Ringing in 2014

Who's ready for 2014?!

This guy!

Since New Year's Eve was the last night of our Illinois family's visit, we decided to throw a little party to ring in the new year with our family and friends.  We were especially excited to have the NJ crew come hang out with us for dinner and some fun before they continued on to York for the rest of the weekend.  It was little G's first New Year's!

Uncle Tim, Genevieve, and Anthony

It took Colin and Joergen approximately 7 seconds to sneak away from the party and have one of their own upstairs:

Downstairs, we were just glad to have figured out how to heat the sun porch to have some extra space!  The "big kids" were so cute with their excitement about (and carefully planned outfits for) the night.  A few days earlier, Aidan was my #1 shopping buddy, helping me buy all kinds of fun stuff for the party - including a stylin' fedora and his own personal (plastic) champagne flute.  Everyone pitched in to help clean, pick up food, entertain the boys, and so on.  I wish I had a team like this before every party!

Such a festive crew <3 p="">

Oh, the noise makers... and these two wasted no opportunity to sound them loudly!

The problem with having a noise maker in each hand is only having one mouth!

As the night went on, our guests trickled out and Joergen fell asleep, leaving just 9 of us for the arrival of 2014.

I couldn't believe Liam made it to the new year!  He was so determined to stay up with the "big kids", and that was one resolution he certainly kept.

Aidan and Liam in the final minutes of 2013

 Let the countdown begin!

Happy New Year!!  After a toast and a kiss, Liam took this picture of us (not bad, buddy!):

And when we finally, finally got the kids off to bed, the four of us had one last celebratory toast to welcome the new year.  A few short hours later, our Illinois family piled back in their van and started the long drive home.  We were so sad to say goodbye but so grateful we had that time together!

Wishing all of our family and friends happiness and many blessings in 2014!