Christmas (better late than never)

So, it occurred to me today that we had not posted pictures from Christmas. Yes, we did celebrate the holiday and it was fantastic. The kids opened almost every present under the tree together--at Nora's request. Of course, they made out like bandits thanks to Grandma and the whole Grove family here in Ohio. Dinosaurs were everywhere, as were dinosaur puzzles, dinosaur pajamas, dinosaur train talking dinosaurs, and talking baby dinosaurs. Needless to say, it was a very special day for the kids. The picture above is of Nora and her baby dinosaur Chomper, who since has even gone to work with Mama (because he is too little to stay home alone, of course). Below we are opening the many presents from Geoff's family at Pam & Scott's house.
Here is Jackie delivering presents from under the tree at home, where we started our morning with hot cinnamon rolls and presents followed by stockings.
And here Jack waits in anticipation for the word "go!"
And this one shows Nora brandishing her paleontologist tools as the kids get ready to unearth fossilized baby dinosaurs from their eggs.

Hockey

A couple weeks ago we all went to an OSU hockey game. Here are the kids all decked out in OSU gear.
We had two tickets from Grandpa and in line to get a couple more this kid's dad offered us his extra two tickets. They were great seats so for the first period we piled into the parents section and I got inside information on Chris. The kids had a good time watching everything but hockey. Jackson loved the band and was air drumming along and he would also follow Brutus around the arena waving hello. Eleanor was more interested in the people and struck up several conversations with strangers. She has become quite friendly and will talk to people and introduce them to he family and tell them about Mookie or dinosaurs.


After the first period we moved to the Club Level where we could grab a pretzel and give the kids some room to run around.


They have several Brutuses (Bruti?) around the ground level. Here are Jack and I checking on out up close.



And hear is our sweet dog Mookie snuggled up with Mama Elle, who was lovingly wrapped in a blanket and then pushed to the bottom of the bed. Mookie made sure she had company though.

Happy Birthday Jackson!

Can you believe this little monkey is 2? It seems like it has gone fast but I remember the many steps he has made over the last two years. He has really started to develop his own personality recently, as a ornery little bugger, and his laugh lights up the room. He is starting to make his preferences known for music, books, and shows, much to the chagrin of Miss Eleanor Kate.

I can't find the camera with pictures from his party so here are some from Thanksgiving.

Nora all dressed up and Jackie Boo Bear wearing some hair bands.


Here is a rare picture of all the Pollocks and Groves after a nice big meal.

Both kids were so sacked out from playing with cousin Lindsey they fell asleep quickly on the way home.

It's December Already

Geoff has taught Jack to root for football games. I think here he is saying "touchdown!"

And, m& ms are getting Jack on the potty before age 2! He has had some good success--for candy and here you can see how very proud he is!

New hats for everyone! Jackson has taken to stealing Daddy's hat whenever he can and wearing it while running away. We managed to capture this cute picture when he stopped for a second.

And look at our girl, growing so big. We did some Thanksgiving Day shopping at Old Navy and scored the kids some hats and gloves for $5.

Some kiddo updates in the month of November 2010 include Jack counting to TEN on his own (age: 23 months), saying at least 100+ words, jumping with both feet, and singing. Nora continues to amaze us all with sentences like "Daddy, wake up! You are not nocturnal!" and singing full length songs by heart, "reading" stories to us, and honing her Dinosaur imitations (she plays like a baby dinosaur almost everyday, can name dinos like Ankylosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and about 15 others by picture or features and can tell you whether they are herbivores, carnivores or omnivores.

Some Pictures From Last Month

Well, before Thanksgiving better post some Halloween pictures.


Costumes from left to right: Triceratops (aka "Chomp"), Tired Mom, Tired Dad, and Bumblebee (aka "BEE!").



Chomp, following Scooby Doo (aka Taryn) up some stairs.



A wondering bumblebee not aware of the vampire dog in the background.



Jack putting on chapstick.


Jack eating poisons nuts at my cousin Luke's wedding in September. Congrats Luke and April.

Dino World Part 2

Here are a few more pictures from Dinosaur World. It was really fun to see the dinosaurs in the "natural setting", like the triceratops with their babies and the brachiosaurs in the field.

This picture of Jack mugging me shows how tall some of the dinos were.

Along with the real life dinosaurs all the kids got to dig for real fossils. They got to sift through the sand for 15 minutes and fill up a cup and pick out their favorite 3 fossils. Nora found some cool ammonites and Jackson settled on some shark teeth.

Nora has gotten so interested in fossils from her dig and Dinosaur Train talking about them she has been looking for fossils in our back yard. She started looking at rocks around the yard that I've been ignoring for 7 years and found some real fossils of sea shells. We had a lot of fun trying to match them up and put them together.


As you leave Dino World of course there is a huge gift shop so we set each kid a limit and had them pick out what they wanted. This lead to a whole other dino world on the beds of our hotel room.

Dino World Part 1

Many of you know that our Nora Kate is way into dinosaurs. It started with a viewing of Land Before Time and has blossomed into about 100 dinosaurs, books (Thank you Grandma & Nana Kathy!), puzzles (Thank you Grandma!), stuffed animals (Thank you Grandma!), a Triceratops costume for Halloween, and a family trip nearly 5 hours away to visit Dinosaur World. Here are some pictures from that trip south. It was a fantastic trip! You can find out more here.

In the mouth of a ferocious T-Rex
Uncovering the massive fossil of a dinosaur
Reaching out and touching one of the 150 dinosaurs
Even the playground got you up close and personal with dinosaurs!