Chris Turns 5!!! Where has the time gone??

My little boy turned 5 on the 30th...FIVE!!! I remember when we were here...

Now we are here...

He is such an amazing kid! This year he wanted a Star Wars theme so that's what we ran with. Bobbe and DigDig came up and went to church with us and we had a big lunch afterwards. He has gotten to big. He's 47" and 54lbs now. A far cry from the 7lbs 5 ozs. and 23".

He brings such wonderful joy to our lives!! Happy Birthday Chris!!

Merry Christmas Everyone

This year we had to make a deal with Santa to visit us on a different night since Daddy had to work thru the 25th. Here is our Christmas letter...

The 2012 year has been a very fun year for our family. Having another little one around has definitely been a wonderful experience!

Keith is still out at his firehouse. It’s a pretty quiet station, which makes it not very exciting, but he’s on a good shift and enjoys his work buddies. There is a definite camaraderie and this is the first station where we all get together on a regular basis outside of work. He’s also been working at our local training center as an instructor teaching the new recruits, both volunteer and career. He loves it! He got asked to coach the boys’ basketball team at church for this coming year and is looking forward to it.

Joy still subs, but stays at home with the kiddos on a fairly regular basis. She loves it! She spends lots of time doing Joy School with Chris and doing her crafts. She works in the library at church and regularly gets asked to tackle projects where she can get her craft on.

Chris is such an amazing guy. He adores his little sister and is so good with her. He did such a good job when we were in Mickey’s House (Disney World) with her. He made sure she had just as much fun. He’s still a swimmer, but DigDig has incorporated basketball and baseball to the mix. Hopefully this spring he can start peewee baseball. He loves all things Legos, Star Wars is still a hit, Ninja Turtles have joined the mix, and he loves to play videogames. He’s so smart it’s scary!

Sophie is growing like a weed! She has 9 teeth with 3 more molars coming in. 95% of the time there is a smile on her face. She is full of such joy all the time and loves her brother so much. If he disappears and then reappears, she will start yelling and jumping up and down. Music is her favorite thing. She will zone in and start dancing up a storm. She sleeps thru most nights, loves her food (and your food), and has Daddy wrapped around her little finger!

Keith’s mom, Ginny, is still living with us and has enjoyed adding a girl to the family. They are so much more fun to dress up! The girls definitely rule this house! Ginny is such a great grandma and we enjoy having her around.

We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and have a fantastic year to come! Merry Christmas!

Here are some of our favorite photos of the Christmas season. Merry Christmas everyone!

I have a little Santa addict

Christmas is huge in our house. We absolutely love this holiday. Sophie is kind of oblivious this year as she's still little. She loves trying to pull bows off the presents though. :) Christopher is a Ho Ho (that's what he calls Santa)addict. We've seen him several times and Chris gets completely star struck every time.

Every year starting around Dec 1, one of our local firehouses dresses up one of their rigs and Santa, Frosty and Rudolph go visit every neighborhood in our town. Chris loves this! Every couple days we will find out where they are and hop in our truck and track them down. This year, we actually got a pic with Ho Ho after their run.

Every year Keith's department does a Breakfast with Santa that's free and tons of fun! The kids had a great time...Sophie was leery, but this was the best Santa visit she had this year. He' was great!

Our most recent visit was at the station right by our house. They were selling photos with Santa, but the set-up was amazing! Beautifully done!

Another big thing that happened to Chris was getting his letter from Santa. There's a gal on Etsy that is amazing. Her shop is CharmingWords. These are extremely personalized, smell amazing, and are beautifully done letters. I will definitely be ordering from her yearly. Chris was floored when this showed up in the mail!

It's a bit late...Disney October 2012

We left for Orlando on October 26 at 4:30 in the morning. We were all bundled up and the kiddos were in their warm pj's. The drive was perfect...the sky was slightly overcast the whole way. We stayed overnight is Savannah which is always fun. The hotel we were at had a saltwater pool that the kiddo enjoyed. Personally, I was not a fan. Bright and early we were off. I made a bunch of matching shirts for Chris and Soph and today was the first.

Driving again is overcast which is awesome! We get to our resort...Disney's Caribbean Beach around 1:30. We get checked in and spend the rest of the day relaxing. We comletely missed hurricane Sandy by one day, but the aftermath of the weather affected us the entire week. It was COLD! 60-65 during the day, and 40-45 at night. Thankfully we brought warm clothes with us. We had lunch at our favorite place at Downtown Disney, The Earl of Sandwich...AMAZING!!!

***On a side note. We tried the new Photopass + card this trip and it was awesome. We've done the regular Photopass in the past and end up with around 400 pictures. This new card gives you all those, plus your ride photos (we had about 30), plus an 8x10 and 2 4x6 at a special venue (our's was the Hoopty Doo Review). It was great! It's not cheap...the regular pass is $120 if pre-bought before your trip. The Photopass + is $170 pre-bought. However, the ride photos are $15 per if bought seperately...we had 30...got them all for an additional $50 added to the regular Photopass. Great buy, we will definitely be getting this one from now on.

Here are some of our favorite photos from the week. It's crazy just how fast it goes! We're definitely looking to go back again next year.