Snow Day

What is better than an unexpected snow day?  Really nothing in the world is better.  I woke today with Greg telling me that school had been canceled and I think I had a smile on my face the day.  Since Greg is already on winter break I was going to have to be the only one attending school today so spending the day in jammies with my family was pretty great.  Since we really had no snow (no as Harper calls it) last year this was the first snow Harper had seen.  Both kids loved playing or should I say being pulled around on a sled by me in the snow.  We lasted a whole 40 minutes outside which is just about as long as it took us to get ready to go outside.  So much fun and a great way to get in the Christmas spirit.  1 day left of school tomorrow just for teachers and I am officially on break. Yeah for snow days! 

 

Update

A few pictures of the last few weeks.....

 We got to spend the morning with our sweet cousins playing and catching up.  I can hardly believe that our little Leo is getting so big.  I got to feed and snuggle a sleeping little Leo, it was heaven. 

 We tried to snap a few shots of our cuties, 3 out of 5 looking in the same direction not bad.

 Our neighborhood fox, he is often spotted in backyards and has been in our garage a few times as well.  We spotted him scaling the fence and hanging out in our neighbors yard.  The kids were so excited but very nervous he might try to eat Hazel our cat. 

 We practiced making Santa's cookies today.  The verdict was 4 thumbs up from our taste testers!  I think we will be ready for the real thing in a few weeks.   

 

 

My Loves

Just to cute not to post.  Enjoying the last few moments of beautiful weather last week.  Some pretty stinking wonderful kids!

 

Thanksgiving Break

The Tomlinson family got to experience our first Thanksgiving break with two teachers in the family.  Greg is starting to realize the perks of being a teacher after a full 5 day break.  Since it was our year to stay in town with the Tomlinson side we made a decision to just stick in town for the full break and relax.  After a busy first of the school year and the craziness of our daily schedules we were due for some down time with the kids.  Relax is just what we did and it was amazing.  Terry and Sue hosted us on Thanksgiving day and had an amazing meal prepared.  We ate way to much and played for hours with our best gal Mia.  Our kids are so in love with Mia (Mimi as Harper calls her) and treasure any time with her.  Thanks to Terry and Sue for such a perfect day.  I think I would not have enough room in this post to list all the things we have to be thankful for this thanksgiving.  We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful life.

 

 We had a mini photo shoot to try to get a good picture of the 3 cousins but we did not have a ton of success but here are a few of our attempts. 

 

Saturday we hit our all time favorite location, Union Station or known in this house as "The Train Spot".  Union Station is beautiful anytime of the year but during Christmas it really spectacular.  We spent hours riding the train, looking at trains, and shopping around Crown Center.  Love making all these holiday memories with the kids. 

 

Family picture fail!

Had all the fun she could take.  Love those lips when she is sleeping!

Zoo Fun

There are a few things in Kansas City that I could do over and over again with the kids and never get tired of it, the KC Zoo is one of those.  We bundled up and headed out to the zoo last Saturday to take in our favorite polar bear, Nikita's birthday and see some amazing animals.  I love going to the zoo in late fall,l there is rarely anyone there, you are not dripping in sweat by the time you reach Africa, and there are so many more animals out and about.  This trip I think we saw more animals than we have ever seen before.  I turned out to be about 60 degrees by mid day and really just perfect for cruising around the zoo.  Harper really got the whole looking at animals this time and managed to wave and say hello and good bye to every animal we saw.  We capped off our trip with a train and carousel ride.  Great way to spend a perfect fall day. 

 

November Party

About 7 years ago Greg and I started hosting a house party every November appropriately named "The November Party".  We had to take a few year hiatus from the party due to the influx of children that were being born into our clan of friends.  We decided in order to not be lame parents we should start hosting it once again.  We had a great turn out of friends and had a really great night.  The best part is no driving at the end of the night, the worst part waking up and remembering that you have to be a parent all day!  We are so lucky to have such a awesome group of friends that still knows how to have fun!

 

 

Trick or Treat

A week late but a Halloween post none the less.  This year the kids, Briggs especially were really into Halloween and understood the concept of trick or treat.  After quite a few changes in our costume choice Briggs finally decided on being a pilot.  For his birthday Briggs got a super cute pilot jacket from Gram and Grandad so it was a good choice of costumes.  Our little girly girl Harper was a ballerina and a adorable one at that.  How or why she is so girly I do not know but she loves all things glittery and frilly, cracks me up.  She was more than happy to sport a tutu and a little blush on her checks for the job.  Although I am not sure she quite understood the trick or treat process in the beginning she slowly caught on there was chocolate in the deal and she was game.  The routine was she would grab her bucket tell the people please (not quite ready for trick or treat in our vocab) say thank you and then pull out the candy she just received and tell us open until she got a taste.  Needless to say her bucket was pretty bare at the end of our journey.  Briggs was so excited to go from door to door and we could hardly keep up with him.  Who can blame the kid people freely handing you candy without mom and dad telling you no!  I did not get a ton of great pictures but here are a few of our little cuties. 

Party Time

We were so fortunate to get to help celebrate our sweet Hadley girl's birthday on Sunday.  Hard to believe she is 2 years old and has grown into such a little lady.  She was in full celebration mode and so excited that everyone was there all for her.  She was most certainly one super cute birthday girl.  Our kids love birthday parties, any excuse to eat cake, see new toys, and run around like crazy people we are in.  Happy Birthday Haddie we love you like crazy! 

Our Little Pumpkins

We made our annual trip to the Weston Red Barn Farm for pumpkin hunting and a bit of the farm life.  I adore this place, wish I would have known about it when we got married.  I would totally love a country/chic wedding in a barn.  The kids were in heaven with all the animals, tractors, hay, and pumpkins.  You can also not beat Weston in the fall it is gorgeous.  Harper is fearless as always and literally tried to crawl in the fences with the animals.  Our ever cautious Briggs prefers to stand back and take in the scenery a bit more usually stating "that is a little too dangerous".  It was a beautiful day for making memories with our sweet little pumpkins. 

Could you just die for that smile and those pigtails!

Love the rustic charm of this place

Loves the chickens and really wants to feed them.

Does not love the chicken anymore, one tried to fest on her finger.  Told then no then every time we passed them again!

What a handsome devil, he is getting so big and grown-up.

 

Look who took a pony ride without any hesitation.  kept patting Pistol our pony telling him thank you. 

She would have rode all day had we let her.

Trying out the saddle, could we have a county girl on our hands?

Briggs favorite thing to do was jump off the hay stacks.  He loves seeing pictures of himself in action shots.