Max! You're 4!

Max! You're so crazy and fun! We had a great low key birthday with you today:) Sleeping in, being snowed in from church, eating our weight in pancakes, Costco shopping and then home for jammies and your specially requested movie.....

with popcorn of course!

Dinner was also by your request.

Chicken nuggets, fructons (croutons:), and cantaloupe! About as silly of a meal as you are a boy:) And you couldn't wait for your cake (well really, neither could I!:)

You enjoyed it just like you do everything else...

To the Max!;) At least you did better at getting in your mouth than you did on your first birthday!

Magnus sure liked it!

and we ended the night your favorite way...

Some of my fondest memories of you are.....

You are my loving and my big boy! I love that I get to hang out with you everyday. You're so fun and you bring such joy and life to everything you do! Happy Birthday!!

The End

Alrighty then, here it is (finally:)!  The last post of last year!  John and I aren't big New Years partiers or anything, so it suits us just fine to be home with kids in bed in our warm house drinking handcrafted cocktails and watching the countdown on our TV in front of our fireplace cuddling and sipping our cocktails (oh wait, did I already mention that part?:)  Oh, and we don't have to drive home in the traffic either, so there. But this year we did decide to venture out a bit. Our church rents out a bowling alley every year for a few hours for some free, fun, family entertainment:) Sign me up! John got a chance to wear his official bowling shirt and drink a signature White Russian!

Magnus was happy to be there:) Although he didn't bowl much:)

Bowling makes Mina a little......uh.....crazy?

Friends Ainsley and Emma were there looking fabulous as always!

And Mina and Max had fun hanging out with Caley and Amelia!

Even Magnus had a buddy!

 Max loves bowling! And rejoicing when his ball (finally) knocked down some pins:) I think his high score was 35:) But hey, he had fun!

It was cute to watch Mina dance as her ball rolled down the aisle:)

Her and Emma would have "races":)

Baby Mikaelin was there too!

Mina liked that:)

And I had the most awesome bowling shoes:)

I didn't take any pictures of the after party. The jammies and the fire and the kissing at midnight, the cocktails and what have you. But rest assured we had a GREAT New Years! Happy New years to all and to all a good night!

This is the Christmas post

I know your all overwhelmed with the creativity of my post title but I'll make up for it with some cute pictures of my kids:) We definitely have our traditions over here at the Gaitan household (as you have seen in previous posts:) and Christmas is no exception! Christmas Eve we headed over to Margie's church for a wonderful service and then back to her place for dinner!

Ham! Homemade Tamales! Potatoes, rosemary sea salt rolls and burnt carrots (yeah, I was too busy opening presents to be bothered with tending to my roasting carrots) Also two kinds of pie, lemon pound cake, cookies, ice cream, peppermint bark and a partridge in a pear tree! We opened gifts while the food cooked (or overcooked in the case of the carrots). Mina and John had some birthday business to take care of first:)

Magnus was excited to get started on his first Christmas:)

I think Nani was more excited than he was though:)

There are people in there underneath all those gifts and paper!

The stockings were hung on the chimney with care

Look what Mina got:)

 Max REALLY enjoyed himself:)

and Nani helped Magnus put together his new toy:)

I didn't take a TON of pictures of every gift but rest assured much gifts were given and received! Thanks to all who were there:) We love you!

Once we were home there was another tradition to adhere to:)

The next day the kids slept in till almost nine! And waited patiently while I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast:) But let's get to it already!

 I got a Pug for Christmas!!

 Well really JUST for Christmas:) We are sitting for "Pippin" while his owners visit family in DC:) The kids enjoyed themselves:)

So did Pippin:)

and the day was spent hanging out

and playing:)

I was in the kitchen preparing MY favorite part of Christmas!

Dinner!:) Comprised mostly (OK all:) of Pioneer Woman recipes:) It was all SOooooo very good!

Christmas really is our favorite time of year, reminders of how good our God is and all that he dose for us and we get to share that with our children. What could be better than that?