Oh, what a Christmas!

We couldn't have asked for a better Christmas around here - including Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve.

We started with a bit of an impromptu trip to the Chandler's on Sunday.  Mike and Ann were in town and we haven't seen them since my baby shower (yikes!), so a visit with them was beyond past due.  Lots of fun catching up, visiting, having a favorite drink (wine smoothie!), dinner, and watching the kids play.

They love playing with balls, so it was no surprise that they would LOVE this big ball!

They had an absolute blast playing in a dog crate in their basement.  I guess it's kind of like a fort huh?  =)

On Christmas Eve, my parents came over and spent the night with us.  We started with a yummy ham dinner with all the fixings, then the boys made some sugar cookies for Santa, and we attempted a few family pictures in front of the tree, before they headed to bed.  I love the fact that it started snowing around dinner time too.  I actually can't remember the last time we've had a white Christmas!

Santa thanks you boys for some yummy cookies!

On Christmas, I was shocked that they slept so long.  They are normally up by 7am, but Ellis didn't wake up until 7:45 and Logan was sleeping until a little after 8!  They must have been completely exhausted from all the fun with Grandma and Grandpa!  Santa put together their play kitchen so once they saw that, they didn't really realize they had more gifts to open.  It was a bit of a struggle getting them to focus on the other gifts, but we made it work.  It was awesome to see them get so excited at each gift.  They would get this huge smile and then practically run in place in excitement.  We had finished putting together their trampoline and realized it was already almost noon (we actually ate breakfast before opening gifts, and since they woke up later than normal, I don't think they even realized they were hungry) - time just flew by as they played with their new toys, we couldn't believe it!

Santa brought a lot of new toys for Bella too!

After their nap, we headed to the Reaves house for a Christmas dinner and more gifts.  We had our adult Secret Santa exchange and the boys got even more gifts.  They had an awesome time and so did we!  I know last year was technically their first Christmas, but they clearly didn't understand anything about it.  I'm not sure that they really understood what was going on this year either, but they definitely showed their excitement more and that was just awesome to see.

They love their new tent and tunnel from Aunt Nicole and Uncle Mark that I put together for them to play with once they got up this morning!

Today we are just laying back.  Troy had to work, although just for a half day, and I was here with the kids.  Unfortunately this cold that I thought I was doing a good job trying to fight since Saturday, came in full force today.  At least it waited until after Christmas, but I was happy I had no obligations today and could stay in my pajamas and lay low while the boys played with all their new toys.  Tomorrow we hope to enjoy the snow outside.  We have to go out and get a sled, but I think the boys will thoroughly enjoy playing in all the new, white snow.  I'm not sure they will love being bundled up in their new snowsuits, but they will have to get over it if they want to go outside =).

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and is enjoying the last few days of 2012!

Here comes Santa!

Finally, the much anticipated pictures of Santa:

Poor guys!

But as my mom said, what do you expect when you put your small kids on a stranger's lap?

Oh what a week!

This week has definitely had it's ups and downs.  All "downs" were work related, so I won't focus on that.  Instead - here are the ups:

• Monday I stayed home from work and spent the day with the boys.  We had lots of fun, but definitely the most fun when we made salt dough ornaments.  They had no clue that they were making ornaments, but they seemed to really love pushing the cookie cutters into the dough and Ellis throughly enjoyed using the rolling pin.  We even got them to be able to make some hand prints in the dough to cut out.

• Tuesday was my last class for the semester.  I took my final and was out before the 2 hour mark. Grades don't come out until Thursday this week, but I'm feeling very confident that I did well.

• Thursday, we spent some more time with Shaun and Julie before they returned back to Seattle.  Sky and Bryan came over too and we had a nice visit.

• Saturday, was the yearly holiday cookie bake-off.  Nicole, mom, and I usually get together to make some cookies, but this year we had Morgan join us.  She was so cute and loved being the helper of each of the cookies that were made.  

Morgan was excited to be able to help me crush the candy canes for my cookies.

Throwing them on the ground wasn't enough, so she happily used the mallet to finish crushing them.

• Today, nothing completely special, but I wrapped some gifts and put them under the tree.  They didn't notice them or do much with them at first, but I did catch Ellis trying to take a tag off of Parker's gift, before I caught him - ha!

• I'm definitely hoping for a much more calm week at work.  Fingers crossed that the next 5 days go smoothly.  I did get an email from the library about Santa pictures, and I got to view them.  I requested a few electronic copies, so I will post those as soon as I get them. 

Have a great week before Christmas!

A few thank you's

Thank you to:

1) Rochester Hills Public Library, for a great "Polar Express Celebration" on Friday.  We weren't able to get a picture of the boys with Santa because it all happened so quick and we literally had to grab the boys before they fell off Santa's lap from reaching for us.  They took pictures, however, and we were told we'd have access to the pictures later this week - fingers crossed for that one!  They did have fun watching the carolers,

and playing a few "reindeer games",

It was getting to be a little late, but we also made it onto the trolley to see the light show on Main Street.

All in all, a good night!

2) Amazon, for sending such a great gift box.  It literally doubles as a trampoline,

a drum,

a bed,

and a boat (or at least thats what we were calling it, here)

3)  Julie and Shaun, for hosting a great get-together last night and getting the boys a great gift for Christmas.

At least Delevan was smiling.  Logan and Ellis were stuffing their face with
popcorn (it was the best we could do to get them to sit still for a picture!)

It's hard to see but they are sitting on the box of a play/picnic table.  Perfect for inside or out!  This will be used a TON!

What a great weekend.  Tomorrow I am taking the day off and spending time with the boys (oh yeah, and studying for my Math final on Tuesday!) and I'm hoping we are able to make some salt dough ornaments.  Let's see how that goes!  

O Christmas Tree

Yesterday, while the boys were sleeping, I put the tree up and got the lights on before they woke up.  Troy was out and about when they woke up, so I brought them downstairs by myself and as we walked downstairs, they got their first look at the Christmas tree all lit up (we did have a tree up last year, but it was not in the most commonly used room and at the time we had gates to block them from roaming the entire house, so I'm sure they don't remember).  Now, for those that don't know this, the boys have a tendency to want to snuggle when they first wake up - to slowly wake up from their nap, which is hard when they both wake up at the same time and only one of us is here.  So, I'm not sure if that affected their reaction at all, but lets just say their first reaction to the tree was NOT a good one.  Ellis started crying first - then Logan started with his "oh-you-are-crying, Ellis-so-I-will-cry-too" cry - then it got louder and even though I got them out of the room as fast as I could, their crying wasn't stopping.  Thank goodness for Fresh Beat Band!

After they watched their favorite show, they had their snack and then we slowly made our way into the other room.  I kept saying how pretty the tree was and slowly walked over to the tree and they followed me.  I let them touch it and after they saw the ornaments moving and sparkling, they thought that was pretty cool.  They would go walk up to the tree, gently touch an ornament which made it move and hurry and walk away - like they were getting away with something.  It was pretty cute.  Phew - I don't have to take the tree down.  Here are a few pictures from their first tree "experience" this year.

Looking forward to more holiday fun this weekend.  I know, its only Monday, but the weekends are so much more fun than the weekdays lately!  =)  Friday is the Polar Express Celebration at the library and Saturday we'll be hanging out with Shaun and Julie and some close friends that we haven't seen in a while.  It's been almost a year since we've seen Shaun and Julie, so we're way excited to spend some time with them.  Wishing everyone a great week!!!