New Years Eve

Happy New Years!!! Kaitlyn and Colin were SO excited to have all of the neighbors over for a NYE party! Some of the neighbor kiddos with Kaitlyn and Colin. We were missing a few who were playing in the basement.
The mommies Rose, Rachel, me and Beth:) All of the adults had fun playing some poker later on in the night!

Almost midnight! Getting our sparkling grape juice with raspberries in it ready for the toast!

My clock must be slow.....the tv said it was midnight...HAPPY 2009!!!!!

Colin was trying to give his sister a New Years kiss:)

We had such a great NYE and want to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy 2009!!

Willis Christmas

After enjoying Christmas morning at home just the four of us we were excited to get on the road and head to Grandma and Papa Willis' house to have Christmas with the Willis side! Here we are while waiting for mommy and daddy to finish packing the car. Merry Christmas Everyone! We enjoyed Christmas with the extended family at Aunt Donna and Uncle Bills house. Then we headed to Grandma and Papas house. We were excited to celebrate Christmas with them and open our presents. Kaitlyn and Colin got Magneatos! Thanks Grandma and Papa! We love building with them!!
Daddy was helping Kaitlyn open her gift from Auntie Jill, Uncle Craig, Reid and Jay. More Hello Kitty stuff....you really know how to shop Auntie Jill!!
Baby Ike was so good the entire weekend! Here he was chilling out in his activity seat watching us open presents! He is such a good baby....don't think we heard him cry once all weekend:)

Colin and Kaitlyn loved their sleds from Uncle KC. Now all we need is some snow on the ground to try them out!

Kaitlyn and Grandma were playing with Kaitlyn's Hello Kitty doll house.

Grandma and Papa were excited to receive one of the 25th Anniversary Twins Magazine calendars that K & C were in. They made the July page!

Uncle Craig was playing airplane with Colin:)

What a good sport he was...he even played Hello Kitty with Kaitlyn too!

We always go to the Discovery Children's Museum when we are back visiting. Grandma and Papa bought a grandparents membership so we can go every time we come back to visit!! Colin loves the slide!

Reid was being such a good cousin and showing Kaitlyn how to climb the wall!Grandma was so sweet and bought us aprons so we can cook with her. We love helping her make muffins for breakfast!

Colin, Jay and Reid playing with the Magneatos!

Kaitlyn was watching Jay and Reid play chess. Don't touch the game board Kaitlyn (doesn't she look suspicious) it was a serious game of chess:)

SO cute!! Colin, Kaitlyn and Everett watching Colin's new DVD. Auntie Jolene, Uncle Chad, Everett and baby Ike bought Colin the Madagascar DVD. Its a great movie as you can tell by the three amigos staring at the screen..probably a little too close though!!

Cousins pic! Reid, Ike, Jay, Kaitlyn, Colin and Everett. We were all saying how well these kiddos play together. The entire weekend we were there the kids played, played, played. Believe it or not their weren't any arguments! Maybe one or two between my own kids but that was it:) We truly wish we saw the Willis side more often....we all have so much fun together!!! We look forward to our Willis weekend getaway this Spring!!!!

Christmas Morning

The man in the big red suit did come and he ate his cookies and drank all of his milk!!! He even fed the reindeer too! Merry Christmas Everyone!! Kaitlyn couldn't believe that Santa did in fact come!! Their presents were all set up and they could see them from the loft.
Colin was practically running down the stairs he was so excited!!

Opening some of their presents.

A Hello Kitty purse..how did Santa know!?!?

Spike the dinosaur!

Another Hello Kitty present....the Hello Kitty Becomes a Princess DVD!

Mickeys Raceway....yippee!!

Colin was playing with his remote control dinosaur Spike!

Here is some video of Spike in action. Colin loves to imitate him!!!! Kaitlyn was pretty afraid of him but has since warmed up the last week.

Kaitlyn using her new digital camera to take pictures of Kaylee and Connor in their car seats. We now have a "little me" running around with her own new digital camera. Colin got one too. They are just as camera crazy as I am:)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their families!!!

Christmas Eve & The Young Christmas

Christmas Eve was spent with the Young side. It was a very busy day! We woke up and went to Grandma and Papa Young's house at 8:15am in our pjs and opened presents. Here is a picture of the drive to their new house...it was snowing and the trees looked so pretty! Grandma buys the grand kids matching pjs as a tradition every year for them to wear on Christmas. Here are K & C sporting their gingerbread pjs before we opened gifts at Grandma and Papas house.
Kaitlyn loves her cousin Quintin....she was rescuing him as he tried to climb up the stairs....and of course made time for a picture and a hug!
The 3 grandkiddos!

Helping Papa open a present!

Wouldn't you know that they had SO many presents to open and they chose to play in a cardboard box instead:)

Colin was very excited about his Smart Cycle present!

Kaitlyn loved her Bitty highchair. She had Kaylee in it and was feeding her.

Isn't he so silly! Uncle Randy was checking his new Oakley's out in Kaitlyn's Bitty Doll mirror!

Colin loves his new Illini warm up outfit from Great Papa and Great Grandma Betty(they weren't with us Christmas Eve morning because they live in San Diego)!!

Daddy was excited to get Illini gear from them too!Kaitlyn was playing with her new Bitty Baby trundle bed. She had put her Bitty Twins, Kaylee and Connor to sleep...shhhh!!

Again...never knew a cardboard box could be SO fun!! I am bummed because I had a super cute video of Colin popping out of the box and I accidentally erased it. He would close the box lid completely and then pop out...it was hilarious!

We all went home after opening presents to give the kids naps and shower. We came back later to have dinner with the rest of the extended family. Here is Auntie Kelly and Uncle Randy.

Yes, Grandma did buy these silly(I mean cute) gingerbread and Santa aprons for her grand kids. Its tradition that she makes Christmas cookies with the grand kids and so now they have Christmas aprons to wear when they make them.

Kaitlyn smiling with Nicole(CoCo) and Danielle (DiDi).

Grandma will do anything for her grand kids!! I might get in trouble for this pic:) Poor Quintin was dressed in Kaitlyn's new tutu and Grandma was dressed up as well in a tiara and colored hair extensions:)

Grandma and Kaitlyn were having a blast dancing and entertaining us all! Even though Grandma had a broken foot and that big boot on she was a good sport and danced with all of the grand kids! Kaitlyn loves her Libby Lu dress up stuff from Aunt Shari, Uncle Jim, Nicole and Danielle. She looks a little like Britney Spears:)

We got home very late but couldn't forget the reindeer food Grandma made for the kids. The recipe is dry oatmeal and glitter:) Here is Colin sprinkling his reindeer food on the driveway.

Kaitlyn sprinkled hers too.

The kids were exhausted but we had to get our Santa plate ready. Grandma Willis painted us the Cookies for Santa plate and we love using it! They picked out what they wanted to fill their plate with....mini carrots(1 for each reindeer), 2 oreos and 2 M & M cookies and a big glass of milk!

Before bed we got out their new Night Light Buddies from Auntie Kelly, Uncle Randy and Quintin. They are so neat! They are going to be great for the kids to take to the bathroom in the middle of the night! We are working on potty training through naps and nighttime!! Funny how they have been trained for 7 months now but cant seem to get the hang of it when they are sleeping:)