Not just a walk in the park!

We are so lucky to have such a wonderful group of friends! Among the top of that group are the Walters! They have adorable twin girls, Cami and Sydney who are Nick's age! We decided last year that since all our kids receive WAY too many presents for Christmas that we would instead take them on a little trip for in lieu of gifts! Last year we went to Monkey Joe's, this year we opted for the Science Center and their exhibit, Walking with the Dinosaurs!

The boys loved it! Notice I dressed them in their matching NY Giants shirts...I always opt for NY sports team apparel whenever we go out because (1) they always have matching shirts and (2) because no one else in our area will EVER have the same shirts on. It definitely makes finding the boys MUCH less stressful, especially in a group!
This dinosaur was HUGE, notice the missing head, but I was not a fan...some of them had fur which made them, I don't know, kind of freaky...
Jack and Nick digging for some dinosaur bones...
And Luke, of course, doing the same thing, just a few steps behind his two big brothers!
All five of our fabulous kids!!!
Here's our happy family!
The kids were SO excited to make this arch!!! This picture was take 2...the first time they built it and stood underneath, it fell on them...maybe that's why Luke is looking up!
At the Science Center this is a walkway across the interstate! The kids can use radar detectors to see how fast the cars are going underneath them. One of their favorite parts though were these glass cut outs! They TOTALLY made me nervous and I refused to walk on them; however, the kids LOVED them!
After our Science Center fun we headed to the Hill...the Italian section of the city for a fabulous dinner and a great (big!) drink!
Can't wait to see where we go next year! We'll definitely have to head out again before then though!

A Visit from the BIG MAN!

So, the door bell rang at Nana and Papa's house on the day that we were celebrating Jackie and Steve's birthday and look who was there!!!
Jack agreed to help Santa hand out the gifts to all the good little boys and girls!!! And, guess whose gift he pulled out first??? His own!!! Here is Jack with his Pokemon figurines!!!
Next up was GiGi!!! Boy, does she look happy!!! :)
Dan was next and he was just thrilled that he wasn't on the "naughty" list this year!!!
The birthday girl was next to sit on Santa's lap!
Followed by her hubbie, Steve!
Luke was next...although he was NOT a fan of Santa's!!!
But he sure did like the baby doll and candy cane that Santa brought him!
Last year Nick was a bit nervous going to sit on Santa's lap, but not this year...he was ALL smiles!
As was his mommy!
Baby Henry didn't quite know WHAT to think of this man in red! He sure did like pulling on his white beard though...good thing this was the REAL Santa and some cheap beard didn't come flying off!
Up next was Nana...sorry, Nana, I caught you in mid word! :)
Last but certainly not least, was Papa! Check out THAT smile!
And FINALLY...I know, I know...TOO many pictures!!! Here is a Morra family picture with the big guy!
Look at that we are all smiling, and Luke isn't completely freaking out! I'd say we are making great strides on the Santa front!!! :)

Birthday Bashes!

Jackie's birthday is December 7, Steve's birthday is December 27. Typically we have two separate parties for them, but this year, they thought we should combine the two momentous days into one super BIRTHDAY BASH held at Nana and Papa's house!

Henry sure was happy to help celebrate BOTH of his parent's birthdays!
The four male cousins...we missed you, ALYSSA!!!
The two birthday honorees!
We had a GREAT meal - thanks to Papa for grilling in December so that we could enjoy his world famous pork steaks!!! Then it was time for cake! Jackie requested an ice cream cake...
While Steve opted for MY famous yellow cake with chocolate icing!!!
We finished off our desserts when the door bell rang and a special guest appeared!!! SANTA CLAUS!!!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Our cute little midwestern town always has a Santa Claus parade the first Saturday of December to welcome the BIG MAN into town. We haven't been to the parade for a couple of years because the kids were always so little and it was always so cold, but this year, we opted to head out to the festivities!

Here are all FOUR boys waiting for the parade to begin!
It was a VERY short parade with Santa pulling up the end!
And check out his reindeer!!!
The boys were THRILLED with all their candy they retrieved! I didn't even bring a bag as I didn't think candy would be thrown...boy was I wrong - check out their pile!!!

Thankful for SHOPPING and COOKIES!

So, the day after Thanksgiving...well, Thanksgiving night I guess, Bryan, Jackie and I headed out to Fairview to begin our Christmas shopping! Black Friday started about 4 hours earlier this year as we were in line at 11:45 p.m. to get into our first stop, Toys R Us for their opening at midnight! We didn't get in until about 1:15 a.m., but the wait wasn't TOO bad! We managed to get everything on our list and definitely worked together as a team - two were shopping while one was holding our place in line! Crazy fun! We were able to get to Kohls, Target and Game Stop before heading home and pulling back into the driveway around 6:30 a.m.! It was honestly one of the best times that we three Enzwiler kids had together and I hope to make it a tradition for years to come! Here we are after our night out...we don't look to shabby!!!
Bryan and Jackie headed straight to bed, while I chose to stay up and make cookies with the kids!

Here is Alyssa adding flour!
And Nick with some much needed baking powder!
They all helped mixing, however, it was hard for me to hold the bowl and to snap the pics...on to Jack scooping out the perfect sized pumpkin cookies!
And Luke eating the batter while we are waiting to but the next dozen onto the cookie sheet!
Surprisingly ALL the kids loved the cookies...even though they were pumpkin! Here are cousins Alyssa and Luke enjoying the fruits (or cookies, in this case!) of their labor!
Once Jackie and Bryan woke up, I did end up catching some zzz's and when I woke up, Nana, Papa, Uncle Steve and Baby Henry were all over! We had a delicious dinner and then....MADE MORE COOKIES! Here are Nana and Alyssa rolling Uncle Bryan's favorite cookies - buckeyes!!!
What a great day (and night!) spent with my fabulous family!!!

A Thanksgiving Surprise!!!

How has it happened??? How has the month of November FLOWN by??? I have some past posting to do (including Dan's birthday!) but I wanted to be somewhat current and then back track when I have time!

I'm sitting here again on a Sunday evening looking back over our WONDERFUL week! A quick recap...Wednesday Dan and I put up all of our Christmas decorations (BIG tree included!) while the boys were at daycare! We grabbed the boys and then I worked on getting a few things ready for our Thanksgiving at Nana and Papa's house! We arrived quite early because Dan had a few babies that he had to round on in the hospital, so he just dropped us off en route. We hung out and checked out the ads - gotta love planning for our Black Friday shopping trip! Lunch was scheduled for noon and it was DELISH, as always!

Here are all of our happy eaters!
And here is our Baby Henry enjoying his first Thanksgiving meal. Jackie used the Magic Bullet (quick blender like appliance) and "bulleted" the green beans. Henry loved those and the sweet potatoes, but wasn't so sure about the mashed potatoes! Isn't he a cutie???
After our traditional lunch, we cleaned up and were ready for dessert! Here is our table full of pies - Cherry, chocolate, pumpkin, very berry (from House of Plenty in Highland!) and my flop of a coconut cream pie. I TOTALLY owe the boys (Dad, Uncle Gene, Dan and Steve) a make up one...I don't know what happened to it, but it was super soupy!!! UGH!
After dinner we had a knock at the door and there was Uncle Bryan and Alyssa who had made the drive from Memphis! WOO HOO!!!

At this time, we had to have a photo shoot!!! Here are the cousins - Alyssa, Luke, Jack, Henry and Nick! All in their blues and purples!!!
The three "Enzwiler" kids - Jackie, Bryan and me!
And here we are with our kids...notice I am running out of lap room!
Nana and Papa with all their five grandchildren! I know, I know, Alyssa is looking down, but at least we have the MAJORITY looking at the camera...the other pics were not too hot!!!
After we were done snapping pics (I'll spare you ALL the pictures taken!) we played Taboo...boys against the girls!
Uncle Steve LOVED the buzzer...but does look just a TAD bit scary here!!!
Again, the doorbell rang and my cousins Sandy and Kari were there. They had eaten lunch out with family and since Sandy's husband Duane and other daughter Kelli had to work, they accepted our invite for dessert! Because it was boys against girls one had to play on the boys team...it was Kari, well, I mean Gary! Sandy even brought over a roll of toilet paper for Steve to apologize for the night of tee peeing back during the Halloween party....right, Sandy???
The game was getting quite heated and frankly I'm not too sure who won, but we all had a blast. Thanks to Aunt Jackie for hanging with Henry and Luke...
And to Uncle Gene for helping Luke build his tower of blocks...I actually got to play the game fairly uninterrupted!
Dan and Uncle Bryan got Henry his first ornament, one that says, "I LOVE Uncle." Of course we needed the three of them to pose!
Around 7:30 we headed home as we had some shopping to do in just a few hours!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I am truly thankful for all I have in life - my wonderful family, group of friends, and a job that I love (well, on most days!)