2011 Year in Pictures

2011



January we started the year with a big birthday bash!




February we enjoyed great family time.














March found J & T in Hawaii, and Nana and Aunt Ashley watching the kiddos.




Happy Easter in April!



May started a wonderful season of outdoor grilling and fun.

...

Apparently June was way too busy to take any photos...




July fun at the Zoo with friends



August destroyed our backyard...















September produced a backyard made for F.U.N!!!!!




October and Halloween ducks, train driver's, and all kinds of sea creatures!



November brought us back inside the house, enjoying family time.








































December flew the family to Kentucky for Christmas.


We pray 2012 will be more fruitful than 2011. Full of family fun and kiddo craziness!

Snow Day

We woke this morning to a dusting of snowfall of about 1".  From leaves falling to snow in 10 days. Well, we'll have fun nonetheless.

Elsa enjoying the snow.  She loved running back and forth and was very excited about Jones playing in the snow.

Jones getting in on the action.  He was very confused after he "caught" the snowball, since it disappeared on the catch.  Titus followed suit and was throwing snowball more or less at Jones who didn't seem to mind much.

Momma and Elsa smiling. Titus asks to build a snowman after being unsatisfied with the result of his snow angel.

Ask and ye shall receive.  It wasn't a very big one, but it was as big as Elsa.  After decorating it, Titus asked if he could "go kick it".  We convinced him to make another snowball to kick, rather than blasting our poor little snowman to smithereens. 

A quick family pose before we went back inside.  After one of Elsa's hands got cold and wet, she was       d-o-n-e and not feeling shy about letting us know.  I asked Titus if he was cold and he said, "No Daddy!  I have gloves on and a hat on and-a and-a a big-ole-coat on."  (When I first opened the door to go outside, Titus said "Oh Daddy!  It's too cold outside."  I then told him he had a big coat and a hat and gloves on, so he should stay warm.  Seems like he remembered what I told him.)

And what better to warm back up with?  Hot chocolate of course.  Titus is happy he's getting "hot chocolate milk" and Elsa is just thinking, "Brother, don't be silly.  You are wasting time.  You need to be drinking it faster, like me!"

Fall Family Fun

Well we've been enjoy the seasonal change and having fun in the leaves this fall. Here a couple of short videos showing the fun we've been having.

The kids had so much fun, after their naps they both wanted to go outside and play in the leaves again. Titus is particularly fun to talk to. It's fun to ask him to describe why he likes doing certain things. The leaves discussion when something like this:

Titus: (immediately after waking up from his nap) Daddy! We need to go play in the leaves again! 

Daddy: (smiling, but still parenting) You mean would like to play in the leaves again. Mommy and Daddy take care of your needs. Ok?

Titus: (realizing this mistake, it's a frequent one) Right! Can we go outside and play in the leaves?

Titus: (realized he left a word off, makes eye contact with Daddy) Please?

Daddy: (redirecting, because we are leaving for dinner) Did you have fun playing in the leaves?

Titus: Yeah!

Elsa: (interjecting from the change table, slightly delayed) Yeah!

Titus: I love playing in the leaves.

Daddy: You do? What do you love about playing in the leaves?

Titus: (quick and disorganized, but honest) I love to play the leaves because Daddy counts and then Elsa runs then it's Titus' turn and then I go really really fast, too fast and jump over the leaves! And then I throw them and leaf rain!

Daddy: (amused) You make it rain leaves?

Titus: (bright) Yeah! (short pause) Daddy I hungry!

Daddy: Okay. We are going to get some pizza!

Titus: Oh! I love pizza!

Daddy: You do? What do you love about pizza?

Titus: I love pizza...umm...because it's food!

Yeah, so not all conversations are not all as deep and revealing as the rest.

playing in the grass

Who's gonna teach them the right way to do this?

Good Friends

We just said goodbye to some wonderful folks. They are military and are moving to another base. We had such a blast with them the last few months.

Happy Halloween!

We enjoyed a bounce house festival on Sunday. Our duck and train driver were accompanied by a octopus and a fish. They had a great time jumping through the obstacle course! We got to see many other little ones in their costume attire too! Some were a bit too scary for mama, Yikes!






So then on Monday night we donned our costumes one last time, and took our pumpkins out to find some candy. Titus wanted to fill his all the way to the top. Unfortunately, he was ready to go home after the first house. silly kid. We visited about 6 houses on our block. All the neighbors loved seeing the kids all dressed up. At one house their cat sneaked outside and Elsa ran after it. We laughed so hard, her little duck waddle was fantastic!

Ghosts?

Its nearing that time of the year again. Halloween costume time!!! Well, I didn't think we needed to get the costumes out just yet, but apparently... well just check it out.