Pennsylvania Christmas

We took the 7 hour trip to New Providence, PA on Christmas afternoon.  We wanted to avoid driving on Afton's birthday, so we left our house after opening Christmas gifts and letting the kids play for a while. We made excellent time and the girls were pretty excited about getting to g'ma and g'pas house.  Along the way, Drew lost his beloved doggy.  Fortunately, IKEA had no shortage of pups, and we got him a new one!!!!
We celebrated Christmas with Chad's family on the 27th.  The cousins all had a blast playing with each other and opening gifts.  We had a bright idea of trying to get a group picture.  It was kind of a FAIL since we had a very disagreeable 2 year old.  My camera lens is not allowing my camera to focus, so I was not able to take very many photos.  I am kind of bummed about that.  It seems I am getting less and less photos as the kids are getting older.  Maybe my resolution for the New Year should be to take more photos???

I also want to mention that the football Drew was so excited to receive, was chewed up about as fast as he opened it!!!  Thanks for the new Eagles football g'ma.  It doesn't seem to be as tempting to bite.  Also, Avery was more than excited to get those beads.  Sorry mom, you are going to be picking up beads off the floor until next Christmas!!! ha ha!!!

Afton is 4!

Where has the time gone?  I cannot believe that Afton is 4!  I know everyone says that time just flies by, and before kids I never realized how unbelievably fast it does go by.  Last time I checked, I was working and pregnant with Avery....and now I have a 5 1/2 year old, a 4 year old, and a 2 year old. 

Afton is such a spunky kid with an unbelievable head of hair.  According to her cousin Claudia, its like "butter".  Afton is more strong willed than all of my kids, but she has such a sweet, compassionate, and caring spirit.  She is often found helping her little brother with everything.  She even stopped opening her own Christmas gifts to help her baby brother open up his gifts (they were taped a little too much for the little guy).  Her strong willed spirit often shows up during dinner time, bed time, and during play time with her big sister.  We are working on it :-)  We love her so much and she is so much fun to be with.

Here she is with her new birthday gifts.  She got a new bike from mimi, a much wanted flashlight from g'ma and g'pa, and her Team UmiZoomi backpack from us.  The pics didn't turn out "the best", as I have now learned, my lens is not working.  Also, taking pics of kids opening gifts and impending cake & ice cream is really tough!