New Year's Eve

This past New Year's Eve, something strange happened. Our family stayed up until midnight to ring in the new year. This hasn't happened since Jack was born, and actually longer, since I was pregnant for New Year's Eve in 2006, I was too tired to stay up that late...so this is the first time since 2005!

We celebrated 4 houses down the street with a neighborhood party. I was so proud of Jack. We walked in and there was a couple there we had not met. Jack went up and introduced himself, "I'm Jack." Awesome!

Uh, despite how much food you see, there weren't that many of us there.

We had a lot of fun.


Check out my cute husband.


The idea was for a few of the older kids to babysit the younger ones downstairs. One was 13 and the other two were 12. Either they weren't quite ready to be babysitters, or they were more interested in hanging out with each other, but either way it didn't go quite as smooth as planned. Anyway, in the course of the playing, the older kids were running around in the basement, locking each other out of various bedrooms while the little ones were watching a movie on the couch. At one point, Jack ran over to see what was going on and got his finger slammed in the door. Bad. It was smashed so flat I was certain it was broken. (I think the appearance of his finger completely dented in and flat freaked out Jack a little too.) Thank goodness our hostess is a nurse. This picture was taken a couple of days later...still looks painful, but much better than it looked previously.


I walked home with Jack to get his blanket and tried to get him to go to sleep, but he said his finger hurt too bad to sleep. So, Jack and the 3 older kids stayed up till midnight. (He is such a happy kid, even when he is hurt.)

They even had sparklers.

I think I got more use out of his blanket than he did.

At 1am we gave up on Jack going to sleep and I carried him home (in my heels...good thing we were close by.) Stuart stayed a little longer and we all went to bed at 1:30am! I love our neighborhood.

A new injury for Jack isn't the best way to start out the new year...my poor baby.

Jack's Girl

So, December 29th, Jack's favorite girl got married. Yes, Jack's babysitter, Chloe got married. We couldn't be happier for the girl, and we were honored to be at the ceremony.

The setting was beautiful.

Jack was an angel during the ceremony. (Mommy cried a little.)

The bride was stunning.

My camera did not do her dress justice. It was so beautiful.

The bride and groom were adorable together.

Instead of wedding cake, they had cake pops and ice cream made on-demand.

So yummy!

Jack was hanging out with 2 other boys that Chloe babysits. Can you see why the kids adore Chloe?

Jack's good behavior could only last so long. Eventually, dancing turned into wrestling.


Jack took this picture of Chloe.


He seriously loved dancing and would have danced all night if we would have let him. His favorite was sliding across the dance floor.

He got one last dance with his girl.

He cried when we made him leave. He kept telling us he wanted Chloe to come back to our house with us. We tried to explain that she had other plans for the evening...

Oh, because my pictures are not great, I stole a couple from Chloe's facebook page. These are from a photo shoot she did about a week after the wedding. They are so stunning I had to share them.

Christmas Loot

Yes, we had presents for Christmas!

Santa got Jack a remote control shark. It is the only thing Jack asked Santa for this Christmas. Jack refused to even look in his stocking and, instead, had to find the the remote control shark first.

Jack also got roller blades! He insisted on taking his jammies off before trying them on...big surprise.

He had to try them out right away.

Another cool LEGO. He's so proud you would think he put it together, instead of mommy.

It was a full day of playing and it wore a boy out. He decided to sleep with his Darth Vader LEGO watch...and his ball.

Did I mention the ball lights up? And, changes colors?

He had so much loot we didn't put his wall tracks together until 2 days later. I think even Bremen was impressed with that toy. It's not often that Jack can impress his older cousin.

I love helping him put his new toys together, but it's exhausting. Couldn't everything come pre-assembled?

Countdown to Christmas

Nothing puts a kid to sleep faster than the promise of Christmas morning. (Coupled with the threat that Santa doesn't come while kids are awake.)

While sleeping, Santa followed his standard tradition of wrapping up the presents, tree, and stockings!

I love watching him run through it Christmas morning. Yes, we waste a lot of paper. Yes, the environmentalist in me feels guilty. Yes, I will do it again next year.

Christmas Eve

Guess who liked his Christmas eve jams?

And Stuart was worried Jack would be disappointed to open one gift on Christmas eve, only to find out it was jammies.

Christmas with the Grandparents

We spent the morning of Christmas Eve at Grammie and Papa's house. I really didn't take any pictures...once again. But, I did capture my newest niece that I got to meet for the first time! Prior to Christmas, we had only chatted on Skype, well, I chatted, she babbled, but whatever. You improvise when she is in the Czech Republic.

She was obsessed with the cups in this basket and kept trying to sneak them when no one was looking.

I love this age, when the love the wrapping more than the toys.

Our oldest, Heather was home from college this Christmas...the first time in 4 years she spent Christmas with us. (The last time, Jack was only 5 months old, so he was thrilled to have her home this Christmas.) Karen didn't make it. Now that she is a senior in high school, she is busy with her new job and her boyfriend. (Although, I suspect, with the limited hours she actually works that the boyfriend was the bigger reason she didn't make it down this Christmas.) This is the only pic of Stuart and Heather. Sorry, the focus on Christmas tends to go to the most enthusiastic participants.

Jack loved opening gifts.

This car was a BIG hit. He even did a little happy dance, with his fingers pointing in the air...I really wish I had gotten video of it. Oh, well. I remember how cute it was.

Our Christmas with Grandma and Ira was on the morning of New Year's Eve...I know, we do weird holiday dates in this family. The sad news is, I didn't get ANY pics there. Probably because the kids were having such a great time with the craft project Grandma put together for them. It was so fun!