Gus' First Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. In fact, I think it was our best Christmas yet! Not only was it Gus' first Christmas, but Audrey is at the age where she is so excited about everything and it all seems so magical. Pretty fun to watch! She has so many questions (as usual) about how it all works. How does Santa get down the chimney? How do all of the elves make all of the gifts? What if Elfie (our Elf on the Shelf) has to pee when he's at our house? Does he go here or wait until he gets back to the North Pole? It's all a part of the Christmas magic. :-)

We spent Christmas Eve with Scott's family and Christmas Day with my family.

Happy kids in their matching Christmas jammies!

Opening the stocking...

She loved the unicorn that Gus gave her

Not sure about the present unwrapping

Note from Santa about her gift

Santa left a trail of ribbon leading to her present...

Surprise! A trampoline!

She loved it - time to jump!

Santa brought Gus some new toys, too!

Annual Santa Visit

We continued our annual tradition of seeing Santa at Crown Center. Gus was NOT a fan of Santa and didn't sit on his lap for very long. Audrey was super excited and asked for a trampoline and gummies.

Poor little guy!

Gus is 11 months old!

Gus is 11 months old! We went to see Santa (update in a separate post), so the kids are all dressed up! Here are a few of the best shots from what looks like a super silly photo shoot (sadly, Mama was still at work and didn't get to participate).

Happy 11 month old guy!

Proud sissy

Looking dapper in his hat

Goofy guy!

Now Audrey's behind the camera!

Looks like someone fell out of the chair!

Christmas Tree

We went to pick out our tree at Biermann's Christmas Tree farm again this year. They didn't have quite as good of a selection as they did last year. We found a pretty good one, but it ended up being a little bit crooked once we got it home. But it definitely had character! Poor Gus slept through the whole trip and then napped when we decorated it. Maybe he'll participate next year!

Thanksgiving 2015

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We went to Joplin to see Scott's family at Aunt Sally and uncle Dan's house. It was a big crowd with 11 kids! Audrey had a blast playing with her cousins and Gus had fun seeing everyone too. They both did really well in the car (2.5 hours!). On the way, Audrey was a bit restless and Gus slept the entire time. On the way home, they both fell asleep!

Gus doing "Poor Old Horsey" with Aunt Crystal

Audrey's 5th Birthday!

We just celebrated Audrey's birthday and I can't believe she is five years old! They really do grow up way too fast.We had a great weekend celebrating. On Friday, we had a day of fun with Mama, Dada and Audrey like we did last year. I think we'll make it an annual tradition. This year we went to Scheel's to ride the Ferris wheel which she loved! We all rode it together twice. She also bowled while we were there and did a great job! She loved the giant aquarium. Then we went to Panera for lunch, then to Prairie Fire museum. Then we picked up Gus from school and all went to Salty Iguana for dinner.

Started the day off right with her favorite breakfast - two long johns from John's

Loved the aquarium

A pro at bowling!

Practicing shooting with Dada

She loved the bearded dragon - "He's so cute!"

She assembled this praying mantis

At the horse exhibit at Prairie Fire

Then the next day, we had a party with her friends. We invited everyone from her class at school, plus cousins plus a few friends. We had 19 kids come. We had it at Rainbow Play Systems and everyone had a blast! Audrey especially loved the trampoline and playing with all of her friends. The theme was Hello Kitty. Happy birthday, baby girl! I hope we made up feel special because you are to us!