Snapshots of Christmas 2012 - Iowa Again

early morning stocking suprises

cars cars and more cars

she got more gum in her stocking...and she's loving it!

so sweet!

bring on the coffee

She came home quite a bit girly-er than she left - Thanks for the fantastic shoes aunt Tara! 

:)

the anticipation is killing him!

Sweet Sweet boy!  

the beautiful booty!

:)

Thanks Nanny!!! You clothed us well :) 

I dare say this was the most loved gift of the day: a boy and his remote control monster truck! 

play-do time!

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Escaping the play-do table

Snapshots of Christmas 2012 - Minnesota

Jace Violet Levi and Benjamin - It was Bedtime and patience was running low! :) 

Benjamin Torin Kasin Violet and Tegin! 

Loving the generous gift from Aunt Anna!

white elephant fun

what a lucky man to be receiving this one of a kind unicorn piece :)

He thought they were sold out, but someone came through and got him the shoe (singular) he's always wanted

:)

Benjamin, Tommy, Violet, Wesley, Joey and Henry 

New favorite puppy from Aunt Lora - the puppy from last Christmas got permanently borrowed from brother Benjamin...

:)

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:)

Snapshots of Christmas 2012 - PLANE RIDE + 1st and 2nd stop

Pictures + Captions now...stories to come

Packing plane friendly for an 8 day stay and planning for a 28 day trip was a little challenging to say the least! My plan of attack: procrastinate packing and wear the same things repeatedly - it worked pretty well :)

plane ready for take off

all clear over here :)

we were this close too the bathroom...good when you have a 3 year old, bad when anyone else used the potty :( 

cheese ball

you can tell we started to move by the grip on the arm rests :)

so proud of her gum

can you tell he loved it?!?!  he was so brave in the single seat across the isle from me 

this question soon followed this picture: "Momma, why are you back here? why aren't you driving the plane?" HAHAHAHA

seat change midway through our flight - they seriously could have done the whole thing without supervision...well, almost...:)

just a little light reading material

They kinda acted like royality:)

we call this: Monkey Coma

Bath time at nanny's :)

still a cheeseball

more monkey coma

Aunt Auburn's house, which I heard about at a minimum of 7 times a day after this stop. VIOLET: "Where's Gia? Where's Gia and Turkey?(Herky) They at Auburn's house?  They at Auburn & Colin's?  They Sleeping?"

:)

He wants so badly to love him!

He was pretty cautious/wimpy at the beginning of his meet and greet with the canines, but he got warmed up eventually!

on his throne, watching PBS :)

Jonah tried so hard during our stay to get miss Violet to let min hold her, but this was about as close as he got. He was such a great cousin and played so well both Benjamin and Violet!

my adorable niece and nephew Elise and Reuben

LOVE this :) sweet Elise

Gingerbread House time!

She's still sweet here, just a little more attitude :)

Just a little hair styling to get through the holidays:)

girls and their detail decorations

its like she knows how cute her pouty lip is!

"Aunt M&M came up with Nanny to help Aunt Tori watch the 6 little people . I could have done it by myself...really!

back to the gingerbread construcion

he's also a detail man

always talking on her cell phone!  also known as a calculator :)

fuzzy but precious

Jammy buddies! :)