For New Year's, Kevin and Jean came to visit us with their three children Jacob, Alex, and Sarah. Alex was in seventh heaven having a "big boy" to play with
Mommy reading stories
Helen cheeses it up for the camera
Ella in her ponytails
How much fun is it playing with the paper bags from the grocery store?
Ella and Helen sitting on the stairs (I love that they let me put their hair in ponytails now)
The week before Christmas, our neighborhood had a holiday party complete with a bouncy house. Here is Helen jumping to her heart's content
Ella climbed up the slide and is ready to go down
Alex and Helen jump and jump some more
Alex takes a momemt to ponder his next move
Helen smiles for the camera
The Cauleys on the hayride pulled by real horses (the kids were mesmerized with watching the horses)
A few days before Christmas we went up to Georgia to spend a few days with Cecil's grandmother. Here's Ella showing off her "superman" which is a favorite party trick of hers and daddy's
After their bath, everyone snuggles up on the couch with Grandmother in their Christmas jammies
Helen forces Ella to have some of her chocolate whether Ella wants it or not
Alex has no plans to share his chocolate bar
Three generations of doing hair - Grandmother, April, and Helen
We went to the park for the afternoon and the curly slide was everyone's favorite
Helen climbing the very high ladder for the curly slide
Helen coming donw the slide
Helen coming through the tunnel
April and Ella try the seesaw
Ella likes to swing
Alex tries the monkey bars
Helen tries a different slide
Alex goes down the slide by himself
Ella is fearless and wants to try climbing over this
On Christmas Eve Uncle Jerry and Aunt Marlene came over so we got to open a few Christmas presents. Here's Alex checking out his new t-ball set
Sweet Ella
We all made cookies for Santa and before bed we had to put them on the plate for him
Then we put them out on the table for him (and had to struggle not to eat them all). The kids were very upset the next morning when they discovered that all of the cookies were gone and that this Santa guy was the one who ate them. For several days after that, whenever we would mention Santa, they would say "cookies..." would a touch of disgust in their voice. Hopefully they will realize next year that the cookies are a small price to pay for all the presents
On Christmas morning, the highlight was eating all the chocolate in our stockings. Ella digs in right away
Alex does not waste any time either
No secret what this guy has been up to
Ella is digging for some more
Helen had at least three pieces in her mouth at once
Ella likes to wear the new Mrs. Potato Head glasses
After church, Helen is not interested in getting her picture taken (we call this look the stink eye and she is very good at giving it to you when you do or say something she does not like)
Eating spaghetti means eating naked!
Helen loves to ham it up for the camera
Ella eats her spaghetti one strand at a time
One day we went down to the fire station to see the fire trucks. Here we are waiting patiently for our chance to see the fire truck up close
Grandma helps the girls sit in the driver's seat
Alex is in seventh heaven
Helen gets to sit in the back seat too
Grandma does stickers with the girls
Daddy plays at our new play table
For their birthday celebration at school, they got to wear their birthday outfits all over again. Here is Ella spinning in her dress. (I completely failed to take any pictures on their actual birthday. We had a big party for them up in Ohio and we were so busy, we did not take any pictures of them. I am sure there are lots of pictures out there from their birthday, just none of them are on my camera). 
Alex is the Birthday Boy
Helen is excited about her third birthday celebration
The girls posed on the steps for me (and of course Ella had to wear her pink boots for the occassion)
Ella zoned out in the car one day on the way to somewhere
Helen is petting Indi
Ella and Alex play with stickers on the kitchen floor
Susie, Alex, and I at the Cauley Christmas
Ella and Makayla on the front porch swing
Alex loved getting to play in his big cousin's room with lots of new toys (especially lots of new BOY toys)
Pat and Susie have horses so the kids were more excited about seeing the horses than they were about seeing their family. Here's Ella checking one of them out. 
Helen loves to pose for the camera
Can we say future blackmail picture? Ella sitting on the potty reading her magazine. 
The kids went to a birthday party where Helen was thrilled to discover the cheese puff. She ate almost a whole plate of them before I cut her off. Here she is with orange lips. 
Alex is just soaking it all in and trying to eat as much as he can
Ella in her reindeer ears
All the other kids ran off to play but my three were the only ones who were still sitting at the table because (a) there was lots of food they never get to eat and (b) no one told them to get up. They are still new to this birthday party thing and were not quite sure of the rules :) 
Now Helen is overjoyed at getting birthday cake too
Ella and Helen petting Indi on the front porch
Everyone petting Indi on the front porch
Nothing like eating a little pudding while you are naked
Helen gives the pudding a thumbs up!