A new Santa in town

After last Christmas, we went to Target with hopes of finding a bargain on Christmas decorations. Don was thrilled when he spotted a lone Santa suit for under $15. We got home, put it in the garage and forgot about it until this year rolled around. When he found it the other day, he tried it on to see what it entailed. The kids were downstairs, so I took this picture of him. Once Don was in his normal clothes again, we called the boys up and told them Santa was in our house checking to see who was being nice and, "Look! I got a picture of him as he snuck out of sight!"



The boys all gasped when they heard and saw that Santa had been checking on them. When I emailed the picture to some of my friends, it was decided that Don would dress up that night at their Christmas open house. There would be a ton of kids there (even a few triplet families together make many kids to play with), so it would be a perfect addition to the night.




That night at Joselle and Drew house, Don put on his Santa suit (and makeup eyebrows) and passed out candy canes to the kids at the party. Right away Lucas asked me quietly, "is that Daddy?" but seemed to be the only one of our boys who knew. When we went to take the group picture, Luke was hesitant to get in the picture with all his friends and Santa. I had to bribe him and say the picture was needed so Santa would know who was on the nice list, and then he jumped right in. Anything for Santa!

Tidbits

We are gearing up for Christmas around here and life just feels good. The boys are at an awesome age, they are so much fun and seem to be either making us laugh out loud or driving us insane, only moments apart.



It seems all the sudden they are so crafty. I gave them a pack of paper, scissors and a couple glue sticks and they kept themselves busy for about an hour. The things they made were -interesting- to say the least, but they were so proud of their creations.



For Christmas at school, they decorated cookies and then did a cookie exchange. So we came home with THREE plates of sugary cookies, topped with gummy bears, m&m's and lots of sprinkles. Even though I tore them away from the cookies after about 3 or 4 each, the boys were on a crazy sugar high for about an hour after eating them.


And even though the sugar high is seriously insane to watch them go through, we love it. It is funny to hear them laugh at anything that has been said or done. They will just run into the couch head first, throwing their legs up in the air and laugh straight from their little bellies.


They are the best of friends. Monkey see, monkey do X's 3. They are our little monkeys, and we couldn't be happier with them.

Today we...

We spent THREE hours at Bass Pro Shop where the boys...

-decorated cookies
-shot a plastic buck with a dart gun
-visited with Santa
-had their first can of soda (it was grape and too hard to resist!)
-played with the mermaid in the aquarium




And after all that, we showed the boys the "paw prints" in the cement walkways through out the store and tried to find -or would you say hunt- the animals.


Then Don and I went to go see CHER! We got the tickets through the program that my parents signed Don and I up for our anniversary. We had no idea where the seats would be, assuming they were way in the back (they were free seats after all!). The seats turned out to be fantastic, we were the seats closest to the stage on the stage left side and a few times were as close as only 10 feet from Cher herself!

Santa Baby

After waiting outside Santa's house for about a half hour, you can see the boys excitedly looking in, knowing their turn was next.



The boys couldn't wait to tell Santa what they wanted. All three were Thomas the Train related.

Wyatt told him he wanted, "ice cweam Thomas and the ice cweam truck"

Jaxon said, "pinchy toes and the breaks and the chugas"

Lucas requested "Lady with the chugas and the breaks"




This year has been lots of fun. They get how exciting Christmas is and still are at an age where ONE present from Santa is enough to keep them happy. They love all the Christmas lights and with so many deaths this past year in both our families, (as well as losing two family dogs) we have talked a lot about heaven and they really grasp the concept of baby Jesus' birthday. Well, as much as a four year old can, anyhow.

This holiday season seems to be one of much happiness!

Preparing for Christmas

Besides the normal shopping at Toys R Us or online, we have been getting our home ready for the holidays.




Nana helping the boys put together a ginger bread train.


The boys decorated our Christmas tree.


I made an ornament wreath (using this tutorial).


Don built the manger for our nativity scene with a little help from the rest of the family.


And last, our Christmas lights are finally up!

We match!

As I was making the boys lunch on Sunday, I heard them get excited as they noticed that they all had the same shirt on.

"We match! We match!"

Wearing the same shirts is not a new concept around here, they have a few shirts that are exactly the same, but they were being so good and especially lovey towards each other on Sunday. I looked over my shoulder and they were hugging about wearing the same shirts.



See? Totally hugging and exclaiming "we match" and then hugging some more.

I am not sure what had gotten into them for the few minutes here, but I will take this random hugging and being sweet to each other over the random crying and fighting any day!

My Weekend Out

For the first time in over 10 years, I went away for a weekend by myself. My cousin Anne in New York invited me to stay with her and I took her right up on her offer. We did things like go to eat at a place the kids would never allowed me to go, as well as drive by my Great Grams house.



The weekend included a night of chatting and laughter with some of my closest cousins.



A day learning a family recipe of homemade raviolis, followed by a big Italian family dinner of everyone sitting around the table laughing. And ended with watching You Tube wedding videos.


A day hanging out with my grandparents who have built and lived in the same house since they married some 60 years ago.



Followed by an evening with my brother, Dad and the best pizza and wings in all of New York. And the next day I got to catch up with my step mom and have a real conversation in the first time in about 8 years and all without the many interruptions that come with kids and men.

The weekend was wonderful and the only thing I would have changed was to have more time to spend with everyone. To really catch up with my family and get to sit and chat with them instead of a hello on the go was so good for my soul.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was just what it should have been. The kids had lots of family around -Aunt Judy and Uncle Ray came as well as Brent, Jessica and Reagan. Of course my Mom and Dad were there -it is their house after all. And Leigha, her boyfriend Ed and us, made for 14 of us hanging out and watching football while eating Aunt Judy's famous "Hurl" recipe with some chips. YUMMY!

Dinner was delicious! Ham and turkey, sweet and regular potatoes, corn, stuffing, rolls and more filled our plates and our bellies. The boys loved the pumpkin and cherry pies for dessert and during half time of the Texas A&M game (against the Longhorns) we ran out the door so we could catch the other half after we got home.

Happy Thanksgiving!

From our turkeys to yours :)

Snap shots

Yesterday we went to Mount Charelston with some friends in hopes of getting some new pictures for Christmas cards. The boys loved being out of the car and just wanted to climb up on the mountains, so they were not thrilled when we wanted to take pictures first. They did a pretty good job though and we all had a nice day being in the fresh crisp air.

Halloween '09

This year Halloween was so much fun! I am not sure if it is because I joined in the fun and dressed up for the first time in many years, or if it is because the boys are at such a fun age, or if it is because this was the LONGEST Halloween season in my memory.




Halloween party at school



In the car ready to go Trick or Treating!



Trick or treating from house to house



A pirate and his wench.



Candy treasure!


You ever wonder what a candy high X's 3 looks like?
(No boys were harmed in the making of this video)

The Great Pumpkin Patch

After driving by the pumpkin patch on the way to the drugstore and hearing the boys get all excited about the rides, Don and I were looking forward to bring the boys to the patch.

The first thing that caught their eyes were not the hundreds a of pumpkins everywhere, but the big swing ride. Lucas did not seem like he would be a big fan of it, so we skipped it to go on some other rides hoping Lucas would just get in a fun mode and want to give the swings a try. First they went on the jump house where Lucas was happy to try it, but then at the top he felt the jump house swaying in the breeze and would climb back down instead of sliding down.

We went over to the petting zoo area and scored when the nice man working there gave us some free goat food to feed the animals. Maybe not so free since it basically cost us $6 for the three of them to go pet the animals, but it was still nice of him, nonetheless. After much goat feeding, chicken chasing and animal petting we decided to give the big swings a try.




It was a complete success! All three boys loved the swings, they couldn't smile big enough as they were twirled around in the air. Every second and a half another one would fly by waving or yelling hello to us. After a bit more of fun and games, Don and I rounded the kids up and heading over to Nana's house. With out the promise of going to Nana's, I am not sure if we would have been able to get them to leave without tears, but luckily there were no problems that day.