The McGinnis Family

Umm ...am I really just posting Christmas pictures. It's Jan. 21. The answer is yes. The kids were spoiled for Christmas, which is just as it should be I suppose. Christmas started out on 12/12 with an early visit to Santa. We had a lovely morning enjoying the kids and watching them play with all of their new toys. Then we welcomed the newest members of the family to the house- Goldie and Jelly. Goldie is CJ's goldfish and Jelly is his snail. On the following Friday, we were treated to an adorable Christmas program at CJ's school. We headed out to Kansas City where the festivities continued. We spent Christmas Eve at Grandpa and Grandma Becky's where CJ got some real cowboy boots and Ceirnan became a little fashionista with a fun new outfit. We woke on Christmas day to see that Santa had come again to PopPop and Nana's. The morning was filled with fun as Aunt CeCe and Cherie arrived and Uncle Eric and Aunt Alycia came too. We even got to stick around to see ...

Is it really a new year? Have we really found ourselves in 2011? Life is such a quick journey. I wish that we could just slow it down, pause more often, savory as many moments as possible. Those are some of the goals that the four of us are going to strive for this year. As we jump into the new year, Case and I are trying to focus on continuing to build a healthy and happy family. Sitting here, I just cannot believe how much our children have learned and grown in the last year. CJ has grown about 2 inches since October. He is beginning to sound out words and has even read a whole book on his own. He has an amazing sense of humor and he loves to tell jokes. He loves his sister and gets excited to greet her each morning. He is adding more and more numbers and can do some simple subtraction. He sings a lot and has a great imagination. He loves his family. He's really deap and he has such a strong soul. Ceirnan is my beautiful gypsy dancer. She dances all day long- sometimes to music...

Ceirnan Ray McGinnis was born on November 30 th , 2009. She has grown so much over the last year and we are so proud of her. She's been through a lot and yet she is growing and thriving. She's so smart. She is walking all around the house and can say Mama, Daddy, and BraBra (brother). She has even started climbing onto things. She's excited and we are thrilled for her too. She laughs a lot. She claps her hands. She loves to dance. She is a girly -girl through and through right now. She will pick something with flowers or ruffles whenever she gets a chance. She loves her baby doll and her stuffed duck, Quackers . Most of all she loves her brother and spends most her days right on his heals. She has brought much joy to our lives and we are so grateful to have her. She is one determined little girl. For those of you who are wondering, her arm and her hand are okay. She still doesn't have full use of her hand, but she compensates well. She can pick things up with it a...

It's been a great few weeks. CJ, Ceirnan, and Mama managed to sneak in a trip to Kansas City for Aunt Alycia and Uncle Eric's baby shower. We had a great time and spend Sunday at the pumpkin patch. There were tons of rides and things for the kids to do. Mama even got her face painted too. The pictures above are from our adventure that day. This weekend we spent Saturday on a fabulous nature walk through Susquehana State Park. It was beautiful. CJ loved looking for leaves and running around. Ceirnan enjoys the wind on her face. Daddy and Mama just enjoy the quiet and spending time all together.

I guess I'm officially blogging once a month now. Life just continues to get crazier and crazier as we deal with work, school, preschool, church, etc. That being said the McGinnis family is still finding time to have a good time. Most of you know that the month started off with a trip down to Disney. The pics above are from breakfast at Chef Mickey's. We had a wonderful time meeting all the characters. Ceirnan found Donald a bit suspect though and proceed to cry any time he came by. Overall though, it was a great experience and I would highly recommend it for anyone who brings their kids to Disney World. You have to get reservations far in advance though unless you are really lucky (like we were thank goodness). We spent time at Magic Kingdom , Animal Kingdom, and Epcot. I wish we had more time available, but I had a conference so we had to limit our time a bit. We came back to celebrate Casey's birthday and had a wonderful time doing it. Case received some fun gifts and...

Here we are almost to the end of September. The time just continues to fly by so quickly. The first two weeks of the month were certainly crazy as we adjusted to new schedules. I think we've all finally hit our stride though. Here are a few milestones for the month. CJ started pre -school again. He is now adding simple numbers like 5+1. He can write most of his numbers and about half of his letters. He knows the names of his soccer skills (passing, dribbling, and shooting) and is getting really good at all of them. Ceirnan is pulling herself up to stand. She will take several steps holding onto our fingers. She's even beginning to climb. (We are not that excited about this one. LOL !) She's saying Mama on a regular basis now and is really trying to get out Dada (come out Baba ). She's picking up and eating Cheerios like a pro. Casey is doing great in school. He's keeping up with all of his school work and has received excellent grades on the few things he's ha...

Wow! What an end to a crazy and fun summer. We had a blast this summer spending time together as a family, enjoying some new places, and celebrating some exciting important events in the lives of our friends. The kids have explored the outdoors, spent plenty of time in the water, endured the right number of bug bites, ate enough watermelon for a whole town, and have grown like weeds. Ceirnan has begun to walk holding on to our hands or occasionally furniture, and CJ is getting great at sounding out words and writing his letters. We've celebrated CJ's birthday, Ceirnan's baptism, and the birth of two new "cousins" Lena and Olivia. We had a great time on a trip to Kansas City, a weekend getaway with Aunt Cherie in DC, a wonderful visit with Nana and Pop Pop in July, and are now finishing up with another two week visit with Pop Pop. We played in a waterfall, relaxed in our hammock, and laughed more than we've cried. It's been a great summer. For those that di...