Just a few moments from our Christmastime that I figured looked better in black and white.

Kelan and Mommy.

Chubby Cheeks.

We call it "vacation hair".

and this, "sheer joy".

And this, "true love"...

Gingerbread house, round 2. The curls give knuckles on a job well done. No disaster this time.

Cheese!!

Tada!!

Kelan was more than happy to demolish the house on Christmas Eve.

We went to the reading of the Polar Express at the Wilmington Railroad Museum. The boys were excited to have their very own golden tickets!

Here's the conductor who clicked tons of holes in the tickets.

The story was read by none other than WWAY Carolina in the Morning anchor Kevin Wuzzardo.

This is the only picture I got of Kelan on Santa's lap without his finger in his nose.

Jak certainly knows what he wants, and is happy to Santa ALL about it.

I thought I'd try for a group pic of the boys in front of the tree. There was a very nice, helpful lady behind me making funny faces at the boys to get them to smile.

We got a Gingerbread house kit a while back and finally got around to giving it a shot today. Ummm...

I had really wanted it to turn out spectacular, particularly given the awesome job the Zitny kids did on their recent, gorgeous gingerbread house. But, ummmm....

Yeah, not so much. The icing would NOT set and it totally collapsed once we started putting decorations on it. So, we're going to have to get back to basics and make one from scratch sometime this weekend. Hopefully it will be MUCH more successful than this one (which is still now on my dining room table--well, part of it anyway...)

Kelan was just happy he finally got to eat the gumdrops, and notice Kai sucking the icing out of the piping. Tis the season. Hope to post some success photos soon!

Breakfast with Santa

Independence Mall had a special breakfast with Santa yesterday.

Here's Kelan (with a mouth full of chicken) hamming it up with Santa.

Kelan.

Jak.

Part of the deal was a ride on the fabulous 2 story carousel. Kelan chose the zebra.

Jak originally wanted the gorilla, but settled on the elephant.

Here we are with our good buddy, Alex. Thanks, Jo, for the pictures!!

Today we trekked to the lovely city of Raleigh to drop Bomma 

off at the airport. We've loved having her here for the past two weeks (which seemed to have lasted all of 12 seconds...), and we

 were sad to say goodbye!!

Kai loves Bomma. 

This past Saturday Night we went to the First Annual Christmas by the Sea on the boardwalk in Carolina Beach. It was soo much fun for the kiddos and we're gonna be there every weekend until Christmas hamming it up with Santa and enjoying the festivities!

We got to roast marshmallows while listening to a Christmas story. 

Kelan wasn't sure about the roasted marshmallow. He prefers them cold. Weirdo. 

Jak, on the other hand...

More pictures to come of our upcoming fun at Christmas by the Sea!!

We were thrilled to have Daddy home for Thanksgiving weekend. He has this effect on many people...

Fun fun fun with Daddy...

We took a walk after dinner on Thanksgiving and took a moment to enjoy the views around us. We went out on the docks and visited the boats...

Kai demonstrates why he believes this one should belong, at least partially, to him.

Fun at the beach on Saturday.

Silly boy Jak.

Having fun with Bomma!!

 Beach yoga. Here's Kelan practicing his downward dog.

A little chilly, but fun nonetheless...

Recently, Craig received a text photo of an empty frame on a wall and the subsequent explanation that this was where our family portrait belongs (we've never had one taken- gasp!). So we decided to try to get a good shot of the five of us over Thanksgiving weekend, and here are the best of our out takes.  (Thanks mom, for the effort, and we love you!!)

Camera's night setting not cooperating. 

Kelan and Jak not cooperating.

Jak "could not want to smile" and Kai has never said "cheese" with such vigor.

What's up Kelan??

Again with the night setting. 

Close...

One of these days we'll all look in the same direction, smile and not blink, simultaneously ;)