and then came the night before christmas eve. my brother’s family came to spend the night with us. BEST IDEA EVER. especially since phil had to work a 24-hour shift that day.  (a nice lady passing by offered to take a group picture for us.  thank you, nice lady!) the company and the extra helping hands were most appreciated. extended playing time with the cousins = suuuuper good fun. we went to a nearby park when the kids needed a bit more outside play time.  where we found the parking lots had been closed off.  this will be an important fact in a little while. jump, kids!  turns out it’s…

then daddy finally got a chance to hang up lights with his “helpers”.  (please ignore the heinousness that is our garage.  i will get it all unpacked when i’m dead.) the “helpers” were oh so helpful. and then some of our favorite people came over to hang out with us.  as always, the girls put auntie jami right to work. they even brought presents!  THANK YOU, guys!!  jonah’s become an old pro at this present thing. how did auntie jami know that a princess game would be the perfect gift for these two? hey lauren, what’s your shirt say?  (heh heh, she was a bit tired…) spending quality time in…

just got back from a wonderful visit to the grandparents’ house.  more on that later.  now is the time to catch up on a whirlwind month of good times and happy memories.  aka december photo dump, part one. ready for a jam-packed month of festivities, little dudes?  hope so, cuz here we go! first off was a long overdue visit with our favorite uncle and auntie.  love these guys. and an ill-fated viewing of a small town holiday parade.  which turned out to be really lame.  in the rain.  sorry, guys.  ;p but all was not lost- the soggy, depressing, crappy little parade was soon forgotten once they piled on…

where i been? the backstory: for the better part of this year, mikey has spent a good chunk of his free time reading and rereading his calvin and hobbes comic books.  his reading fluency and comprehension has taken off.  we’ve had a few discussions about calvin’s behavior at times and mikey readily recognizes that while he enjoys calvin’s antics, he doesn’t really want to be just like him.  he’s easily able to identify the ways they are similar and the ways they differ.  i’m super proud of him. several weeks ago, mikey asked if he could have a hobbes stuffed animal for christmas.  he really liked the idea of having…

from our family to yours… joy to the world, my friends. joy to the world.