our birthday boy!

 today i turned 2!

 and this is how i spent my birthday....

playing in my room

 showing some sibling love

 we really do love each other!

and dad made sure i had a birthday donut (really because DAD wanted donuts!)

 grandma jane came to visit me and gave me a really cool truck!

then we headed up to see the lights at the zoo!

i thought they were a-maz-ing!!

grandpa mel, uncle gary, dad, kate, and auntie atsuki

after almost freezing to death we headed over to gary & atsuki's house 

to have hot cocoa, cake, and best of all....

presents!!

such a good boy...folding his arms to say a prayer before his cake ;)

and now....the PRESENTS....

pretty sure i cleaned out the thomas the train aisle!

and now.....my "CHEESE" face!!

it's awesome, i know!!!

kate's dance recital

what a difference a year makes!
kate did such a great job and she was all smiles backstage...

no tears, just a happy little girl waiting for her turn to shake it!

trimming the tree

this is the first year that we decorated the christmas tree as a family....i usually wait until everyone (even vic!) goes to bed and then i do it all by myself!

i am very picky about my tree! 

but one of my favorite childhood memories is getting our house all ready for christmas. we would always go pick out the perfect tree on my birthday and set it up that night. i remember the first year my mom let me help with the lights (that was always her job and we would have to wait FOREVER for her to do it!) now....the lights are my least favorite job....they do take FOREVER to do! 

so i let it all go and let my little family have some fun! kate was an awesome little helper, handing me ornaments while i stood on the stool to do the top half (it was actually really great! i didn't have to keep going up and down!) will was a goof...he was so amazed by everything! "WOW!" was his favorite word for the night!

after the tree was "done" (i totally went back and re-did 75% of it) vic set up our train. 

WILL WAS THRILLED!

the kids played with it....and broke half of it! now i remember why we haven't taken it out for several years. i honestly thought it would be fine....oh well, they had two hours of pure bliss, right?! 

after all of the fun, we put the kiddos down for the night...and put away the train! 

maybe we'll try again next year!

thanksgiving 2011

this year we hosted thanksgiving at our house. 

we have a lot to be grateful for this year and were able to enjoy the day with some of my family.

 love the faces....vic and will!

 kate requested "the foot"!