I'm going to follow in the footsteps of two amazing bloggers with a end of the year post in pictures. Thanks Allison and Kelle. Please enjoy the last year in pictures!

January
Max was starting to show off his toddlerhood.

Rory was starting to show her personality.

February
We got a family picture outside to use for the MSN Family Blog article.

March
Tara helped Kristen and I handle our four children at the Como Zoo.

It started to get warm enough to spend some afternoons outdoors!

April
The first family tractor ride. (Please note, again, that the mower is not attached we were safe.)

One of my most favorite pictures of the kids to this day was taken this month.

May
We celebrated a big boy's 2nd birthday!

Mother's Day was low-key and lovely.

Memorial weekend was beautiful and warm enough to swim at the lake!

June
We joined Grammy, Rosie, Auntie Katie and cousin Lyla for the kids' first visit to the Minnesota Zoo.

We attended the annual Wood Tick Races in Ino, WI and spent time with our GG John.

For Father's Day we got daddy his lawn cart, and it became a very popular outdoor toy.

July
Fourth of July was spent at the lake were there was lots of fishing to be had.

Lumberjack Day's was spent with all our cousins. Eventually we had to hide inside from the humidity and heat.

August
We took the kids to the county fair and got to enjoy their giant slide with the kids.

September
Brookey came to visit from California and we were so excited!

A little girl turned 1.

A playset was purchased and setup in the backyard. This too would become a main theme of end of the season pictures.

October
Another favorite picture of mine, the kids and I being goofy one day.

Halloween was also lots of fun!

November
We had our first snowfall of the season.

Thanksgiving at the lake, where both kids got to be at the adults table.

December
Christmas time, one of the best times of the year.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures from this past year. I had so much fun looking over everything we've done in 2010 and trying to narrow it down, there was so much more I wanted to share. Thankfully, it's all here, for you and me to reference whenever we want to.

Happy New Year everyone, may this coming year be as exciting for you as 2010 was for me!

Ok, last Christmas post, and lots of pictures as always! Christmas morning I was up before everyone as I was so excited to have the kids come and see their presents. Yes, I'm that mom apparently. I didn't know it either until I was tossing and turning in bed that morning!

Here are all the presents under the tree, Santa did a great job!

The kids were excited (and a little crabby from their late night) and played nicely with their toys.

When we were done opening gifts they got pretty crabby so Daddy started making breakfast. They both insisted on crawling up into my lap and being rocked like babies. It was cute, and thankfully Dusty snapped a picture. I just wish my face would show how excited I was to rock them instead of the irritation that is there. I'm sure Dusty said something to cause that look! hehe

Later that evening we went to Grandma and Bopa's to meet up with my family. Rory, GG, and Andrea all had black boots on so a picture had to be taken!

TaTa also wanted a picture with Rory in her adorable dress!

Bopa got in some good wrestling with the kids after presents while we worked on getting dinner ready!

After dinner Max and GG did some reading.

Before we left GG wanted a picture with Max and the hand print wreath he made her so she could put them both on her fridge!

Christmas was a lot of fun, the kids were spoiled and loved and I couldn't have asked for a better family to celebrate with!

The kids are back at daycare today and I'm doing my best to catch up after putting 3 days of work behind me. So this is going to be a nice photo filled post. Enjoy!

Rory showing some of the cousins how to play pool.

Brayden and Rory, 2 months apart and so cute together!

The Christmas piñata was fun this year as all the young kids were able to take their own swings. Here's Brayden giving it a go.

Rory was next, she needs to work on her aim a bit for next year!

Lyla was a champ and must have her Daddy's baseball genes.

We all know Max can swing a bat, but he wasn't successful in breaking the piñata.

Chloe annihilated it. She was so quick I couldn't get a good picture!

Here they all are collecting their candy and toys. They were all very good at sharing and seemed to be happy with all their sweets.

Max got a big truck and trailer that held a four wheeler. He played with that pretty much the rest of the night!

Rory got a street sweeper that Lyla and Brayden were jealous of. Good thing she knows how to share!

Christmas Eve was a lot of fun at Annette's. There were almost 60 people there so you can imagine I had a lot more pictures. Sorry, a lot of people didn't make the cut, I decided to focus on the kids because there were just too many pictures and people to try to post about. We got home around 10pm and the kids were exhausted from all the fun and activities.

Don't worry, I still have Christmas Day pictures to share so we're not done!

Christmas Eve started out at Joe and Bridget's where there were so many good snacks that I didn't have much room for dinner! I was in picture taking mode so there were a lot of pictures to chose from. I had to snap a picture of Andrew with Rory and I since we all looked so stunning in purple this year!



Max is really into matching lately so he and Daddy both wore gray sweaters and khakis. Aren't they cute?

We took our annual girls picture to send to some friends in Miami. We are a good looking bunch if I say so myself!

How cute are Joe and Rory? He was bouncing her around and she just thought he was the greatest ride ever!



Creepy Uncle Randy in his turtle neck, sweater vest, comb over and mustache needed to be stopped so the kids all ganged up on him for a three on one wrestling match. I think the kids won!

The kids had a fun time playing with all their new toys after we opened them. Thankfully they were really good at sharing too. Here's Max showing Uncle Cecil the new toy that Rory received.



It was a great start to our Christmas Eve. I'll post more pictures from our second celebration on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at another time. I've got to get back to my sick boy. (Rory is still healthy, can you believe that?!) Happy Tuesday everyone!

Our house has been hit with one of the viruses that has been going around. Instead of getting to show you pictures from our extremely fun Christmas I'm taking care of my two sick boys while entertaining my still healthy little girl! (I know, shocker, Rory isn't sick!) Thankfully it hit after the holidays and hopefully it only affects the boys so Rory and I don't have to be miserable too. I promise to get back with pictures from Christmas once everyone is healthier!

The eve of Christmas Eve we were fortunate enough to have Grammy, Dido, and Rosie home to watch the children for us as Dusty and I had to work but daycare was closed. They were also kind enough to invite us to join them in their tradition of caviar and oysters as they do this every eve of the eve.

Max enjoyed drinking non-alcoholic champagne in a big glass!

Rory really enjoyed clinking glasses and saying "Cheers!" with everyone.

As for the rest of us? We pretty much stuffed ourselves on all the delicious food!

It was a great start to our Christmas celebrations. Merry Christmas everyone! I'm excited to share pictures from our holiday but for now I'm just going to enjoy.