Beginning the Season

As spring has finally arrived here, I hang my head in shame that I am now just posting our Christmas pictures, but better late than never!



Bubs waiting in line to see Santa at our Christmas party at church...he was enjoying the ride (disclaimer...ignore the thining hairline, ha ha!)

I think this is the best shot we could get with all the kids...
G was Joseph in the nativity they did and the girls were angels.
Every year, Santa comes by on a decked out fire truck. The kids make me print off his route and we are rather psycho about it. They wait for him to come, then we hop in the car and continue to stalk the poor old man for the rest of the night. This has been a lasting tradition in our home.

And the wait continues...can you just tell how excited they are, even from behind?

Here he is!
Then we saw him again the next morning at the parade...

After the parade, we went to a tree farm where we DID NOT get our tree (too expensive). It was a beautiful day and we took a carriage ride up and down the rolling hills.

Here comes our horse...

It was cold, but sunny, so that kept our spirits up.

We later picked out our tree at a popular hardware store because we are too cheap :)

Then we had lunch with Santa that our community put on. As you can see, B is zonked!

All the kids with Santa, even the sleeping kid gets to join in for a picture!
I think I found his reindeer hanging out together...get to work, you slackers!

Can you tell this was a busy beginning to the season? I LOVE Christmas, and it's so important to me to get it all in. This is where all the memories will lie as the kids get older, and we need to capture all of them while we can!

White Stuff

We were lucky enough to have some white stuff fall from the sky for the first time this weekend. We loved rolling around in it, sliding on it, throwing it, and eating it.

Tidbits

Here we go again...another quick synopsis of what we've been up to.

G got chosen again for "Tornado Citizen" for the first quarter. We were able to have a surprise breakfast with him at school. Way to go, G!

There's never a dull moment at our house. The kids continue to find ways to amuse themselves. Here, they are following Baby B around the house on their hands and knees. I guess they are playing "follow the leader," with Baby B as the leader...

T had her last soccer game...another sigh of relief (did I say that out loud again?). We have a slight break until cheerleading starts for her, and b-ball starts for G, and gymnastics starts for M...

G and T had little Thanksgiving plays at school. It was fun to watch. M was the little fan.

G LOVES having a little brother. He's a great big brother. Baby B is growing so fast. Today, I found that he had climbed three stairs all by himself. He's waving to us now, is starting to put sounds together, and just makes the funniest faces. Such a character!



That's it for now...I guarantee that there will be more of these "tidbits" to come!

Three Already

Our Little M turned three last month. Life has gotten crazy and we are a little late in posting. We can't let our sweet M's birthday pass without sending a shout out to her. What a beautiful and sweet girl she is! M is always content with whatever situation is at hand. She has a peaceful demeaner about her. She is defintely our sensitive girl...look at her the wrong way and you will see the tears well up. However, being sensitive is not a bad thing...this has given her the ability to connect with people; it gives her compassion for others.

She has become quite the artist and singer. Should I admit that she can belt out quite a few Kids Bop and Hannah Montana songs? We love you, M...for your quiet and loving presence, for your gentle personality, and most of all, for being you!

Here's how we started her day:

Took some pictures of the birthday girl in the morning, while waiting for the cousins to arrive so we could babysit them...

Went to T's soccer game...

We then headed home and scrambled to get some last minute birthday things ready After that, we changed into church clothes to go to a baptism of G's good friend.

No nap today, which meant we were met with this on the way home from the baptism...

The birthday girl's party was supposed to begin 30 mins. after we got back from the baptism, but birthday girl was knocked out cold. The guests arrived (her cousins and grandparents) and patiently waited for M to wake up.

Luckily, she woke up in a good mood. Here she is, acting like a monkey (Curious George themed party) with cousins...

Time for cake...

Her favorite part was presents.

What a busy day, but we wouldn't have had it any other way. Happy birthday, M!

The Moran Life--Randoms

Where do I begin? Here are just some shots of what we've been up to...

Some kids play with normal toys. If you look closely, you can see that my kids play with slinkies extended from the top floor down into the family room.


G got invited to an awesome birthday party and got to ride in a limo there. It was an experience of a lifetime for him.

While G was at his party, T was invited to a tea party where she dressed up and made mini-cupcakes. It was an exciting day.

I felt bad for M...she sent off brother and sister to their parties and had to stay with boring old mom...so I took her to good old McD's...



The girls still love dressing up in poofy sparkly dresses. I am milking that until they think it is lame. So here they are all dressed up...

We went to a park near our house and the leaves were beautiful. Here's T with her daddy...

G and T...I love this one of them. Don't they look like they never fight (ha ha)?

I feel like I've been behind posting on Baby B. He's been crawling for almost 2 months now. He just cut two new teeth, and now he's pulling himself up on things. He has given me a heart attack a few times, as a scramble to figure out what room in the house he has gone to and what he has put in his mouth! He's such a character...love that kid!

The faux-hawk

No matter how busy we get, we always find time to wrestle with each other and laugh. It's all a part of being a Moran.

So there you have it. The Moran home in a nutshell. Sorry for the randoms, but they'd never get posted if I didn't do it this way!

Halloween

Life got the best of us and we ended up carving pumpkins just a few days before Halloween. We still loved doing it and wanted to keep the tradition going. We started the Halloween festivities with a "trunk-or-treat" at church the night before. On Halloween day, G had his final baseball game (sigh of relief...did I say that out loud?). Afterwards, we went to a neighborhood Halloween celebration, then that evening we went trick-or-treating with friends. I love seeing the kids get dressed up every year. Hope you all had a great Halloween!

Fall

I see that my posts our now more and more spread out. All I can say is, time flies when you're having fun! With two kids in sports, we feel like we have been tugged in all different directions. However, one thing that I make sure we do is stop and breathe...and enjoy the wonderful crisp fall air.

I love fall! It is one of my favorite seasons. I love the fresh apple cider, hay rides, pumpkins...the list could go on and on. We had the opportunity to go to a local farm and enjoy the slides and apples, and great company a few weeks ago. Then on Columbus Day, I took the kids again to this little hidden jewel. It was a flower farm not too far away that was less crowded and had all the wonderful things most "bigger farms" had. I can't get enough of all the fall activities! Can we just push winter off for a little longer?


The slides were great! Even I went down them several times, it made me feel like a kid again!

Baby B loved being outdoors and seeing all the action.

It was a nice, sunny day out!

G with some church buddies on the hayride...he lucked out and they are also in his same class at school!

The three at the top before going down the slide together. They were so cute helping each other up on things and waiting for each other at the bottom.

Little M surprised me with the slides. She kept wanting to go down and would just throw herself down the slides all by herself. For those of you that know her, she is NOT the adventurous type!

There were these huge bales of hay that the kids could jump and climb on. They loved it!

I think the look on M's face says it all!