Christmas 2010

We arrived home from Minnesota late last night after a 17 hour journey. We drove straight through and Ben was behind the wheel the whole time. Needless to say, that gave us ample time to reflect on our time there and bottle up all our fun memories. Great time with his parents. Great time with his brothers. Great time with cousins. And I had an especially great time with my sister-in-laws. It's always hard to say goodbye; especially when we have no idea when we will see them again. Sweet memories.

The snow was unbelievable. The kids played for hours and Gramps spent a serious amount of time perfecting a snow fort for them.

We went to this enormous play place two times. Look closely and you can see Ben, Hallie, Gramps and maybe a couple cousins at the top.

this pic is blurry but i did my best considering he was whipping them around at fast speeds.

christmas eve photo shoot

christmas morning...santa definitely showed up.

gramps had caroline duty. which i'm pretty sure he loved.

hallie has an uncanny resemblance to baby belle.

she also got a music player that she loves. i caught her just staring at it while listening to her favorite tunes.

there is no shortage of princesses in our home.

my love.

jake, alisha and june...the busiest baby girl i've ever known! we will miss her like crazy.

tommy, amber, adalyn and sawyer. the cousins were inseparable. sledding, swimming, and non-stop playing.

tommy with two of his ladies.

the only hiccup in our week was the sick bug that poisoned almost everyone at some point. hallie got hit hard and we found her sleeping all over. the babe took a 6 hour nap one day.

even buddy the elf came

we are leaving for the l-o-n-g drive to minnesota this afternoon. oh my.

we celebrated a colorado christmas this weekend with my family and it was perfect.

lessons from the past have taught us to get kid pictures first thing before they trade their cute outfits for princess and superhero costumes.



i can't possibly describe how much i love this picture or how much fun these girls have together. best friends. the outfits weren't even planned.



do you think my mom got enough candy for the cousins to make yummy trains?

ready set go.






these kids find out if they are having a baby boy or girl today...can't wait!




you stink. you smell like beef and cheese! you don't smell like santa.





the fondu bar was especially fabulous.

we ended the day with a gift from mimi and papa to the kids. fun little car that has zoomed around in our house nonstop. so fun.

catchin up

Along with everyone else, we have been mightily caught up in nonstop on. the. go. it has been great and there is never a dull moment. this picture captures why there has been quite an absence of updates. always someone on me. at least one little person. at least.


little caroline gets sweeter, happier, cuter everyday. did i mention happier because she continues the streak of being the happiest baby i have ever known.

my favorite christmas memory so far is kinsley's preschool program. it was unbearably adorable. i could hardly take pictures through my laughter and happy tears. dramatic hand motions and hearing my kids voice above all others was priceless. total sweetness.




when ben's parents were here for caroline's birth, somehow kinsley planted a seed in her grandma's head that she wanted a dorthy costume. guess what? a package arrived with the most perfect handmade replica one can imagine. it was stitched with love...and included a handmade dorthy wig. check out the wig. we laughed and laughed. and laughed. if you know grandma jane, you can probably guess it didn't end there. there was also a great kid-friendly version of the book and blue socks for the costume. cousin adalyn was SO GENEROUS to send one of her pink princess costumes for hallie so she could be glinda. it was all so amazing!

Love her

love her sleepy little face.

love her bum pointed high.


love her blue eyes and the way her mouth curves.

love her little baby self and tiny everything.

love her baby noises and the way she mimics the sounds i make.

love her smile and the way she looks at me like i'm a crazy person when i try to capture it on the camera.

Halloween Recap

no need for captions. just plain and simple halloween cuteness.






this is the only picture that needs explanation. since i did not have a costume for caroline, they took it upon themselves to decorate their sister.