Downtown Pittsburgh

Ryan, Makenna, Matt, and Mark
Mark in front of the Gingerbread Houses

Ryan and Makenna with the Gingerbread Houses

Makenna in front of the Train

In front of an old fashioned Santa

When we were out visiting my parents, we decided to take Mark and Makenna downtown Pittsburgh. I hadn't been down there to walk around in forever, so it was nice for me too. Mark and Makenna loved looking at all of the Gingerbread Houses that were made by different schools and girl scout troops and also looking at all the different Santa's from around the world. They also had a train around a big tree. It was a Great Time!

Loving Tyler

Mark and Tyler
Makenna and Tyler

Mark and Makenna love Tyler and Madison so much. They were so happy to spend time with Madison, but both of them were also wanting to do a lot with Tyler now that they see he can run around and play. Makenna gave him a kiss on his head everytime she walked by him, which was just so sweet. Mark was up first the day we were leaving and heard Tyler get up. He came into our room and said, "Mom, Tyler's up. Can I get him?" I said, no, but I will. He then asked if he could give him his morning milk, so I let him sit on the couch right next to me, and he held him to feed him his milk. It was SUPER Cute. I know Mark is excited to have another boy in the house. He will be even happier come January!

Cousins

Madison, Mark, Makenna and Tyler

We headed out to Pennsylvania last Tuesday night to spend Thanksgiving with my family. Mark and Makenna were so excited to see Madison and Tyler and their Aunt Bethany, Uncles Ryan and Doug, and Grandma and Grandpa H. We had a jam packed week of fun and they are still exhausted, but it was worth it to be able to spend time with all of them. We miss them already! Here is a picture of all four of the kids on Thanksgiving.

Professional Posers

It was the end of the Birthday Party the other night and Mark and Makenna wanted me to take one more picture of each of them. Mark went first and posed this way, which was too funny. I started laughing so of course Makenna wanted in on the action and hopped up there to get her picture taken in a similar pose. They are just too funny sometimes. :)

Birthday Party

Mark, Makenna, Jordan, and Mallory
Makenna being silly!

Jumping!

Mark playing Air Hockey

Makenna playing Air Hockey
Mark and Mallory
Mark and Makenna

Mark and Makenna went to a Birthday Party on Sunday night for our neighbor, Mallory, at Jump Zone in Crown Point. They had an absolute blast! They have probably 10 bounce houses there and air hockey, which is one of their favorite games to play. Mark won his game 7-2 and Makenna was winning too when we had to stop so they could go eat pizza and cup cakes. It was a great night!

Church Choir

Mark and Makenna have joined the Church Choir this year. They absolutely love it and hate when they miss it. Today at Church they sang a song during the 11:00 service. I was smiling ear to ear. It was just so cute with Makenna singing while sticking her tongue out and Mark with his chime...he kept stomping his foot down with each one, and we kept thinking he was going to hit the girl in front of him! It was so fun watching. Enjoy!

Story Time

Here is a video of Makenna "reading" a story to us last night. She had one of Matt's books from his MBA class. She is so creative with her stories, and I honestly have no idea where she gets some of this stuff. I love to listen to her though. Fair warning...this video is 7 1/2 minutes long so make sure you have the time to listen. :)

Homemade Sweater

Makenna found a sweater that my mom's friend Marie made her when she was a baby. She loved it so much and insisted on wearing it to Church this past Sunday. She loved the butterfly buttons so much and had a great time buttoning up the sweater. Thanks again Auntie Marie!

Mark

This is a picture of Mark after his Halloween Carnival at School the other day. He was so excited to have his face painted. His class got to stay at the Carnival an extra 20 minutes longer than the other kids at school because his class raised more money for their Read-A-Thon than any other class. He was pumped. (Thank you again to everyone who donated money to him for his read-a-thon. He did a great job and read more than he was supposed to!) So, I wanted to give everyone a little update on how Mark is doing in Kindergarten this year. He just got his first scores back from his standardized testing and he got 96% in Math and 98% in Reading. He is doing so well. Matt talked to his teacher and he is in the advanced group. When she starts teaching the rest of the class, he goes into a small group with 3 other kids and they work on more advanced reading. He is also getting harder homework then the other kids and still doing great on it. We are so proud of him!

Uncle Craig and Tiffany

Tiffany, Makenna, and Craig
Some of the Girls

Me and Matt (Linda Richman from Coffee Talk and Alan from the Hangover)

Tiffany and Craig

Matt's best friend Craig and his new wife Tiffany were just down for our annual Halloween Party. Mark and Makenna were so excited to see them. They are so good with the kids and they just have the best time with them. They even let Makenna put Halloween stickers all over their face. It was a fun morning. I have also included a couple pictures of us from our Halloween Party. We had about 55 people there and had a great time!

2nd Lost Tooth!

Mark just lost his 2nd tooth! He was so excited. The tooth fairy visited him and Makenna again. Now he is without his bottom 2 teeth. He looks so cute. :)