Photo shoot

The kids were being super cute, so I whipped out my camera and we had a fun little photo shoot this morning.

Aunt Anna and the box

On Sunday, Anna came over to drop off Christmas presents from herself and Mark's parents. And even better: she brought a big box. She got the kids to color the box, and then they had fun playing inside it. What a fun aunt.

Aunt Anna is here!

Let's color a box

Hannah in the box

Matthew and Hannah

Let's all sit in the box

Being Cute

A random collection of cute pictures of the kids from the last month or so.

Watching trains on Youtube

Hannah boo

Love that smile

Reading books together

This looks like a comfy spot to watch tv

Hannah and I

Ready to go

Take my picture, too.

What cuties

Uncooperative Hannah

One day I'll get her to quack on camera.

Thanksgiving

We had a fun Thanksgiving. Mark's younger siblings stayed most of the weekend, along with John's girlfriend -now fiancee- Brooke. On Thursday morning, we had the annual Robison Turkey Trot. Matthew and Hannah were excited to line up for the race, but didn't realize they were supposed to start running. They refused to move, and we had to put them back in the jogging stroller. I successfully managed to farm out all the jobs for dinner, so I personally was in charge of nothing. We started rearranging furniture trying to figure out how to fit everyone in. We decided to take our dining table outside on the deck since the weather was so nice. Unfortunately, our turkey took way longer than we wanted, so by the time we actually ate our dinner, it was a bit chilly outside and getting dark. But we persisted, mostly because it would have been a huge pain to move the table. We had a mixed gathering of my family and Mark's family. Along with his siblings and Brooke, Mark's cousins Matt and Jonathan Dunstan came with their families. On my side, my brothers Benjamin and Aaron brought along their families. It was a fun weekend.

Reading with Uncle Michael

Ready for the Turkey Trot

Runners get set

Matthew and Hannah forgot to run

L to R: Matt and Kate Dunstan, Mark, John Robison, Brooke Davis, 

Benjamin Pingel, Anna Robison, Michael Robison, Ali and Jonathan Dunstan

L to R: Matthew, Olivia Dunstan, Melissa Pingel with 

Katherine Pingel, Aaron Pingel, Hannah and Ayden Pingel

Jess and Daniel Pingel

What a cute smile

Mark and Michael

Reading with Uncle Michael

Let's watch "Mr. Grinch"

Aunt Anna

Johnny and his fiancee Brooke

Campfire at Green Pond

The Friday before Halloween, we went camping without the camping. Since it rained the whole time we were at Yellowstone, we didn't get to do the campfire and s'mores with the kids. Talking to our camping buddies, the Shimaneks, we decided to use our leftover wood from our Yellowstone trip and go somewhere local and just build a campfire for the kids. After talking to Mark's co-worker, we found out that the Green Pond Trail actually has a picnic table and fire ring at the Green Pond. That's when we realized on our last hike, we missed the turnoff to the Green Pond itself. It's probably less than a mile from the parking lot to the pond. The kids were so excited that they ran the whole way, so we got there rather quicker than we expected. The kids had a blast throwing pebbles in the pond, watching Mark build a fire, and of course eating s'mores. We ended the evening with glowsticks and a flashlight-lit hike back to the cars. And to top it off, we almost hit two deer coming down from the mountain, but luckily we didn't. And we were home by 8 and got to sleep in our own beds! Best kind of camping there is.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! This year, Matthew dressed up as Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story (thanks goes out to Aunt Serene for the costume) and Hannah was Dorothy from Wizard of Oz. We took the kids to trunk-or-treat at the church on Tuesday. The kids had fun at some of the party stations inside, but once we got outside, Matthew was intimidated by the dark and by all the people. Hannah was loving trunk-or-treat. She picked up quickly that all she had to do was walk up and people would give her candy for her basket. For Halloween, Aaron and family decided to come to our house since Ayden was dressed up as Woody. We had dinner, and then took the kids trick-or-treating on our street. To cap off the evening, we drove over to Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Pingel's house and visited with them for an hour.

Dorothy

Buzz Lightyear

Ayden and Matthew

Katherine, Matthew, Hannah and Ayden

Hannah and I

Hannah