december happenings...

We have been super busy at our house - 

mainly because we added Moose to the mix.

We are still working on training him to go potty outdoors, and we just introduced the wireless fence the past couple of days.  I think he will be a quick learner, but we'll see.

 Our really close friends, Brett and Andy, had their little boy a week ago.

Ben is so cute - he's such a good baby!

 Moose has made his way into our hearts, rather quickly.

Even if he does wake us up in the night needing to go outdoors.

 The kids just love him - after they go to bed at night, Moose just wanders aimlessly around the house.  I think he doesn't know what to do without 2 little shadows following him around everywhere.

After seeing this picture, Colin asked me why Moose's eyes were blue - I responded with... Go Royals!

 I got this new rug for our living room.

The color is a little off in the picture, it is more of a navy blue than a bright blue, but I love it!

 Oh, and St. Nicholas came to visit us at our house this past weekend.

 The kids got a set of walkie talkie's (so much fun!), and some gummy worms and apple juice.  

I got some hot apple cider and some chocolate, and Brian got some coffee, beer, and some cookies.

 Mags had just woken up and didn't like the bright flash, so I took another one without it...

Much better!

Decorating the tree

We decided to put our tree up in a different room this year. 

We wanted to make sure we had plenty of space for spending time together on Christmas morning with a bouncing 70 pound dog in the room, too.

Probably one of my favorite pictures of all time.

I love my precious family!

The 'choke-hold' hug

My loves

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  And although it is quite a bit of work, the holiday season is so magical with young kids.

Dudley Thanksgiving

We got together with the Dudley side for Thanksgiving yesterday.

It was a beautiful day, and we had planned on taking some pictures of everyone together to update some outdated ones in frames.

The shadows were a bit of a bear, but we got some cute ones that I can't wait to edit a bit and put up around our house.

This is one of my favorites - poor Gordy was wobbling all over the place, but as you can see, Colin had a good grip on his arm.

The kids were pretty done with pictures at this point, but I thought this was a great one of Meemaw with her 3 grandkids.

A great one of all of us - once again, will get edited some and hung up - 

We took this picture on timer with our camera, and the series of 3 pictures had us all cracking up.

The only two people that moved their heads at all were Gordy and CJ (and they appeared to do it in unison, which was hilarious!)

All smiles for Thanksgiving 2014

We had a wonderful turkey dinner and got to spend some quality time together.

Meemaw told us lots of stories about her trip to California, and Gordon was showing us all of his new tricks (clapping, screaming, licking baby doll faces, etc.)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving - I know we sure did!

Teson Thanksgiving

The day before Thanksgiving, the Teson family celebrated sweet Peter's 3rd birthday.

We went to Chuck E Cheese then were off to Pizza Shoppe for some delicious salad and pizza.

We had such a wonderful time and were so excited to celebrate this birthday with Peter.

 Can't get enough of Chuck E Cheese!

Maggie still just LOVES this horse

(and she STILL doesn't weigh enough to make it gallop on its own, someone has to push it from behind!)

 I tried to get all the boy cousins (minus Daniel) in a picture.

Not sure why it's so blurry, but that's a whole lot of Teson boys!

Such a cute picture of ornery little Peter.

Happy birthday, buddy!

Then on Thanksgiving, we all slept in, made some desserts to take to Brian's aunt and uncles house, threw together a corn casserole to take to Grammie and Granddad's, and were off to celebrate Thanksgiving.

 We tried to get a sweet picture of all of us with GGRita, but Maggie just wouldn't have it.

 Colin was really excited to get to hang out with Caleb - he hadn't seen him since the summer and was looking forward to seeing him!

 Love this cute picture of the kids with GGRita!

 Brian and Dave showed up wearing the same sweater - who wore it better?! :)

And Suzanne was kind enough to grab a picture of our little family on Thanksgiving.

It was a little chilly out, but a beautiful sunny day!

We are certainly so thankful for all the friends and family in our lives.

We had delicious food, wonderful company, and just a little bit relaxation to make the day perfect!

We will celebrate the Dudley side Thanksgiving this weekend, as Meemaw is in California visiting her brother and his family.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Exercising fun!

 Colin and Brian took Maggie to gymnastics class this week.  Colin was super excited about taking pictures during the class - and he actually did a really great job!

 Waiting for class to start

 I just love this one - nothing but toes!

 She really is pretty strong!

The kids were having some fun in our doorway before dinner one night

 Thank goodness our kids got the 'Teson sweaty feet' syndrome and they can climb up walls like this...

 Colin didn't have much luck in his slipper socks :)

 But they both did great hanging from the pull-up bar (yes, we have a pull-up bar in our kitchen, don't judge...)

 Maggie took this picture of the boys both hanging and being silly

 And of course, we had to repeat the picture with Maggie and Daddy

Oh, and I'm happy to announce that our family has welcomed an elliptical to our basement.

I just LOVE ellipticals and am so glad to have one to use this winter.

Plus, the kids seem to think it's awesome, and they can't seem to remember what the machine is called, so they call it 'spinny feet'.  Works for me!

 Poor Maggie is determined to use it, too, but the little lady can barely touch the pedals and hold on.

 Exercising is so much fun!

And Grammie and Grandad made it safely home from the airport last week.

They were surprised when we had signs and a bouquet of flowers to welcome them home.

We sure missed them!

more ordinary days

I have been on a mission to get my rear in gear for physical activity.

The kids love coming downstairs with me in the mornings on the weekends so they can eat their breakfast while I do some exercise.

This morning, Brian worked out with me, and so the kids wanted to join in, as well.

These are just the pictures of the stretching at the end, but you get the idea...

We had a visit to see the dentist this week.

This was Colin's 2nd time (and he did AWESOME!), and was Maggie's first.

She was super dramatic, as expected.  Turns out, she just didn't like the taste of the gritty toothpaste or the fluoride treatment they paint on the teeth at the end.  She did fine for the actual dental exam where the dentist came in and did this thing.

We'll have to work on the texture/taste thing for next time...

We also went out to dinner this week, sortof in celebration of me finally getting my promotion at work.  I have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to meet with my boss about my new salary.

That meeting went well - and we had some Nick and Jake's to celebrate!

Colin and I took some selfies while Brian took Mags to the restroom...

And lastly, Grammie and Granddad come back tomorrow from a month-long trip overseas in Europe.

We have missed them so much, we are going to surprise them at the airport with a sign and flowers!

The kids are working really hard at coloring the sign...

Oh, and we went to visit Moose this week.  

He will likely be home with us in only 3 weeks - soon we will be a family of 5!

And Maggie did MUCH better with hanging out with Moose, no tears!