Christmas and more....

I am finally taking the time to get an update posted on my blog.  I took the holidays off in order to just enjoy the time with my family....and it was fabulous!  The kids had a full 2 weeks off for Christmas and Mike had nearly a week and a half.  It was so nice having everyone home during that time and I was sad to see it end.  But, we are all back into our routines now and it feels pretty good, too. 

We had a great Christmas.  We were able to spend about a day and a half with my parents, grandma and sister, brother-in-law and niece.  Then we traveled to Mike's parents house for another day and a half and enjoyed the time we were able to spend with his family.  That still left us enough time at home for the kids to enjoy all of their new gifts, doing a massive clean-out of the kids' rooms and play room and enabled us to have a New Year's Eve party here with some great friends.  Great times all around!  Here are a few family pictures from Christmas Eve.....

The kids all did well getting back into the routine after the break.  Marina has wanted to begin taking piano lessons and was able to finally do so last week.  She greatly enjoyed her first lesson and is excited to continue her lessons.  I am sure she will do very well with it.....it seems to fit perfectly into her artistic personality! 

Marina also had a big day yesterday.  She had decided over Christmas break that she really wanted to get her hair cut and that she wanted to donate her hair to Locks of Love.  Well.....yesterday was the day!  She was really excited to get a short, sassy new 'do, but equally excited at the possibility of helping a little boy or girl.  I love her sweet heart!  Here are the before and after pictures....

We are supposed to go up North for the weekend, but we'll see what this snow does today.  We will all be disappointed if we don't go, but it will be fun to have snow at home to play in at least!  If we do make it, we are going to take Marina and Alexander skiing for the first time on Sunday.  I hope they love it! 

Thanks for checking in on us!  I hope 2012 is off to a great start for all of you and continues to be an amazing year! 
Much love,
Kristen