Our official holiday time stretched from Thursday before Christmas to the Friday after Christmas and that time was full of presents, cousins and general shenanigans- not to mention hand, foot, mouth disease AND a trip to the emergency room! (Don't worry, everyone is fine.) We drove up to Ohio for Christmas weekend. Molly was amazing on her inaugural road trip - and the other two girls are pretty great travelers too. Then we had Christmas number two in Durham right after we returned. Here are a few pictures (and stories) from our week of holiday fun.
First, Christmas in Columbus...
The girl cousins had a blast dressing up playing in dress up. Grammy did a great job finding the right size for everyone!
One of the highlights of the trip for Hayden (besides that whole Christmas presents thing) was her first trip to the ballet to see the Nutcracker. She was very excited to wear her fancy clothes and see the ballerinas.
Crazy cousins in front of the tree, ready for Christmas Eve church.
Grammy and Granddad and all their grandchildren.
How many cousins can you fit in one tub? This is prior to turning the bath pink from all the soap they put into it. With all that soap in the water, I'm not sure if they got out of the tub cleaner or more dirty than when they got in.
Eliza playing with the train that Santa brought her.
One of Hayden's favorite presents.
Opening presents is awfully tiring.
She's shrieking, "Underwear!"
My favorite "present" this year.
The aftermath of Christmas morning. (and that's just one side of the family room!)
Everybody on the stairs. We've come quite a long ways from this holiday stair picture!
And now the Durham part of the holiday...
Christmas hugs
helping Popop open a present
All I want for Christmas is to eat my fingers...
Charlotte and Eliza with JT on one of our outings. Notice Eliza's band-aid. It's covering up the small cut on her cheek that she sustained from crashing into the edge of Hayden's bed. It necessitated a trip to the ER to get it glued shut. She is no worse for wear and was quite proud of the band-aid.
Sing with me - "Two girls in a little stroller..."
We walked on the Duke Cross Country trail while JT ran. The kids liked lining the path to give him high fives as he passed us. What excellent motivators they are!
More cousins.
Cousins make me tired.
Despite the craziness and whacked out schedules, the kids made it through the holidays with smiles on their faces.
Molly models one of her Christmas presents and shows off her 4 month old self. (Missed the traditional 4 month photo by one day due to family and the ER visit!)
One of my current favorite photos - if only Molly didn't look quite so stressed. Happy New Year!
The girl cousins had a blast dressing up playing in dress up. Grammy did a great job finding the right size for everyone!
One of the highlights of the trip for Hayden (besides that whole Christmas presents thing) was her first trip to the ballet to see the Nutcracker. She was very excited to wear her fancy clothes and see the ballerinas.
Crazy cousins in front of the tree, ready for Christmas Eve church.
Grammy and Granddad and all their grandchildren.
How many cousins can you fit in one tub? This is prior to turning the bath pink from all the soap they put into it. With all that soap in the water, I'm not sure if they got out of the tub cleaner or more dirty than when they got in.
Eliza playing with the train that Santa brought her.
One of Hayden's favorite presents.
Opening presents is awfully tiring.
My favorite "present" this year.
The aftermath of Christmas morning. (and that's just one side of the family room!)
Everybody on the stairs. We've come quite a long ways from this holiday stair picture!
Christmas hugs
All I want for Christmas is to eat my fingers...
Charlotte and Eliza with JT on one of our outings. Notice Eliza's band-aid. It's covering up the small cut on her cheek that she sustained from crashing into the edge of Hayden's bed. It necessitated a trip to the ER to get it glued shut. She is no worse for wear and was quite proud of the band-aid.
Sing with me - "Two girls in a little stroller..."
We walked on the Duke Cross Country trail while JT ran. The kids liked lining the path to give him high fives as he passed us. What excellent motivators they are!
More cousins.
Cousins make me tired.
Molly models one of her Christmas presents and shows off her 4 month old self. (Missed the traditional 4 month photo by one day due to family and the ER visit!)
One of my current favorite photos - if only Molly didn't look quite so stressed. Happy New Year!
