Christmas Tree and Zoo Lights!

This morning we went and picked out our Christmas Tree. The boys enjoyed running through all the other trees while we decided which one to get.

This is Jackson saying "cheese." He just started saying a lot of words this week...sock, shoe, baby, cheese, go, toes, nose, head, mouth. That is all I can think of right now, but it is so fun to hear him saying words!

Brothers!

Caleb was so excited to decorate the tree that he didn't think he should take a nap. Luckily we got the boys to sleep and I was able to put the lights and garland on so the tree would be all ready when Caleb woke up.

He seriuosly put up all the ornaments except for the very top. What a good helper!

Jackson just watched.

Here is one of the lower branches...love it!

Tonight we had dinner with my family and then headed over to "Zoo Lights."

Watching the ice sculptors.

Right after these pictures were taken all the lights on this went out! I think Caleb tripped over the cord...guess you're not supposed to go behind the lights!

This morning we headed over to my parents house to do laundry. My mom was starting with her Christmas decorations which included a new (fake) tree. Once it was out of the box, the creative juices started flowing and this dump truck was constructed for my boys! I'm pretty sure they liked it!

Yes, it actually dumps.

The whole team!

Jackson woke up and wanted to play too!

I thought I should post a few videos so you could see how cool this is...enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Stroms this year. Here is our attempt at a family picture...not too bad! We ate so well and took home a bunch of leftovers...thanks Aunt Louise! The highlight of the evening was when Jackson said "GG" for Great Grandma.

Breakfast with the High Schoolers

This morning we has our students over for breakfast. We ate and ate and ate and then we played some games. I wish I could spend every morning like this!

Caleb finally got around to painting this airplane that he got at a birthday party.

Here are the boys playing together. Jackson thinks he is wrestling with Caleb.

So sleepy...

We spent the night at Nana and Papa's. After taking a shower in the morning, I passed Jackson off to get myself ready. I came out to this!

Courtney turns 30!

We celebrated my 30th birthday with some good friends and their families. We all ate dinner at Lou Malnati's and then headed over to Lincoln Lanes (a college favorite) to introduce our kids to "rolling". It was a little chaotic at times but so fun to all be together. Thanks for celebrating with us!

The next day...

This is where Caleb slept...the cage. The kids LOVED it. They were monkeys, they went on vacations together, the possiblities were endless. And at night Caleb wanted to be all locked up. We even tried to pretend that we locked the gate and he pushed on it and said, "you didn't lock it."

"sleeping"

We had so much fun "living" with all of our friends. We sat around in our pajamas for the morning just enjoying eachother.

Next we headed down to the beach for some more digging.

Caleb and Mackenzie had so much fun on the inner tuber ride.

I love this one! Mackenzie was holding on for dear life.

After lunch we all headed to a farm for a hayride.

Our family.

I just love that face.

Checking out the tractor.