December kept us busy!

A little taste of our December...

Roarrrrr!  Let's get this month started!

Moving of the furniture and a sheet...a homemade tent! 

And some fun in the real tent in the basement :)

Riding a motorcycle at the Children's Museum

Giving the reindeer a brushing before their big night  :)

Racing the cars in the Hot Wheels exhibit

Maryn loves the carousel!

I think this may have been Cormac's first time to actually ride on one of the animals!
He loved it!

Theo was pretty excited too!

At the Butler vs IU game...such an AWESOME win!!!!

Maryn wrapped herself up one night and told us she was Mary :)

A little festive attire for our cooking baking :)

Grandma Spaulding came down to spend the night with us.
For some reason Theo seems to be without pants in a lot of our family pictures...hmmm:)

Maryn was the caroler in her school play.
She sang one of her favorites, Deck The Halls!

One morning when Jeremy was off we headed downtown to the Eiteljorg Museum to see Jingle Rails.
As the website says, "Jingle Rails: The Great Western Adventure is a journey to the Great American West- the real West and the West of the imagination."  Everything is made of natural materials such as moss, twigs and nuts with a little holiday cheer.  

Theo LOVED it!  He loves trains and this was perfect for him!
We were talking about the passenger train and how people would ride for a long time and lunch on the train.
He now has his whole meal planned for his first train ride...hot dog, yogurt, pear and milk :)

Maryn liked the part where Old Faithful went off.

The attempt at a cute photo :)

Our first "big" snow!  We brought some inside to play with.

Of course Theo tried to eat it!

Well here they are visiting Santa...Maryn was great, Theo was fairly dazed and at least didn't cry, Cormac was just not having it!

Ready to build a gingerbread house!!

Not sure if more candy was eaten or placed on the house :)

Cormac's turn to help!

Hooray!!  We are going to see Christmas lights!!

On the Saturday night before Christmas, we drove around to see Christmas lights.
The kids loved spotting houses, but were really excited to go up to Reynold's Farm Equipment and see their big display.  We had to wait in a pretty long line, but it was worth it!

Time to decorate!

Let the decorating begin!  The day we got the tree we brought it and let it sit for the night.  Maryn loved  helping Daddy cut the netting off.  Daddy had lots of help!   There also seemed to be a little dance party going on with some Christmas music :)  The next day we trimmed the tree!  I was a little scared about Cormac near the tree...he was quite fascinated by it! So we decided to go mostly plastic and plush ornaments this year.  We'll bring the fragile ones back next year :)  I love now that Maryn remembers ornaments and Theo is super excitement to touch all of them.  Hooray for Christmas!!

I'm sure Cormac was wondering, "why is there a tree in our house?"

Helping cut the netting off!

One more helper :)

dance party!!!

The little reindeers 1st Christmas!

So excited to put the star on this year!

Maryn putting up her first ornament!

Theo's chose a bus to put up.  He just wanted to play with it and
was not happy it was to stay on the tree:)

Cormac's first ornament...a fire truck!

Smile little elf!

Another little elf!!

The finished product...I love the tree at night!!

I love this picture...so in aww!

off to the tree farm

Once again we made our way to Piney Acres Tree Farm to pick the perfect Christmas Tree!  The kids were super excited, especially Maryn to take Cormac for the first time.  It was a pretty cold day, but we bundled up and enjoyed being surrounded by all the fresh pine.  It took us awhile to find our tree...they all start to look the same after awhile!  Theo loved the bumpy wagon ride and he and Maryn both loved the cats in the barn. While we waited for them to trim the tree we warmed up with some hot cocoa, popcorn and cookies.  Since the farm is considered a "long" trip the kids know they can watch a movie.  We listened to Christmas music on the way and then on the way home they watched a new movie "Jingle All The Way". I love this tradition!

Maryn and her new friend, the cat.

The cat made sure to keep it's distance from Theo! 

This year they offered carriage rides out to the trees.  Maryn loved
petting the horses.

Ready for our tractor ride!!

I feel like Cormac is looking at Theo for reassurance...not sure he is going to find it!

hmmmm....where is our tree??

Stomping through the trees!

Yea! We found the perfect tree!
A little smaller this year, but less to fall right? :)

Daddy has the big job of cutting it down!

Daddy and Theo

Daddy and Maryn

Mommy and Cormac

The two of us...we rarely capture one of those anymore!

Waiting for the tractor to come back.

mmmm....cookies!

Daddy and Cormac

Such a big cookie for a little boy!

awww...fresh air and a full tummy :)

Ready for the ride home...
best part of the trip according to Maryn, "the tree and hot chocolate"

I think someone is going to fall asleep on the way home :)

Still working on that huge cookie :)
Theo's favorite part of the trip, "the tactor...bumpy, bumpy!"

The new travel home movie and first Christmas movie of the season :)

a very thankful thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, Cormac gets the picture spotlight!  I never seem to get many pictures at Thanksgiving unless its one of the kids firsts.  We spent Thanksgiving evening with Jeremy's family and then the day after with mine.  So nice to be able to split them into two days rather than doing both in the same day.

While I'm incredibly thankful for the beautiful family God has given, I am especially thankful for this little blue eyed boy this year.  What a joy to love him...what a special gift!