Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

were both such a blast! Christmas Eve we opened presents with Nana and Papa at auntie Kelly's house. Ally was enjoying standing on the presents...



until she fell through one...luckily it was her own! She was so thrilled with the Sing and Spin Pablo and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse from Nana and papa

Max was psyched for this toy

And Brandon got a Pokemon sleeping bag which I didn't get a picture of...he has slept in it every night!

Christmas morning was so great...the kids woke up a little before 6am which is good considering in years past they have been up at 4:30! Santa was very good to all of us! Love this shot of everyone's favorite gifts...can you tell who looks the most excited?:

Ally loved her stocking:

and her new monkey baby doll swing

Brandon got Heelys and is beyond thrilled and he and Max got some cool new Wii games.

Later that day we visited with Grandma and then to Auntie Kellys for a yummy dinner with the whole family...so nice to have all the cousins together again:

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas!!

Christmas at Grampas

We had our annual Christmas at Grampa's house on Sunday. We all sleep over his house Saturday night and wake up Sunday morning and open presents. The Martins are back in town for a couple weeks so it was so great to have all the cousins together again.

My gift from Grampa was my new flash (thanks Dad!) so my photos didn't come out great early on because I didn't know what I was doing. but then I figured it out and got some great shots....so i am loving this flash!

Damon got an xbox and his face was like this for quite a few minutes:



The boys got PSP...they are so thrilled:

And Ally was thrilled to get her first American Girl...a Bitty Baby...Max helped her unwrap

And Auntie Kerrie got her a bunch of girlie girl dress up stuff...so cute and she loved it all!

And my favorite shot of the day...she had lots of help from Grampa all morning....lots of fun together

We had such a great time!

Tis the Season

to pull out the Santa hat.

Hopefully all the sicknesses and snowstorms will stay away this week and I will actually be able to finish my shopping and wrapping...can't believe Christmas is so close...the kids are so excited...love this time of year!

Abenaki Christmas Party

My kids have been looking forward to this party for weeks...definitely their favorite Christmas tradition. Of course it was not the same without the Martin clan this year. But we did get to sit at one big table which was nice. The food was so yummy and everyone looked so cute. Ally loved her new dress..excellent twirlability:



A shot of these three together...hard to come by:

We were so glad Damon could join us:

But I think he is getting a little old for the Santa part...he was a little embarrassed I think.

And Al showed off his new haircut:



And I even got in a shot!

Nana and Papa:

Kelly and Scott:

and Grampa telling a story:



And the annual group shots before the "special guest" arrived:

The "special guest" arrived:

Ally only liked him from a safe distance:

She did enjoy getting a gift from him though...she didn't really even care what it was...it had a handle and that was enough for her...those people at Fisher Price are packaging geniuses!

And one last group shot with Grampa and all their goodies:

Everyone was so happy with their gifts!

And I almost forgot the girl shot:

We had such a great time and are now totally in the Christmas spirit!

Snow Day

Our first of the season...it ended up being a wintery mix around here...snowing early, then rain, and now its snowing again. The kids were so excited to not have school and to play in the snow..they were out just after breakfast, a little after 8!

The snowball fight...they worked really hard building these walls to protect themselves.

The first snow is always fun but i am hoping there is not too much more of it this winter!

She cracks me up!

This is how she chose to eat dinner last night:



She is obsessed with the boy's gloves and would not take them off to eat!

It was hard to eat like that but she worked it out! And this is what you get when you aske her to make "the face":

And I love the way she sits in her booster...on the edge and not actually in it because she is just not quite big enough...but she now refuses the high chair:

And lastly, one of her in her new favorite place..the boys' bedroom...doing her new favorite thing...writing on Max's DS:

Things are never dull with her, that's for sure!

Random photos from Florida

This was the scene for much of the trip in Florida:



And what you heard was the siblings asking "when is it my turn?"

And Ally loved this:

She loves "The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" lately.

The kids did lots of swimming...they especially loved that they could swim at night. I didn't get a ton of pictures but here is a couple:

Ally in her pool get up...a little extra protected:

Just plain fun:

My pictures from Thanksgiving came out horrible..no good group shots whatsoever. Here's a couple of random ones:

Ally watching the parade:

and then falling asleep right after i got her dressed:

Woke up as soon as i moved her ans we ended up having to take her for drive later to get a nap in.

This one was exhausted:

He hurt his thumb playing football and cried himself to sleep and woke up crying so we took a little trip to urgent care for an xray and everything is a okay! He is much better now!

a cute one of Holly:

And this is how Ally eats her cereal now...or should I say drinks her milk! This time she actually took all the cereal out and put it on the table so she could drink the milk!

But put milk in a cup and she won't touch it!