Christmas 2008

Here are some pictures of our Christmas season this year:

Raleigh helping to decorate the tree. Any idea how many ornaments you can fit on one branch in one spot of a 7 foot tree? Ha!

We had Christmas Eve dinner at our house. Great Mimi & Great Papa, Nonni & Poppy, Grammy & Grandpa plus the 4 of us! It was nice....

As you can see Santa barely brought anything... (ok, that's sarcasm, we barely had a square inch left to sit Christmas morning)....

Our "little man" turned one!

(Better late than never I suppose)

Aiden turned ONE in December.... Hard to believe a year had already gone by! Nonni and Poppy came down for his birthday and Christmas. We had a small party with family and friends ! Here he is destroying his little gingerbread man cake!

Halloween 2008

Here are Raleigh and Aiden - the Safari hunter and little lion:

We took the kids to Orlando (side note, I wrecked the van on the way over after swerving to avoid hitting a COYOTE! Bad idea. This was not a good start to the vacation, but it did get better. I'll spare the pictures of my van, which had the overall texture of a ruffles potato chip after the high tension guard wires went up one side over the roof ripping off the roof rack and back down the other side) We met up with Darrell and Sandy while there and everyone went to Universal Studios. Then Grammy and I took Raleigh and Aiden to the "Not So Scary Halloween" at Disney. They had SO much fun!!!

Finally, on the actual day of Halloween we took the kids Trick-OR-Treating around Grammy and Grandpa's neighborhood. Then Daddy took Raleigh around to our little street, since she really enjoyed the whole experience!

Our Trip Up North

In September we took a trip up north to see Chris' family. We visited with Nonni & Poppy first, then went to Jamestown to see Grammy Hayes, Great Grammie Long, Aunt Colleen, Uncle Brian, and the cousins! Raleigh had a great time playing with her cousins! Here are all the kids together (above) - this is the LAST shot of many, they are all pretty much looking at the camera. I think that's a miracle! Raleigh and Aiden with Grammy Hayes and Great Grammie Long...

What a happy little man!

We visited the Aquarium while we were in Niagara Falls. After we walked over to a little look out on the American Side. It was a really beautiful day.

They threw a little birthday bash for me since my birthday was just a week before our trip...

We had a great trip!!!

Guess Who's 3?

Well, not officially until next Saturday....But Raleigh did have the "Little Einstein's Party" she's been waiting so patiently for this weekend...

The party was at Grammy's house, in the art studio. The Little Einstein's decorations are impossible to find, so we had to had paint the backdrops and table decorations. Table cloths and plates were about all we could find. I think everything turned out really cute though! Raleigh only wanted Little Einsteins and LOTS of balloons! She was thrilled.

We played Einsteins BINGO and did some art projects with the kids...

Katie and her mom above...

Ellie and her dad below...

Christian and his mom above...

Hannah and her dad below...

Raleigh and Christian were SO cute playing through the glass windows as Christian left....

Oh! And I got my hair cut! Still trying to adjust to the new look.

Raleigh's friend Jasmine (well, her mom is my friend, so that makes them friends by default, right?)

Oh and Aiden made a new friend at the party too. This is Dillan - he's two months older than Aiden. His family lives down the street from Grammy and Grandpa.

Raleigh's presents!
Raleigh finally opens her own presents (what a relief)

Awwwwww.....

Overall the party was a success. Started out a little slow, we had a few late comers (I was afraid they weren't coming and Raleigh was going to have the smallest birthday party on record) but everything worked out OK . Most importantly, Raleigh had the BEST time! She wanted to know if we could have the party again. Definitely not....once was plenty!

Next Saturday, on her actual birthday we'll do something special.

Hopefully I can get a picture of her finished art project and the playhouse she received from mommy and daddy. Grammy, Grandpa, Great Mimi & Great Papa helped with the playhouse accessories. Perhaps tomorrow those pictures will get posted!