Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we had dinner with my Dad's family at the fire station. Of course, Brady and Ian had to go see the fire trucks 3 times while we were there! Brady cried when he had to get out of the fire truck and go home.

At home, we put out some cookies and milk for Santa then Jeremy read the Christmas story.

The boys hung the "Santa Stop Here" sign on our front door so Santa would know where to find them. :)
The boys hung their stockings:

After bath time and story time, the boys went to sleep and Jeremy and I finished our last-minute preparations. Jeremy put together the boys' new tool bench while I put bows on all of the packages. Too bad one of the strands of lights on our tree went out right before Christmas. Ironically, it started working again this evening while we were taking the tree down!

Silliness

Jeremy took this picture of the boys yesterday and e-mailed it to me while I was at work. It cracked me up! They got into their Mr. Potato Head toys and put the teeth in their mouths. I love this picture because it shows the nature of our boys - always having fun together!

Christmas pictures will be coming soon!

Ready for Christmas!

The boys are so excited about Christmas! They are truly enjoying everything about the season, from the decorations to the music to the cookies! They have been wound up and full of energy, so it has been very hard for them to be cooped up in the house lately. As always, they've made the best of it! Here, they are playing in one of their many "doghouses".

On Sunday, Brady made a "horn" out of Legos and started playing along with me while I played the piano. I was able to catch it on video a little later.



Here, he's telling me the words to "Frosty the Snowman":


This morning, they put on their Santa hats for a while and pretended to be reindeer. They told me that the monkeys around their neck were the reindeer bells.


Later, they had a picnic, using the lid of their toy box as a picnic blanket.

They had lots of junk food at their picnic! Hamburgers, doughnuts, ice cream, french fries, and pasta. At least they brought a couple of pieces of fruit!

Let it snow!

We had a huge snow on Friday - the biggest snowstorm in this area since 1996! Ian and Brady were so excited to be getting more snow, just 2 weeks after our last snow. The storm started before we made it home, and the snow fell very quickly. This is a picture of the boys looking out our front door about an hour after the snow started.

We woke the boys up around 5:30 and they quickly jumped out of bed and ran to the window to see the snow. By that time we had about 3-4 inches.

Saturday morning, we woke up to about 16 inches of snow on the ground! We made it outside around lunchtime and brought out the sleds. We quickly found that the snow was a little too deep for the boys to have much fun. They tried to pull their sleds up the hill but handed that task over to Jeremy after a few steps.

The snow was up to their thighs! While trying to walk up the hill, Ian said "This is hard work!"

We decided that Jeremy would pull the boys up the hill on a sled. Unfortunately, we lost Ian!

We had to reposition the boys in the sled, and finally we made it to the top of the hill! By this time all of us were snowy and cold, and the boys were ready for a ride.


This picture shows how deep the snow was!
After one more ride on the sled, we were all ready to head inside.

We spent a total of about 10 minutes outside, and that was enough! The boys warmed up with some hot chocolate, which always makes things better!

Getting closer by the day!

I'm ashamed to admit that this is the first picture we've taken of my belly during this pregnancy. We took one each month, starting at 3 months, with the boys.

Here I am at 36 weeks. What a difference between one baby vs. two babies! At 36 weeks, I'm a little smaller than I was at 27 weeks with the boys.

When Brady saw Jeremy taking my picture, he made a camera out of Legos and proceeded to take more pictures, complete with the clicking noise.

We're getting anxious to meet our baby girl! I hope she doesn't decide to come too soon, though - I'll feel much better about things if we can make it through Christmas!

Active imaginations

Lately, the boys have been acting out some of their books. One book we've been reading recently is The Berenstain Bears' New Baby. In the book, Papa Bear and Brother Bear go into the woods, chop down a tree, split it into boards, and build a new bed for Brother Bear so that the new baby can use Brother Bear's baby bed.

One morning, I heard Ian telling the story as they acted it out with Legos, so I quickly grabbed the camera. Here's Brady chopping down a tree:

Splitting the tree into boards:

Ian is building Brother Bear's new bed:
These boys never cease to amaze us!

Christmas cookies

On Sunday, the boys helped me bake Christmas cookies. We had some new cookie cutters this year, and they were pretty excited about choosing the cutters and then stamping out the cookies. In particular, they wanted to make some red mitten-shaped cookies because we've been reading the book The Mitten a lot lately - another one of their favorites.

They were such good little helpers!

Peek-a-boo!

After dinner, when the cookies had been decorated, the boys got to do a taste test! Brady wanted to try a gingerbread boy and Ian wanted a mitten.


We had some happy boys!
That night in the bathtub, Ian sat up on his knees and put a washcloth over the side of the tub. With a ring-shaped toy in his hand, he pretended to cut out cookies on the washcloth. He said, "I am baking cookies. This is my cookie cutter. I am making circles."

Gingerbread houses

We've been reading Christmas stories each night before bedtime, and one of the boys' favorites is Gingerbread Baby. Since they enjoy this story so much, I thought it would be fun to make a gingerbread house. I bought a kit at Michaels since this was my first time making a gingerbread house. I put the house together yesterday morning so that it would be dry and ready to decorate last night.

The boys were so excited to help but we found out very quickly that the process was extremely tedious. Ian and Brady helped me with the front door and then went to play in the other room!

Here, they're helping me apply the garland to the door.

I got the front of the house finished before the boys went to bed, then finished the rest of the house after they went to sleep. It took a total of two and a half hours to decorate the house! By that time, I was very tired and never wanted to see another gingerbread house!

This morning, the boys woke up and came downstairs. I covered the house last night before I went to bed, and they immediately noticed and asked if I finished the decorations. They climbed on their stepstools and waited anxiously. When I uncovered the house, they clapped their hands and literally squealed with delight. At that point I decided it was well worth the time spent! :)

They were so excited! I kept hearing things like "Those are bushes!" and "It has yellow and green and blue!"

Here they are with the house:

The front of the house:
Side view:
A few minutes later, the boys went into the family room to play. I overheard Ian saying "Let's build a gingerbread house. It will be beautiful." When I walked in, they had built a house out of pillows and blankets. They informed me that this was their bunny house and it would keep them warm and toasty. Ian gave Brady a "hat" and then put one on his own head.
Ian was a little camera shy.
He finally showed me his grin!

Drinking us out of house and home

Brady and Ian have very hearty appetites, but what sends me to the grocery store a few times a week is their drinking rather than their eating. One week I kept count of how much they drank:

3.5 gallons of milk

1 gallon of orange juice

almost 1 gallon of apple juice

Between the two of them, they consistently drink a half-gallon of milk each day. I have to stop at the store at least twice a week in addition to my normal Saturday grocery trip just to keep the fridge stocked.

The boys eat a lot as well. In a typical week the four of us go through 3 dozen eggs, 2 loaves of bread, and too much fruit to count. Ian and Brady love every kind of fruit they've tried, and they will eat most vegetables. Their favorite vegetables are sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, and broccoli (yes, broccoli). In the past, they haven't been wild about eating meat, but they will now take at least a few bites of whatever meat is on their plate.

A lot of the time, the boys can eat as much as me (and I'm eating for two)! For example, it has become our "tradition" to have a big Sunday breakfast, and every week the boys will each eat scrambled eggs, a piece of turkey sausage, one and a half cinnamon rolls, and fruit. If we have something for dinner they love - like pizza or lasagna - they'll eat two helpings. When we go to Cracker Barrel, they can each eat an entire kids' meal and a biscuit.

It makes me cringe to think about what our grocery bills will look like 10 years from now!

Snow day

On Saturday, we had our first snow of the season. Brady and Ian were so excited to wake up and see the snow falling. They couldn't wait to get outside and play. After breakfast, we all bundled up and headed outside. The first thing the boys wanted to do was build a snowman (their first snowman ever). Ian was very good at rolling a snowball!

Jeremy asked the boys if they wanted a big snowman or a Brady-and-Ian-sized snowman. They wanted one that was their size, so that's what they got. After we had all of the snowballs in place, we added tree branches for arms and wrapped a scarf around the snowman's neck. Ian and Brady added a carrot nose and grapes for eyes and buttons.

Here is the finished snowman. The boys named him Bumby. They came up with the name by themselves. :)

They were so proud of their snowman!

Next, they went sledding on our hill. Last year they didn't really enjoy sledding but this year was completely different. Here, Ian was pushing Brady back up the hill for another ride.

Here's a video clip of them on the sled:




Next, they made snow angels:


Finally, we had a little snowball fight!


We had such a great time! After all of that fun, we came inside and the boys got to drink hot chocolate for the first time. Needless to say, they loved it!

Putting up the tree!

On Thanksgiving weekend, we decorated our house for Christmas. This was the boys' first time picking out a Christmas tree. They enjoyed running around through the lot and helping us choose a tree. (They were so excited to finally get to wear their Christmas shirts, too!)

They had fun hanging ornaments on the tree. They call them "ordaments".

What good helpers!
Both boys kept hanging ornaments in one spot - it was very cute to see all of these angels together.
Brady and Ian also helped Jeremy put up the garland on the stairs. While putting up the garland, Ian said "I think Santa will like it."

The next morning, while the boys were playing, I heard Brady say "I am decorating my house and my Christmas tree."

Both boys are very excited about Christmas. In particular, they love riding in the van and looking for Christmas lights. I'll hear them say "THERE'S Christmas lights!" at the top of their lungs when they see a house or a store decorated for Christmas.