Twas the night after Christmas.....

You know how being an adult means that days like Christmas and your birthday aren't quite the same anymore?

This is what my house looked like last night when I got home from Rick's parents house at bedtime by myself with all three kids (Rick was working overtime....)For a second I thought we'd been robbed.... but then I remembered in the two hours we'd been home that morning, WE had actually made this mess.

Who knew that three little cuties could make such a mess? THREE hours I spent cleaning it all up. Merry Christmas to me. It was worth it though. What a fun day.

Countdown to Christmas

Christmas is in full swing over here in Florida, despite the lack of snow. I love traditions at Christmas and have been trying to continue on with some of the ones I remember from my family growing up. Rick's sister Trisha and her family have been here and we've been having a blast. Last night we went to a drive through lights place and left Cole and their new baby Matthew with Grandma and Grandpa and went to dinner and to look at lights. It was fun.The kids liked being out of their seatbelts and Brynnli liked driving the carWe decorated treats and have been having fun delivering them all week to our friends and neighbors

And we had our fourth annual Tolbert/Wernli Christmas on Sunday. It's nice to have friends who feel like family. Grandma and Grandpa T. joined in on the fun too.

Carson was just as excited to clean up the garbage as he was to open his gifts:)The kids had so much fun playing together, I can't imagine that next year there will be two more boys joining in (Kim is pregnant with twin boys due in March). Then we will have more boys than girls! We got to reinact the nativity with some of friends too, it was really cute and a Carson and Brynnli always love to dressup. Carson was a sheperd, Brynn an angel, and Cole was baby Jesus.

This is my absolute favorite time of year, for so many reasons, but mainly because the kids get so excited. I have loved trying to teach them what it really is about also, and have loved the story The Last Straw. The kids have been having fun trying to do secret nice things for eachother. Love it!

Christmas at Preschool

Yesterday Carson's class at preschool had their "holiday party" and Santa came. Brynnli, Cole, and I snuck in to watch and Brynnli was so excited she got a present too from Santa.

The whole class with Santa

We stayed after for a party with pizza and yummy treats and presents, I'm so glad Carson has loved school so much this year! But how nice will it be to stay in my jammies past eight for the next two weeks!!!!

Idaho Snow

I'm still catching up from vacation.... two weeks later. While we were in Boise they got the most snow they've gotten in awhile and we loved it! Little Cole hungout with Grandma and Grandpa inside while we went out and had a blast!We did drag Cole out for two minutes for a picture, but he was miserable, so we scratched that. We built a snow tunnel.....

I built (with a little help from the kiddos) a giant snowman

We took the kids to the park and they had fun playing on all the equipment covered in snow.

Sledding in the backyard was a hit too.....so many fun things to do in the snow.

Carson could've stayed out there for hours shoveling....Brynnli was the same once we figured out how to keep her fingers warm.

Random pic of my mom and I cooking on Thanksgiving. We were so thankful to be there with everyone. I was very thankful that we don't live in a cold place....it's a lot of work with kids to keep them warm to get out of the house! I think I'd never leave!!! But it was a blast to visit!!!

We've actually had really chilly weather here since we got home and Carson keeps asking me when it's going to snow.....poor kid. I agree though, if it's going to be cold, you might as well get some snow! Won't be happening here anytime soon.....

Thanksgiving in Idaho

We just got back from our trek across the country to Idaho for Thanksgiving. We had an awesome time. The kids keep asking to go back there. Cole got to meet all kinds of new people and ride on his first plane. He was a champ.

My sister and her family drove from San Fran in some pretty nasty weather to get to us and we were so grateful! The kids had a blast together.

All the cousins, ours would be the ones not smiling (except Carson)
Grandpa took a day off of work while we were there to take Carson and Brynnli on a "date" to the garbage truck transfer station and to get milkshakes and french fries at Sonic, they loved it.

Cole got to meet his uncle Ryan, who he won't see again until he's two! It was a rather bittersweet "see ya in two years" for all of us. Sniff..... but we are so PROUD of him.We were so excited to get to go to the temple with him for the first time too, while Aunt Nicky stayed at home to babysit the FIVE kids. Thank you!!!

Sweet Ryan seriously spent awhile trying to build this lego car for Carson that had eight bazillion peices....

Cole and his Aunt Jenny

Aunt Nicky

While we were there they got like nine inches of snow one day and it was awesome! Those pictures will be coming next.......

Tiny Dancer

I'm going to be honest, it has been a really tough month for me. Life has just been a little too much sometimes to handle. So today I am thankful for little things that make me happy. Today I got to go watch Brynnli dance in dance class (which we only get to do once a month) and it made me happy. She is such a happy girl at dance class. I am so thankful for her.

Brynnli and her best friend Izzie

I am also thankful for Grandma who came to watch (which made Brynnli's day) and took pictures for me, since my hands were full with Cole. Thank you!!!

Suprise! and Fancy Nancy

So....we went back again one more time.... to Disney. We couldn't help it. The Christmas decorations were up.... and Rick came home at six from work and I had secretly packed all the stuff and after dinner we told the kids we were leaving for Disney. It was really fun suprising them. That's all I'll say about it, since we've gone a bazillion times....but our passes are officially expired now and we're going to take a year off.

My friend Kim's parents introduced us to fancy Nancy on Halloween, and ever since then I keep spotting her at our house......couldn't resist.

Football

Rick got free tickets from a friend for the Miami Hurricanes game this weekend, so we decided to take Carson and Brynnli and leave little Cole man with the grandparents. It was beautiful weather due to our first "cold front" and the kids loved it!

Brynnli's favorite thing: The "duck" otherwise known as the Ibis and mascot, and of course, the cheerleaders who, as she put it, kept "shaking their bum like I do in dance class."

Carson's favorite: watching the football game. He wanted to know everything about how the game worked, and was very disappointed when we left mid third quarter to put Brynnli down for her nap.

My favorite thing was that we all had matching shirts (not that you can tell by the picture....) which was so fun to me. Little Cole was all bundled up for the first time and had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa! I have to say though, the kids (and me...) were very sad about leaving Cole behind to go to the game at first. We love the little guy.

Halloweenish

We did our usual stop by the pumpkin patch a few days prior to Halloween.... we went to a different one than usual and boy were we glad we did...............Who knew that the kids could get a wagon ride from none other than Michael Jackson himself (we weren't sure if he was in costume or not.....) Brynnli was pretty suspicious and looked very relieved when the ride was over. Since Halloween was on a Sunday this year we layed pretty low. We carved our pumpkin and then headed over to our friends the Wernlis so that the kids could hand out candy together. I really think they had more fun doing that than they would've trick or treating....and those kids that came to the door lucked out...Carson was pretty generous (to say the least)

Here's the little Colester....poor guy had a double ear infection this weekend....what a trooper. And in case you're wondering.... Brynnli is extremely unexcited about sitting still for pictures....we do love her just as much as the other two:)