ride that train

I will begin this post by saying that all of these photos are courtesy of Renee, the now "professional photographer"! Thanks for taking pics Renee!

This pic of Alex has nothing to do with our train ride into the city, but I thought it was a cute one so I threw it in.
On a very cold, windy day we packed up the kids and boarded the train to Philadelphia. The kids were very well behaved and enjoyed the train ride, which was about an hour. Kellan stood up most of the time, looking out the window and jumping up and down on the seat.

Once we arrived we headed straight for the miniature train display in Market Street station. This display is a train lover's dream--I think my nephew Nolan would happily have spent the entire day there, watching the various trains drive around, pushing the buttons to make different things move. Kellan also loved watching the trains--I can't tell you how many times I heard him loudly yell "TRAINS" everytime he saw them!

We then headed over to Macy's (formerly Wanamaker's) to check out their light show. I hadn't been to see this since I was a kid, and I have a memory of going to watch this with my parents so it was cool to be able to take my kids to see it.

The kids enjoyed hanging out on the floor waiting for it to start--Kellan was a wild man rolling all around on the (less than clean) floor, laughing and playing with Mia.

After the show, we walked through the Charles Dickens display of A Christmas Carol before heading back through Reading Terminal Market, grabbing some food, then making our way back to the train. The kids enjoyed the ride home as well, with Nolan being the only one to fall asleep--he slept most of the ride home, while Kellan and Mia were awake through their nap time and were jumping on the seats, eating snacks, and having a good time.

It was great to spend the day with Jon and Renee and family, as well as Renee's mom. I look forward to taking the kids again next year :) Hopefully Marlon will be able to join us next time!

Christmas recap

We had a wonderful christmas holiday spent with family and friends. 2009 has been a wonderful year and we are very blessed! We spent our first Christmas eve and morning in our own home as a family this year. We got the chance to attend our church's Christmas eve service, something we had never been able to do.

We enjoyed dinner with our neighbors when we got home, then woke up in the morning to see what "Santa" had delivered! Once we opened our presents we got on the road (in less than ideal weather!) to drive to NJ to visit Marlon's family.

Alex, Kellan, and Carter

After visiting with Marlon's family, we finished off a busy christmas day by driving to my parents' house, where my brothers and families were. We got the kids into bed and ready for Christmas #3, opening gifts the following morning with all of the cousins!

It's getting more difficult each time to get pictures of 5 very active children all together--at least they made it all into one photo, although I'm not sure anyone got a good one with all of them smiling at the same time! I like this one of Mia--not sure what she's doing, but it just adds to the personality of the picture!

Jon, Renee, Renee's mom and I took our 4 kids into Philadelphia on the train (the first time any of the kids had ridden on a "fast" train) to see the light show at Macy's and the train display in the Market St. station. It was a fun time and the kids did really well-I'll post a few pictures from that separately.

The favorite gift this year--GEOTR*X!! My mom collected some trains and track from craigslist for Kellan and it was well worth it--our dining room floor is now a huge train track. Marlon had fun putting it together and everyone has enjoyed playing with it! We can't wait for cousin Nolan to come and test it out--after all, he is the train expert!

Here is Alex enjoying a bunch of her new gifts--headband from Aunt DeeDee and Uncle Josh, purse filled with lip gloss from "Santa", flash cards from Aunt DeeDee, and UGG boots from Nana and PopPop!

sledding

We recently had our first significant snowfall, and Alex was excited to break out the sled again! Kellan was much happier just sitting somewhere and watching all the action--I think it's because he wasn't able to move very well with all of his snow gear on!

Marlon sending our neighbor Adelaide down while the kids watch

Kellan cheering the girls on as they sled

Alex taking the plunge

The Holiday Season--my favorite time of year!

It truly is the most wonderful time of the year! We got our christmas tree at the beginning of December, and I'm sad to say this is the first year (possibly EVER) that we did not cut down a tree! We drove out to the tree farm on the one day we had to get the tree, and the tree farm was closed! Alex was disappointed since we'd told her we would be decorating a tree that night, and Marlon was leaving to go out of town the next day so we would have had to wait for another week to get a tree. SO for the sake of our daughter, we pulled into Lowes on the way home and picked out the biggest tree we could find, paid about $20 more than we would have paid at the tree farm, threw it on top of the car, and off we went. Marlon was relieved that he didn't have to do the sawing, then dragging, of the tree through the tree farm, but I told him not to get too excited because we will never be doing this again! The experience of going out and finding the tree, cutting it down, and getting it home is always full of great memories that we will continue for our kids!

Our wonderful neighbors hosted a gingerbread house decorating party for a bunch of the neighborhood kids a few weeks ago. They purchased gingerbread houses for all of the kids so they could each have their own house to decorate, and set up everything in their basement for the kids. My kids loved decorating (and eating) the house and candy. We followed up the decorating with a big neighborhood pot luck dinner. We have the greatest neighbors--seriously. We have so many random, unplanned pot luck dinners where we just get together with anyone who is around and end up having a huge meal and a ton of fun socializing. We are so lucky!

We then had a party a few weeks ago at another neighbor's house--an ugly christmas sweater party. FUN!! My friend Ehren and I spent the day before the party going around to stores in search of tacky, ugly christmas attire (why is it that when you're looking for the stuff you can't seem to find it anywhere?!?!) and after having no luck, we decided to make our own! I decided to dress our family in red (sweatshirts for Marlon and I, turtlenecks for the kids) and we decorated them with tacky holiday decor. I went with a theme for our family, so we all had our initial on the front in green felt. Let's just say that Marlon was mortified at what he had to wear, but he did wear it in good fun and our family ended up winning the prize for the tackiest outfits!! I did not get many photos since Marlon seemed to disappear when the camera came out, but I do believe my neighbors got lucky with some pictures, so I'll have to post those when I find them!

Just to give you an idea of what the kids were wearing, see below (Alex was very excited that her shirt had jingle bells all over it!)

Bryan and Ehren in their tacky shirts

More to come on our December activities!

what we've been up to...starting with Thanksgiving

Way back in November (it seems like forever ago!!) we were able to head back to PA/NJ to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families. It was nice that our entire family was able to go together, something that doesn't always happen! We got to share our thanksgiving lunch with my family, and our thankgsiving dinner with Marlon's family. We were also able to spend time with Marlon's friend Mark and his family-something we don't get to do very often!

Here are a few photos from our time with family.

Kellan-20 months

It's hard to believe Kellan is only 4 months away from turning 2!! Where has the time gone?? He continues to grow and develop with each passing day-over the past few weeks his vocabulary has really exploded, so it's been fun to hear him communicate more! Here's what he's up to at 20 months:

-He LOVES trains-likes to say "train" and "chugga-chugga" and "choo choo". Along with kicking and throwing balls, trains is probably his next favorite thing! He still loves running and dribbling a ball with his feet. He loves to say soccer ball, but it comes out sounding like "soppa ball".

-He's started to say more words, and he's learning to use them in the appropriate settings, like stuck, push, pull, open, close, up, down. He likes to talk about cars and trucks, loves to read books, and LOVES playing with his big sister. Just the other day he started calling me "jenn" if I didn't answer to "mommy"--now he thinks it's funny to call me Jenn. He follows Marlon and I around constantly saying "mommy" and "daddy" over and over again to get our attention. Yesterday he really seemed to pick up counting--he's gone from saying no numbers at all to counting to 8 on his own, and I think he'll probably be counting to 10 within a few days at this rate! We're working on colors and the ABCs, too.

-He still loves to dance. He still enjoys when Marlon turns on the I-Pod and plays music--the two of them dance around the family (sometimes Alex and I will join in!)

-He's still a good eater, although he has stopped drinking a lot of milk. He loves orange juice, and has recently started enjoying raisins. He likes eating the gerber graduates ravioli, and he loves Yobaby 3 in 1 yogurt meals. He loves pineapple and has started enjoying scrambled eggs. He continues to not be a very big fan of bread. He won't eat toast or sandwiches either.

-He loves going to the park and playing outside. He loves bubbles and his current favorite book is "I Know a Rhino" (a book his sister also loved!).

-He has such a sweet personality but is sometimes too aggressive when he plays (he likes to throw toys around the room and they sometimes hit other people!), so he is learning to say "Sorry".

-He will say "Bye" and "Love You" when we leave, and he will give hugs and kisses.

-He still loves his "lovie", and now also likes to carry around another stuffed toy (we call him lovie's friend) and a blanket. He still sucks his thumb when in bed to help himself fall asleep-we are seeing the first signs of his poor thumb being cracked and red from all the sucking he's doing!

He is a sweet boy and we're enjoying watching him turn into a little boy--Alex is loving having a companion to play with (except for when they're fighting!).

family visit

A few weeks ago Jon, Renee, Nolan and Mia came out for a visit and I'm just now getting around to posting a few photos. The cousins had fun playing, as they always do!

Mia and Alex were being taught to curtsy by Aunt Nay Nay, while dressed up as princesses of course!

Princess Mia, wearing Alex's Snow White costume. What a beauty!

The girls getting all dressed up

Alex and Nolan giving Uncle Jonny a hair cut using plastic knives and forks

I wanted to end with a quick photo of father and son--getting Kellan started early with video games!