Merry Christmas

What a wonderful Christmas!  We are blessed with 2 beautiful and healthy children and such loving families.  Here are just a few of the many pictures from the day.  A few highlights of what they got:

Caitlin - dollhouse, doll, tons of coloring stuff, vanity, hair accessories, jewelry, & barbies

Hunter- toolbox, car transporter, tractors, cars, tent, remote control bobcat & dump truck

It was a magical day... couldn't have asked for anything more!!

Christmas Eve

 

This was the best picture we could get...

 Christmas Eve started with Mass at Epiphany and the kids were actually pretty good.  We celebrated with appetizers back at our house with both families.  We were blessed to have Grandma & Grandpa Streit come and stay with us on Christmas Eve.  Mom Mom got the kids some Christmas jammies which are always cute.  She also got them new books to read before bed.  Grandma read to Caitlin and Grandpa read to Hunter.  And for once, they both stayed in their beds all night.  It was a Christmas Miracle!!!

Christmas at the Streit's

Chaos!!! (But fun)

Grandpa's present... a new grill!

Everyone was able to make it to the Streit Christmas.  It was a blast.  The kids has so much fun opening all their gifts and playing with the cousins.  Kristen was probably the most fun to watch because she loved everything she got and was so animated about it.  It's always great when all 5 grand kids get to play together.  The adults had fun too!!

SANTA

 Our annual trip to Peoria's Bass Pro Shop to see Santa was a success.  The kids sat on his lap and there was no crying.  Caitlin asked for a new baby doll and Hunter asked him for a toolbox.  They enjoyed walking around the store for awhile and checking out the fish aquarium and cool toys (the hats didn't come home, but a stuffed animal deer and turkey did:)  

After our visit with Santa, we took Grandma, Grandpa, Mom Mom and Pa out to dinner to Davis Brothers Pizza.  We ended the night going through the Festival of Lights.  Pa lets the kids sit on his lap when we look at the lights so they think that's pretty awesome.  It's one of my favorite nights of the holidays!!!!  Can't wait til next year...

Picking the perfect tree

Obsessed with tape measures...he helped daddy measure.

It's not as tall as Matt was hoping for, but this year it might actually be manageable for me to put the lights on.  It's a 3 day process though.  Day 1- get the tree, Day 2- put the lights on, Day 3- decorate it.  It's all worth it though.  It's fun to take the kids to pick it out.

Deer Season

Mommy posing with her deer (Matt's is behind it)

 

New family photo

 

First shotgun season was soooo cold.  I actually went hunting each day and didn't get this deer until Sunday afternoon.  Matt got his Sunday morning.  It was a lot of fun though and worth the wait.  Again, the kids had to come check out Mommy's deer.  They were so proud!

Daddy time

 This is the best picture ever!!  Hunter gets so excited for daddy to bring home any animal he's shot.  He even helps him clean the ducks and everything.  And as you can see, he shoots them too:)

 Yay Daddy got a deer!!!  Of course I had to bring the kids out for them to see the deer.  They just love it!!  (Thank goodness because they're going to have to live with it forever!!!)

Sibling love

They're really just showing off their belts, but I just love this picture!!!

Happy Halloween

 

This year trick or treating was so much fun!!!  Hunter was a sweet tiger and Caitlin was Barbie Mariposa.  Hunter warmed up very quickly and loved going house to house.  He used his "sock" to collect his candy.  I'm not sure if Caitlin had much candy left by the time we got home.  Her candy went directly into her mouth. Luckily we were able to beat the rain and be out for about an hour.  We didn't have time to carve pumpkins this year :( but I'm excited to get back to it next year.

Fresh Air

Enjoying some fresh air - we'll take any nice days we can get this time of year!

Posing for a pic on daddy's new rock!

Happy Fall