Merry Christmas

Kids are so cute on Christmas morning!

They all loved having Christmas at our new home and were very cute and sweet with each other. 

Christmas piano

On Christmas Eve, Tori gave us a little piano recital of some of the Christmas songs she has learned.  She just started taking lessons in October and is loving it.

Getting ready for Christmas

Here are a few pictures of the kids trying on their Christmas outfits for Sunday. 

Below, Ellie was very proud of herself when she found James' house-shoes and wanted a picture in them.

Tori and James loved making a gingerbread house and really worked well together making it.

Below, James is mesmerized by Dad's train

Christmas Playgroup

Our church playgroup had a fun little Christmas activity.  James and Ellie loved it.  I tried to get a few pictures, but we were pretty busy having fun most of the time.

James and Ellie weren't too thrilled with the idea of meeting Santa.  Tori always loves meeting Santa each year and Disney characters and people in costume, but James and Ellie are not that way.  Ellie wouldn't go near him at all and James would only go over close to Santa for a picture once he realized he would get a candy cane if he did. :) 

Thanksgiving in VA

 

We went to VA for Thanksgiving this year.  It was great to be able to spend the holiday with family!  Unfortunately, we didn't take many pictures during Thanksgiving.  We did go to the National Zoo that weekend and John got a few pictures with his phone.  The kids loved the zoo and it was areally nice day.

Above Tori and her cousin Audrey are showing the cute pandas Grandma bought them.  James got a lion and Ellie also got a panda. 

One of the kids favorite things to do when we visit Grandma and Grandpa is to dance while Grandpa plays the piano.

Family Pictures

We didn't have any nice family pictures with Ellie in them, so we decided to get some taken this year. What we didn't know at the time was that I was pregnant with Henry.  I guess he is technically in the pictures, too.  Below are a few pictures John took of the kids while we were waiting (I almost like them more than the real ones ;)).

Below are some of the actual pictures the studio, took.

Furniture shopping

I found these pictures from back when we went furniture shopping a bunch with the kids in August.  Our poor kids were not a fan of walking around the amazingly large furniture outlets they have near where we live, but we were in desperate need of some furniture after our move and John and I actually enjoyed it. 

We were looking at desks and then we turn around and see James sitting at this very large desk with a look on his face like he owned the world and had to get a picture.

 

 Furniture shopping was so stressful for Ellie that one binki just wasn't enough.

 Tori enjoyed some of the furniture shopping, but was always disappointed when we didn't buy the really cool leather reclining theater seats.

Some more fun pictures

Above is just a cute picture John took while everyone was in the car waiting for me before church.

One of the games the kids like to play lately is Simon Says.  I think they're pretty cute when they play it, too.

Trick or Treat

A few pictures of the kids before and after trick or treating.  Tori had fun picking out all the parts to her black cat costume, James has been looking forward to being Batman since August, and Ellie didn't have a choice and had to be a chicken (she made a very cute chicken, and got a lot of cute comments while trick or treating).  They loved going around our new neighborhood with some friends, but as always their favorite part was eating candy afterwards.

Carving Pumpkins and Halloween dinner

Here are a few pictures of us carving pumpkins.  Tori was very proud of her bat pumpkin and they were all good at cleaning out the pumpkinsand finding me lots of seeds to cook.

Below is Halloween dinner with dinner cooked inside a pumpkin, which is our fun little tradition.

Pumpkin Pickin'

We went to a local park to pick pumpkins this year.  It's a beautiful park and we got to take a wagon ride to a field where the pumpkins were.  The kids loved it and had a great time, though we're realizing that it's impossible to take a photo with everyone looking and happy when you have 3 kids.

Below is a cute Tori and you can see an Ellie who is very attached to Mommy in the background.

Ellie loves to copy James. :)

Happy sisters!