We love Family

We were so excited to have family visit us from Utah. Lesa, Jake and Stevie came to stay for a week. The first thing to do on the list was to head to Philadelphia to visit Casey, Lindsay and Jack. It was a long drive but we made it. We got all 6 kids and 4 adults asleep in their apt and it was great. We went to the Please Touch Museum, lunch at Wendy's, to see the Liberty Bell, and the Smith House Playground. Casey and Lindsay were so great for feeding us and taking us in. We had a wonderful time. I love getting cousins together, so fun!

When we came back to Connecticut we play outside a lot, visited Kent Falls and just enjoyed our time together.

Tuesday we headed to New York City, unfortunately it rained most of the day. We went to the National History Museum, and enjoyed all the sights there first to hopefully miss the rain but it didn't stop. Most of the group then went for a ride on the subway to FAO Swhartz. To end the day we drove past the Empire State Building and got a parking ticket in New York City, so awesome;)

We were so sad when the cousins left, Taylor decided that we are boring without them. Thanks for coming to visit, we can't wait to have others come.

4 YEARS OLD!

Taylor turned 4 this last Sunday and it is so hard for me to believe. He has grown up so much. He is such a sweetheart. He loves to take care of others, he loves to wrestle with the twins and play with them, he loves to be active and he still loves to be held by mom and dad. Some of my favorite things about Taylor are:

He will bring you cups and cups of water to make you feel better when you are sick

He loves to have his back scratched and he will return the favor He loves to run He loves to wrestle

He loves the movie "Cars"

He wants to be a pilot or a race care driver when he grows up

He can't wait for the new baby to come to our family

He can't sit still while he eats dinner

He loves to help with Lana and Drew

He loves to read

He loves to build

He loves to jump off everything

He is so timid

He has to watch someone else do everything before he will try it

and

so so so so much more.

We love you Taylor. My camera is having some problems lately so I got some good pictures and one video. We are working on getting a new camera or having it fixed.

We love #4!

For those who do not know, I am pregnant. Here is a picture of #4. I am 23 weeks and due June 19th. We do not know the sex of the baby because they could not tell at my ultrasound. I believe it is a girl because she was being modest by keeping her legs crossed :) We will have another ultrasound at 32 weeks and will hopefully be able to find out at that point.

All of Christmas

I am obviously behind but I would like to post about Christmas. It is going to be a lot of pictures and a quick blog.

We somewhat decorated our house and somewhat decorated a tree because we were leaving for Utah on December 16th for the holiday season. I wanted it to feel like Christmas in our home but did not want much to clean up. So here is our tree.

We also had Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Bramhall before we left so we would not have to have so many gifts with us to bring back. Taylor was really excited he got a shark remote control truck and legos. Drew and Lana got a his and her tricycles. They love them but are a little too small to ride them at the moment, soon enough.


Then we took off. We left really early on the 16th and it was a decent flight with 3 young kids, 2 that are still sitting on our laps:) We were looking forward to 3 1/2 weeks in Utah. Dave was ready to ski and I was ready to see family.

Dave did a lot of skiing. The snow was really good and he had a lot of family and friends to ski with. Thanks to all those that so kindly gave out passes. As much as I complained to my husband that he got to have fun while I stayed and took care a kids, I am soooo happy he got to ski that much. He deserves it. He is a wonderful husband and father.

The kids loved being around cousins and Grandma and Grandpa (It was the first time the twins really got to know Grandma and Grandpa Draper). We got to see so many friends and family that I really enjoyed that long of a vacation. Thanks to all those that took time to see us and have parties at their homes and fly to Utah to spend a night with us. We love you all.



Christmas was great. We did small gifts for the kids, due to high costs with return luggage. My favorite memory about Taylor-he opened a gift from Santa, a Leapster, and he said it didn't like it and didn't want to play with it. Then he opened a gift from G&G Draper, a Leapster Lightning McQueen game, he turned to me and said now I want to play that thing. Drew-loved all the cars he got and would not leave them alone. Lana-loved her Etch-a-sketch and purse full of girly things. I loved my new boots from Dave and Dave got ski passes and money for new ski pants.



We had lots of snow to enjoy. We did some sledding, Taylor got to ski (he is getting good, he can ski by himself now), I got to ski, we all got to go bowling, enjoy lots of family parties, and so much more. It was a great vacation.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in New Jersey, surrounded by part of the Bramhall Clan. We had a great dinner that Tim and MaryAnn provided and I was excited that we got Taylor to eat some turkey. We told him if he didn't eat it he would disappear. I love how sometimes he believes us. Taylor hardly eats anything so it was a big step to get him to eat some.



For the rest of the weekend we traveled to Hershey, PA and had a great time at Hershey Park. All of the large rollercoaster rides are closed but the small rides are all still open (that is all my kids can ride anyway) and they had a beautiful Christmas light show. It was very very cold but the kids did pretty well. I thought it was a lot of fun. We stayed overnight in town and had a great time the next day. We toured a small town near Harrisburg, PA, that my father-in-law grew up in. Lana got car sick and threw up all over Dave and Taylor. Then we toured the Indian Echo Caverns, a great cave that the children loved to run around in and get dirty.

Thank to the Bramhall's for a great weekend.

The Rest of Fall

So, I really have not been posting much and I need to get back to it. I realized that I never posted our pumpkin picking or any of our fall pictures.

When we went pumpkin picking it was so so so so cold but the kids did a pretty good job dealing with it. We did go to a pumpkin farm and they had some animals there. The kids loved to look at them. Drew loved the cow and we loved watching the mommy pig and her many piglets. They were so cute. We also went for a hay ride and Dave and Taylor did the corn maze.

After pumpkin pickin' we did a little pumpkin carvin'.

I really wanted to enjoy the fall leaves here on the East Coast and it seemed like they were only beautiful one day. I think I just didn't do enough watching. The day I thought they looked great I wanted to take the kids pictures. The problem is they were dressed nicely, I wasn't going to leave our yard and I didn't even do Lana's hair. They were still cute pictures though.

We also loved playing in the leaves. It is sad that the older you get the more concerned you get, well at least I do. I did not want to touch the leaves because of buys (mainly ticks). It ruined the enjoyment for me. I tried not to ruin for Taylor.

Costumes!

So I really didn't get many pictures of the kids in their costumes cause they keep me too busy to let me take pictures. But we had a great a Halloween and a great time dressing up. The first few pictures are from Cecily's halloween birthday party. Drew and Taylor were in different costumes because we didn't have their true 2010 Halloween costumes ready.

We also dressed up for fun at home one day...

and then we went to the Truck or Treat at the church. Dave as a hunter, Taylor as Lightning McQueen, Drew as a bumblebee and Lana as a flower.

Now Dave spent many hours working on Lightning McQueen. He searched for the right cardboard, the right tire material, the right stickers and the right paint for a couple weeks. When we got to making the actual car it took a lot of time doing detail work. It was worth it though. It turned out awesome and Taylor loves it. Unfortunately we spent so much time on it we don't want the kids playing on it and ruining it. Dave has hidden it in the closet. I sure we will eventually let it out.