Welcome Kenzie!

We were thrilled to welcome a new baby girl into our family. Kenzie Ann Cookson was born on December 21 at 3:07 pm. She weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long.

Happy Birthday Aunt Laura!

We are in the Holiday Spirit!

We are definitely in the Christmas spirit here at the Cookson house! We have been having a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas and going to different events in the area.

Kylee was very excited about putting up the tree this year so we decided to get it up right after Thanksgiving. We got back from Thanksgiving on Saturday and got the tree decorated on Sunday. Kylee was very into it this year and helped put A LOT of ornaments on!

Then December hit and that meant we were ready to start the Christmas countdown calendars. Kylee is in charge of moving the tree on the countdown that Nana and Grandad brought us from Ireland. (Ryland doesn't quite get the excitement of this yet.) She usually moves it in the morning and announces how many sleeps are left until Christmas. We are almost to the second column now so that is getting very exciting too! We also have a tree with doors that Aunt Amy gave us. The doors each have candy in them and also countdown the days until Christmas. This time though Kylee and Ryland take turns opening the doors (Ryland DOES get excited about this one and getting the "piece candy" from it.) The rule we have is that one person opens the door and the other gets to pick their piece of candy first. So far so good with that! : )

Last week, we went to Zoo Lights and the kids loved it! It was really a great display and there were lights everywhere! Most of the trees had lights on them but there were also a lot of tunnels and stuff that we could walk under. The kids really liked the different animal lights that were there and they were both even content riding in the stroller the whole time! There was a train set up in the Visitors' Center too which was a big hit for both kids.

Our next holiday stop was Season's Greenings. (Well actually we did the Bull Run Festival of Lights too but I don't have any pictures of it.) Season's Greenings was an event at the Botanic Gardens in DC. They had a huge train display to walk through. All of the buildings and structures were made completely of different plant materials so they were pretty neat to look at -- especially the ones of the historical buildings. The kids were, of course, most amused by the trains that were running. There were so many different tracks and types of trains going that you could see one almost everywhere that you looked. It was definitely a good trip (thanks for the tip Julie!) and one that we will likely repeat every year!

After going to the Botanic Gardens, we went over to see the National Christmas tree! There were a lot of people there so it was hard to get some good pictures by the little trees but we managed. Kylee was very interested in all the little trees and asking what state each tree was for. She was keeping a very close eye out for Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. Although you can't read the signs that well you can probably guess which picture goes with which tree. Pete and the kids took a picture by the Massachusetts tree. The kids and I took one by the Pennsylvania tree (and Kylee was yelling Pennsylvania when we took the picture!?). And Kylee got her picture taken by the Virginia tree. They kids also liked watching the different trains going around the National Tree. Kylee liked the "money" train that was going around! When she looked at the big tree she said, "Mommy it look like someone bite that tree!" Ha ... it did kind of look like it was missing a piece. : ) It was a good end to our day's adventure (even if the parking situations before us were a little daunting!?)

We still have a lot of holiday activities planned so it should be a fun few weeks including ornament and cookie making with our friends! Stay tuned. : )