Drew is TWO!!!

How can it be that our sweet, cuddly, littlest baby is already TWO??!! Drew at two: He loves to play!! He loves to play with us. He loves to tackle. He likes to repeat what we say in the same intonation of voice and he knows it's funny! He loves and is slightly obsessed with all things "choo-choo". Thomas and friends are his favorites but he also loves trains that are magnetic and will stick together front to back. He is by far our pickiest eater, which is saying a lot, because of Elle. He still loves smoothies and pouches...Thank goodness, because it's the only way we get veggies in him. He loves waffles, pancakes, and toast for breakfast and loves yogurt, french fries, chicken nuggets, and pizza. Drew is a cookie monster and above all sweets, cookies are his fav. Great.Thank goodness for Larabars, because to him those are just as yummy as candy bars. Also, a weird fact, he only likes to drink water. I'm not complaining, but that's what he prefers. He loves to cuddle ALL of the time and before bed loves to cuddle up with Luke in his bed. Bunk beds are in the near future for our boys! His front tooth is chipped because last summer he was helping Luke water our neighbor's gardens and fell on their brick patio. He is a mama's boy and my lap is his throne. He has at least one breathing treatment everyday :( but he is a trooper and that's where his love for Thomas the Train started from watching it on Netflix during his treatments. He is everyone's favorite all of the time and none of us ever have any beef with him. Although he has had a few timeouts he knows right where to go and sits there his whole 2 minutes worth, He will do anything to make us laugh. He is so silly! Drew is our sweetie and all of us love and adore him!!! 

We celebrated his birthday with just us and it ended up being pretty great. Luke wanted to design this poster for him to decorate his party. He came up with the idea all  by himself. (It's from a beginning clip on the Thomas shows). I just picked him up a poster and he was off designing it, using stencils for the first time too! Elle jumped in to paint the background.

Drew's Thomas the Train Birthday Party!! Happy 2nd birthday, Drew!

Can they be any sweeter? I mean, really?!

Our big guy!

We are singing happy birthday to him and you can see his little shy/sweetie look in the above and below picture. This is one of my favorite emotions he expresses.

Drew's birthday present from his brother and sister. They picked out a Thomas book that included a train map and little Thomas trains.

His favorite toy still to date. They know their little brother pretty well!

Our little baby even at 2 or 11, or 45!

A small, family birthday party is where it's at!

And then Vaida brought over old doll house for Elle! We thought, "Sure, we'll take a dollhouse for Elle." We never thought it would be like a DOLLHOUSE! Holy smokes, look at this sucker. I think Drew could live in it!

Mayer and Vaida come over one last time before moving. :(

Elle and Drew (behind the yellow shaker) at "church school" playing with the sensory table.

We are all getting ready for Disney and Luke made this awesome castle!!

We love you so much Drew. 

Your sister always holds your hand in the car. Always.

And your favorite place to fall asleep is snuggled in your brother's arms in his bed.

You are loved, sweet boy.

Holidays 2017

Our Christmas season 2016 was truly amazing, maybe one of my favorites yet! This blog post is way too long but I had such a hard time choosing because I want to be able to live in each of these moments for a long, long time.

These two love playing dress up! Elle is always a surprise and Drew has consistently been rocking the football helmet.

And sometimes it's like clothes are just overrated. 

Drew and Elle play so well together and one of their favorites right now is their car mat and matchbox cars. They line up the cars and get them ready to go all over "town". They have a lot of parties at the "town" Donut shop. :)  

It's hard to believe that Ellie is almost halfway to five. She is just a joy! Her emotions are so big for her little body. When she is happy her whole body will shake with excitement and she will squeal in delight. Look at that sweet face.

Drew is another reader in the Morin household. Drew is such a calm and quiet little guy and when we are wondering where he could be, he is caught reading books throughout the house.

AND I am happy to announce that these are the very first pictures that I took on my own smart phone! That's right, my friends. The last couple in the United States of America to not own smartphones have finally purchased them and Mapquest is now officially out of business. I can get directions right on my phone WHILE I am driving in the car. THIS is life-changing for me!  

Next to that angel face you can see the cars are all lined up for a special party!

Let the festivities begin! This Holiday season we were able to see many family and friends. It was such a calm, laid back, and fun time for all of us. Instead of worrying about making sure we fit in all of the "Christmasy" to-do's, we just went with it. So we weren't able to make the Polar Express event or the Rochester Christmas Parade and we didn't even have a Santa visit planned but what we enjoyed instead was a stress-free and relaxing Christmas.

I was able to have a banchie weekend away the first weekend of December! It was the PERFECT time to kickoff the Season with some of my very favorites. We booked a night at the Amway Grand in Grand Rapids and enjoyed a weekend of eating, dancing, singing, shopping, talking and just being together. We all lived together for 4 years at college and it's pretty amazing how easily we just slip back into our way of life with one another.

 

You can't just get old friends...I am one lucky lady.

And our guilty pleasure...White Russians for all!

While Mom was away the boys played as well! Go BRONCOs for that! Ben surprised Luke on Friday after school and took him to the MAC championship game at Ford Field!

After a long week at school, I am sure Luke was exhausted but he was flying high with his Dad, Dad's buddies, Broncos, pizza, and football. Luke has the best Daddy!

With Chris and Uncle B! KEY play!

And the Broncos win! Off to the Cotton Bowl we go!

This year we decided to host Oakland Schools' Career Tech Dept.'s Holiday party! We had cookie decorating for the kiddos...

The pearls of sweat on Luke's face shows that he had just a little bit of fun. ;)

I tried really hard not to be that "person" taking pictures so here are the only group-ish pics I got. After everyone left, Ben said, "Shoot. I forgot to a group picture." Sigh.

So, unlike popular belief, Oakland Schools peeps are really fun! ;) I didn't even hear, " So, what I hear you saying is..." 

Ben and Luke were shoveling machines on our first morning of big snow. They cleared our driveway and two of our neighbors' houses! 

This was the year of Holiday parties! We had our annual party at Beth and Greg's and the following weekend we had our neighborhood party at Janet and Seth's. So fun!

Off to Candy Cane Farms to cut down this year's Christmas tree!

Off to find the perfect tree!

This was a cold, COLD day!

Ben's handyman work! There's my manly-man tying the tree to the roof. 

And the tree is up and here come the ornaments.  

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