Thanksgiving 2015- Zoie's 4th Birthday

Life is full of blessings and craziness!  Our kids sure do keep us on our toes!  Sometimes we find them sneaking into our bed.  Baby Ashley is taking note of their shenanigans.

It was great having Chris' family in town to celebrate Thanksgiving Day!  

Kids loved playing with cousins.

Chris and Bryan comparing manliness.  Turns out they are both pretty manly.

After Thanksgiving, Madelynn and Zoie performed in their ballet recital.  It was adorable and so much fun to see their progress!

Our kids start counting down to Christmas about a week after the previous Christmas so we decorated giant Gingerbread men soon after Thanksgiving. 

We didn't get a white Christmas, but the kids were happy to help shovel on a Saturday.  Madelynn even wanted to shovel the neighbors' driveways.  So we did.  The ironic part was that the snow melted before the neighbors came home from their trips.  But I was glad she initiated some kind service!

The favorite Nativity Play.  Grant narrated and played the piano.  It was a lot of fun!

More cookie decorating! 

Christmas Morning!  The kids were so happy with their stockings that it took some convincing to get them to move into the Christmas tree room.  Funny kids!

I bought a cheap, used train table and Chris and I glued some Lego plates onto the top of it for a Lego Table.  The kids were over the moon to put their sets on it!

The day after Christmas we went into Chicago to visit the Lincoln Park Zoo.  They had music linked up to the Zoo lights so Zoie started busting a move!  She was having a blast!

Madelynn got a little Karaoke machine and sings all the time now.  Ashley will jump in any chance she can get.

Our Sweet Zoie turned 4 on January 30th  She is such a silly little sweet heart!  She loves princesses and dressing up.  She changes her clothes multiple times a day and loves to role play being a princess with magical powers.

I channeled my childhood happy memories of having a doll cake, so I surprised Zoie with the same!  She loved it and almost didn't want to eat it, but since she loves sugar she dug right in! Love you sweet girl!

Now on to some random cute kids pics! 

She loves to be a little mommy!

And occasionally she'll fold her arms like everyone else.

She loves babies!

  

Ashley's 1 year Birthday!

We love our sweet Ashley!  She is so much fun and loves her family so much!  She gets really excited when the kids get home from school so she can play with them.  She is still very busy and curious and will happily tear the kitchen apart while I'm cooking.  She has 2 top and 2 bottom teeth and can say Mama, Dada, and Hi Dad!  She loves books, music and swinging outside.

We love you Little Cat A! Happy Birthday!

She was pretty tired by the time we got to birthday cake, so she didn't seem to care at first...until she tasted it!  She also didn't care for how cold the ice cream was, but got over that quickly!

Grant and Maddie running in the Cross Town Classic.  Ashley loved watching all the activity.

Loves swinging!

Our friend took these pictures for us.  She was unhappy and crying during the entire shoot, so it was amazing we got such adorable pictures!

We love our busy little family!

 Happy Birthday Sweet girl!

Madelynn's Birthday and Halloween

We love our little Madelynn!  She started Kindergarten this year, which to have really help her feel like a big kid!  She is still just as sweet as ever and still loves to "mommy" Ashley.  She still loves Hello Kitty and is excited that she has started reading.  So far since Kindergarten started, she has lost her 4 front teeth. So she loves singing,  "All I want for Christmas are my two front Teeth!  She loves to plan parties and even tries to turn normal days into parties. For instance, if Chris and Grant leave to run some errands she will declare that now "It's a girl party!"

Happy Birthday Little Cat M! We love you!

 Right after she lost her bottom 2 teeth.  I had to pull one for her and the 2nd one fell out after Grant jumped on her and his elbow hit her face- so technically, he pulled the 2nd one!

She is now 13 months old and just as cute and busy as ever!

We visited a pumpkin festival at the local plant nursery.

Free days at the zoo!  We brought our neighbor friend, Jenna.

She wanted to be like her cool big brother!

Somebody wanted a snack.