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!