Never say never

A few years ago we said we'd never do it, no way...

Two years ago we said we'd probably need to do it someday...

A year ago we wanted to do it...

Last night we did it...

We bought a minivan! We got a super deal on a 2007 Hyundai Entourage, and we jumped at the opportunity. The boys love being able to sit up high (so do I!) and now they have more room between their seats. We like having more room for groceries, the stroller, etc. So now, I join the ranks of Soccer Moms everywhere, but I am perfectly OK with that!

Live Nativity and movie with family

On Saturday evening, we took the boys to the Live Nativity at Blacksburg Baptist Church. This is an event that the church youth group does each year. It is right on Main Street, so everyone driving by can see it.
When Brady saw everything, he was so interested that he just had to take a closer look. He walked right past the hay bales that were being used as barriers.Even though it was pretty cold outside, Brady would only allow us to put on one of his mittens. He had to have one thumb to suck!

Ian had a hard time keeping his stuffed animal in his mouth using his mittened hands.

After we left the church, Aunt Natalie, Uncle Jeremy, and cousin Jennifer came to our house to watch Elf. Before they got there, we gave the boys a quick bath, thinking that they could play with everyone for a few minutes and then go to bed. Wrong! The boys were thrilled to have so much attention, and they became very hyper. Natalie and Jeremy brought the boys some stuffed reindeer and some pom poms from one of the VT basketball games. They went crazy over the pom poms! They shook them with all their might and couldn't stop giggling. These pictures don't quite do it justice...

Needless to say, the boys went to sleep way past their bedtime, but that's OK every once in a while!

Cookies!

For many years, I've been looking forward to baking Christmas cookies with my children. I finally got my chance this year, and we all had a great time! (Sorry there is a weird pink tint in some of these pictures - I'm not sure why that happened.)

Brady and Ian helped flour the board and roll out the dough...
...and stamp out the cookies.
We had fun decorating the cookies but made a huge mess!

The finished product!

Mmm!Here's Brady vacuuming up all of the powdered sugar we got on the floor. This boy loves to vacuum, sweep, and mop. He does a pretty good job, too!

Here's something new that Ian and Brady discovered with the vacuum:

Out of the mouths of babes

Brady still pauses between the first and second syllables of the word banana, so it comes out sounding like "buh... nana".

A few evenings ago, Brady and Ian were eating a banana after dinner. Ian started rubbing a piece of the banana in his hair. Brady looked at him and said "buh... nono"!

Puzzles

A few days ago, Brady and Ian were working their puzzles and Ian really got a kick out of putting the pieces in the wrong places on purpose!

An older video

This one is a few weeks old. After Halloween, the boys enjoyed wearing their costumes around the house for a few days. Ian especially enjoyed running around in his Darth Vader cape .

A big box!

Jeremy won a TV through his job and the boys have thoroughly enjoyed playing with the box it came in.


They enjoy peeking out through the holes!

Jeremy and I were really amused when we saw the box moving across the room:

Just in case you're wondering, the box did fall over at the end of the video (into the furniture, not all the way to the floor), but nobody got hurt. :)

Playing the piano

Here is a little video of the boys playing the piano together, then Brady playing by himself one morning. You can hear both of them "singing" too! We're so glad they enjoy music so much.

Belated Thanksgiving pictures

We spent Thanksgiving Day with Nana and Granddad, Pop and Joanna, Uncle Nelson, and Aunt Sopa. Brady had a fever for most of the holiday weekend but he was a trooper. The boys are now at the age where they can play with some of Uncle Nelson's old toys. These are his Loc-Blocks (larger Legos, basically).

The next day, they realized the bucket made their voices echo.

Here, they're playing with Uncle Nelson's train set.

Poor little Brady wasn't feeling well in this one, but he tried to make the most of it.

They like to make forts out of pillows and blankets with Aunt Sopa. Ian is hiding in his fort:

The boys with Aunt Sopa:

Peek-a-boo!

Lovin' on Daddy:

Last but not least, here's a video of the boys chasing after Uncle Nelson's remote control truck. You can hear Ian making his puppy dog sound after they put the stuffed animal in the truck.

The car wash

I drove through the automatic car wash at Kroger after our last snow, and it was funny to see the boys' different reactions. Brady was excited and watched everything intently.


Ian was not so excited! He kept his hands over his eyes until it was over.

Decorating for Christmas

A couple weekends ago, we put up some early Christmas decorations. First, we hung the garland on the stairs. The boys were so excited about all of the lights (they love any kind of lights - regular lights, candles, you name it). They had to check out all of the light bulbs and make sure everything was OK.

Hard at work!

Next, we set up the tree that goes in our loft. The boys had a great time helping decorate the tree.

Ian admiring the finished tree...

Brady (with his trademark thumb) playing peek-a-boo with me under the tree...

Each day, one of the boys gets to turn on the Christmas tree lights and they are so excited when it is their turn. Hopefully we'll be able to get a tree for downstairs soon. Brady and Ian have thoroughly enjoyed driving through the neighborhood in the evenings and seeing all of the outdoor lights and decorations. We have to drive very slowly so that they can see everything.

As I mentioned before, they are fascinated with lights right now. Up until a few weeks ago, we'd burn a candle in the kitchen every few days. Now, they insist on having a candle lit during all mealtimes and snacktimes. If I forget, they'll just point to the candle and say "light". Once, we were eating breakfast and Ian pointed to the candle and said "Light. Uh-oh. Bye-bye." I looked around and the candle had burned out! They don't miss a thing!

Brady

Here are a couple random pictures of Brady that show different pieces of his personality. He is normally pretty camera-shy but sometimes he will flash that sweet little grin. (It's hard to see because of the thumb in the mouth, I know!)


Brady loves to sleep. Without fail, Ian wakes up first in the morning. Ian is very chipper when he wakes up but Brady is not a morning person. It takes him quite a while to fully wake up. This is what we normally see each morning. His hair gets wild after a full night's sleep, and his eyes have that glazed-over look. One perk for Jeremy and I is that he loves to cuddle up on our laps while he wakes up!

Fun with Play-Doh

I'm finally getting back to my blog! I have tons of pictures and videos to post but have been so busy over the last couple of weeks. Here are some pictures of the boys playing with their new Play-Doh set for the first time.

Brady wasn't quite sure what to do at first.

Jeremy helped them out and they quickly got the hang of things!