Welcome to the world Bella Grace-

We can't wait to meet you!!! This morning Joe & Traci had their precious baby girl. She wasn't due to arrive until Feb 8th but just couldn't wait to meet her parents (and wanted them to have the tax deduction for 09 :) Such a thoughtful little girl already!

She was born at 9:08a, weighed in at 4lbs 6oz and is 17 inches long. Hopefully she'll only have to spend a couple days in the NICU and should be able to go home with her Mom & Dad on Sunday. We're so thrilled for you guys, and can't wait to hold our new little niece our arms!!!! We love you so much!

Proud Papa Joe

Ok, Joe does have big hands, but she's also super tiny... this really puts it in perspective!

Dex and Auntie Nicolle

aren't they cute???

Naked baby

I can't believe I forgot to post these! Snapped a few pictures of Dex right before he turned 6 months- enjoy. I love this little face he's been making lately :)

Boogie Monster

This is sick... and wrong... ah, life with boys!

Snoooow!

Clark is pretty excited about snow so when a little came down the other day we had to go play in it...

Mr. Cream Cheese Hands

yeah right. no way.
(that's for you Uncle Joe!)

A toddler left to his own devices with a bagel and cream cheese... or bed-co! as clark calls it (bread co, or panera depending on where you live) the one downside of living 2 blocks from one is your child can ask for it by name in the mornings...

Crown Candy Kitchen

Beth & David came in town for Christmas and we were lucky to get to see them two of the days they were here. We hit up Crown Candy Kitchen of course and David was super excited to go after seeing it on Man V Food, although we did NOT attempt the milkshake challenge. You have to try to drink 5 milkshakes in 30 minutes, but each milkshake fills 3 big milkshake glasses, so it's kind of like 15 milkshakes which is insane! He's still convinced he could do it though :)

They finally got to meet little Dex

They are going to be such great parents one day!

Clark showing off his drinking.from.a.cup skills

I LOVE this picture of my boys-

Here are Beth's parents. They are that couple that newlyweds hope to be one day... married for almost 40 years and still totally in love.

David and the long-awaited milkshake

Dex liked the freezing metal shake mixer because it felt good on his teething gums-

White Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! This year was so much fun!!! Clark actually understood the presents he got and was excited about opening and playing with each one of them. He's been so good he hadn't gone into time-out in almost a week which is an awesome record for him! Santa brought Dexter a new tooth (his second) which is pretty cute, and it even snowed a little so we got our white Christmas! Although it made the roads a little dangerous, one of our good friends got in a car accident that day, and we passed 9 accidents on our way to and from Marc & Lisa's house, which we went to for brunch after present-opening.

Here is Clark getting his firetruck from Grandma & Grandpa. He went right to the door and looked for "Uncle Joe" his fireman figurine that drives the truck-

I love the look Clark is giving Dex here...

He was such a good boy sharing his toys with Dex

And for some reason this is the face Clark now makes when I ask him to smile for the camera.

Dex got some puffs in his stocking from Santa. We let him try a couple, but he didn't get them quite yet. In another few weeks we'll try again-

Eating the paper was more fun than the presents.

He had wanted Henry (one of the Thomas trains) for a LONG time so we were really excited for him to open this one... Apparently so was he.

Clark was real pumped to open a container of plastic UP! friends

Christmas with Keith Obermann

The snow coming down...

Grandpa Clause

Our greatest gift from 2009

Ok, I seriously love these two pictures. Here is Clark with his new Rex toy (he has an obsession with Toy Story right now) and of course Dex is chewing on the box which makes Clark NOT happy...

Clark gets the box away from Dex and is pretty pumped to show off his new toy. Dex on the other hand...

Then after brunch we went home and put the boys down for naps. Dad came over and we hung out the rest of the night. After the boys went to bed we ate yummy Christmas Eve & chicken soup leftovers and watched The Hangover since none of us had seen it and Santa brought it to Rich... I thought it was pretty cute that the ham leftovers were a big heart-

Grandpa and Dex. So cute!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was at our house this year, which was wonderful because we still got to hang with family after Clark & Dex had to go to sleep. Thankfully the Santa tracker informed us that he was still in Brazil at about 10 and we could have one more glass of wine before having to get the kids home :) And speaking of the kids, they decorated a gingerbread house which was such a fun project! Here is Emma with one of her trees she decorated.

Clark REALLY enjoyed eating, I mean making the gingerbread house

With their handiwork

And then the kids formed a band, of course. A Lego band that is. Riley was so sweet and was singing "Little Drummer Boy" into the mic over one of the songs she didn't know. Adorable!

I love this picture of Blake rocking out.

And then... Santa came! We had a blast with that...

And we set up Clark's cool electric train Grandpa & Grandma sent up from FL... at one in the morning! He likes to eat breakfast watching the trains, although now it takes him a good half hour to eat now...

And my fun craft project for Christmas. I discovered porcelain pens, which are awesome and made us a Cookies for Santa plate...