Holiday Gorgeousness

Just some beautiful portraits of the kids in their holiday finery!

































I may be biased, but I think these are the most beautiful kids in the universe!  :D

Charlie, 2012

Charlie, our elf, reappeared this December to keep an eye on the kids and cause a little mischief.

Here are a few of his highlights from his stay:

Getting into Luken's leftover pudding.


Playing Uno with some of the toys in the house.


Working out!


Sleeping in a potholder bed in the flatware drawer.


He used Lego bricks from Luken's new Lego Creationary game to fashion a Santa and a Christmas tree!  Pretty fancy!




The kids have so enjoyed having him around again this year.  I know they will be sad to see him go...

Visit With Santa

Here are the kids visiting with Santa!!








Luken asked for Nerf guns and Keeley asked for a camera.

House of Cards

The kids spent a week or so attempting to build houses out of cards.  Luken was successful, and once he build one, he built a whole village!

O Christmas Tree...

It doesn't FEEL anything like Christmas around here.  The weather has been beautiful, warm, and mild, but completely uninspiring as far as the holidays are concerned.

Nonetheless, we soldiered through it and got our tree right at the beginning of December.  :)



The kids, eagerly awaiting the presentation of their annual new ornament.




First ones on the tree!


Bacon for Keeley.  She has developed quite an affinity for it this year!


Legos for Luken.  He loves to build!




The ornament we picked up on our trip to Austin in November.


Time for the star!




Getting reacquainted with some old friends.


Hanging the stockings by the chimney with care.

Darn Good Day in Dallas

In late November, we were able to preview the new Perot Museum of Nature and Science, before it opened to the general public.  We decided to make a day of it!

We started at Todd's favorite coffee shop for breakfast.




Then, we visited Daddy's office.
The kids had fun playing "work."






I'm pretty sure Keeley fired Daddy.  :(








Next, we checked out the new Klyde Warren park.  It's beautiful!




Ah, there's the glare from the Museum Tower.  Yep, it's pretty harsh!






Spinning!


A real merry-go-round!


Finally, the museum.  Here we are in the lobby.


Going up the escalator!


Beautiful view!


Dinosaurs!




Earthquake simulator.


Pretending to be weatherpeople.




Hey, look - an octopus!


The kids got to do a cheek swab lab.  It's very cool - they get to suit up and everything!










Examining their cells on the screen.


Motion fun!


Checking out his veins.




A neat wind-based structure.




Keeley found a friend.


Dallas skyline in the childrens' area.  We found Daddy's building!


In the sports area, Daddy checked his vertical leap!


Outside, there are cool frog sculptures to climb on!




The museum is housed in a brand new, modern and funky building.  The escalator is bumped out on the side!




We had a really wonderful family day together!