Christmas 2010!!

Started the trip with a family party:

 

Christmas Preparations

Christmas Eve- Footy Jammie party with his besties

Christmas Day- Only picture taken this day. Ladd was sick on Christmas and it seems like we spent most of Christmas cleaning up whatever bodily function was failing him at the moment. Doug got the worst of it. I won't go into detail, but I can't even imagine what it feels like for your mouth to be used inadvertently as your child's vomit bag.

Fun with the Racker Clan

Trip to the Tree house Museum (Fun with the Timothy Clan)

We went at 7 am (before it opened) and although we were a little sleepy it was fun having the whole place to ourselves.

Family Pictures

My very talented cousin-sister (cousin doesn't quite explain how much I love this girl), Shannon Garber, came out to MN a few weeks ago to visit and take some pictures.   She got some amazing shots of our crazy little family including my favorite family portrait of all time.  It was so fun to spend time together and we all loved having her and baby Jude here.

Unfortunately Shannon and I spent a little too much time behind the camera during this trip and I didn't get a single picture of us together. So these two pics will have to do.

 

(Sorry Shannon, I took this while metering and it is the only pic I got of you- good thing you always look beautiful)

Thanks so much for coming out to visit Shanz! I love you to pieces. 

The right side of the bed

You know how you can tell if your child is going to have a good day within the first couple minutes of waking up. I could tell immediately this morning that today was going to be a great day.
Ladd has been the sweetest boy in the whole world today. Sharing like a champ, being totally obedient, helpful and I don't think I've ever seen a happier child.  A dream child! And all it took was a special treat waiting for him when he woke up this morning. Maybe we should all eat a chocolate chip cookie first thing in the morning. I know Ladd's going to get another one tomorrow morning. Let's hope it keeps working.

Thanksgiving 2010

I'm thankful for Thanksgiving!  What a great holiday; no work (though, I am grateful for my job), turkey bowl, unbelievable food, and great friends & family.  This year was no exception.

The day started off at 8:30am a crisp 18 degrees with 4 inches of new snow.  Before leaving for the annual turkey bowl I pulled out my Dad's old wool lined jean jacket...despite Darci's plea to leave it tucked away in the back of the closet.  Needless to say, I stayed warm and had a blast tromping through the snow covered field.

We were lucky to have the Wilson's and Peter Bradford over this year.  Darci and Maile did an amazing job pulling everything together...we had enough food to feed the ward (right, grandpa:)).  It was awesome! We ate, relaxed until we could eat some more, built a ginger bread house & train, and finished it off with pie.  It doesn't get any better than that.  It's hard to see those days end but at least we have pictures to remind us of the great time.

Thanks again to the Wilson's and Pete for the great day!

Little Jack's Orchard...or something like that

Earlier this year we went out to an apple orchard on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  We weren't the only folks in the twin cities with this idea, in fact, everyone in the twin cities was at the same apple orchard.  Apparently, Little Jack's or Uncle Jack's (I can't remember which it is) was the place to be.  We did have fun and the boys are always up for riding horses.  

Ladd and Ollie can't wait to go see Grandpa's horses, Chief and Duke, this Christmas.

Obligatory hollowed out tree trunk pics...what little boy can stay out of something like this?

Can't wait til next Fall when the Honeycrisp apples come back - Thanks Crazy Jack's.

Halloween (I know, we're a little late!)

Halloween was so long ago that we're already buying Reeses Christmas Trees.  Yes, the Timothy calendar is now based on the seasonal Reeses shapes.  It all started with the easter egg.  We all know that spring is coming when Darci comes home with a few bags of Reeses eggs.  This year Reeses got smart and made a Christmas tree...and now we have a count down to Christmas.  One or two or three of these a day and we'll be ready to head home for the holidays to begin eating 24/7.

Anyway, we did have a great Halloween this year.  As usual, costumes posed a problem.  Ladd wanted to be 4 different things...everyday.  A lion, a tiger, a robot, a bus, a fire truck, a cookie, a transformer, a pirate, the list goes on and on.  When Halloween arrived we still weren't 100% sure what he was going to be.  Darci did a little googling and came up with a great idea: A pair of dice!

These pictures are from our ward party.  The kids all parade across the stage to show off their costumes.

These costumes didn't stay on very long...but it was fun while they lasted.  We had to correct a few people in our ward who thought they were "paradise":).  They're sweet little boys, but a sandy beach with a relaxing ocean breeze they are not!!

Don't worry, we cut Ollie's hair shortly after.