Cousins

Growing up I only had 4 cousins and they were all much younger than me. I am always jealous of hearing about people growing up with cousins the same age and all the fun they had together.  I'm so excited that Knox & Isla have two sweet cousins that hopefully they will be close to as they grow up.  The four of them are a perfect stair step in age- Marek is 4, Knox is 3, McKenna is 2 and Isla is 1.  I hope their bond lasts them for many years to come.

can't leave duck out

 These four are some of the sweetest kiddos around, we are truly blessed for the family that God has given us.

-Stacie

a NW Christmas

The holidays for us this year have been a whirlwind of travel and family.  We left for Virginia on November 22nd got home December 3rd, left for Spokane on December 17th and got home December 26th and then my family came to visit December 30th and left on January 4th.  We have been so blessed to get to spend so much time with our families and every trip we took was a blast! This never happens either but we didn't have any travel snafus on any of our trips.  It was really good all the way around this year!

That said- I am still recovering from being out of my routine for so long and am way behind on blogging and lots of other things! So…this will be a photo montage post with LOTS of pics. Brace yourself.

our first Christmas in our new house

Nana with her grandkids

sweet Isla

 Christmas morning we had a big breakfast at Sally's house before we opened presents. You can tell how excited Knox was because of how blurry he is in the photo- he was jumping up and down.

our Christmas morning feast 

our little family

such a girlie girl

 Our new tradition for Christmas Eve is to go out to dinner after the Christmas Eve service.  This year we went to a nice steakhouse. It was a bit crazy with 4 small kids but we all survived and no one complained to the manager :)

sweet McKenna

I am so lucky to have such an awesome sister-in-law!

Heather & Brandon

they are so silly together...

We got to see some pretty cool Christmas lights while we were in Spokane too.  It was really fun to take the kids to see them and Isla especially loved the lights. 

little bunny

all the kiddos

my sweet girl

Knox with his gingerbread man

 Knox & Isla were both really excited about the snow.  I'm not sure if Knox remembered it from last year or not but Isla definitely didn't! It was so fun to get to take them both sledding. Knox did surprisingly well for being a little soft and Isla LOVED it. Well, until she face planted in the ice a few times and then she got tired of it but we probably shouldn't have put her on the sled by herself and pushed her down the hill.  Opps!

Kyle & Knoxie

Her first sledding run!

this little Texan does not like to be cold!

Cousins- Marek & McKenna! 

a sibling run

the solo ride- a little premature

It was a really great Christmas.  We are glad that it is January though, I am ready to just settle into a boring old routine and not see an airplane or an airport for awhile :)

-Stacie

Thanksgiving & Photo shoots

Traditionally, we have traveled to Virginia every year to spend Thanksgiving with my family.  We've only missed 3 of the past 11 years that we have known each other- when we were in Scotland, for Knox's birth and for Isla's birth.  So, since we weren't there last year we were extra excited to be there this year!

Plane tickets seem to have skyrocketed in price lately so to offset some of the cost we flew out to Virginia early and stayed a little late- 10 days in all. It was a really nice visit and we got to spend lots of time with family and also lots of time with each other sans children.  All in all it was very relaxing!

Both of my brothers and their wives live in Richmond so we spent most of time hanging out with them and my parents. Knox & Isla loved all the attention and new toys at Mana & Grandpa's house- they were definitely a little sad to come home.

Knox doing puzzles with Grandpa

Aunt Liz convincing Knox to eat collards on Thanksgiving- he was skeptical…so was I...

Isla needed no convincing to eat :) 

Isla with Aunt Val

swinging at Great-Grandma Charlotte's house

Is used to swing on these swings when I was a kid!

It was Kyle's birthday while we were in Virginia too.  I won't mention how old he turned (34) but it was fun to celebrate him with Knox & Isla.   We opened presents and had an ice cream cake. Knox learned that adults don't get "toys" but mostly clothes. He was disappointed but still loved helping open Kyle's gifts.  And thanks to built-in babysitters, Kyle & I got to go to a nice dinner by ourselves to celebrate as well!

the birthday boy

Knox was as excited as Kyle for the cake!

Isla did her share of damage to the cake :) 

Isla with the smaller of my parent's dogs- Maggie

Sucker break with Aunt Val!

Horsing around outside

matching Phish tshirts with Uncle Jonathan

 I recently did a few photo shoots for friends for their holiday cards. I am always so thankful for an opportunity to practice my photography. Both of these shoots were definitely a challenge- multiple children is tough but practice, practice, practice is the goal! Here are some of my favorite images from the two shoots:

We head out to Spokane next week for the Christmas holiday! Can't believe that it is that time already. Merry Christmas everyone!!

-Stacie