Christmas "Vacation"

We decided to head back to the South for a tender Tennessee Christmas for almost 2 weeks.  It was great to spend time with family, but we were worn out by the end!  Here's some (or a lot) of pictures from our Christmas vacation....

At Green Hills Mall (my favorite mall in the universe)...

 Time at Mimi and Grandaddy's...

Playing with my old dollhouse... Taylor is obsessed.

 Making (or rather eating) gingerbread houses

 Will loved, loved, loved the Thomas the train engine that went around the tree!

 Dad surprised the girls with matching pj's... he did a great job picking them out!

One night, all the girls went to see The Nutcracker... here we are before the show at Puckett's Restaurant... so fun!

 Taylor loved every minute of The Nutcracker...

Christmas morning

Christmas Day at Nano and Dado's...  here's all the grandkids!

Will loves his Ray-Ray... and his Buzz Lightyear jet pack

 

The fam...

We stopped in Jackson one night to see Tim and Jen.  The kids had a ball together... Jen had lots of fun activities planned for them.  Here they are making some ornaments...

 More silly cousin time in Memphis

The fam...

 Grammy and Papa with the kiddo's...

 Our (very white) Christmas morning back home!

Thanksgiving

We had a nice, quiet Thanksgiving this year.  My Aunt Brooke and Uncle Barry invited us over for dinner, which was a lot of fun.  They have such a beautiful backyard, so I always force everyone outside for a quick picture when we're there.

I love this sweet moment... they really do love each other (most of the time)!

 

The kids had a ball decorating for Christmas... they did a good job putting the ornaments on themselves.  Only 1 broken ornament total!

The Howard Family Halloween

Here's some pics from Halloween festivities.  Taylor came up with our costume idea again this year... we were the family from Clifford the Big Red Dog books.  The kids had so much fun with it, and loved when Brett and I dressed up like Mr. and Mrs. Howard.

 Here we are right before going to our neighbor's Halloween party.  Will won best kid's costume!  :) 

 

The kids also got to dress up for preschool on Halloween... here's Emily Elizabeth giving her dog a hug before dropping him off.  

  

Halloween ballet action!

Will and Taylor really got into trick-or-treating this year.  Will and I finally went home after about an hour and a half, but Taylor and Brett kept going until they hit every house in the neighborhood!

It's the most wonderful time of the year

I have always been a fan of fall, but truly, Vermont in the fall is the best.  We have had a lot of wet weather this year, but that didn't stop us from soaking up as much as possible!  One Saturday, we went apple picking at Shelburne Orchard with our neighbors, Julie and Wayne (and baby John).

 Will usually picks the apple, and then immediately starts eating!

Here we are at the Fall Festival at Shelburne Farms... Brett made Taylor her "fairy crown" from scratch at the festival.  I think he may have missed his calling as a florist.

 

Pumpkin picking with Taylor's preschool class...

 Fresh apple cider... why not lick it out of the cup?

My mom and cousin Rachel came up to see us!  We went back for more apple picking... we are serious about apples up here.

There was a picnic area with some kids slides and swings.  We decided to play a little and have lunch.

 My mom has lost her mind!

 Rachel and Taylor made an apple pie with all of our apples!  Yum yum...

And of course, we had to eat brunch at Shelburne Inn one last time before it closes for the season.

 

Here is our little pumpkin we grew from a seed in our garden.  It's modest, but the kids are so proud of it.

 Finally, it's time to pick!

 I had to include this picture... Taylor is taking fewer and fewer naps these days.  She usually goes into her room for quiet time, but this is how I found her the other day... totally decked out in full Cinderella attire sound asleep.  At least she took the heels off. 

Orange Beach

Needless to say, I am about a month behind on the blogging.  In mid-September, we ventured down south to Orange Beach to spend some time with Brett's parents.  We had great weather, and it was such a low-key trip, which was what we needed!

Will worked his way down into the water as the days passed.  Each day, he'd venture further and further.

 

There was a water slide where we stayed, and Taylor went down it at least 100 times.  She loved it!

 

Will even got to where he loved going down with Brett!

There was also a lazy river...

Brett's brother, Drew, came down for a weekend... we just couldn't get him out of the kiddie pool.

Here we are before dinner (Louisiana Lagniappe) on the last night... we had a great time!  Thanks Grammy and Papa!