Christmas with the Cooksons

Our first stop for Christmas this year was Andover, MA. Since we had an extra long break (due to the Blizzard in Virginia) we were able to spend some extra days with family this year.

Before Christmas arrived, Aunt Sue and Kylee had some fun riding their wrapping paper horses. : )

Then it was time for the Christmas festivities to begin. We all went to church on Christmas Eve. Kylee had been pretty happy and active all day so she actually slept for the ENTIRE mass which actually worked out very nicely. : ) Here she is all dressed up to go to church.

When we got home from church we started opening presents with Grammie, Grandpa, Aunt Sue, Aunt Laurie, and Uncle Shaun.

It's Zoe and Big Bird!!!

A Sid doll that talks!!! Kylee also insisted on wearing some of the clothes as she opened them. : )

After all the excitement it was time to go to bed and get ready for Santa to arrive.

Opening presents on Christmas morning (Santa obviously did come for a visit.) : )

Kylee loved all of her gifts and spent a lot of time playing in her new ball pit.

She also got pretty good at her Sit and Spin.

The Newest Cookson

On Friday, we went for our ultrasound and were able to get some pictures of the newest little Cookson! All looks good and he / she gave us a few little waves. Here is a picture from our appointment. (Imagine the baby flat on his / her back and looking up at you. The head is towards the left side.)

Sunny November

We had great weather today (and some house showings!) so we decided to head to the park for a little fun.

Kylee had a lot of fun running up and down the ramp. She stopped every once in a while to plan her next move.

We brought Elmo along for the trip. (Elmo was actually a gift from Daddy which some of you will realize was quite a BIG deal! ha!) Elmo went for a ride on the slide ...

... and for a ride on the firetruck.

Another great day at the park . . . hopefully this nice weather will stick around! (A little disclaimer -- this outfit does fit Kylee. The shirt just rolled up for this picture.) : )

Manassas Playground

After Kylee's doctor's appointment, complete with shots!?, we decided to take her to the little playground near by. Of course, driving the train and airplane were a big hit but Pete and I were very surprised at how long Kylee spent in the bouncing house. Since we couldn't go in with her we weren't sure if she would go in at all because there was a "double door" that she had to go through first. Once she got in there though, we started wondering how we were going to get her out! There were a lot of balls in the house too so that helped her want to go inside to play.

Here are some pictures from our morning at the playground:

Fun with "Hu-In"

It was another nice night, and Pete's tutoring night again, so we went back to the Pumpkin Playground but this time we got to spend the time with Hudson, Barrie, and Jennie. Hudson and Kylee really seemed to enjoy playing together and kept looking for each other. If Kylee turned around and he wasn't there she would call for him saying, "Hu-in, Hu-in." I think the kids could have stayed there and played all night. It was a great time with some great friends!


It was another day of us spending a lot of time on the Pirate Ship!

All three kids enjoyed spinning and this one was perfect because they each had their own section to hold onto. Of course it did turn into seeing who could climb over all the bars the quickest but it was still a good time. : )

Kylee and I got to go on the slide again and this time Hudson came with us. Every time we got to the bottom they would ask to go again! : )

Jennie and I joke around that some of these pictures will be shown at Kylee's and Hudson's rehearsal dinner when they get married . . . we shalll see. : )

Burke Nursery

Kylee and I took advantage of the nice weather, and Pete's late night tutoring, and went to Burke Nursery's Pumpkin Playground. There was a lot for Kylee to do there and we had a great time! The Pirate Ship and Giant Slide were the two biggest attractions for us so we spent a lot of time there! Kylee also enjoyed driving all of the different things that were there.

Here are some pictures of our night at The Pumpkin Playground:

(Grandad will be happy to know that the slide required me to walk up the stairs with a rug and sometimes carrying Kylee. She walked when the line behind us wasn't too long. Of course it wasn't even close to the size of the slide that he used to carry me up at Dutch Wonderland. : ) No pictures this time since I was on the slide with her.)

Hartland Orchards Take 2

We decided to go back to Hartland Orchards this weekend. The weather was MUCH nicer this time and we got to spend the day with Grammie, Grandpa, Aunt Laurie, and Aunt Sue. There was a lot to do there and we all had a great time.

We started out at the corn maze.

Hmmm ... which way should we go?

We took a detour out of the maze though and headed to "Slide Mountain." This was definitely one of the highlights for Kylee. She went down with Daddy ...

with Mommy ...

with Aunt Sue ...

and all by herself!

The actual apple orchard was also a big part of the day. Kylee was a great helper and picked quite a few apples from the trees.

She carried the apples over and put them in the bag when she was done picking.

After all that picking, she needed to relax and enjoy her apple.

Kylee even helped Daddy use the apple picker to reach the apples that were way up in the tree.

Kylee was also VERY interested in the fuzzy caterpillar that was walking around.

We had a GREAT day and are already looking forward to going back next year!