Christmas and New Years!

We had a very special Christmas in Maine!  It started off a little rocky as we had to adjust our travel plans due to the ice forecasted for Brunswick.  We decided to leave a day earlier, which ended up being a great plan as the ice was pretty brutal through Monday.  We had lots of fun indoor time, building forts and finding art projects to do! Despite the crummy weather we had lots of fun catching up with everyone and preparing for the big day!

Before we left for the holidays we baked several batches of Gumma's famous cranberry bread. Alice was a big help this year!

 

Dana didn't like the sound of the food processor!

My little helper!

 

Stirring everything up - ready to bake!

We spent Christmas Eve at Nick and Katie's house.  It was a perfect place to let the kids get out some last minute Christmas excitement.  The girls had a great time playing with their cousins.

 

Yum yum...who doesn't love brownies!

Back at Grandma Sue and Grandpa Chris' house, Alice was adamant that we needed to hang the stockings!

 

Alice wanted to choose the order of the stockings so she wrote post-its with everyone's name on it and directed her father as to where to stick them!

Wise guys....pretending to eat the reindeer's carrots!

 

The final touches on hanging the stockings and we are ready to head to bed!

 One last hug for Terra!

 

Merry Christmas! Can you tell this little one is excited?

 

Another happy munchkin!

 

Dana's face really says it all here.  She LOVED unwrapping gifts.  I think between opening her own, helping me, her father, and her grandparents, she probably opened 2/3rds of the gifts this year!

 

Alice woke up at 5am and joined us in bed.  At 6am she became a total chatter box so we spent about an hour downstairs waiting for everyone else to wake up.  By the time we opened stockings, she was more than excited!

 

Dana opening her "grocery store baby" as she referred to it.  This was the big ticket item that she had requested from Santa.

She loved it!  Can hardly wait for her father to get it out of the box!

 

So happy...

 

Kisses for baby.

 

And Alice's big ticket item from Santa was more magnatiles.  She went right to work, constructing her very familiar fairy house.

 

New hat - thankfully one she actually enjoys wearing. Love this face.

 

Alice and Dana were overjoyed when they realized the big present under the tree was for them!

Dana doing the bulk of the unwrapping here...

 

And with a little help from Grandma Sue - new sleds!

 

...or surf boards!

 

One happy little girl.

 

Cousins!  They loved this hysterical little pig that Ryan got for Christmas.  I would say this was hands down, the most popular (and unique!) gift of the day!

 

Beautiful little Keira just trying to stay out of the madness.  Just wait until next year!

Trying out the new sleds! Dana didn't actually get down the hill here.  She has yet to actually go down a hill but we'll get there.

 

Lauren was excited to pull people in the sleds.  Keira was first...

 

...Reeves and Alice were next, and much more difficult.

 

So happy to be outside at last!

 

Dana just checking up on baby. 

The day after Christmas we headed straight up to Sugarloaf.  We enjoyed about 4inches of fresh snow (even if it fell while we were en route!). Alice tried skiing for the first time and we got a nice family snowshoe/sled adventure in.  That is until Dana decided she didn't want to be pulled, yet couldn't quite clear the layers of snow on the ground to walk herself.  We had a...hmmm...memorable return trip to the house.  The next day we packed up and took the 6 hour drive to VT! Gotta love the holidays!

 

I'm hoping that at this point, you all say to yourselves, "wow...great clarity with that picture. Is she using a new camera?" The answer is yes...Santa gave me my big ticket item this year, too!

 

After some practice on the driveway at Sugarloaf, Alice was ready for the real thing.  Here she is getting some last minute advice from Gogo.

Still a little unsure...

 

First trip up the magic carpet!

 

And down she comes!  Love the focus in her eyes!

 

Here comes the focus...

 

And there it is... her official game face.

 

So proud!

We spent one of our cold days in VT visiting with our favorite grandmothers! Wish we could have gotten a good pic of all three together but the cooperation wasn't quite there.

We had a nice visit at Grandma Ali's.  We briefly overlapped with Ron, Nikki and Em which was a treat!

 

Dana's game face only appears when opening gifts, apparently.

 

Big hugs for Uncle Ron!

Early morning cuddle with Gogo. 

Reeves was a big hit with the kids when they realized they were getting cupcakes to celebrate this birthday.  I don't think he's ever been so popular among the younger generation.  Alice and Dana wanted it to be Daddy's birthday for several days afterwards.

We couldn't leave VT without seeing Momere!

And that's a wrap.  A great holiday indeed. Thank you to everyone for helping to make it so special.

And here's to 2014!  Let the chaos begin!

Early Christmas

It's been a busy and festive start to the month of December.  We wasted no time after Thanksgiving decorating our tree! Dana and Alice did a great job helping out, even if there were a few casualty ornaments. This weekend we had an early Christmas celebration with all of our family in Middlebury.  It a jam packed weekend but the kids loved every second! They can't wait for the next round of festivities in Maine!

 Goofy girls!  If you're paying attention you can see Dana's shirt reads, "Grandma's Angel." Ha...I love putting this on her...if only it were true!

 Big silly grins and a decorated tree.

 Not sure when the day will come that both girls will decide to cooperate and actually look at the camera!

Both Dana and Alice were adamant about putting the star on so they both got a chance. Dana went first and then Alice placed it in it's final spot!

 Christmas in VT! One of Dana's favorite gifts was a toy drum from Gogo and Gumma.

 Grandma Net getting some cuddles with Channy Boy.

 Dana loved her new drum.  Our house is now equipped to make lots of "music."

 Alice was obsessed with her alphabet cookies!

 Uncle Josh "testing" Isabel's bracelet making set.  He's enjoying it a little too much if you ask me!

 Gumma the patient! Gumma received lots of care and attention from Alice, Isabel and Eva as they gave her a thorough check up with Emma's new Doc McStuffins kit.

 Princess Janet trying to stay out of the chaos. Smart girl.

 More princesses!

 Channy Boy making the rounds. Loving his cuddle time with Gumma, especially because she gives him blocks to chew!

 Again, Janet staying away from the madness. She looked all too content, lounging on the coffee table, logging some computer time.

 And speaking of lounging...we had some great play under the dining room table with Alice and Dana's new sleeping bags!

 Still circulating...time to hang with Gogo. What an easy going little man.

 Love this pic. Girls were just warming up to the party after some short naps.

 Attempt at a family picture. These are pretty rare...

 Silly Alice!

 Eva and Dana had a love fest while waiting for all the kiddos to gather for the family picture! Some lovely choking going on here, although Eva doesn't seem to mind.

 Some good, strong hugging with two happy girls!

 And kisses for these two besties! What a pair!

 Children's picture - about as good as you can hope for with this crowd.

 The family picture went only slightly more smoothly!

Thanksgiving in VT

 We had a great time at Thanksgiving this year! We enjoyed staying with Gramma Net just a few houses down to give the kids a little needed room to sleep and get some quiet time.  Alice slept in Net's office room that has one of Grandpa Bob's favorite deer heads on the wall!  Net and I thought we should cover up the deer, as neither of us thought we would want to fall asleep looking at it, so we covered it up with a sheet.  I hoped Alice wouldn't even ask about what was under the sheet... Instead, she got happily into her bed and then asked me, "why did you cover up the deer, mommy?"  Well, I guess there is no fooling her. When I told her I didn't want her talking to it all night long, she said very plainly, "it's not real, mom." Well, sort of...

We drove through some snow on our way up so the kids had some nice white stuff to play around in.  They enjoyed clearing off Gogo and Gumma's porch!

 That smile means she's up to something!

 We found some ice in the back yard but realized quickly it wasn't frozen through.  Eva had the pleasure of slipping and falling on the wet ice! Silly girl!

 This guy is just too cute for words.

 Alice loved all the cousin time.  She was very distraught when it was time to go...

 

A rare family photo of all the Perines!

The two year olds and Channy boy. This definitely required some adult supervision.  I think Dana took a few steps backwards in terms of her sharing/playing skills over the holiday. Hope they don't curse us at daycare.

 Had to add this great photo of Momere and Luke.  This was Luke's first Thanksgiving with the Leggett tribe!  We missed seeing the rest of the Whitney's but loved having Lukey around!

It took Carolyn no time to put the Thanksgiving decorations away and bust out with the Christmas decor.  The tree was cut and decorated about 18 hours after Thanksgiving.  Pretty impressive turnaround!

 We had a great holiday! We are so thankful for our wonderful family in VT and ME! (and everywhere else!)

Princess Dana

 As I went through recent pictures, I stumbled across these of Dana.  They perfectly convey her love of accessories and clothing.  I don't know where this personality trait came from but this girl  definitely has an opinion about what she will and will NOT wear.  Most of all, she loves to wear dresses.  It still boggles my mind but it's cute (sometimes) and certainly reminds us that she is a unique individual! 

Halloween!

 At long last here are a few photos from Halloween.  The girls were so excited about trick or treating that it was impossible to get them to stand still or sit still for a photo. These at least give you a sense of what Jaq the mouse looked like with his friend Cinderella!
(ps. the 'balloon' came from the friendly doctor at the Emergency Room!)

 We spend a lot of time talking up the Cinderella costume as she made a lot of noise about wanting to be a baby for Halloween.  Since we've spent the last 2 years of her life trying to get her out of a baby phase we were really hesitant to encourage a baby costume.  So instead, we put her in a Cinderella dress, which she loved because she LOVES dresses, and hoped for the best. At one point she started tugging at the dress and I was afraid it was coming off before we even got out the door, but luckily, with a little distraction and talk of trick or treating, no major crisis hit!

 Take 1 - and I'm the only one looking at the camera.  Dana and her creative method for wearing a crown.

 Take 2 - not much better. Oh well, you get the idea.

 House number 1!

 Full on running from house to house! They had a blast.  Dana walked nearly the entire hour that we were trick or treating.  She loved it!

 Back at home, enjoying a lollipop and checking out Uncle Ron's pics from England!