Christmas Music!

Benny participated in a Christmas program at church.  He sang two songs (Silent Night and Away in the Manger).  Grandpa and Grandma came up to see him perform.  They also helped us decorate for Christmas.  We also got to take them to our new favorite restaurant, Choo Choo Johnnys.

Playing with trains at Choo Choo Johnnys.

 Benny singing!

Hanging out with Grandma!

Christmas In Chicago!

On Brad's last weekend day off, we ventured into Chicago to take in some of the holiday sights.  Our first stop was the Willis Tower (previously known as the Sears Tower).  Timmy fell asleep on the ride into town and therefore slept through the elevator ride to the top.  Since my last visit to the Tower (which was many years ago), they have installed plexiglass sky boxes in the observation level that extend out over Wacker Drive. That was pretty cool to stand there and see the street below. 

 Timmy finally woke up just before we were ready to go back down.

Next we headed over to the Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza.

 The wonderful tree!

 It was very crowded and we had to wait in line for what seemed like forever, but the hot chocolate was worth it!

We ended our evening by having dinner at the Walnut Room in Macy's.  It is the first restaurant in a department store.  The store itself was amazing.  There were 7 floors dedicated to shopping.  We had to wait for our table, so we went to visit Santa on the 5th floor.  This was the third time the kids had seen Santa (first time at a store at the mall and the second time was for photos at the mall).  After dinner we went up to the 8th floor (the restaurant was on the 7th floor) to look at the tree that was in the center of the restaurant.

Playing tic tac toe while waiting for dinner.

Playing cars while we wait for dinner.

 Looking at the tree!

 The Tree!

 We ended up getting home rather late, but we all had a good time.  We are looking forward to exploring other fun things next year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, time sure has flown and we have been very busy.  This Thanksgiving we were blessed to spend a long weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The kids had fun riding their tractors, playing on the play set and taking walks with Grandpa.  We had our Thanksgiving Dinner at Aunt Leslie and Uncle Steve's house the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  The boys made some great turkeys that were used as decorations for the table.
While waiting for dinner, Benny, Timmy, Brad, Uncle Steve, Aunt Leslie, Aunt Jill and Grandpa went to visit the local fire station (Uncle Steve is a volunteer fire fighter!).  On the way back from the fire station they stopped at a park.

Here is Timmy pushing Aunt Jenny and Benny on the merry-go-round.

 Here is Timmy pushing Benny and Grandpa.

 Aunt Jenny and her favorite nephews!

 Aunt Jill and "Uncle" John and their silly nephews!

 Our host and hostess for the evening, Uncle Steve and Aunt Leslie!

 Grandpa and Grandma with their two silly grandsons!

Brad and Lisa (aka Mommy and Daddy) with two tired little boys!

Happy Halloween!

This was our first Halloween in Illinois.  The boys had fun walking around the neighborhood.  Benny did a great job of ringing doorbells and saying "Trick or Treat".  Timmy mostly sat in the stroller.  He did go up to a few houses though.  Benny went dressed as Indiana Jones and Timmy was a cow. The jack o' lanterns were carved at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Benny drew the faces and I (Lisa) cut them out. The boys thought the pumpkins were cool once they were lit up.

Timmy's way of Trick or Treating!

Grandpa Pumpkin!

Timmy picked out the shapes for this pumpkin!

We had to save some seed for our garden next year!

Leaves!!!

The boys had never had the chance to jump into a pile of leaves until this year.  The trees in our back yard dropped quite a bit of them.  Brad used a leaf blower and blew them into a great big pile.  The kids had a blast running and jumping in them. 

Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's House

The boys just love their tractors!

Hanging out with Grandma and Pa Pa!

Timmy trying to ride Benny's tractor.  Poor guy's legs just aren't long enough yet!

Painting a bird feeder!

Playing with one of Grandpa's many cats!

How the boys spent their evenings.  Snuggled up on Pa Pa's lap.

Fun at the Brookfield Zoo!

 

We recently went to explore our new neighborhood.  We decided to check out the Brookfield Zoo.  It was very nice.  The kids got to ride the carousel and the tram.  We even saw a dolphin show.

We had to go under the street to get to the Zoo.

 

 

 

 Lions,

 Tigers,

 And Bears, Oh My!

 Some of the dolphins before the show.

 The carousel!

Fun at the Pierce County Fair

Since we would not be in Washington for the Puyallup fair, we made sure we went to the Pierce County Fair.

 Here is Benny on one of his favorite rides, the rollercoaster!

 He really enjoyed riding in this car.

 We even did the bumper cars!

 Poor Timmy!  He was sad that he was not tall enough to go on any of the rides.  The nice lady who ran this ride let him do this one.  It was a big bear that spun around while it turned around.  I made sure we were not spinning too fast and Timmy had a blast.