Southern Lights 2013

Another of our holiday family traditions is visiting the Kentucky Horsepark's Southern Lights display. As well as the beautiful lights, they have an awesome petting zoo and Santa. Because we generally visit Southern Lights Thanksgiving weekend (which also included Kennedy's birthday this year) we were able to include the Stiriz family and Uncle Chuck and Aunt Julie in this tradition as well as Uncle Dan, Aunt Dorothy, Heidi and Holden. It was a beautiful night and we had a wonderful time as always!

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McKinley's 1st visit with Santa - she did a great job and I think this picture is so sweet! Part of the reason she did so well is because she had her favorite bear from Aunt Arla to keep her company. 

 Jackson wasn't in the mood for pictures or cooperation (a real shocker, I know...) so we just got this super cute picture of the three girls with Santa. :)

 2/3 of the LaBar/Lueker clan

 Aunt Julie and Uncle Chuck with our sweet girls :)

 I love this sweet picture of Aunt Julie and McKinley looking at lights together

 The girls had the opportunity to pose with Frosty and the Nutcracker too :)

 Such a cute picture of Chaz and McKinley - he is so awesome with all my little guys! 

 The four big girls waiting for a train ride

 I'm not sure how it happened, but Tim ended up with basically all the kids in an itty bitty train car. The kids had a fabulous time singing at the top of their lungs and I'm sure Tim enjoyed the ride as much as they did. :)

 Charlie, Kelly, Aunt Julie and McKinley had a slightly less crazier train car (and probably ride too)

 Off they go! :)

 After the train ride we headed to the petting zoo to feed a wide variety of animals

 The kids also took turns on the adult camels

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Anna and Reagan

 Chaz and Jackson

 Kennedy and Heidi

 And Jackson finished off the evening in his usual delightful manner... Kelly just scooped him up and carried him along as he screamed at us. Oh how I love this challenging little boy! ;)

Thanks to the Stiriz, Cox and LaBar families for making our 2013 Southern Lights outing a memorable one! Looking forward to doing this with some or all of you for many years in the future and we especially can't wait to include our new cousin, baby Cole! :)

Thanksgiving 2013

Aunt Julie and Uncle Chuck spent Thanksgiving with us as well as attending Kennedys Fairy Tea Party. It was so much fun to have them visit and include them in my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving! :) In this picture Aunt Julie is giving Miss McKinley some special attention before dinner.

 Grand-Dad carving our traditional Turducken

 I have no idea what I thought was so funny in this picture, but both Kennedy's and my expression regarding this jello cracked me up. As a side note, Aunt Jolene always made this jello for LaBar family Thanksgivings so I love continuing to include it as a part of our holiday tradition.

 Our Thanksgiving table - ready to eat! :) 

 Uncle Chuck with all three of the girls ready to being our Thanksgiving evening tradition of watching Polar Express with Hot Chocolate.

 Grammy & Kennedy Ellen and Uncle Chuck & Reagan snuggled up in the basement ready for the movie to begin

 Jackson sneaking a quick hug with Grammy 

 Jackson making sure his hot chocolate has a sufficient number of marshmallows

 McKinley taking her turn with snuggles from Grammy :)

Thank you Grammy, Grand-Dad, Uncle Chuck and Aunt Julie for making our Thanksgiving so special! It wouldn't have been the same with out you and we hope we get to spend more with you in the future! :)

Macy's Santaland - NYC

Saturday morning, our fourth and final day in New York City, began across the street from our hotel at Macy's flagship store. We got there early so we could enjoy Santaland (all 10,000 sqft of it) and Santa before the crowds became overwehelming. I knew there was no point in trying to get Jackson to take a picture with the girls and Santa so we decided to take a family picture with Santa. I can't believe we managed such a great picture of everyone! :) 

 Santa and my sweet girls

 Hug!

 After our visit with Santa we went on a harbor tour to see and learn a little more about New York.

 It was pretty windy!

 We had great views of the city sky line and the Liberty Tower under construction

 Our last stop in NYC was the Empire State Building. None of us had every been to the top but it ended up being a really neat thing to do and a great way to finish off our NYC experience! I guess we were having a windy sort of day because the wind from the observation deck was crazy!

 Grand-Dad and his girls on top of the Empire State Building

 Grammy and Grand-Dad

 Tim and I with Missy K and Missy Reagan

 Another one of Grand-Dad's beautiful pictures

 The girls each had to have an Empire State Building sucker to enjoy on our way out of town. We also had to get a picture of one of the many beautiful Christmas displays that featured the Empire State Building on the ground level as we left the building.

I'm so glad we were able to see the Macy's Day Parade and Santaland with the kids. It's something I've been looking forward to doing since even before I had kids. Celebrating Kennedy's birthday at the American Girl Doll store and seeing the Lion King were also activities I had been looking forward to doing with children. All in all it was a great trip and we were so thankful to have Grammy and Grand-Dad along to assist us! While we had a great time in NYC I can't think what would ever possess anyone to actually live there! I also don't think I'll be brave enough to go back until McKinley is at least 5. It is just way too nerve wracking to keep track of multiple small children in such crazy crowds! So while we throughly enjoyed our NYC experience I think Disney cruises are more our speed. lol :) We had a great time, but we were perfectly happy to be headed south to one of my favorite cities in the world and a place we called home for the first 6 years of our marriage, Washington DC!

Kennedy's NYC Birthday

We celebrated Kennedy's 4th birthday in New York City the Friday after Thanksgiving. We had a few presents for her to open including a new American Doll, Caroline, before heading out for a day of fun. The thing that is funny about this picture is up until this morning Jackson had refused to open any presents (and pretty much refused to open most Christmas presents). For some reason he became absolutely determined to open Kennedy's main gift which was her doll. What a little stink! Thankfully Missy K was pretty sweet about it and let him assist her in opening her gifts.

 Our first stop of the day was the American Girl Doll Place where we had a birthday brunch planned. It was so much fun! The girls, Grammy and I had a blast! The food was delicious and everything was super super cute!!! I would highly recommend doing a birthday celebration for anyone who has a little girl who is an American Girl Doll fan!

 The flower pot is actually ice cream - so cute!

 Missy K with her new doll and birthday cake

 While the girls were celebrating at the American Girl Doll Place the guys started Black Friday at FAO Schwarz. We met them there to see if there was anything we couldn't live without. This is the clock that originally hung outside the store but is now displayed at the top of an escalator (which is always a top attraction for my munchkins).

 Daddy and Jackson picked out a new Thomas train named Kevin while they were shopping at FAO Shwarz. Jackson loves all cranes whether they're truck or train related!

 We spent Kennedy's birthday afternoon seeing The Lion King. We had seen it in DC while we lived there so I thought the kids would really enjoy it. They all three enjoyed the first half but the second was a little long and began slowly for Jackson. My fault entirely, but I'm still glad we tried it out especially since Reagan enjoyed it as much as she did! For anyone who hasn't seen it I would highly recommend the experience for the 5 and up crowd! :)

 Family picture after the Lion King at the theatre

 Grand-Dad decided to pass on the Lion King and spent the afternoon taking pictures around NYC. These are a few of my favorites. 

Friday evening we took a night tour of New York. We've done that once or twice before and other than the cold it is such a nice way to see the city! Thank you again to Grammy and Grand-Dad for helping to make Missy K's 4th birthday so special!!!