Let the Holiday fun begin !!

So Christmas will be all done in another week (well sort of since we're spreading it out over the weekend too)... but the girls are starting to get excited and I am looking forward to a 2 day work week next week and a 3 day work week the following week !! Here are a few pics to start off all the holiday festivities...

Maddy & Mia chilling in the new Christmas PJs after getting baths Monday night. We attempted the cute pictures by the tree, but cooperation past the 7 PM hour does not work in our house, instead we got Mia half asleep with Maddy, Maddy strangling Mia and a cute picture of each girl- all things considered- not too bad !

Getting ready for some holiday fun on Mommy's random PTO day.

Maddy & Old St. Nick hit it off. They chatted for a good ten minutes since there were no other kids interested in seeing Santa the week before Christmas at Cincinnati Mills (since there are like no stores open there). But we were glad there was no wait !!

This is the classic 18 month visiting Santa picture for Mia- WAAHHHH !!

We "treated" the girls to Old Spaghetti Factory (more like treated Daddy to his favorite health conscious dish, brown butter & mizthrah cheese) & Mia was obsessed with eating Daddy's salad- quite funny...

But she didn't mind the spaghetti either- too cute !

Great picture of Mommy & Maddy, except the piece of pepper on my tooth.We picked a great night for Festival of Lights, not too cold and not too crowded.

Maddy & Rudolph take time to cheese.

Mia all bundled up at Festival of Lights. This one was on the extra long train ride we were treated to (not sure why, but we got stuck on the tracks while we were up high over the canyon where the zebras usually hang out, they reversed us after a few minutes and then we were able to finish the trip to the station uneventfully)...

Maddy thought she was hot stuff walking around with hand warmers... She'd probably think that was a cool gift from Santa if it ended up in her stocking- ha ha ha ha !!

We stopped at Great Grandma & Grandpa Rose's on the way home and as always the girls loved seeing their Great Ma & Pa. They have so much fun with them !

Humana Baby !!!

It's official, Brandon has accepted a job offer with Humana. He starts on 1/5. We are so elated to have this burden lifted from us in time to celebrate Christmas. God has truly blessed our family these 8 1/2 months. He is a mighty Savior !!

Happy Thanksgiving

I trust everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We only made 2 holiday stops, which is MUCH more manageable than the 3 or 4 we usually squeeze in. After having Brandon's mom & dad up for breakfast & watching the parade (after they were at Meijer at 4 AM- crazy...), we headed west. We spent the early afternoon with Brandon's dad's family where we had all the fixins of Thanksgiving. We than had a dinner a little after 6 at my Dad's house in Mt. Healthy. I was impressed the bachelor pulled off such a great meal & clean house (Thanks Carolyn- it was great !!) We thought Maddy was getting sick, but no, she just suckered us into basically eating Cool Whip for Thanksgiving dinner at both places. Mia wasn't much into the turkey either, she thought it looked better on Aunt Gail's floor & we didn't even bother with it at dad's... We had 2 great visits with our families. Here are a few pics from the day !

As close as it gets to 2 smiles... Mia (18 mos) & Maddy ( 4 1/2)

Thanks for getting out the toys Aunt Gail, but the box was just as much fun as the toys !

Well at least someone didn't want Uncle Josh to leave.

Mia was very content on Great Grandma's lap, as long as she was feeding her chocolate...

Maddy loves her Aunt Gail !

The girls love their personal shopper, Christina

Da Bairds- not sure why this is blury...

Cute cousins, Sammy & Maddy !

Shhh, don't tell Grandpa we're jumping on his couch !

Maddy, Sammy & Nick watching Movies at Grandpa Teufel's !

Saying Night Night to Great Grandma T !

We are looking forward to celebrating Brandon's 33rd birthday this weekend and we are optimistic that 1 of the 3 pending job opportunities will work out for him. He has a 3rd interview at Fifth Third Thursday, an interview in Louisville at Humana's headquarters next Tuesday and is waiting to hear back from Ortho Clinical Diagnostics this week. I have faith that God will lead him to the right company ! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas and we wish you a Very Merry Christmas as you beging to celebrate with family & friends !