Home Is Where You're Happy...: Holidays!

I think I'm finally catching up around here after Christmas. We headed to Pittsburgh to see B's side of the family. It was a wonderful visit with great food, late mornings in pajamas, and late nights with cards and games. You may wonder when we found time to sleep during our visit--well, we didn't do much of that at all. Matthew decided to boycott sleep for the week and ended up in bed with us every night. His preferred position was perpendicular to the 2 of us and he tossed and turned and woke us with pokes to the eyes every morning. Thankfully, we had lots of coffee to get us through.

Here's some pictures from around the house during Christmas and during our trip to Pittsburgh:

We don't have a fireplace, so this was our make-shift mantle this year:

Andrew was pretty excited to help B make the fresh cut on our tree:

St Nicholas Came and brought gifts for Andrew and Matthew--Andrew was really relieved to find out that we first remove the gifts from our shoes before wearing them:

Our 2012 Christmas Tree...sadly, it stopped taking water before we left for Pittsburgh and was completely petrified when we got back. This is our first tree that didn't last through epiphany, we had to take the fire hazard out before the new year!

Tools are everywhere and Matthew's lacking in training for what is and isn't appropriate...

We've had some gorgeous snow here this winter.

Andrew's first real snowman with the actual corncob pipe I've been keeping around for this reason for 3 years!

Steamrolling the snow. What a great idea!

Bob's family recipe for nutrolls--my 2nd attempt.

Advent candles were sold out everywhere I looked before the start of Advent. This was my first year ever without an Advent wreath, but I was a little excited about the centerpiece I was able to make.

Grandma made pillowcases for the boys! Trains and sport themed--clearly, they are a big hit!

We live in a ridiculously friendly neighborhood and had people ringing our doorbell to deliver treats almost every night. I made some almond coffee cakes to deliver in return.

The day before our flight to Pittsburgh, we went snowshoeing to take in all the mountain we could.

Matthew was on my back, but we couldn't figure out how to get him in the picture:

A certain little man is looking forward to being big enough to have his own snowshoes!

Just in case you were wondering what it looks like to fly on a plane with 2 small kiddos:

This is one of about 100 pictures we have of Andrew's face or forehead. Apparently that's what happens when you try to keep him entertained by handing him your phone.

Christmas morning at Grandpa and Grandma's!

Pittsburgh got some snow while we were there. Here's the parking lot called the Liberty Bridge:

Matthew and Anna--old buddies.

Andrew, James, and Jonah--these boys used to hang out all the time! We got together with all his other buddies too but I forgot to take any pictures--shoot!