Christmas

On Christmas Eve eve we had a Christmas Party for the kids.

There was lots of Gingerbread house decorating... They each got their own mini house and lots of candy and frosting to make them unique. They really ended up cute and the kids seemed to have fun. We watched 3D Polar Express projected on the wall. What a great movie! That was lots of fun, too. Oh, yeah, and we made it easy on ourselves this year and just picked up pizza instead of making a whole meal. Much better than last year! Well, better for me, maybe not better food.

Christmas Day

Santa came! Cade was excited to see all the presents because it's fun to stack boxes! Zach couldn't wait to open them. We had to wait just a few minutes for Jake, during which Zach about went out of his mind!

It was an Elmo Christmas for Cade. Elmo PJs, chatter Elmo, about 12 new Elmo books, and 2 new Elmo blankets. He loves Elmo (see the kiss below)

Zach got a million and one action figures: batman, robin, and villains; Spiderman; GI Joes; Ninja Turtles; and transformers. He also got the Bat Cave and a Castle to play with them all in. So, he's been busy this week following Christmas.

Oh, and Cade opened this little ball from his stocking first thing. And it was his favorite toy. He carried it around and always went back to it after each gift. The kid loves balls. It's great.

I hope you all had a WONDERful Christmas. And Happy New Year. Good luck to all in the new year. May it bring you lots of happiness and good things.

Now, time to clean up the Christmas decorations and find places for all the new toys... Uh, oh!

Santa himself

This is the best picture I could get of the boys with Santa. Zach loved the idea of seeing Santa until he actually saw him and then it was, "I don't want to see Santa." It's a good thing my mom was there, or he wouldn't have gone near the jolly man. What really got him, though, was the elf next to him handing out goodie bags. Once he saw those, his face lit up again and he was ready to sit on Santa's lap (even if it was only to get the candy). But, as you can see he still wasn't thrilled about Santa. And Cade, well, he obviously loved him!

But, afterwards, on the way home, Zach was asking questions like:
"Where was Santa's sleigh?"
"Can I ride on Santa's sleigh"
"Were his reindeer with his sleigh?"
"How will Santa get home to the North Pole?"
"Can we go to the North Pole tomorrow?"
"Is the North Pole up in the sky?"
So, he was catching on to the magic of Christmas. Maybe next year he won't even be nervous. And maybe if he's not , Cade will learn a little more quickly that he's a good guy.
What a fun time of year and a fun time in life for the little dudes!

Santa's little HELPERS

I love Christmas

Who doesn't? But so far, I'm having tons of fun! Mostly, I think Zach is just tortured about how long it is until Christmas is here. But he does have fun, too. He helped me tie this fleece blanket for Cade and was so excited to wrap it when it was done.

Don't you love the tag? That's my favorite part.

And he asked for days when we were going to get a Christmas tree (we buy real trees). And then it was here for a couple of days before we could decorate it (I didn't have any ornament hooks because I threw out our old glass ornaments and bought new ones last year). He was tortured for those 2 days! But when we finally decorated the tree, he loved it.

Cade went to the same spot on the tree over and over and just tossed them into the tree (it was an area of sparseness). So, below is the result of Cade's efforts. I didn't count them, but there are at least twice as many as you can see here, probably more. I was surprised when I went to spread them out how many were there. They just kept coming and coming.

And this was Zach's arrangement. He would stand on a chair and decorate for a while and only moved the chair once or twice. So, we ended up with big clumps of ornaments. I liked it and wished we had about 3 times as many ornaments so it could have looked like this all over. I had to spread them out, though.

Now, Cade knows he's not allowed to play with the ornaments, but it's hard to stay away from the pretty balls on the tree. He mostly bats them like a cat and then runs away. It's really pretty good for a 16 month old.

Merry Christmas! I hope this time of year is magical and fun and full of love for everyone!

Scrapbook Page

Have I started scrapbooking? I hope so. I've got a lot to do, though. So I started with Zach's first Halloween (3 years ago). I was inspired by Kristin Aagard's "Jailbird" kit found at http://www.digidelights.blogspot.com/
It is so cute and has so many uses, so I started with this and am thinking of a bunch of other ways to use the kit (grumpy pictures, monkey business, crib pictures...). And, it's so fun for me. This is the kind of thing I LOVE to do. Namely, messing around on the computer! Scrapbooking is cool, but cutting paper and all the messy mess is not my thing. So digital scrapbooking is the answer for me. I'm so excited!
Just thought I'd post about my newest obsession. I'm just getting started and am clearly an amateur, but it's fun for me!

Kids Say the Darndest Things...

Yesterday on the way home from church:

Zach: "Mom, how did Jesus make the dirt?"

(as I'm thinking of a response, he says)

Zach: "Does he have the power?"

Me: "Yes, he has the power of God"

Zach: "Mom, how did Jesus make the sky?"

Me: "The same way. He has the power of God"

Zach: "I think he rode in a plane with no windows and no top. I think he rode in the plane up into the air and made the plane stop and then made the sky."

:)

Our Family