Happy New Year

We hope that you have a safe and Happy New Year. Gebee came by yesterday with these hats for the boys. They have been wearing them ever since!

I have so many holiday pictures to post -- I have way behind. We have survived a very yucky stomach bug, ear infections, coughs that lasted all night and lots of runny noses. I think that we are finally on the mend. Look for more pictures to come very soon!

Christmas Past and Present

Ethan this year at the holiday party:

Benjamin last year at the holiday party:

Aren't they the cutest little boys you have ever seen???

Preparing for Santa

It sure has been a whirlwind week and a half at our house. Here are the highlights in pictures:

The holiday party at "The New School." (Yes, Benjamin still calls it the new school after 6 months of being there!)

The boys love their teachers and friends in the classroom. We had a wonderful play date with a family from the new school. They have a daughter in Benjamin's class and a son in Ethan's class. The kids had fun seeing each other outside of school. In January, both Benjamin and Ethan will be moving up to new classes. A few of their friends are moving up as well.

Cookie decorating at Chick-Fil-A. The boys could live on Chick-fil-a if we let them. Chicken mixed with cookies and MANY toppings equaled a fun night out for the boys! Thanks Gebee for joining us!

A trip to the library to make gingerbread men. Yes, I realize that Benjamin has a panicked look on his face -- he was upset that there was no blue crayon in his box -- we fixed it -- not to worry!

Ethan preparing to glue the buttons on his gingerbread man.

The holiday party at our story time in the neighborhood. We go to story time every other week --when I am home with the boys. They get to spend time with friends in the neighborhood and do fun arts and crafts.

Benjamin singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" at the story time party.

On top of all of these fund things, we had a visit from one of my collage friends -- It was so nice to catch up with her. We also had lots of snuggle time and sleeping in (for the boys -- not us) as the boys both got ear infections last week. I guess our track record for being sick is pretty good -- this was Benjamin's first antibiotic in 2 years and Ethan's first antibiotic ever. And, now the boys have bounced back and are anxiously awaiting Santa's arrival. We are off to Uncle Evan's for a holiday dinner tonight.

You can have fun that is funny, even when the sun is not sunny

Benjamin continues to love books and Ethan is following in his footsteps. Benjamin loves "The Cat in the Hat" right now and we talk about days when the sun is not sunny. Well last week and the weekend, the sun was not sunny. But we had fun that was funny!

We looked at the cold, nasty weather as a great opportunity to put up our tree. The boys got to help us this year. Benjamin told us "hey, guys, you did a great job building that big tree. I'm really proud of you"!

We also spent some time at the Home Depot kids workshop, building wagons. They both loved using the hammer (though, Ethan hit himself several times).

My little handyman in his orange apron (and, yes, we got to take the aprons home!).


Last week I took the boys to the Center for Puppetry Arts to see a holiday puppet show. We had to leave before the show started because the boys got scared. We got vouchers to go back to a show in the next 6 months...hopefully they will be less scared. They did enjoy making puppets:

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Lots to be Thankful For

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. It was so nice to spend time relaxing and enjoying the boys and our family. Here are some of the things that we are thankful for...

a happy (except when we are told no more snacks), healthy family....

a husband I love with all my heart and who still makes my heart skip a beat...

great food (yes, this is THE apple pie -- the one I waited a whole year to make)....

great bargains (I got paid $30 to take all of this stuff -- we shopped the drug store Black Friday deals on Thanksgiving morning!)....

playtime with the family (this is the "Little People" Nativity Scene, by Fisher Price; the boys have loved playing with it)....

the sun (so we can practice wearing our sunglasses)...

sunglasses (if we are wearing them, no one can see us!).....

more playtime.....

two wonderful little boys who wanted to cook mommy and daddy breakfast.....

And, at THIS very moment I am thankful for two sleeping boys who wowed me tonight by counting to 30 (Benjamin) and to 5 (Ethan) without help or reminders.

Fall Fun

We have been busy running errands all week -- I won't bore you with the details. But the boys continue to amaze me and Brian with the things that they say and do.

Ethan has been quiet the snuggler these days. He is getting a few more teeth and also has been a little under the weather. I know that you can't tell from this picture!

Ethan's newest thing is sniper crawling under things -- including between our legs and under the kitchen table (he seems to always find a little more snack under there).

The boys love this big dump truck that Papaw got them. Amazingly, it only took them 30 minutes to figure out how to sit in the bed of the truck and push each other around!

We have been going through their toys, tying to get rid of the things that they no longer play with. This rocking cow has been around our barn for a while and had been sitting in a corner. So, I put it in the "bye-bye" pile. Now, all of the sudden, they have to play with it all the time.

Earlier in the week we went down to see Uncle Evan. The boys wanted to go to the park at Piedmont Park.

Ethan really like driving the fire truck.

Captain Benjamin reporting for work!

We are having Thanksgiving at our house and I am thankful that our family will be here to celebrate with us. I have been waiting to make my home-made apple pie, since I ate the last piece of pie the day after Thanksgiving last year!

It's Almost Turkey Time

Halloween has come and gone, much to the disappointment of the boys. Both Benjamin and Ethan really enjoyed getting dressed up (once they were in their costumes!). We has yucky weather for part of Halloween so the boys only went to a few houses but they loved looking at their loot. (There was no counting to see who had more -- Evan and I always had to do this after we came home.) One we brought them home, they helped Brian pass out candy. Here they are as we were getting ready to go out trick or treating.

Benjamin loved his whiskers!

They boys had a Halloween party at school and the had a BIG audience - Brian and I went. And, Papaw and Gebee would not miss it -- they had fun watching the boys get candy and filling up on sugar!

Yes, that is chocolate on Ethan's face.

Benjamin and Ethan helped me to make their Halloween buckets.

I realize that it has been a while since the last post. Here is a run down of what we have been up to -- Benjamin is very aware that Thanksgiving is coming up and tells us everyday: "It's almost turkey time." Benjamin is also now pee peeing standing up -- "just like daddy, " he says. Ethan is cutting teeth like a mad man and is very verbal about it (he is doing a lot more crying and pointing to his mouth saying "boo boo"). Ethan is also saying more words (apple, pear, money, ball) and can point out most of his shapes and a few colors. Brian continues to travel with work and we all miss him when he is gone. And, I have been busy with a new addiction -- extreme couponing -- it is crazy how much money you can save by matching up coupons to sales. This week was my best week so far -- I spent $19 and got $156 worth of groceries. It does take a lot of time but I love the end result.

Great Fall Weekend

This weekend was a full of fall fun -- say that fast five times! We went to a fall festival and the boys loved the hay maze. As you can tell from the picture, it was COLD! We did not stay long. Saturday night, Brian and I celebrated his birthday with fondue done at home. What a fun dinner!

Today, we had our trial run for Halloween -- the costume contest in our neighborhood. The boys took a little while to get adjusted to their costumes but did not want to take them off tonight. Benjamin even let me draw whiskers on his cheeks -- what a brave little lion!

There has been much discussion at our house about what a lion says -- we (Ethan included) know that a lion says "ROAR." Then, recently, Benjamin asked -- "Mommy, what does a penguin say?" Any ideas? For now, Ethan is a roaring penguin!

Hope that everyone had a great weekend. They boys are very excited about carving pumpkins this week. Stay tuned!

Happy Fall Y'all Part Two

As promised, here are more of the wonderful pictures from our fall day at the pumpkin patch. Papaw and Ethan are checking out the ponies -- Ethan is not so sure.

Benjamin is helping Brian with the apple sling shot -- I think that Brian was having way more fun the Benjamin!

Here we are on the hayride. The boys loved getting to see all the corn and pumpkins.

And, I have saved the best for last. When asked if Ethan wanted to ride the horsies, Ethan smiled and said "yeah, yeah." Giddy Up Ethan!