Christmas Day at Grandpa Faust's

Christmas Day came and went in a blur, as usual. We travelled to Port Huron that morning and by early afternoon were celebrating the day with the whole Faust clan. Cassidy had fun helping Grandpa unwrap his gifts.Travis always ends up in Uncle Aaron's arms at some point.

Aunt Jo (Great Aunt Jo to Travis, that is) loves her grandnieces and grandnephews!

Trav looks good in plaid. :)

Cassidy was in awe of Grandpa's train, which borders his Christmas tree. It runs the track, whistles, and even blows smoke!

That little pumpkin, what a stinker! She wasn't much into unwrapping her own gifts but loved to help others do so. Here she is with her favorite cousin, Kayla.

Aunt Jo and Uncle Joe got Cassidy a wonderful, soft rocking horse that whinnies and neighs. What two-year old wouldn't LOVE a gift like that? Well...our girl is not so sure about that horsey. We are still working on warming her up to it. We pet him and talk to him and listen to him make his horsey noises but she keeps her distance still. She just can't seem to figure him out! Don't worry, Aunt Jo - she'll soon be loving him and riding him like crazy, I'm sure. (Grandma Faust and Aunt Sheri look on. Aunt Sheri is now, *gorgeously*, six months pregnant with the next baby girl in our family. We can hardly wait to have Khloe Jean with us next Christmas!)And here is our tired, over-Christmased girl. Very unfortunately, Cassidy got sick in the car on the way down to Port Huron and over the next few days had her ups and downs with not feeling much like herself. It was a bummer for her to be so out of it at Christmas but we're glad it never got too bad. Sickness isn't something we can predict or schedule, is it? The good news is, we're all healthy now. We thank God for that, and for sending Jesus into the world on Christmas Day to be the light of the world for us all. A final "Merry Christmas 2010" to you!

Christmas Eve

It's here! Christmas Eve day was spent getting ready for our trip to Port Huron and preparing for church in the evening. We also opened our family presents and had a yummy brunch. Here's Trav, ready for church.
The ladies are gonna love me. :)

Cassidy was n-a-u-g-h-t-y in church (as usual) so we ended up in the playroom the whole time. Great punishment, huh?! I think she's figured out that all she has to do is misbehave and disrupt things enough times and she'll end up in the room with all the toys.

There's more to life than a good nap

Travis still sleeps a lot but is awake more and more during the day. He's becoming so interactive and fun to play with! His noises are getting cuter all the time. It's so fun seeing him wake up to the world around him for the first time.

Two and two

Two babies: one 2 years old and the other 2 months old. How are we already here? Wasn't I just pregnant, complaining that it seemed the baby would never be out of my tummy? And now we're well underway raising two kids and (mostly) having a blast doing it. Cassidy is finally starting to acknowledge her baby brother. She is fun and crazy and learning new words (and new acrobatics!) everyday. Travis is smiling, cooing, and sleeping. At nearly 8 weeks old, he is sleeping 11 hours at night with one short feeding session in the middle of that stretch. Today we visited our pediatrician for both kids' well visits. The doctor affirmed our feelings; both kids are healthy, growing and developing perfectly. What gifts we have in our two babies. We are so happy with and thankful for them everyday. Kitty goes everywhere with Cassidy. Our Christmas Tree has been a bit of a challenge. We knew we'd have to limit the ornaments on it this year with Cassidy getting into things as she is. So we decided to just hang a few things. Well, Cassidy's favorite things in the world are balls. And what do we do? We hang bright, shiny, colorful balls on a huge lit up tree, then tell her not to touch them! Not fair! We've had to progressively move them up farther on the tree, and now we have just a handful of ornaments on our tree, and all hanging on the top third. It looks kind of funny, but we love it!

Our growing boy

Travis is growing so quickly. I know all parents feel like that but it seems like we can almost watch it happening on a daily basis. I've already purged his closet and drawers of a whole basket full of clothes that no longer fit him! Here he is, "standing" with a little help from Daddy: This picture is for comparison purposes. He's growing, but still has a long way to go in order to catch up with his big sister Cassidy!
I wish we could capture his awesome smile on camera to share with everyone. He smiles at us everyday now but we haven't been so lucky to catch it on film yet. We think he's handsome even when he's not smiling though!

Daddy's arms are a great place to snuggle.

Greats

Friday was a special day. While visiting Traverse City, we spent some time in the morning with Granny and Aunt Marie. Granny commented on how strong Travis is! It was so much fun for us to introduce our new baby boy to his maternal great-grandmother.

We asked Granny and Aunt Marie if they saw the resemblance to Aaron (my brother) that we see in Travis. We're trying to figure out who he might look like on either side of the family. Aunt Marie thought the shape of his head reminded her of Uncle Ray (the youngest of my mom's three brothers). Aaron said he saw Eric (Uncle Ray's son) in Travis. At any rate, it looks like a Collins family resemblance is emerging...according to the Collins folks, at least!

Cassidy was intrigued (and I think a little confused) by Aunt Marie's gorgeous birds. After all, these exotic birds don't look much like the ones at our backyard feeders!

Winter wonderland

It's officially here: winter. We have accumulated snowfall and temps steady in the 30's during the day. Today we busted out Cassidy's new snowsuit (which I bought last winter, fingers crossed that it would fit properly this year, and it does!) and boots and bundled her up. The last time she set foot on snow, she didn't know what to do. (Remember that video from last year? She just kind of stood there, frozen, unsure how to navigate this cold, crunchy white stuff.) Well, this year is a different story altogether. She confidently made her way out into the yard without so much as a second thought. She had fun helping Daddy shovel the driveway, and she had a blast getting rides in both the big scoop shovel and her little red sled. Yep, she's hooked on winter already. It's going to be a fun few months! We didn't even know one could play with summertime balls in the snow! Cassidy showed us how it's done today.

She loves her balls. LOVES them. She decided they would eat lunch with her. I fought it at first and then thought, oh, who cares really? They're easier to clean than her stuffed kitty, which yesterday got covered in her breakfast yogurt. 2-year old fun is like no other.

Just like I imagined

When we unwrapped the coat and hat from Aunt Jo and Uncle Joe for Cassidy's birthday, I said I could just picture her wearing it on a Christmastime shopping excursion in downtown Petoskey with the snow gently falling. I had it pictured in my mind and today it happened just like I imagined! We had lunch in Charlevoix and then drove up to Petoskey. The downtown streets were decorated beautifully for Christmas and we strolled in and out of our favorite stores all afternoon. I'm not exaggerating when I say that dozens of people commented on how cute, adorable, gorgeous, beautiful our girl looked in her special coat and hat. One man said, "Just like out of Dickens!" while another woman commented, "She looks like a movie star!" It sure was fun seeing all the attention she got and how happy people seemed to be just watching her. Most of the day she insisted on walking along hand in hand with mommy or daddy but some of the time she was in her stroller. Travis was all snuggled in his Bjorn with Daddy.

He slept the whole time.We warmed up with coffee at Roast and Toast and shared a cinnamon roll. Cassidy had more than her fair share of it though!

The fish tank at Horizon Books was a huge hit. I had to literally drag her out of there, swinging her by her arms to distract her. She was NOT going to leave those fishies! I think a little fishbowl in her room might make a good Christmas gift.

Yes, an afternoon of Christmas shopping in Petoskey will surely be a tradition for our family! What a great day!

Couch Potato

We're still trying to figure out how and where to get this guy to sleep for long stretches at night. If only we, ourselves, didn't have to sleep! Then we could hold him all day every day, which is what he loves and how he sleeps the best. Have you been this comfy in a while? I haven't!

Over the river and through the woods, to the Christmas tree farm we will go!

It's the day Mommy's been waiting for all year: Christmas Tree Day! It was a stunningly beautiful sunny (but cold!) afternoon so we headed to the Christmas tree farm to pick out this year's beauty. So much fun! Cassidy loved running around and looking at all the big trees. Normally, Cassidy isn't a big cookie eater.

Today she had three in a row. Of course, Travis slept through the whole thing!

Mesmerized by the handmade wreaths.