And 2011 comes to a close...

...with a bang! News from December concludes a long overdue update (NEW October and November updates below...scroll on down). Happy New Year!

An early Christmas with Grandma Carol and Grandpa Dan

The "real" Polar Express!

Christmas in the Village...Zionsville style

Christmas cookies

We love Holidays at the Children's Museum

Yule Slide...an annual tradition

Bob and Great Grandma Flossie

Christmas Eve...new books and cookies for Santa...and one sick 4 yr. old
All ready for bed...
Christmas Day fun with Jack...and Monster Trucks!
More trains, of course. The Polar Express!
Santa was good to Papa, too!
Countdown to 8:00...Happy New Year!
4 generations on Christmas

Here's to 2012...

Giving Thanks in November...

November included a visit from our favorites from Jersey: Laura, Olivia and Sophie. We ventured to Bloomington for a tour of Sophie's future academic home, Indiana University (thank you Shannon Barron for the grand tour). We're still working on Olivia...

Otherwise, we enjoyed a month of friends and family and fun:

Sophie!
Dressing the part with Olivia and Laura

My Boys

Our kitchen on any given morning...choo choo!
Movember!

Papa!

October!

October was beautiful! We spent a nice long weekend in Missouri which included a perfect fall afternoon at Lake Sheila, complete with sausages grilled over an open fire. The highlight of the trip was the visit to the big steam engine. Henry was in heaven, of course, and the rest of us were pretty impressed as well. I see many more trips aboard the train in the future...

One of our favorite weekends of the month included a gorgeous and somewhat adventurous hike at Turkey Run State Park (with 4 under 4). This too will become a regular trip for us...it was amazing.

At the end of the month we surprised Bob in St. Louis for a 60th birthday celebration. We partied Italian style at a delicious place on The Hill before a costumed evening at the zoo. The following morning the little boys - Henry, Sam and Jack - ventured to the top of the arch for the first time. Wow!

We enjoyed a festive Halloween night, compliments of our good friends the Barrons complete with dinner, trick-or-treating and spooky fun. All in all, October was a winner!