Middle of winter - pics

Haven't seen much snow lately here in KC, but I did find some completely random pictures on my phone, so that should keep you entertained for a sec...

Colin is #21 in his class - and was so excited when his cereal had the number 21 for his last bite.

It was a great day...

We went out to dinner at 54th street to celebrate the kids' fantastic grade cards.  

Maggie wanted a picture with the gigantic bear while we waited for the boys to pick us up.  

Side note - Eli is such an easy baby, that often, I forget to grab the diaper bag when we go places.  This night was one of them.  He chewed on a coaster and a straw, and of course, had a poopy diaper mid-dinner.  He just sat in it, no fussiness, until we were able to ask for some to-go containers and scoot out of there.  Seriously, such an easy kid.

I make yearly books for each of the kids, sordof like a scrapbook, but much easier for me.

The kids love looking through them randomly, and one morning Colin wanted to surround Eli with these books.  Pretty soon Eli will have a book of his own :)

I realized I hadn't taken a picture of my chunky monkey in a while, so I did my best one afternoon while getting Eli ready for bed.

I still think he's a pretty good combination of Brian and I.

Check out those thighs - he's almost 18 pounds.  Yikes!

P.S.  Don't mind the pink sleep sack that is in the background.  Sometimes you just have to dip into your sister's hand me downs when Mama can't quite keep up with the laundry :)

January so far...

I've had these pictures saved for a couple weeks now and am just getting to typing something up.

My days and weeks are flying by.

Colin has started playing basketball. 

This picture is from his first game.  You wouldn't even believe the difference in him between now and then (he has had 3 games so far).  He has gone from being a shy, anxious player, to now one might almost call "a ball hog".  He is smiling the whole time out there and has tons of hustle.

Brian caught a video of Colin going coast-to-coast, shooting a basket, missing, getting his own rebound, and making it.  Gotta love it!

Colin put some sunglasses on Eli the other morning.  I found them both just giggling away.

Eli is one lucky kid to have such loving siblings.

The Chiefs made a run at the post-season for a while.  Man, what a great year for KC sports.

Love this picture of these 2 guys.

It's getting harder and harder to get pictures of Eli on his "month" birthdays.

Here's his 3 month pics...

Colin and Mags wanted to join in...

The final Christmas celebration of 2015

Because we all have busy Christmas schedules, we did the Dudley Christmas the weekend after New Years.  The kids were fine with it - they were so excited to have yet another Christmas celebration.

We all decided to go VERY low key for gifts this year (except Meemaw, who never follows the rules and always gets WAY TOO MANY gifts for everyone!)  But, she loves doing it, and the gifts are very thoughtful!

Gordy with his diving rings

We love these Brain Quest items

Can you ever have too many Royals shirts?!  The answer...No.

Colin got a few more board games - this kid LOVES board games

Eli slept a lot of the day, but he's always so happy and smiley when he's awake

Mags got some nail polish pens for fancy designs

Just a super cute picture of Gordy

Gordon couldn't quite understand why Eli didn't want to use the drinking cup

The kids got this really neat easel from Meemaw.

They just love this thing - it's pretty neat!

And this next series of pictures are from Maggie and Colin.

They are taken from the floor, if I remember correctly...

Meemaw and I were standing, waiting patiently for the others to get in the picture.

Gordon saw us, and walked right inbetwen us, and stood there for quite some time.  It was pretty funny!

A little off center but a pretty good picture of all of us

One of many pictures created...

Proud of our artwork

It was a fun time for everyone, complete with Barbeque lunch and presents galore.

Bring on 2016!

New Years Eve

New Years Eve seemed to fly by (maybe that was because I had just returned back to work and was feeling stretched very thin)!!!

We managed to have some snacks and let the kids stay up a bit later than usual.  We even watched a movie and played some games.

I had Brian snap a few pictures of me with the kids.

Ever since Eli was born, I feel like I have less and less pictures of me with the kids (probably because I am usually not "presentable", and am sleep deprived and have on snotty clothes and sweat pants)!

Here's to a great 2016!!!

Pics from my phone - December

December was a busy month!

My last few weeks of maternity leave just flew by, but according to the pictures on my phone, we had a lot of fun!

I can't remember if I posted this picture before - but Eli just LOVES his hands right now.

You will almost always see him in this 'prayer' position sucking on them.  Too bad he still hasn't figured out how to suck on a bottle yet :)

I was able to go to both kiddos Christmas parties at school.  

I probably won't be able to make any more of them (without taking time off work), so it was really important to me to be there.

Colin finished his project a little early so we snapped a picture!

Here is Maggie with a couple of her friends from class.  

These girls are thick as thieves, I tell you!

I also got this picture sent to me from another mom.

Jeanelle (far left) and Maggie have been friends for over 2 years now, since they've gone to Pre-K together.  They have play dates all the time - such a nice girl!

Grammie and Grandad graciously offered to have these 4 crazy kids over to their house for a special pizza, decorate cookies, and go see a movie couple of days.  As you can see, they were having a great time being 'reindeer'.  

Eli is getting so big and strong lately!

He can do tummy time for a lot longer and just LOVES to 'stand up' with help!

Eli and Grammie hanging out on Christmas Day

I was so surprised when Brian got me my creche to go in my nativity scene.

And...Meemaw got me a few more figurines (the Shepherd and the stable animals) to go along with it.  I just love the Willow Tree nativity set!

We did White Elephant gift exchanges at the Teson Christmas, and somehow we came away with a selfie stick.  Colin just loves playing with it.  Here are some of what I found on my camera...

And we had to take a family selfie when Colin found out we won $10 on the scratchers that we had in our stockings.  So fun!

Maggie asks to get her picture taken with Eli ALL THE TIME.

Here's the latest one....

A cute pic of Eli

A picture of us taken by Maggie

And one of Eli and Caroline - they are so cute!