Strasburg Railroad...

William testing the brake on the back of the caboose..

This steam engine was coming to couple on to our train, it was a little daunting watching it come up so close!

Inside view of our railcar, it was from 1915 and lovely...

Molly and Richard...

Grandma and Pudd...

William would have been happy if we had let him ride this Thomas over and over all day...

Instead, we put him to work shoveling "coal" into the tender!

Richard gave William a boost so he could play with the controls in the big engine...

Out in the yard, Will got to climb up into this HUGE engine!

It was hard to get him to come back out!  Here he is calling "All Aboard!"

Will buckled in for safety in the old caboose...

Molly and Will on the end of the dining car...

Friday we took off to Strasburg, PA to the Pennsylvania Rail Road Museum and Strasburg Railway.  It was a lot of fun and Will got a big kick out it.  We got to go on a 45 minute train ride pulled by a real steam engine!  The museum had tons of fun stuff for the kids and so many big, old engines and rail cars.  Most of them you could only look in the windows though, so that was kinda dissapointing.  Daddy and Charlie stayed home to work but the rest of us had a great time and it was nice for Will to get some one on one, (or four on one) attention....

Christmas Morning 2011...

Coming down to see what Santa left...

Santa left "Lotso's Garbage Truck" from Toy Story 3 for William, he was so happy!

Santa left Charlie a walker and he spent much of the morning trying it out...

Checking out his other Santa loot...

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2011...

Uncle Ryan and Aunt Cari gave Will his beloved "Ham Plane" from Toy Story 3...He was in "Hog Heaven"! ( ;

Uncle Richard gave Charlie a fantastic Paddington Bear, and Charlie loved it!

Aunt Molly brought back tons of Fireman Sam stuff so Will had to be dragged away to open more presents...

Family Photo 2011

Molly and Richard 2011

We had a great Christmas Eve this year.  So many goodies to eat and lots of presents to open! Since this was Charlie's first Christmas I was impressed with how much of it he understood,  but in true kid fashion he caught on pretty quickly to the idea of new toys!  We ate, unwrapped and then headed to church for the candlelight service.  Will hadn't been to church for about a year(since I work on Sundays)  so I reminded him of how the church is God's house and when we go in we need to have quiet voices and be calm and not run or jump around.  I also reminded him that Santa was watching him and tonight was the big night so he needed to be really good.  We went up the steps to the church and he seemed pretty nervous about what this was going to be.  We entered the hall and he sees the lady greeter standing there.  She was a nice, 40-ish African lady.  He walked up to her nicely and said "Merry Christmas God!"  We all busted out laughing and just about died!  He was so sweetly serious, and she thought he was so adorable. Thankfully she took it as a big compliment.  We thought it was kind of nice that he had no pre-concieved notion of what God must look like.  I will never forget that moment!  After that both boys sat very nicely through the service and Will got to hold his first candle.  We returned home after that and finished a little more present opening and then finally hit the sack, after reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas" of course!

National Christmas Tree 2011...



Will and Charlie visited Santa again in his workshop...



The previous tree was blown down this year from strong winds, so they planted this new little tree....little meaning 26 feet, but it did seem small!

Merry Christmas!

Charlie at 8 months...

Charlie turned 8 months old on the 21st.  I missed writing about it due to all the current craziness in our house, but he got lots of attention around here.  He is developing at lightening speed these days, and though he STILL has NO TEETH(!!!) he is almost walking.  He cruises about the house and refuses to stay on the floor resulting in many, many head bonks when he falls.  I still consider a helmet, but he is getting better and better about catching himself correctly.  He is still a terrible sleeper, but he is normally pretty happy so that sort of balances it out.  He is loving having Grandma here and so do we since she takes him every morning so we can get 3 hours of solid sleep from 5 to 8.  He is progressing along with food and has added plums, green beans, peaches, and pumpkin to his menu.  He is still loves his binky an awful lot and I can't bear to take it away.  We tried taking him off his reflux meds this past month, but it was a disaster so he is now back on.  Hopefully by a year he can start trying dairy again and we hope he can manage to tolerate it.  Hurray for having a baby at Christmas again! 

The Piano Man...

Merry Christmas Baby!!

Tubby Time!

Charlie has graduated from the bath seat and is freestylin' in the tub now!

He loves all the freedom!

All clean!

Krispy Baby...

A handful of rice krispies keeps a baby occupied for a long time!

Happy Birthday Aunt Molly!!!!

My Gym...

I got this amazing deal on Living Social back in October for My Gym, which is normally out of our price range, but it included a month of classes, a month of free plays, and a family membership all for 49 bucks.  I figured once the weather turned nasty I would use it to let Will burn off some steam.  Today was his first class, and he really liked it.  Charlie enjoyed climbing all over and chasing balls across the big space too.  I am so glad we will have this activity for the month of December, it will help keep us sane during all this dreary weather!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Will ran right up to Santa and was THRILLED to give him a hug and tell him his Christmas wish!

Charlie was in his usual place in the ERGO...

Will enjoyed carrying the saw...a little too much!

Looking for the perfect tree...

Charlie supervised the cutting...

WATCH OUT DAD!  You almost got me!

Let's take it home!

And now to decorate....

Make Way for Ducklings...Part 2!!

The traditional ride on Mrs Mallard...

Will enjoyed seeing the lineup of all the little ducklings...



Charlie gets to know Jack...



Will was thrilled to see the real thing swimming around...

He was certain this was Mr and Mrs Mallard!

Goodbye Dear Boston!  We will be back as soon as we can...hopefully minus the illness!