Noon Year's Eve

On New Year's Eve DAY, we went to the Children's Discovery Museum. They were having a kids party called "Noon Year's Eve"! What a great idea!! They figured most kids don't get the opportunity to stay up late and celebrate the New Year's at midnight, so they did the Noon celebration. Erin and Kevin joined us with their niece and nephew, Ryane and Edison. They were watching them for the day and decided to join us for lots of fun at the museum.

Here are some pics from the day before the countdown. They had their regular stations/playthings there as well as making crowns (for the big day!), centers to make lots of different things and to top it off, the zoo lady to paint kids faces! There was so much going on that day, the kids loved it!

We counted down to noon...full with confetti being thrown, horns being blown, and kids running wild! :) We had to teach the kids how to use the horns, really funny trying to teach 2 four year olds how to do that! (You will also see below Colin on a stool...he was in time out (for some reason, I can't remember now!), he was cracking me up on the stool though, I couldn't pass up the photo.)

The infamous Zoo Lady in town does an awesome job painting the kids faces. She is amazing to watch and she is so quick. We had to wait about 30 or so minutes in line to even get them done. Colin loved his and had me take pics of him making tiger like faces. Ryane, however, didn't like hers so much because it had too much blue in it. This was the only pic of her I could get because she only wanted pink and purple. Ahh, she sounds so like me when I was a little girl! :)

Happy Noon Year's Eve!

Happy 1 year and 2 month Birthday, Cade!

Happy 1 year and 2 month Birthday, Cade! (Same as Colin's post below...bad mom, I am trying to make it up now for missing it in the fall!)

Cade Douglas Cunningham was born on November 19, 2007. We were happy he joined us after his big brother's birthday instead of on his birthday. We have two special boys and we wanted them each to have their own days to celebrate!

Cade was 8 pounds 3 ounces and 21 inches long. Since the moment he came into our little family, we have been forever changed. Cade is full of life, full of energy, and full of love. We love Cade so much, although, he does tire us out, he is non-stop! Cade loves his big brother and tries to do everything he does...it is so cute. Colin might not think so, but we do! :)

An hour or so after you entered the world...

Cade meeting his big brother, Colin


Cade on his first birthday


Wow...one year changes everything!

Happy 1st Birthday Cade! We love you!

Happy 4 year and 2 month Birthday, Colin!

Happy 4 year and 2 month Birthday, Colin! Since I missed his 4 year birthday in the fall...bad mom, I know...I decided to post it on his 4 year and 2 month birthday instead!

Colin Jameson Cunningham came into our lives on November 17, 2004. He was born at 12:34 pm and was 8 pounds and 21 inches long. We are so blessed that he is in our lives. Since the moment he came into our lives, our lives have changed for the better. We can't imagine life without him, he brings us joy each and every day. Colin, you are a wonderful son and an awesome big brother to Cade. We love you!

Colin Jameson Cunningham when he first entered the world

Colin on each of his birthdays 1-2-3- and-4!

What a difference 4 years makes...

Happy 4th Birthday, Colin! We love you so much!

Finally...Christmas Day!

After we played at home for a short while, we packed up and headed to Danville to celebrate with Steve's parents and sisters. We spent a couple hours there opening presents and having fun (can you believe I forgot my camera?? I had it out for the morning at our house and then forgot it!!) before we headed to West Lebanon, IN to Steve's aunt and uncles house. Luckily, all three stops that day were close enough that we could still see everyone. Long day, but well worth it!

Here is Steve's grandma, Mary Landsdown, with all of her grandkids plus their spouses.

Here is Gauck, what the great grandkids call her, and all of the great grandkids...plus me (Cade was running away on top of the pool table!) In age order...McKenna, Erica, Ella, Colin, Megan, Madison, Luke, Cade, and Marissa.

After Steve's family Christmas, we packed up, once again, and headed to Watseka to see my extended family. We made it there in time to watch the adult gift exchange. It was quite humorous to watch! Here is our attempt to get a family pic in front of the tree at my Aunt Sally's house. We finally gave up on the last one and just acted silly instead! The one with my parents and brothers did turn out nice though.

We ended the day at my aunt and uncles house with Colin playing a little Rock Band. He had lots of fun!

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning at the Cunningham house was so much fun! Colin was so into it this year! Cade didn't really know what was going on, he was just following big brothers lead most of the time. Both of them slept in until 7:15, so that was awesome for mom and dad! :)

I made sure to run out ahead of Colin so I could catch him being so surprised. The first thing he did was check his milk and cookies to make sure Santa had in fact eaten them. He always likes to leave a carrot for each reindeer also, and was a little disappointed they didn't eat them all, but they did at least nibble on each one!

Colin got CARS slippers and he couldn't believe Santa knew which ones he wanted! That Santa guy, he is alright! :) He got lots of books, which he was so excited about. Santa was pretty generous and Colin was so thrilled with everything he got this year! The one thing he really wanted, Santa knew that it was a piece of junk, so he didn't bring it. We did feel bad when he ran out and the first thing out of his mouth was "but where is my camp set?" Seriously, this camp set was like $50 for a plastic tent, chairs, table, and little things you would use to camp, but it was all miniature sized. The pieces would get lost in about 5 minutes and/or break in less. Guess we failed on that one, but he has since forgot so maybe we did OK!

Like I said before, Cade really had no idea what was going on...but he did have fun! I love the pic of him staring wide eyed at his loot! He loved everything and wanted it opened right away...how do they catch onto that so quickly! :) He loved dumping his stocking and probably would have been just as happy with a couple of candy canes instead of everything else, but oh well!

Santa brought Colin and Cade a kitchen set for their new playroom (almost done with it!) downstairs this year. He left a note upstairs telling them to go down and check it out. I sprinted so I could make it first and once again, catch Colin with amazement on his face. I love this age!! They both were really excited and just wanted to play down there. Unfortunately, there was no play food or dishes with the kitchen and Colin made sure to point that out. Little stinker! We did go get our kitchen things out and they have had so much fun with this.

Just some more shots of the boys together on Christmas morning. They did have a lot of fun opening everything and exploring! The only thing that Santa gave them together besides the kitchen was a Handy Manny tool box. He made sure he wrote To Colin and Cade on it. Colin had a hard time with that, he thought it was just for him. So, he kept on wanting to give Cade one tool, then two, etc. Lately, they have been quite good and sharing it though!

More Christmas day coming soon!

Christmas Eve

A little late...

A couple of days before Christmas, Colin and Cade were over at my parents house playing. My mom has a basket of reindeer antlers and Cade loves them. He walks over to the basket, picks one up, then walks over to GG for her to put them on his head. He smiles and laughs until he chooses another pair for her to put on. He also loves the Santa hat (even though he didn't love seeing Santa!) Here are some fun shots of Colin and Cade getting in the Christmas spirit!

A Jameson tradition is to spend Christmas Eve with the Engle family. In the past, we would meet for dinner, go to church, and then head back to one of the houses for presents. As we have gotten older, plans change and just last year we stopped getting together after dinner because it was getting too late for the kids to stay up. The oldest Engle, Brian, along with his wife, Colleen, and their kids, Ryane and Edison stay in Chicago on Christmas Eve now, so we don't see them for our Christmas get together. We all got together at Jim's Steakhouse (a favorite of all of ours!).

From the top of the collage is Brad and Sarah, next to them is Kevin and Erin (my best friend married a best family friend...so now we get to spend Christmas Eve together - lots of fun!). Second row, is my mom, with Mama Engle, then Chris and Brad, below them is Mr. Engle with my dad, and Jeff and Emily (they are getting married in June). Last but of course, not least, is my precious family of four! Notice our coordinating clothes in colors of black, grey, and red this year, Colin even picked his sweater out so he would match daddy. Sarah and Emily chose to go with those colors too, and ended up in the exact same skirt! Too funny!

After church, we always go to my parents house to open gifts. We have always opened everything that night and then left Santa for the morning. Just some fun shots of some of the things the fam got this year. In the lower right pic of the entire family, funny story...poor Cade had fallen alseep, so I was holding him (dead weight of course!) and at the last minute he woke up, he isn't looking at the camera, but we did get some pics of him just sleeping away while we are all posing (all the while I am holding him...still dead weight!) Cade did wake up to enjoy his first Christmas (that he could actually do something at) and he and Colin had lots of fun opening presents! They both got so many cool things. Thanks Papa, GG, Uncle Brad, Aunt Sarah, and Uncle Chris!