Bring on the New Year!

So long 2013!

You've been full of many changes, some exciting and new, many not so fun to go through, but here we are!  

I'm looking forward to seeing what 2014 will hold...

Bring on the New Year!

Tis the Season to be SILLY!

We seem to have gotten several things for silliness.  It's been fun to make use of them!  Tatum has even gotten some glasses put on him too!

(I love this one!)

Holiday Snapshots

We've been keeping ourselves plenty busy now that Christmas is over.  Plenty of new toys to play with, crafts to do, SweetHart and Pop got the boys a subscription to Kiwi Crate, so we've had some fun crafts to do too!

 

 Snow!  I found a little kit for snow, very similar to water marbles (and I threw a few marbles in too), and we have all been having fun playing in the snow, making snowmen, and playing with the little Christmas finger puppets, letting the puppets make snow angels, etc. 

 I took the boys to see Frozen at the movie theater.  The first theater experience was a fun one!  It was the early showing, they got their own snack pack with popcorn, sprite and fruit snacks.  I wasn't sure if we would make it through the whole show (C rarely watches anything for more than 5 minutes (sometimes I wish he would) and H usually takes a few breaks or jumps on the trampoline while watching) but we made it through the whole thing!  H did whisper to me "Mama, this is taking too long!" towards the end, and C was doing gymnastics in his seat, but we made it and we all had a great time! 

 We visited PawPaw and Missy, brought them a Christmas present, and the boys got to open more presents!  They had a good time painting their new books (thank you PawPaw and Missy!) while we were there.

 Painting their cute little wooden alligators on a cloudy afternoon. (Thank you Mary Ann!)

From H's Sunday School after Christmas.  

He certainly seems to have more spiritual maturity than I feel I can take credit for.  He seems to just have it in him!  Sweet boys!  

H has been singing his own version of Deck the Halls all week, and C has been singing a combination of "Shingle Bells" and Away in a Manger.  

Merry Christmas!

 Christmas is finally here!!!!

The boys were so excited!  H had a Lalaloopsy pirate waiting for him from Santa, and C had a Tow Mater truck!  They were so excited! 

 C was quite theatrical tearing into his presents.  He tore of each piece of wrapping with a flourish and almost seemed to get mad at the wrapping towards the end of each gift.  It was entertaining to watch.

 Santa brought something for Tatum too!  He was a happy dog!

 H was good at playing Santa (he knows our names now) and enjoyed checking out each new toy before moving on to the next.

 Starting to feel like my house may never feel clean again!  Happy boys, but what a mess!  They each got a DVD, a light up animal, a building toy, a bath toy, and more.  I wanted to make this Christmas enjoyable, and I think it was!

 Enjoying H's building toy - Wall Coaster, like an on-the-wall marble run.  We have spent so much time enjoying this! It can get a little exciting with marbles rolling all over out concrete floor with Tatum chasing after them, but we have had so much fun!  

C got Magformers, a light up magnetic building set.  Such fun, and they are really using their imagination and creativity to build!  They made little kennels for their animals.

 I think we were all feeling a bit like this after all of the excitement!  We put on one of the boys new DVDs and rested up to go to Mary Ann's for Christmas dinner.  I gave the boys a basket to put their new toys in and they carried those baskets around with them all day long!

 We had a wonderful Christmas dinner with my aunt, uncle, cousin, and grandmother.  And more presents!  What a wonderful time to be with family!  I am thankful to be living close to family again.

We finished the day snuggled up in pjs on my bed, watching Polar Express.  It was a good day from start to finish!

 

Visions of Sugarplums

Excitement!

 

 H singing at his school Christmas party! What a fun and silly group of kids!

 H's letter to Santa.  Funny boy! I don't think he actually got anything on his list.  Poor boy.

 H took this picture of me and C.  

 

 SweetHart sent us some cute little Christmas puppets.  We have had so much fun with them, making up some fun stories, and playing with them in the play snow.

H brought this home from school and taped it to the window himself!  Cute little elf!  I love how he chose to make his elf pink!  I enjoy doing crafts and things with them, but I have been sort of glad that they do so many cute projects at school (so I don't have to stress about doing them myself!)

Merry Making

We have been busy with Christmas preparations!  Making ornaments for families, gifts for teachers and gingerbread for ourselves and others.  Whew!

 Painting ornaments for the boys' teachers.  

The boys took this job seriously!

H had some sort of pattern going with his colors.

C just had little splotches of color here and there.

 H drew his own star and wrote his name.  I'm proud of this big boy!  

 

 Instead of coloring in the blank space next to my writing, C decided that he should color on the handwriting.  Oh well!  I'm sure his teachers liked it!

 We also decorated gingerbread.  Here is what the three of us came up with.  Can you tell which ones each of us decorated?  We gave the boys' teachers each a gingerbread that they decorated themselves.  Not sure if they ate it or not...

 

 In the midst of all of these holiday preparations, I also had my school Christmas programs.  I was a little stressed!  It was supposed to be one evening, but due to weather the towns Christmas parade was postponed to the same time as the Christmas program.  So, we decided to move the program (in the hopes of having enough students participate).  We split the program in two, postponed it a week and therefore the principal wanted me to add more songs.  So, I did, and it turned out really well, but it was still a little stressful!  So, at the end of the program day, it was so nice to have the boys happily occupied with a little extra screen time!

We made some time for things like leaf pile making and leaf throwing amid all of the preparations.

 And this one got sick!  Poor guy!  It was just hanging on, for a long time, but he finally got sick, eventually we found out it was a double ear infection, poor guy!  But even with fever, he was still smiling!

Snapshots

 The Santa hats came out this week and have been frequently worn!  

Santa's helpers doing the Advent Calendar.  H still insists that every ornament is for Baby Jesus' enjoyment in some way.

 The Santa outfit C wore last year still fits!  

(I don't feel like he's that small, but he is definitely petite compared to his classmates!)

 A little painting - serious business!  C did a surprisingly good job keeping the paint just on the snowman.

 H had a game plan and design in mind for his painting. He even ended up with some paint on his face! 

(C has never really been one for putting things in his mouth (aside from his paci). But H always has been since he was born! Fingers, things, paci, blankies, stuffed animals, shirt sleeves, etc.  His paci has been gone for a couple of years now, but everything else still makes its way in! I wish there was an easy way to overcome that... )

A little bit of peace after a long day! 

We've all been battling cold/sinus symptoms and I had my school music programs that day, so we were all worn out!  The nabi's afforded us all a few moments of peace!  Sometimes a little screen time is so worth it!  (Tatum doesn't mind the extra pats either!)

These two

 How did these two:

Turn into these two?

(C, at two, is wearing the same pjs H wore at two.

How fast and big they grow!)

Oh Christmas Tree!

Time to trim the tree!  The boys were so excited to decorate the Christmas tree!

I had to pull out the very breakable ones fast!  Glass ornaments and concrete floors won't mix very well...

They were so excited to pick out ones that they liked.  I didn't really instruct them at all about where to put them, I just let them have at it! There are branches that have three or four ornaments on it (compliments of C), and some other non-ornament items (I had a few Christmas coasters and Christmas cards in the box with the ornaments, and H insisted that they should go on the tree too!)

 Hard at work!  

I think this was the first year I let them help decorating.  Previously I would do it in the hopes that they would be less tempted to mess with the ornaments.  I'm either resigned to the fact that they will be messing with the ornaments anyway, or I trust them more.  Or both.

Trying to get a good picture in front of the tree.

Take one:

Take two:

Take three:

Take four:

Still not looking at me, but cute anyway!

Happy holidays!

Deck the halls

Time to decorate!  Perfect activity for a freezing cold day!  We started our Advent Calendar and we read a new Christmas book each night in December, it is fun getting excited for the holiday.  The boys are exciting, and H keeps reviewing the fact that "once we do all of the envelopes (pockets) on the calendar, it will be Baby Jesus's birthday?"

 Our Nativity scene.  Tatum had to check out each decoration.  Somehow Baby Jesus ended up in the pen with the sheep and shepherd, and everyone else: the Angel, Wise Men, Mary and Jovis (H still calls Joseph "Jovis") are all in the manger.

 Too cute!  We moved things around to make room for the Christmas tree and C decided the basket was just right for him and his "Disaur Asnaught."  He stayed in it singing "Jingle Bells" for quite a while!

 Picking out a Christmas tree, excited to see Santa Claus!  H ran over and gave him a hug!

 They had a blast with their new friend at the Christmas Tree store running between and around all of the trees.  Such fun!

 Reinder antler glasses?

We usually save Baby Jesus as the last ornament, but this year decided to take it out first, trying to keep the focus on Him.  Each ornament that H picks out, he puts next to Jesus "oh, a candle!  So Baby Jesus can see!"  or "A bell to make music for Baby Jesus" and so on.  Makes me happy!