Squealing

When Sam gets excited, he becomes quite the squealer. Here he is playing and laughing with Elena.

And for the record, I do dress my children. Several times a day. They just don't like to stay that way.

White Christmas

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. Ours was a little hectic with all the snow, but we managed to get through it this year without having to go to the ER so that was nice. (Elena did grab a pan just after it came out of the oven on Christmas Eve, but I grabbed her hand and she let go right away so a little water took care of it).

We celebrated with Seth's family Christmas Eve and had a delicious Italian meal in the new dining room (above). Christmas morning, we planned to go to my parents for brunch, changed our minds due to the weather and then changed them back again. So we made it (in Seth's parents' van) and had a 1:00 brunch. That afternoon we celebrated with Seth's extended family and Sunday we celebrated with his other side.

The kids had a great time, but they were pretty worn out by the end. We didn't get around to opening our gifts until te 26th and we actually had to do a litle convincing to get Elena to open hers. I love that our kids are still young enough that they will be happy with a few simple gifts. One of Elena's favorite gifts this year was a box of band-aids that I got her. She has been busy patching up the whole family. Another favorite was a box of fairy dress-up clothes from Jason and Tina. Here she is in her new clothes.

Here are a few more highlights:

The Myhre cousins - I managed to catch them all looking forward!

Elena in her Christmas dress with a new jacket from Aunt Maria.

Without older cousins to help out, it was more difficult getting a picture of the 3 little cousins at my parents' house than all14 on the other side. I tried, anyway.

Opening gifts

Sam, near the end of the 3rd celebration in 2 days. He looks a little like Seth after a few drinks ;)

Enjoying the snow with Daddy

Living on the Edge

I decided to take a risk and wrapped the Christmas gifts 5 days before Christmas. So far they have remained under the tree without being smashed or unwrapped for 2 1/2 hours. I'm pretty impressed by that. We'll see how the next 5 days go....

Swing Dancing

Yay! Seth's aunt was able to get a few pictures of Elena swing dancing with her cousin, Faith. Thanks, Denise!

Here they are:

Winter Wonderland

There's nothing like playing out in the snow and then coming in with bright, rosy cheeks for hot cocoa! Ana came over to play with Elena out in the first substantial snowfall of the season.

It's great having the girls be big enough that they can play outside on their own, while the Mommies and babies stay inside and watch through the window. I only had to run out twice - once to remind them to stay away from the street and once to rescue Ana when she got caught in the neighbor's lilac bush.

Dance Mania

I've been getting behind on my blogging, but I just wanted to share a few pictures from last weekend. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and the kids partied hard at Seth's cousin's wedding. they were still dancing at 11pm! (they didn't sleep in, of course, the next morning).

Sam absolutely loved dancing - if a group formed a circle, he would walk out into the middle and dance for them (he basically does little squats).

We were also extremely impressed by Elena. A week before the wedding, Seth and I had gone to the high school to help teach the kids how to dance for their upcoming play, Grease. The kids came along and watched. At the wedding dance a week later, we were amazed to see that Elena was grabbing other kids her size to dance with and started busting out some of our swing moves on the dance floor. That kid is so observant!

Sam, Papi and Alex - all in Thanksgiving plaid:

Elena with my cousin Frank and my Grandma. She celebrated her 99th birthday the day after thanksgiving!

Having a tickle fight with Frank (about 5 minutes after he told us that kids don't like him)

Sam looking dapper at Katie and Brian's wedding (he loved the stair railings)

This was the best shot we could get of the whole family.

Elena and Sam dancing with 2nd cousin, Maddy

You can see a little sampling of Sam's dance moves here, but it's not the best.