Chance and Calvin finally meet!

One of the most exciting events of this past weekend was that we were finally able to introduce Chance and Calvin! Calvin is my cousin, Jacinta, and her husband, Matt's new arrival. She and I were due the same day,with Jacinta delivering on the 25th of October and Chance arriving on November 7th. Both boys, we know they will be good buddies in the years to come and we were so excited to finally see each other and for the boys to meet. It was such fun and I, of course, went completely picture crazy!

First up - Jacinta holds both of the boys...
Here they are in their first photo together - Calvin is on the left, Chance, the right...
Then we laid them on the floor. Are these not the cutest pictures???

Halle and Calvin were both dressed in Santa-inspired outfits so we had to take a picture of them together...
Then we put Chance in the chair with Calvin - too cute!

And, finally - my cousin, Carrie's daughter, Deserae loves babies and looks so cute holding Chance!

The Finley Family Christmas

This weekend we traveled to North Dakota for our final Christmas celebration of the season. We got in around 8:30 on Friday night, enjoyed some heavy appetizers for dinner and opened gifts. It is always such fun to get together with everyone, and we stayed up until after 3am talking, laughing and playing games!

Here Halle poses by her new John Deere tractor (from Grandpa David and Grandma Connie) - she loves playing with them, and up until now had to use Brendan's tractors when she wanted to play - not anymore! Brendan got a new wheel loader!

Ooooohhhh...princess dress up clothes (from Uncle Colin and Aunt Kahri) - FUN!

Halle modeling the tutu Aunt Kahri made - so adorable!

Then, on Saturday night the rest of the Finley family came over to Mom and Dad's house and we celebrated the season together - it was a wonderful time!

More presents!
The ever-growing family - here is a shot of all 9 of Grandpa Bill and Grandma Margie's great-grandkids (from left to right: Chance, Alexis, Halle, Calvin, Deserae, Allysa, Samahra, Brendan & Zack)... Even better, the 9 is soon to become 10 as my brother, Colin and his wife Kahri are expecting their first baby (a girl) on January 19th!


A great shot of the grandkids (to whom all of the above belong!) (back row - left to right: Roxanne, Jacinta and Carrie, front row - left to right: Colin, Erica and Dawn)...
And finally, a shot of our family...

Thank you to all for making this holiday season a wonderful and memorable one!

Christmas Day

After an exciting Christmas morning discovering what Santa had been generous enough to leave under the tree, we topped off the day with a delicious prime rib dinner and even more gifts! Grandma Carol and Cameron came over to enjoy the evening with us and brought presents for all...

Halle opening her princess crown, earrings and necklace. She is really into dressing up and "princess" stuff now, so this was right up her alley!

Doesn't she look cute?
Brendan opening a "Cars" game for his brand new V-Smile game - he LOVES it!

One of the gifts Halle received from Grandma Carol was an Easy Bake oven, so on Wednesday morning we broke it out and helped her bake up her very first batch of cookies! (of course she just HAD to wear her crown!)
The chef with her creations. YUM!

Santa was here! Santa was here!...

...Those are the words the kids exclaimed as they ran into our bedroom on Christmas morning. It was such fun this year as Brendan was truly excited for Santa's arrival and was beside himself before bed on Christmas Eve. Halle was thrilled as well, though she didn't understand what was happening with as much clarity as Brendan did.

First order of business after waking us up was to check on the milk and cookies - Santa left one small drink of milk in the bottom of the glass and a few cookie crumbs scattered on the plate, Brendan was thrilled and helped himself to the rest of the milk and remaining cookie crumbs without missing a beat! Then we all made our way into the living room to check out what was under the tree.

Wow - what a lucky guy - Brendan checking out his Lego airplane set...

...then sitting in his new camping chair...

Ohhhh...what is in your stocking?Halle showing off her goods...
...and standing in front of her new dollhouse - yay!

Lounging in her camping chair...
Checking out the new dollhouse once it was out of the box and assembled...

Chance slept in a bit, then woke up happy as a lark!

Finally, Daddy looking good in his new headlamp - a stocking stuffer from Santa!

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy 2008!

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at home with our family and my sister, Erica. It was a great time with some good food, checking up on Santa online, baking cookies for Santa and opening our family gifts.

Here, Brendan shows off his new Lego Bulldozer...

Halle with one of her new games... Brendan checking out his new calendar...
A cute pic of Halle in one of her Christmas dresses
Chance was beat after all of the excitement and fell over sound asleep on Daddy's arm...so cute!

Christmas in Duluth

This past weekend our family headed to Duluth to celebrate Christmas with Nana Cassy, Jeff, Andrea and Jon. We arrived Friday night and stayed until Sunday morning when a snowstorm blew in and forced us to head home a bit earlier then we'd originally planned.

Here Brendan plays with Bella, one of Cassy's Great Danes - she's enormous!

Bella checks out Halle to see if she's got any food for her...
On Saturday night we opened presents...
Awesome!

Halle feeding her new baby boy...

Chance with his new, oh-so-soft-and-cuddly, bear...

Thank you, Cassy, for the wonderful gifts for all of us! Thanks to Andrea and Jon for the bath toys for the kids - they used them on Sunday night and had a blast! Thanks Jeff for the educational software for the kids - they love it! It was great to see all of you!

Comparison Pics...

Because so many people have conflicting opinions on who Chance looks most like, Brendan or Halle, here are some pictures of all three kids - what do you think?

First, here's Brendan at almost one month old...

...and almost 2 months old..
And, here's Halle at a month-and-a-half....
...and two months....
...and finally, here's Chance at a month-and-a-half...

Pretty similar, eh?