New Year's Eve Birthday Celebration

On Thursday, we finally got some measurable snow and it has been very, very cold. On Friday, we just enjoyed a quiet day inside before heading over to the Carlson's to celebrate Ben's 2nd birthday! Ben loves cars and got a car themed party! Avery and Ryan enjoyed seeing some familiar faces, making some new friends and playing with Ben's new car track. And, we all enjoyed the delicious food - especially the barbeque, mac 'n cheese, mashed potatoes, and cake! What a fun way to close out the year. After getting the kids down to bed, we rang in 2011 with some champagne and fondue!!


Birthday Boy



Cool car track

Having fun with a balloon

Miscellaneous Pictures

Every month, I seem to have miscellaneous pictures to share and this month is no different!




Avery is definitely motherly (some may call it bossy) and decided she would feed Ryan yogurt and he didn't seem to mind!


Avery and her favorite bear

Ryan reading a book

Avery trying on my new ski helmet

Checking out the Christmas tree

Avery and Ryan have been in a phase where they love going to the closet and getting their jackets to wear around the house

And, they also like going to get their sunglasses and wearing them inside. Ryan always seems to put them on upside down.

Opening a present from Christine

Cute stuffed animals from Leah

Barn and farm animals from Nan

Avery posing

Being sweet and giving each other a kiss

Happy Avery

Happy Ryan (he is obsessed with elephants and I think there were elephants on the tv at the time)

Bowls on their heads

Visit to the Zoo in December

Since we've been having a mild December, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather headed to the Zoo Sunday morning. First, we explored the the Tropical Discovery area since it was indoors and was still a little cool out. It was a good call as it was basically empty and very warm. Avery and Ryan had fun running up to all the tanks and checking out the fish, turtles, lizards, and snakes. We seemed to spend a lot of the time looking at the Komodo dragons as they were quite fascinating. We then enjoyed the rest of the zoo and got to see the Elephant's in training as they get read ready to move them when the Asian Tropics area is ready.

Merry Christmas

We had a nice, quiet Christmas at home and were excited to see Avery and Ryan open their gifts. They weren't quite sure what is going on, but they definitely enjoyed the tree and all the ornaments and lights. By Christmas day, they were pretty good at saying "Merry Christmas", "Santa", "HoHoHo" and singing "Jingle Bells".



Raleigh dreaming of a "White Christmas", unfortunately it wasn't in the cards for us this year.





Avery enjoying her breakfast

Presents sorted and ready to be opened

Avery and Ryan checking out wrapping
Avery peeling back the wrapping paper

Ryan excited for his fire truck and dog

Avery checking out Ryan's gift

Avery checking out the art for her room (Ryan got a cool one as well, but we didn't get a picture).

Avery carrying her Santa purse with a reindeer

Ryan giving kisses to his little Carolina bear

Ryan drawing on Elmo

Ryan happy to see the animal books from Thanksgiving.

New tricycles from Greg, Shyloe, Taiten, and Greyson

After opening all the presents, we headed downstairs to show Avery and Ryan their new slide that comes with a basketball hoop, soccer goal, and football throw. They were so excited to check it out!

Santa 'Cry' Babies

We headed to the mall to do some shopping and figured we would visit Santa if the line wasn't too long. The line wasn't long and took us about 3o minutes before it was Avery and Ryan's turn. It basically went as expected and we decided to go ahead and buy the photo. Maybe next year they won't be so scared!!



Avery and Ryan looking happy right before seeing Santa




Avery and Ryan terrified sitting on Santa's lap