New Year's Visit to North Carolina

Over New Year's we traveled to North Carolina to visit Julie's sister Jenn's family and had a blast. The kids were very excited to see their cousins Zachary and Alexandra. We were blessed with 65 degree weather the whole time, so we were able to spend hours playing in the yard.


Jenn planned a special birthday celebration for Jocelyn, and Jocelyn and Alexandra got to help make and ice the cake (decorated with princesses of course!).


On New Year's Eve the adults got dressed up to go out for a celebratory dinner...


...so the kids got dressed up too, to send us off!


The next night, which was the night before we came home, the whole gang piled into bed so that Zachary could read them all a story. It was pretty cool to watch!

Family Christmas Party

We had a Christmas-palooza this year. With the holiday falling on a Sunday, we not only had celebrations on Saturday and Sunday, but an even bigger one with my extended family on Monday. It was an opportunity for Ian to show off some of his fancy new Christmas duds, and to open another toy car that he loved.


Jocelyn received a big trunk full of princess dress-up outfits and jewelry, which she proceeded to immediately put on and model for the family.


Ian also loved the impromptu guitar lessons with his Uncle Joe. He loves banging on the toy drums we have for him at the house, but seemed fascinated that he could make different sounds by striking different strings. We may have an aspiring musician on our hands!


Both kids also loved getting time to hang out with their cousins, which they had been looking forward to for days! Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Day

Santa was very good to the Gesner children this year - almost as good to them as their grandparents. Jocelyn was in princess heaven. She loved the princess music player which Nana picked out for her, and loved opening it while wearing the princess dress Nana bought for her.


Ian loved the Hot Wheels tracks Santa brought for him, and wanted them to be set up as soon as possible that morning so that he could race the new set of cars that Nana bought for him.


Momma would tell you there is some question who played with them most on Christmas morning, him or me. It's pretty cool to see him so love a toy that I spent countless hours with as a boy myself.


Santa saved his biggest gift for last...an "enormous" (Jocelyn's new favorite word) bouncy house, which now takes up the entirety of our living room. Should make it easier for the little ones to get some exercise during the cold winter months - it has certainly made nap time quieter in the few weeks since it arrived!

Jocelyn's Birthday and Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve this year, we had our traditional celebratory dinner with family and a small party for Jocelyn's birthday. After the delicious feast Julie prepared, the little ones got to open just a few presents in anticipation of Santa's arrival later that night.

Nana got Jocelyn the play ice cream set she had been asking for the past few weeks...


...and it had the desired effect!


Nana also got Ian a giant container of toy cars, and quite honestly I have never, ever seen a child be that excited when opening a present. It was pretty cool to watch.


We had a princess cake (of course) for Jocelyn's birthday, which went perfectly with the new dress that Nana had also bought her for her birthday. She and Ian loved getting yet another special treat to eat.


Overall, it was so wonderful to be able to celebrate with family on such a special night!

The Nutcracker

Jocelyn, Grammie and I went to see the Nutcracker last weekend and Jocelyn loved it! She had been fighting a bug but insisted on going anyway. This is a shot of her waiting for the doors to open - she doesn't look like a girl who had a 103.6 temp the night before! In fact, she made the crowd laugh by asking the announcer on stage where the "ballerina" was when he stopped speaking!

Grammie wanted to buy Jocelyn something to remember the day by - Jocelyn picked out an ornament for the Christmas tree...

A nutcracker...in purple of course!

Snuggling with me at intermission...

And imitating the beautiful dancers for us!
Thanks Grammie!! We had a wonderful afternoon!

Edaville Railroad Visit

Jocelyn and Ian were very excited to visit the Edaville railroad again, after we had so much fun last year! First up was a ride on the Ferris wheel. Ian was too small to ride it last year, so he was all kinds of fired up to get on this year. Here he is showing off how tall he's gotten.


While we waited in line, they were fascinated with watching how high up the wheel would take them.


They could barely wait until it was our turn to pile in together...


...and they got such a kick out of seeing Momma with the camera every time our car came around!


Later we warmed up by taking a ride on the train that circles the grounds. They liked the Christmas lights that the train passed so much that they asked to go on the train again after it got dark.


After that it was time for the merry-go-round, which we also rode multiple times.


And then, just before leaving, Jocelyn asked to have her picture taken with the giant Santa near the front entrance. What a wonderful time we all had!

Decorating Gingerbread Cookies

Jocelyn and Ian's school has an annual lunch to thank all the volunteers who help out in the classrooms and make the school such a special place. This year, Momma made some delicious gingerbread cookies for dessert, and enlisted Jocelyn to help decorate them.


To go with the cookies, Momma made thank-you cards with these photos attached. We thought they were so darn cute that we had to put them on the blog too!