Holiday Spirit

We had lots of holiday spirit this week.  I love this time of year - our house is decorated and looks extra cozy with a huge, 8-foot tree, the stockings are hung from the mantle and our outside Christmas lights emit a nice glow outside our front window.

Monday was 'crazy hair' day at school which for Miles, with his very dark hair, meant that you could only tell that his hair was sprayed with color my looking at his forehead and scalp which were red and green. He was into it though.

The kidlets and Mike visited me at work on Wednesday and thought mommy's work was super cool!  My colleagues gave them little toys and they grazed from our all-day potluck table of treats.  Everyone commented how alike they look to one another.  I never really thought so until I saw these two pictures in which they are making identical silly faces.

Here's another attempt at a Christmas card picture...

Thanksgiving was celebrated with lots of cheer and food at my parents' house.  It's just not Thanksgiving unless you have a huge feast for lunch followed by an afternoon snack and then dinner!  We all ate heartily and enjoyed the delicious food.

All of the excitement and anticipation for the noon meal was too much for Hads and she fell asleep before the food was ready.

 After a snuggle with daddy and Aunt Nancy she feasted too.

Here's the first photo of all 5 of my parents' grandkids.  This is one of the only pictures where Bradyn wasn't flying off of the couch.

Matt, Janelle and Bradyn stayed the whole weekend and we had lots of fun hanging out, shopping and playing.

Although we're enjoying the holiday season here in cold MN Hadley's already gearing up for our trip to Phoenix.

Although not as picturesque as chopping down a Christmas tree in the woods we still had a good time picking out an awesome tree at Menards!

My sister convinced me that Hadley's hair is long enough for pigtails.  See that tiny sprout on top of her head?  It's her first little ponytail!

Feed the baby doll was loosely interpreted by our babies this weekend.

One of my favorite moments of the weekend was watching Mike wheel around a shopping cart at Target with Miles, Hads and Bradyn all sitting contentedly in it.  We all shopped while they browsed the toy aisle.  The kids loved spending lots of time with Uncle Matt and Aunt 'Lola.'

Although a smaller crowd this year we enjoyed our annual 'fundue' party.  Miles was our little party crasher.

We listened to Christmas music on Pandora and hauled out boxes upon boxes of  decorations this morning. 

Until all of the decorating was a little too much for our baby.

To top off a very festive weekend we celebrated my sweet, little Godson Daren's birthday.  The kids went to bed without a fuss tonight after running around with the Lemke kids.