Monday, January 26, 2015

Setting up the Christmas tree

Our Christmas tree ended up much better in the house than we thought. It was beautiful and allotted much more room for all the ornaments we have accumulated over the years. The kids really enjoyed bringing us the ornaments to be put up on the tree. This took several days.


Preliminary tree decorating

I'm going to help daddy with these lights.

Hanging up the footprint ornament we made for his first Christmas.



Taking a break from hanging ornaments.


They always make me laugh.

\
I know there are more ornaments in there.

Let's put all of these up!

Handling one of the bigger ornaments.

The kids favorite ornaments turned out to be the larger Hallmark ones that light up and play sound. Particularly there are a few Charlie Brown ones that they would love to press the button on to see the display. Another one of Ainsley's favorite one is from Dr. Seuss where the who daughter catches the grinch stealing the Christmas tree. When pressed, she says "Why? Santi Claus. Why? Why are you taking our Christmas tree. Why?"

I question the decision behind introducing her to the word "Why?"

Searching for the perfect Christmas tree

The past few years I've been a grinch around Christmas. I don't usually get into the holiday spirit and putting up the Christmas tree has always been a hassle to me. It didn't help that Will hated the artificial pre-lit Christmas tree I have as he considers getting all the lights to work rocket science.

What a difference kids make. This year will be the first year that Carter and Ainsley actually kind of understand Christmas. The weekend after Thanksgiving, I persuaded Will to go on a family outing to get a Christmas tree. Not only did Will want a real live Christmas tree but he wanted the twins to watch him cut down our tree. Oh boy. 

After reading several opinions and reviews from people on FB, we opted to go to Cackler Farms up in Delaware. It wasn't too far and it sounded like they had the pine trees Will wanted which was the blue spruce.

Kids chasing after daddy who is searching for the perfect tree.

Ainsley: Let it go, let it go.....

They liked the one animal that was there.


The kids like this tree.

But I like this tree too. How many of my trees are you going to reject?

Picture in front of the tree the family decided on.

After having to follow Will from one end of the farm to the other, I decided that this pregnant lady was finished with the risk of tripping over a tree trunk. There was a play area for the kids and I took them there which was much more enjoyable than searching for the perfect tree. I think the kids would agree.

Ainsley decided she wanted to take home the snowman rather than a tree.

I'm climbing to the North Pole.


Got there!

My turn!

This is kind of a big slide!

Made it to the top!

What do you mean I have to come back down?

I'm just going to chill here for a while....

Again! Again!

Meanwhile Will decides to look around some more to make sure that he did not miss out on the perfect tree even though we all found one we agreed on. Then he came back to get the sled and the saw to cut down the tree. What felt like an eternity later, he drags the thing back up and goes to get help securing it to the car. I felt bad that I didn't take the kids to go watch him cut the tree down but he really didn't ask me to when he got the sled. I think he realized that the kids were having way more fun in the play area.

There's more than just a slide here!

This play area feels a lot like what we played with when we got pumpkins.

It's cool, I'm down with that.

Funny conversation overheard at the tree farm:
Customer -Will my tree be ok if it gets rained on on the drive home?
Tree guy: I think it's been rained on before....

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Classic looks

Classic Ainsley face of disapproval/does not understand.

Now you've done it.


Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is always a full day event with family driving in from all parts of Ohio. We can always leave it up to the guys to find some amusing way to play with the kids' toys.





Girls taking a break after laughing at the hilarity that went on.


What a photo bomb....

Glued to mommy.

Happy staying right by mommy.

Four little monkeys jumping on the bed....

The kids ate awesome by themselves. That never happens...note: babies like Thanksgiving foods.

Let it go. Let it go. Can't hold it back anymore...

Laid back fun November

November was pretty laid back and seemed to fly by. Meeting up with friends for dinner and zoo lights.
America idol?



Microphone doesn't work!






Old Bag of Nails in Westerville