Winter break fun!

Winter break fun. We did everything from just hanging out to swimming, sledding (at the end of break when it finally snowed!!), Derek working on a few odd jobs for some friends, going to Bouncy Town, and of course spending time with Bry. Every time Bryan comes back "home" he has a few more groupies that follow his every move. We all miss him so much when he leaves and love when he comes back again for visits.

We really had a great break. After the Christmas festivities last weekend we headed to the Dells for a day at Chula Vista. Boy was that fun! Tessa is starting to get so much less tentative about the water slides and doesn't think twice about going down them. Nolan on the other hand is completely fearless and is a crazy monkey. He would have gone down the biggest water slide there if we would have let him! Seeing how much he's changed already since summer makes me excited for all of the swimming fun that we will have next summer.

We hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and enjoyed spending time with family this week as much as we did.
The first of our sledding adventures this winter. It's amazing how much fun sledding can be when there is only an inch of snow! Thanks for the piggyback ride on the sled Beau!

Nanny Mitchell taking care of Nolie. What a great cousin he is. Never fear...Mitchell's here! How are we seriously so lucky to have these kiddos in our lives??

The crew taking a break at the Chula Vista. Kind of hard to go from sledding to swimming (brrrrr) but they really are two of my favorite things.

By the end of the day Nolan had this slide figured out. He finally figured out that if he did this quick turn around on his belly that he wouldn't get a face full of water at the top of the slide.

Tessa taking care of Nolie...cute.

Cheese...

Cheese...

A little snuggle time with Grandpa.

Break time at Bouncy Town.

Nolan feeling like a big boy as he tries to play old school Nintendo with Bry and Mas.

A quick pic with Bry...and no Derek isn't tickling his head like it appears :) Fun times. The holidays sure cruised by!

Merry Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas 2011. We love Christmas every year but this year was so much fun. Tessa was all about it for the first time ever. Of course Nolan loved it too but he still doesn't totally understand it. Tessa on the other hand LOVED it, asked tons of questions about everything, and was so excited about her Christmas list that she could hardly stand it. Tessa had three things on her Christmas list and this list didn't change one bit from the first time she made it over a month ago: red lipstick, a puppy in a purse, and Calico Critters. Tessa must have been really good this year because she got everything on her list plus more. (And may I also mention for those of you that Santa consulted about the Calico Critters that she absolutely loved them. She first opened all of the critters. She kept saying how much she loved them and that it was okay if she didn't get the house that she really wanted, but would be so excited if she did get it. She was a huge sweetie about it and loved all of the beautiful gifts that she got from everyone...thank you!!)

Nolan was also very excited about everything but didn't quite understand it all as much as Tessa. He was thrilled with the first gift he opened at all six Christmas parties that we went to but of course was also a very good boy this year so had way more than one gift to open. (What a lucky guy!!)

We sure had a lot to celebrate this Christmas. Derek and I are so lucky to have our two little sweeties in our life (although often we feel as if we have five sweeties including the Lane's...which we often forget are not ours). We really couldn't be happier and couldn't be surrounded by more wonderful friends and family.

Merry Christmas.

Tessa fresh out of bed to see that Santa had arrived. She was a little excited :)

Nolan was all about opening the gifts this year which was a fun change from last year. This was his first gift that he opened...which he then played with for about a half hour before opening the others.

The "little" cousin crew on our Mitchell side of the family. All I can think of when I look at this is that Grandma Mitchell sure would be happy sitting in the background watching this picture take place. Boy she would love all of these little munchkins and would be so very proud of all of us.

Present number one for Tessaroo Christmas 2011 at Grandma and Grandpa Meade's house. Let the fun begin!

The boys. Come on Nolie...give us one of those smiles that you always have on your face...just never when I'm taking a pic!

The crew. Man I love these kids, we couldn't be luckier.

This was the beginning of the Christmas festivities. About two weeks ago the Klein's invited us to Christmas on the farm which was so much fun. Santa even came with his reindeer and elves! What a special treat for all ages :)

The girls at Christmas on the farm. Santa was in the background but they were perfectly satisfied staying super far away from him the whole time.

The kiddos sitting with an elf and reindeer. I love how this guy was in every photo (which I totally get by the way, it was just cute!!). What a cute idea to have the reindeer there. Thank you Tom and Mary!

Tessa's First Christmas Concert

Who knew that they'd do a Christmas concert for Tessa's 4K class?! It was ADORABLE! Tessa's group was the fourth group to go. Each group sang a few Christmas songs and we got some pretty good giggles watching each group while they sang in the big auditorium at the high school. I didn't know how Tessa was going to respond to getting up on stage but she sure loved it. I still don't know where she learned all of her poses that she was doing :) The link to the video is below. It's pretty long, about five minutes, and I'm sorry for the parts where the camera is shaking. I was laughing pretty hard a few different times! This will be fun to look back at some day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMsKfQkjaJQ&feature=youtu.be

Tessa and Sadie after the performance. Maybe someday they will be in the same class up there singing together? They sure were excited to see each other after the performance :)

The photo shoot on stage after the performance. She sure loved being up there!