we had a great time. We were also able to go visit Morgan's grandma and have Thanksgiving dinner with his aunt and family, and Morgan's brother Evan. It was great to see so much family. Can't wait til we can get up there again!

Brotherly Sisterly Love

At the park the other day it hit me how much my kids really absolutely love each other. I'm such a lucky mom. These sweet kiddos add so much joy to my life!

 (Andrew kissing Nora after she got a little fussy)

Leaves!

For most of the month of October and November the grass infront of our townhouse was COVERED in leaves. Our building must have been in the sweet spot to collect massive amounts of leaves. Needless to say, my vacuum was put to work daily. 

Andrew loved running through them every chance he got. He also loved seeing the landscapers use their super strong blowers to collect them all. (Although he was sad that they were all gone!)

Pardon the undies shot. That's how Andrew rolls some days :-)

My little Punkin'

There is no hiding that Nora is a momma's girl. I love it. Andrew was so a daddy's boy... so it's nice to share the wealth. My neighbor and friend from church has a son Nora's age and took some darling pictures of her son and I begged to follow suit. Hope you enjoy my little Punkin'.

P.S. Andrew TOTALLY loved the fact that Nora got to be in a pumpkin.

Our little Trick or Treaters

We had plenty of opportunities the last week or so to participate in a few Halloween festivities. Andrew is ALL about pumpkins, so naturally he was a pumpkin. Nora was our sweet little candy corn, since she's about as sweet as can be. 

First off, our ward's Trunk-or-Treat. They had some carnival games that Andrew enjoyed, a costume parade, and later a trunk or treat outside. Andrew made out like a villain. Loads of candy.

Next up, Andrew's preschool had a party on Halloween. Here's Andrew with his buddy who he's practically attached at the hip to, Peyton aka Spiderman. They trick or treated through the school and had some fun things going on in his classroom. Again, he made out like a villain. Loads of candy and little toys.

That evening we went Trick-or-Treating in our complex. Last year we had our pumpkin match Andrew, so I thought I'd do the same this year. Classic Jack-o-Lantern, which I love. 

Here's miss Nora...

And excited Andrew...

And our two little treats together.

Man oh man. Even though we only stopped at 15 or so doors (most people in our complex were gone/hiding from trick or treaters) Andrew made out like a (wait for it) villain. We have some really generous neighbors. He got a few goodie bags and some of those applesauce packets... on top of loads of candy. Needless to say Morgan and I have had our fair share of chocolate for the year.

It was so fun having our two kids dressed up. I had a lot of fun making their costumes and seeing them wearing them. Can't wait to see what they'll be next year.

Nora Crawling...

Nora's a full fledged crawler! Time to keep our floors spotless.

Isn't her snort so cute? She does it when she gets excited. We love our little piglet!

Andrew's Birthday Party

Andrew's 4th birthday fell on a Saturday this year... it also happened to be the same day that our hometown was having their Touch a Truck activity. It's super low key, and was a perfect addition to Andrew's party. Andrew loves big trucks, so we made that the party's theme.

We kept it small, just family. Andrew loves his cousins and was so excited to have them come to his birthday party.

Mikalya, Andrew, & Gavin

I made him a #4 birthday shirt. He loves his numbers and loved his shirt!

We had a transportation cake, spare tires (chocolate covered donuts), and dipsticks (chocolate dipped pretzel rods).

Andrew loved his cake!

Andrew's presents this year were all boy. Pretty much what every 4 year old loves...

Matchbox cars...

Flashlights... 

Legos...

Dinosaurs...

A bike!

and some bells/horn to go on the bike.

 What a great day we had! It was fun to have my family come to help us celebrate. We only wish we could have had some Stinson family with us!