Doc turns 9!!

It is hard to believe but Doc is 9 years old!! Andrea and the boys had an impromptu party for him at lunch on his birthday.

Birthday boy and his "cake" (powered sugar doughnut).

He wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first...

... but of course it didn't last long!

We all love our puppy!!!

Christmas Card

For our Christmas card we decided to sit in front of the tree with the two boys. As we all know it is not a one picture process....

Emmett was not happy and Andrea didn't
even make it in front of the camera.

She made it into this one but not enough to get settled.

Apparently Eli was just done... DONE!

Ahh... the magazine cover!!

Christmas Decorating

For as much of a hard time as I give Andrea about her number of Christmas decorations and having to get them down and put them back in the attic and all that, I really like how the house looks and feels around Christmas time. These are some fun pics of Christmas preps...

Eli got to put the small tree in his room and he loved it.

Emmett looking adorable in the Santa hat.

... not quite as adorable as Emmett.

Eating snack with the Santa hat still on.

These are my favorite ornaments... S'More guys!!

Big News... Slow Dada

On December 2, Andrea and the boys started Christmas decorating, which is always fun. One of the first things Andrea put up were the stockings.

An extra stocking...

with a BIG message!!!

When I got home from work I saw the stockings, including the third one. I saw that it was an extra stocking and that it was a very small stocking but Andrea has a lot of crazy decorations so I didn't think anything of it. I settled into being home, including turning on the TV (directly below the little stocking) and sat down on the couch. Andrea seemed a little restless and asked about the decorations and I said they looked good. She then asked me to stand up and she proceeded to push me towards the stockings, I told her I saw them and they looked good. She continued to push me up to them until I could see the writing and put the pieces together!!!

We are very excited for Baby Gwinn #3!!!!

Indiana

EARLY the day after Thanksgiving we drove to Indiana to visit Andrea's extended family. We spent a few days in the Fort Wayne/New Haven area and really enjoyed ourselves. We got to see some great-grandparents, Aunts/Uncles, and lots of cousins. We also went to a local Amish community for breakfast and ended up scoring some fun finds at an Amish grocery store. We only have a few pics from the whole trip but that's just because we were having so much fun.

Alivia pushing Emmett in the car. We spent one
afternoon with Jason and Holly and their girls
playing at their house.

Emmett driving the car... It's a house of girls
which explains the purple glasses.

Livy with some pink glasses and some kind of game that had like 9 million pieces... She dumped it shortly after this picture and Jason and I had to pick it all up...

Livy and Emmett at the kids table for dinner.

Eli and Abby playing together.

The boys with Great Grandpa.

The boys with Grammy.

Andrea, Michelle and the boys.

This video is of Emmett playing in Grammy and GreatGrandpa's living room. I waited a while to get the camera so he only did it once or twice but before I got the camera he just kept twirling and falling and twirling and falling.

Thanksgiving 2011

We spent Thanksgiving Day with Andrea's parents and the Renfrow's in Durham and we had a good time. It is a full house and with the kiddo's it is a loud and active house as well. We ate some yummy food and Andrea and Alison were able to entertain the kids with some crafts too.

Craft time getting a little out of control.

Eli's ready to eat!! Though I remember him not
eating much and it being a battle. One of the crafts
is attached to his chair, hand print turkey place cards.

More craft silliness...

Clair showing off her place card.

Mutti and the bird. YUM!!

Wyatt, Uncle J (Dada) and Grandpa Vati.

The more active side of the table.

Paige!

Me and my beautiful bride.

Cutie

I think this is an adorable picture of Emmett. He loves stuffed animals like George and the Chick-fil-a cow he is playing with here. He goes through phases of which ones, and how many different ones, he needs to sleep with. When he wants one and you don't have it, you are in for a battle :-)

Mid-November Picnic

Andrea took advantage of a beautiful mid-November day to have a picnic with the boys in the yard. I think this was the last picnic of the year...

Emmett enjoying the nice weather.

Such a cute pair.

Doc even got to enjoy the picnic.

Play at Dinner

This is a video from mid-November of some play at dinner. If you look and listen closely you will see that Auntie Jill is visiting.... Andrea loves the end of the video where Emmett scrunches up, like he is being tickled, while he watches Eli get tickled.

Trip to Marietta

In early November we went to Marietta to visit Steven and Libby and their boys. This trip was supposed to be a meet in the middle cabin stay in SC but it was delayed until April... (we can't wait!!)... so we decided to just go down to them. It was a quick trip but it is always fun to hang out with them and see the boys play together.

Bikes in the garage.

Eli and Luke playing at the activity table.

Emmett riding the rocking horse!!

Elliot hanging out on the couch.

Woody and Buzz!! Apparently, Libby raided post Halloween sales because they have a bunch of costumes. Eli loves wearing this Buzz Lightyear outfit and spent most of the weekend in it, we saw a lot of Woody too.

Woody and Buzz on Bulls-Eye.

Steven reading to Eli.

Libby and a tired looking Luke.

Elliot and Emmett playing with toys.

Emmett and his crown.

Playing with Cousins

These are a few pics of the kids during an early November visit from the cousins.

Emmett cheesing for the camera.

Paige in the pack-n-play... probably to keep her out of something :-)

The three older ones eating lunch.

The two younger ones having a chat.