Christmas in Richmond!

Then it was off to our Nottingham family side for Christmas day! Our special surprise was having Gigi (Grandma Retha) come to visit from her new home at Friends Fellowship. We were all so blessed to have her there! Our new family pasttime: the game Apples to Apples. :)

Christmas in Iowa!

You would think we drove across the country the way Reese acted. Nope, just to Iowa. :) Once we got there it was a frenzy of eating and game playing (and some sickness spreading around) with the Gross family. We had a great time hanging out and the kids loved getting to play with their cousin Seth. The trip home was 10 times worse and made us appreciate the drive Scott & Heather make even more!

We were back in our beds on Christmas Eve so we could wake up on Christmas morning and do stockings with Emma and Reese. How fun! (I wish we had pictures to share of this special moment, but our camera is on order- bummer.) Reese got a life-sized Curious George (which we have decided is his twin) and he enjoyed tackling George to the ground. Emma's highlight was her Play-Doh... ah, the simple joys of being four.

SuperEli

Last week we took a short trip to Colorado to visit our friends Jon, Whitney & Eli Mires. Reese had a blast playing with his good pal who is just 6 weeks older. We're hoping Eli's firstborn motivation has rubbed off a little on our Reese. Notice how in both pictures, Reese looks a little stunned as he watches Eli do his neat tricks (i.e. walking). Reese was under the impression that only "big" kids do that sort of thing. We have faith in you, little buddy.

We also met Luke Weaver, the precious new little baby of our friends Ryan and Sally. Sooo cute!

3 Amigos

Emma and two of her best buds (and cousins) Asher and Winnie enjoying some pizza.

Princess Wishes

What more can a 4 year old girl ask for? After getting an ad in the mail about this Disney Princess on Ice show, Emma proudly displayed it on her wall, not knowing that I'd already gotten tickets to ACTUALLY GO SEE IT! She was beside herself when I told her we'd get to see these dazzling beauties in person. So, we went with Emma's good pal Macy to see Belle, Ariel, Snow White, Jasmine, Mulan, Sleeping Beauty, and of course Cinderella. The girls totally loved it!

Shuffle up and deal

We had a pretty kickin' Poker Night last Friday. Lots of yummy desserts and appetizers were consumed as we whittled down our 20 players until 2 a.m. when Mike Gore (you may have mistaken him for Sasquatch) won it all. He was asked/forced to give the $135 winnings to a charity and decided to split it up between Indy Young Life and our church's mercy ministry. :) What a guy!

P.S. The Nottinghams showed a great effort, taking 2nd-4th place! So what if Josh and I watch "High Stakes Poker" religiously?

Can you believe I'm 1?

Friday was Reese's 1st birthday... yeah, we can't believe it either. A whole year! We started out the morning with a birthday serenade in his crib, followed by birthday pancakes. Then off to Play-a-Lot (a place that has a whole bunch of fun stuff to play with) ... Potato heads, legos, Thomas the Train. Doesn't get much better! To honor the curious George in him, we had a George party on Saturday with family. He was as polite as could be- smiling at and playing with each of his gifts. What a peach!

Trick-or-Treat

Emma has been talking about Halloween and trick-or-treating for weeks, so this was a big day. It wasn't enough to be in costume- she instisted on us calling her Ariel all night. Reese the dragon played along with our little game even though he didn't get any candy out of the deal! We had fun going from door to door with our good buddies Macy & Makenna. Macy and Emma raced like Olympic sprinters, pushing each other over to ring the doorbell as Makenna dragged her Wal-Mart bag full of candy along the sidewalk. Reese rode in style on Daddy's shoulders and may be the only one who stayed warm under his thick dragon costume. :)

Yes, that's Cool Whip

Can you see Emma's true motivation in helping out in the kitchen? You'd help out too if you got a spoonful of Cool Whip.

Princess for a day

Kristen came all the way from New York for a visit and she always likes to treat Princess Emma to something super fun and special! Totally decked out in matching pink shirts and double french braids, we went to the mall where Reese was left all alone in Libby Liu with 3 girls sprinkling glitter into bottles and squealing about how "cute" everything was. He was a sport as he watched Emma make 2 of her very own creations- lip gloss and lotion! Our visit with Kristen was sooo much fun and we can't wait to do it again. :)

A theme here?

Seems like we may have many similar pics to come... you gotta keep your eye on this kid. He may be naughty, but a darn cutie.

Train Ride!

We went with the whole Nottingham gang on a really cool train ride in Knightstown! We all had to bundle up in the "bitter cold" as Josh called it (probably because he is bitter
that it's cold). We stopped to pick pumpkins in a patch, which was quite a challenge since 90% of them were rotten. Emma was up to the challenge and found herself the "perfect" one!

More tight spots

Just a couple more tight spots our Reese has gotten himself into! The top one is what he was doing to entertain himself during Emma's last ballet class. The bottom is his prime hide-n-seek spot while Emma was the seeker. Okay, mommy helped a little.

I graduated!

Miss Johanna says she's ready for the intermediate class, but we think we're gonna give gymnastics a shot!

At the barre

These girls were all over the place (note the 5 totally different positions when they're all supposed to be following Miss Johanna), but I managed to capture Emma in a still moment! We'll pretend she's the one who's actually doing what she's supposed to...

Miss Johanna

Check out these ballerinas... Emma is over to the right in the purple "ballet dress." The first night we got it, she slept in it- ballet shoes, too. Her teacher Miss Johanna let us come in for the
last class and we got to see how much they've learned and it was quite entertaining! :)

CURIOUS GEORGE

Our little Reese is quite the adventurer. He gets himself into very precarious situations as you can see... and keeps us on our toes!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMMA!

Emma turned 4 this Monday, September 25th! We had a Little Einsteins party on Saturday with lots of friends and family. On Monday, we went to the zoo (seems to be a tradition) and had a blast! :)

Welcome to our blog! We are so excited to share our happenings with you, so come check it out every once in a while...