Christmas at Home

We made it back to Charlotte for at least 24 hours to wait for Santa to come visit.  On Christmas Eve, Laura got the kids matching pajamas that Carter has worn many many times since.  Avery kept saying that Carter was the boss tonight and she worked for him.  He kept on poking his belly out and rubbing it.  I don't know how he figured out that Santa has a big belly, but it got us laughing so he kept on doing it.

Avery even got a Christmas hug from her little brother.  She loves that boy soooooo much, but he is not a big hugger, so this was really special for her.

Surprisingly we had to wake up both kids somewhere around 8am.  I had already showered and gotten dressed before we decided that we needed to kick the party off.  Once they were up and moving Avery was pretty excited.  Carter having slept with his broom was also very excited for whatever Avery was excited about.

Ripping open presents!

A mickey shirt!

Reading some of Carter's books.

Avery told us that she wanted a fart gun (thanks Uncle David) and a snow globe with a picture of her little brother in it.  She was pretty excited when she opened the present that Carter gave her...

Christmas in Greensboro

Next up on our Christmas rotation was a trip to Greensboro to see my parents and family.

Carter was pretty excited about seeing what Uncle David was going to get him...

The girls actually sat together for a picture.  Carter made a brief appearance when he wasn't trying to climb on the coffee table.

Carter was starting to get the hang of opening presents.

Carter got a broom from Gigi and it quickly became a favorite toy.

You can see in this picture from his crib cam, that he actually slept with it that night...

Showing off the hat that Gigi knitted for him (and me and Avery)

The girls of course had a ton of fun opening Barbies.

Two silly guys.  Selfies must be taken with your tongue out...

Carter then got a hold of the camera and we have about 200 pictures.  Some of the floor, but he also got a lot of great candid shots.

Christmas at the Beach

The first Christmas was a trip to the beach with the Gibson family.  There was about 20 people in the beach house and enough food for twice that many.  The kids did not have a problem making a diet of cookies and cake (I didn't mind it either).

The kids had a blast out on the beach although Laura said it was hard to keep Carter from going swimming.

As usual, there were tons of presents for the kids to open.

Carter had to take a break mid way thru and used one of his presents as a chair to have a snack.

Carter got a talking dog called "Scout" that is like Avery's "Violet" that he quickly became attached to.

Avery's favorite (and later Carter's) present was this 9 foot tall inflatable minion that was the talk of our neighborhood.

A great time was had by all.

Character Parade

Before we get into the Christmas posts, now that I have all my pictures organized (thanks Carter for grabbing the camera and taking 2,000 pictures of the floor)....there is one event I need to go back and catch up on.

At school, Avery had a character parade where she dressed up as her favorite character from a book to promote reading and the use of vacation time for parents.  Luckily for Avery, Laura has unlimited vacation time, so she was able to document the event guilt free.

Avery chose Ladybug Girl, which was great because she had most of the outfit.

Avery and her teacher, Mrs. Lobiando

That's a lot of kids dressed up as stuff.

Excellent marching skills by Avery J. Marshall.

Her bff, Lily was dressed as Lightning McQueen from the movie "Cars" (and many many branded toys which I assume include books)

Carter wasn't there, but here is a picture of him in a hoodie for fun.

Christmas Photo Shoot

So we got our pictures taken a week or two ago (my annual Christmas gift to Laura) and here are the results.

As you might imagine, Carter really enjoyed standing on top of this stool.

    

I mean really really enjoyed it.

    

So we did one of these goofy walking pictures....but Carter had nothing to do with it and started running...

My little princess....

Avery blowing "snow" out of her hands.

Our wildman...

Back to the stool for a few more portraits after running around.

He really does love her...  Just not all the hugs...

Playing in the Leaves

As the preeminent blog on the internet specializing in kids playing in big piles of leaves, I feel it is my duty to share these pictures of both our kids having the time of their lives and the impressive leave raking abilities of the author of this blog.

Preparing for takeoff...

Carter is standing up in this picture, but I don't remember how tall he was at his last doctor's appointment so let's say the pile is 4 feet tall.

Avery's in there somewhere....I think....

Happy little kids...

The best was when I made a pile at the end of the slide so we didn't have to catch Carter when he went down...The results were hilarious.