December

 Baby belly at 22 weeks

 Zoo lights with Gillian (and family)

The kids were actually very patient waiting in line for the zoo train, it was about an hour wait even though we got there right when they opened!

Finally on the train!

For Christmas this year almost the entire Mitchell side of the family traveled to WI which meant a lot of cousins and somewhat hectic days at times.  Here are just a few pictures leading up to and around the holidays.

 Making cookies for Santa with mom and Grandpa M.

 Learning about licking the beaters!

Getting ready for church...Aunt Beth helping with shoes

 Excavator!

Christmas at Aunt Caron's house.

Gianna, Nick, Evan and Mitch.  Just one of several attempts to have most or all of the cousins pose together for a picture.

Evan and Mitch weren't shy

Evan, Mitch, Aunt Beth and Gabrielle

Sisters

No husbands or grandparents, but everyone else accounted for:
Kate, Gabrielle, Caron, Gianna, Allison, Nick, Beth, Mitch and Evan


Cold day at the zoo





This pretty much sums up how the vacation was!

Chuck E. Cheese--Mitch's first time there.  He really enjoyed air hockey and the helicopter!

Grandma (as usual) is a genius at ski-ball, winning 200-some tickets.  We pooled all our winnings together to let all the kids get cheap plastic toys of their choosing!

A little bit of down time after the pizza place

Mitch borrowed some of Gianna's pj's for bed that night (don't worry, she actually had her own to wear).

Hugs!

Mitch really liked this singing cat trio that Grandma M had so we took some pics to remember it.

Evan pretty much entertained all the kids with this toy; there are mechanical bugs that jitter around in the tracks.

So after 6 days in Wisconsin we flew to Colorado to visit Aunt Sheryl, Uncle Ron, Evan and Annie.  Grandma and Grandpa G met us there too and we had another Christmas celebration!

 The Geiger side of the family has a tradition of making a cookie Christmas tree.  Here they are rolling out the dough and using the cookie cutters.

 We didn't have any snow actually fall in either location while we were there, but in CO there was a little bit left on the ground.  Grandma, Annie, Evan and Mitch went out to play and build snowmen.

Then it was time to decorate the tree!



 

 
 Ta-da!

 More presents!

 Cousins Annie, Mitch and Evan

Grandpa G, Grandma G, Matt, Kate, Annie, Mitch, Evan, Aunt Sheryl and Uncle Ron

October

 On the hayride to pick out pumpkins for carving.

 Mitch in the pumpkin patch

 This year we got together with a bunch of people to carve pumpkins.  Mitch wanted very specific details on his: triangle eyes, triangle nose and a "mouth shaped like a moon".  Turns out, 3 year-olds aren't super interested in the carving process, just the end result.  Maybe next year...

 Here are all the finished pumpkins.  Matt's is the farthest right, Mitch's is next and mine is next to Mitch's.  As you can see, some were near professional level carvings!  This is the only picture we have with all of our pumpkins together because a day or two after we put them on the porch someone smashed them.  Luckily, Mitch never asked what happened.

 Baby belly at 18 weeks

 For Halloween Mitch wanted to be a purple airplane.  We got some cardboard boxes and spent a few hours over a few days to construct this but he loved it, wore it the whole time he was trick-or-treating, and it held up fairly well.  He was a big hit!

 Showing the wings

 This is the second year Mitch and his friend, Gillian, have gone trick-or-treating together.  We take them to a community college campus where they have trick-or-treating in the dorms.  Mitch got more than enough candy and had a blast, much more into it this year than last.  All we need to work on now is the timing of when to say "Trick or Treat!" as he would yell it as he was knocking on the door, then was silent when the door opened.

September

 We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa G in Arizona in September and Aunt Sheryl met us there too!  Here's Mitch beginning to learn about Scrabble.

 We had a few mishaps with walking into the doors when they were closed so Mitch learned to put his hand out in front of him to make sure the door was open!

 Swimming!

 Some family friends came over and brought this awesome inflatable swan.  Mitch was really the only one who could ride on it (though Grandpa tried).

Swimming video

 Reading with Grandma

August

So, I'm back to do hopefully lots more posting, playing catch up before the new baby arrives in a few months.  We'll see how long it takes me to go through 5 months of life/pictures!  Enjoy!

 

 Sidewalk chalk

 Mitch had a rough time getting ready for bed one night and was supposed to be sitting in his room until he could talk to us nicely.  A few minutes later, this is how we found him.  Guess he was just tired!

 We inherited this tent from some friends who were downsizing to a smaller place (thanks Kelly and Seth!) and so we put it up in the backyard to camp one night.  Mitch enjoyed roasting marshmallows but didn't really like how they tasted and so far is not a big fan of s'mores.  We'll see if that changes as he grows up!  

 This is my absolute favorite picture of Mitch at this age.  These next pics were taken by a good friend, Ella, who has moved to Buffalo but was in town for a few days.  We got some good family pictures!