Naughty or Nice?

Wishing you and yours a VERY fun filled Holiday Season!

With Love from: Darrell, Dana, Carter & Gavin

A picture of our beautiful boys. Christmas 2010.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas at our house!

Our beautiful tree

The boys just love this little musical village that I got w/ Santa and the reindeer flying over it.

The mantle with all our stockings hung and waiting for Santa to come!

Formal dinning room decorations

Our elf is on the shelf! Dear Mr. Elf: Please watch over these two little boys in this picture and report back to Santa on whether or not they have been NAUGHTY OR NICE!

My great TJ Maxx find.....a light up reindeer. I thought it was super cute. The boys like it too!

Carter loves this little felt Christmas countdown calendar I found. There are 25 mittens and an attached fake candy cane. So each day he puts the candy cane in the right day.

I have really enjoyed decorated our new house this year. I actually have room to put all my festive little holiday decor. So, I wanted to share some pictures of them.

My Carty

Just a cute picture of my little smily guy by the Christmas tree

My little handsome men!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Just one of the many lovely art projects that our Carter has brought home from preschool. Today he made a Christmas tree hat!

Cousins: Thanksgiving 2010

Brady (10yrs.), Carter (3.5 yrs.), Gavin (18 months), Callie (7 yrs.) and Mallory (5 yrs.) all at our home for Thanksgiving this year.

Mommy's Little Clown

Gavin's 18 month stats

We went to our new pediatrician on Thursday night. The boys are now seeing Dr. Brooke Scherer at the Children's Health Partners in Naperville. She seems very down to earth, nice and easy to talk to. Carter and Gavin got flu shots. Carter was such a STRONG boy. He never shed a tear when he got his flu shot. He is so into being "tough" these days. Goose on the other hand.....had a bit of a what I call "delayed meltdown" meaning he SCREAMED about 2 seconds after the actual needle punctured his leg. Gavin also had his 18 month old check up. His stats are as followed:
Weight: 25 lbs. 15 oz (almost 26!! 50th percentile)
Height: 35 inches (95th percentile)
Head: 19 inches (90th percentile)

Tangled: Gavin's 1st movie

Today Darrell and I took the boys to see the Disney movie "Tangled." It was based on the story
Rapunzel. The boys both did an AMAZING job sitting quietly and watching the whole movie. Carter indulged in lots of popcorn and soda. Gavin our little television buff sat on daddy's lap and those big brown eyes were glued to the big cinema screen. Most people would not have taken an 18 month old to a movie, but I knew Gavs would do just fine. He LOVES television. He did munch on some popcorn too and some soft pretzel though before falling alseep in daddy's arms the last 20 minutes of the show!

Happy Holidays from the Micheli's!!

Carter, I hope you see this post someday and realize what a little clown you were as a young child and how HARD it was for mommy to get that "perfect" Christmas card picture of you and your brother this year!

Happy 34th Birthday Darrell!!!

Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you to the moon and back.

Love,

Your FAVORITE buddy's.....

Carter & Gavin

Gavin: 18 months old

Our baby Gavin turned 1. 5 years old this Saturday!!! I just love this picture of him all winter-ized in his warm and fuzzy new hat and those gorgeous brown eyes!

18 things I think everyone should know about baby G:

1. He is OBSSESSED with cookies. Chocolate chip ones preferred please!

2. One of his best friends is Ernie

3. Another one of his best friends is W-O-O-D-Y!

4. He still is very much attached to his blankie..aka...the WHABEE

5. He still is very much so attached to his MOMMA! and loves standing at the bottom of the stairs and screams my name.

6. The only thing "chubby" on Gavin is his cheeks.

7. He is a very picky eater and hates to sit at the table for dinnertime.

8. He refuses every kind of vegetable we offer him

9. He loves bananas and his bottle still.

10. Is quite the climber these days and LOVES to wrestle now with big brother and daddy

11. He loves daddy's piggy back rides. They are his favorite :)

12. He loves playing trains or "choo-choo's" with big brother Cart.

13. Gavin adores books. He will sit every night before bed and let me read and read to him. Right now his favorite book is "Red and Blue are Different and the Same" a Sesame Street book of course!

14. Gavin is talking up a storm now and his words are very clear. He said "grandpa" for the first time yesterday. Just some words off the top of my head he says all the time are: momma, daddy, car-car, bye, hi, papa, ne-new, truck, ernie and "bob"(burt!), cookie, plane, hot, kitty, meow, up, down, wa-wa "water," NO! mine, STUCK! broke, jew "juice"

15. Something or someone is always either "stuck" or "broke" in Gavin's world.

16. Gavin loves when I sing to him the Sesame Street song " la-la-la, la-la-la....Elmo's world. But I change it up and say "Gavin's world" I get him in a hysterical laugh everytime!

17. Gavin is still a little cuddle bug and loves to be held and "snoogle." He loves his stuffed animals too. Every night he has to sleep with Cookie Monster, Ernie, his kitty he named "MOW" and 2 Whabees.

18. Gavin cries everytime we drop Carter off at preschool. Like clockwork. The waterworks start and end all within 10 seconds. He just adores Carter and always is sad when big brother gets dropped off and he can't go too!

Gavin John you are such an amazingly sweet, precious and tough little toddler! Your little personality is shining through everyday. I love how everyday is a new experience to you and you are such a happy little guy! xo Mommy

Happy Turkey Day!

Pilgrim Carter has been learning a lot about the Thanksgiving holiday at school this month. Everyday he comes home with a new turkey, hat or "Thank-er-chief" that he has made. But, what really cracked me up the most is when he came home with his instructions on how to cook the turkey. It goes like this......

Carter's Instructions on How to Roast a Turkey (all of this was on a big piece of paper he brought home from school)

Turkey's have 5 legs.

They weigh 18 lbs.

You cook the bird at 3,000 degrees for 15 hours and you stuff it with COOKIES!

And then asked my he liked Thanksgiving he replied "because of fun times."

hmmmm...I am not sure what type of "fun times" he has in store for us this Thanksgiving! LOL

Lynfred's French Suite Pictures

We stayed in the French Suite. It was AMAZING!

Our 5 yr. wedding anniversary

Darrell and I were able to enjoy a two day get away for our anniversary weekend. We are so grateful to our parents, because with out their help it would not have happen. So thank you both for watching the boys for us! Friday night we met in the city for a leisurely happy hour and then went back to Kevin's house to just relax. We got to watch some "non cartoon" related programs on TV and just enjoyed some wine and adult conversation. On Saturday morning, we slept in a little, got some breakfast and then headed to the gym. We both had a great workout and really miss hitting the gym a few times a week together. After the gym, we enjoyed a light lunch together and then packed up and headed to Lynfred's Winery. We had stayed there before for our 2nd wedding anniversary and were so impressed that we decided to go back. This time we stayed in the French Suite. The room was breath taking. So beautifully decorated and so peaceful. We light a fire and enjoyed our wine flights and enormous and delicious shrimp cocktail. After one too many sips of wine, we headed out for a nice dinner at Impecca's. Although I feel like our 2 nights flew by, it was so nice to just reconnect and have some alone time.
I love you Darrell. I may not always agree with you....but I can't imagine my life with out you. To many more years of marriage bliss my love!

Halloween 2010: Our little Firefighter & Dalmation

Carter's Halloween Concert at Kensington Preschool

Today was a very special day for little Carter our "firefighter." He had his first Halloween concert at preschool today. He did a great job! Suprisingly though he was a bit shy. He didn't sing too loud much to my surprise. The children sang 4 songs and then all had the chance to step up on stage and tell the audience their names and what their Halloween costume was. After the concert, all the families joined the classroom for a party. Ms. Russell read a Halloween story to everyone and then the kids got to eat some yummy carmel apples and a TON of treats!

Pure Exhaustion

Darrell and I were cracking up laughing when we turned around to check on the boys in the back seat and saw this!!! Let's just say.....Carty was playing really hard in Dalzell 2 minutes before he got in the car. A nap, well deserved! Just proves my point though....he really does always have his mouth open! LOL

Happy Birthday to..........ME

I think Carter is more excited than me!

I had a beautiful weekend with my boys and friends up in Michigan. Then came home to some delicious home made brownies from mom. Thanks all!

Gavin: 17 months old

Gavin taking a turn on the tractor in Michigan. Hard to believe my baby is actually 17 months old and sitting like a little man on this tractor. I get sad at times thinking how much time has flown by and how everyday I feel like he is less baby and more big boy. I wish he would stay my little snuggle bug forever. But each day, he is chasing more and more after Carter and reaching new milestones and turning into a toddler before my very eyes.



Sunny day out, I think I may need my shades for a bit!



What a big boy! Wearing size 2T clothes now.

Still has the chubby cheeks

A Nice Fall Day

We were home for a visit last weekend and the weather was just beautiful. The boys were out in the front yard racking leaves for most of the day with Noonie. Then they stopped for a leisurely swing on the bench with Grandma Shirley and Grampa Iggy.

Brotherly Love

The boys being silly in their matching Fire Truck sweatshirts. I just love how they are looking at each other and smiling. They really are best friends!

Happy Birthday Papa

Gavin and Papa posing for a birthday picture.

Carter on blowing out the candle duty! Noonie made some yummy banana cupcakes and we all sang Happy Birthday to Papa and enjoyed the yummy treats.

Happy 59th Birthday Dad!!!! So happy that the boys were able to celebrate with you. We love you and wish you many, many more happy and healthy Birthday's!!!

Wigging Out!!

Poor Gavs did NOT like putting the wigs on. LOL!

What a fun night out!

All of us girls posing for a "unique" picture. What a fun night out wearing our wigs and being silly.

Carter playing dress up!

Darrell and I "wigging" out on a Friday night. Wow, what our weekend entertainment has resorted too.

Carter's School Projects

Carter so proud of the "person" that he and I made and decorated for a homework assignment. All the kids had to create a little person that they will hang in the classrooms.


Carter the puppy dog. His class is learning about puppy's this month so when I picked him up from school the other day, he came walking out with his puppy hat on that he made.

Carter is doing great at Kensington Preschool. He is adapting well and making lots of friends. His teachers Ms. Russell and Ms. Zhang are awesome! He is already learning an ton and it just amazes me how quickly he picks up on things.
Stay tune for more Carter Micheli school projects and updates!!!