Reunited and it Feels So Good

Right when Christmas break started for the boys, we headed on out of town.  We were ready to see our families and celebrate the holidays.  So, first we drove on down to Charlotte.  We arrived Friday night fairly late because we had to wait until Ian's work day was over to leave.  However, it was a great evening because we were able to see Papa and Marianne.  They had arrived in Charlotte a few days earlier and it would be our only chance to get to see them before we went on to Texas.  We had a lovely dinner and a great time chatting with our family.

(the boys with their Papa)

The next day we left early in the morning to head to Texas.  It was an uneventful journey, but it was so nice to walk down those stairs in the terminal and see my family waiting at the bottom of the staircase.  We knew it would be a great holiday.

(waiting to get on the airplane)

The boys were so excited to get to Grandma and Grandpa's house up on the hill.  The first thing they wanted to do was run outside in their great backyard.  However, Grandpa had other adventures in mind.  He offered to take them down in to the woods behind their house to explore.  At first both boys were scared to go down in the canyon and into the woods.  In fact, Evan completely refused, but finally we managed to talk both of them into the adventure.  Sure enough, when we got down into the woods, climbing over and under rocks and trees, they boys had a great time.  They found several fabulous treasures including a golf ball, an arrow, an even a genuine animal bone.  It was a great start to our Texas adventure.

(waiting to explore Grandma and Grandpa's backyard)

(Lead on, Grandpa)

(Watch out for those rocks!)

(Grandpa and Evan discover the arrow.)

(intrepid adventurers after the hike)

(tree lions)

The next day, Great-Grandma Dot arrived in Texas.  It was so nice to see her, and we were lucky enough to have her join us for the rest of the time we were there.  After Grandma Dot arrived, we headed over to Bass Pro Shop for our traditional meeting with Santa.  I was a bit nervous about this particular encounter.  In years past, I had worried that the kids would scream and cry when they saw Santa, but this year it was a different worry.  Evan had been wanting super powers for Christmas for months no matter how unlikely I kept telling him it was, and I wasn't sure what would happen when Evan asked this particular Santa about them.  However, when we got through the incredibly long line, my worries were for nothing.  Evan asked for a robot that could do anything and Ben asked for an electric rake.  Ben had asked for something different every time I asked so I wasn't surprised by that one.  We all had a great time, and the boys were definitely in the holiday spirit after that.

(posing in front of the aquarium while waiting for Santa)

(There was also a race car to play on!)

(Great-Grandma Dot and her boys)

(the big guy!)

(Of course, Santa's wonderland in Texas has shooting practice.)

We were ready for a fabulous holiday!  Oh, and did I mention that Grandma and Grandpa happen to live in one of the beautiful spots ever.  Take a look at this gorgeous sunset!

Schoolhouse Rock

One of my favorite parts of the holidays when I was growing up was getting to celebrate and enjoy all of the parties at school.  Now, they don't celebrate many holidays in school, but even though they don't celebrate specific holidays like Christmas and Halloween anymore, they make sure to give the students a chance to party.

As a room parent in Evan's Kindergarten class this year, I've been able to help plan some of these parties and it's been so much fun.  During the holiday season we were able to have a "winter party".  It was a bit stressful to get all of the materials together-it's pretty tricky to find materials to decorate a gingerbread house that are both nut and trans fat free.  However, once we got all the materials and got to the classroom, it was so nice to be with all of the kiddos, especially Evan.  It does make me realize how much I enjoy being in a school setting in general.

So, on to the party-We decorated the classroom and when the kiddos came back from their specials class they were ready to party.  First, we gave them all the gingerbread houses that we had prepared and let them decorate them with the candy.  This meant that they ate a whole bunch of candy and even put a little on their houses.  Then, we divided the kids up into groups and rotated them through a few different activities-winter bingo, coloring, bead snowflake making, and even pin the nose on the Olaf.

Ben got to come of the party too, and the brothers loved going to all of the different centers together.  I'm so glad I get the chance to be there with him.  Seeing him in his classroom with his classmates and teachers helps me to know that he's in a good place everyday when I drop him off.

I'm hoping for a spring semester filled with just as many great excuses to celebrate!

(gingerbread houses waiting to be decorated)

(candy!)

(the boys making their snowflake bead ornaments with their group)

(some of Evan's classmates trying on the Olaf noses)

(the festive classroom scene)

(Evan with Mrs. Joshua-Wilson in her festive attire)

Little Fishies

It was the busiest time of the year had arrived and I was busily getting ready to celebrate the season.  So, what did I do?  Of course, I signed my boys both up for swim lessons for two weeks just to make everything a little more hectic.  It was a hectic two weeks, but the lessons went well.

Benny did two weeks of lessons three times a week.  He really made a lot of progress and had a ball.  He really had fun and told me how much he liked the lessons each time.  In previous lessons, he wasn't quite ready to stick his head under water, but this time, he blew bubbles, put his head under water, and jumped off the edge of the pool whenever requested.  In fact, after the first lesson they said he was perhaps a little too eager and needed to wait for instructions before just charging off.  I'm so glad he had fun, and he just looked so stinkin' cute doing it!

While Ben was happily swimming around, Evan also started swimming class.  This time he was in the Competitive Development Team, a one day a week class that prepares them for swim team.  It was the perfect transition for Evan from swim lessons to swim team.  Evan was a bit nervous for the first few classes, but has started to hit his stride and get more confident in his swimming.  I'm excited to see him swim in his upcoming meet.

Here's a little taste of the cuteness of the Benjamin-

Shepherd*Singer*Star

With the Christmas season always comes Christmas singing.  This year, I discovered Pandora Christmas radio stations in my car, so we were always singing something wherever we were going.  Too bad the boys and I don't share the same taste in Christmas songs.  Evan and Ben were always dying for some Jingle Bell Rock while I was more in the mood for God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman.  Fortunately, with our voting system in place in the car, there weren't too many fights over songs.

In addition to Christmas music in the car, Benny also had the opportunity to sing his Christmas songs in public.  One Saturday morning in early December he had his preschool Christmas concert.  For the concert they each got to choose which part of the Christmas story they would be dressed as.  Ben chose the star, so on the morning of the concert he was dressed up with a little shepherd's hat and a big gold star pinned to his shirt.  He loved it!

He was so cute to watch in the concert.  Unfortunately, they were standing on the rows according to grade level and height.  So, he just happened to be the teeniest four year old standing behind the tallest three year old.  I had to move my seat to get any view of him, and even then he was slightly hidden.  Oh well, they were all still adorable to watch.

While Ben is certainly not the most vocal one in the chorus, he certainly sings more than his brother, and he really enjoyed the hand motions.  He loves music so much that I wanted him to try out the church choir at our church.  The Sunshine Kids is the choir for kids from 4-7 years old and practices right after church on Sundays.  He loves to listen to music, but I think the verdict is still out on whether he wants to do Sunshine Kids.  I wonder if sometimes he is reluctant to go because his brother doesn't do it.

I'll just have to see how he continues to do, but the same weekend that he had the preschool concert, he also had a concert at church between services in the fellowship hall.  He was adorable as usual, but I learned a valuable lesson from the concert.  When you dress your child for a concert where he will clearly be standing in the front row, make sure he has pants with a strong enough waistband.  His pants fell a little lower than they should have and revealed a little more than they should have several times.  I had to run up to the stage and pull them up several times.  That's okay, he didn't seem to mind.

I love watching Benny the star, and I hope I get to watch many more performances in the years to come!

(my star!)

(the whole group)

(Benny and his buddy Anna after the performance)

(the preschool performance)

(one of the church songs-note the dropping pants)

Little Christmas Helpers

Even before we got home from Thanksgiving, we were ready to start celebrating the holiday season.  We blared the Christmas music as we drove home and on our way, we even stopped to get our tree.  I always want to get our tree as soon as we can after December rolls around because we always go out of town, and I want us to be able to enjoy it for as long as we can.  So, we stopped, with all of our suitcases still in the car, and picked out the perfect tree.  I still think the boys favorite part is picking up treasures that they find on the ground at the lot like little twigs and string, but we did come home with the perfect tree strapped to our car.

The boys wanted to decorate the tree immediately, but as a result of crazy work and school schedules we had to wait a few days.  That night, we got the boys into their Christmas PJ's, set all of the ornaments out on the table and got to decorating.  This was the first year that both boys really enjoyed putting lots of ornaments on the tree.  They especially liked the ones that had their names on it and their own bird and bear ornaments that they get every year.

As a result of the fabulous ornament helpers, we ended up with all of the ornaments clustered in one spot at about boy eye level on one side of the tree.  We also have ornaments that tend to jump off the tree at any moment.  That's okay, I know they had fun, and we only lost one ornament in that whole process so I consider it a victory.

After the tree was all happily lit, I sat down and read my book in the light of the twinkling tree.  What a great way to start the holiday season!

(Ian puts the lights on the tree-my least favorite part.)

(Evan and Ben show off their bear and bird ornaments.)

(my big helpers)

(Look how I've grown, Mom!)

(Evan carefully selects an ornament.)

(Ben admires his birth year ornament.)

(the cluster of ornaments on a happy tree)

Turkey, Turkey!

This year, we didn't have far to travel for Thanksgiving.  So, when Evan and Ben got out of school on the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, we just hopped in the van and headed down the road to Charlotte to spend Thanksgiving with the Davis clan.

Gram and Gramps were hosting at the Davis house, so there was lots to get done before the big day.  Since it's the busy time of year at Portrait Innovations, Gramps and Uncle Reid also had to work most of the holiday.  That's ok, we still had lots of good family fun!  On Tuesday and Wednesday, we tried our hardest to wear out some puppy dogs and keep the house from being a total disaster.  We also helped to track down the elusive oysters for Jennifer's famous scalloped oyster dish.  You'd never believe how tricky it is to get oysters at that time of year, but we finally managed to find some.

On Thanksgiving morning we were lucky enough to be able to go to Portrait Innovations while it was closed to get our Christmas card pictures taken by Uncle Reid.  They've updated that particular studio and it looked really nice.  It was so much more peaceful to get pictures made when there was no one else in the studio.  Reid is also a great photographer, so we had the pictures done in a snap.  The boys might have gotten a bit goofy at the end, but they were entitled to be a bit silly after sitting for such good pictures.

(Our family picture for our Christmas card-aren't we beautiful?)

(getting silly at the end of the picture)

After pictures, we hurried home with a few additional groceries to prepare for the big meal.  I'm always amazed at how Gram manages to get everything out and ready to serve at exactly the right time while entertaining company.  This time, we even managed to get a fabulous family picture of everyone who was there just about as things were coming out of the oven.  Now that's multitasking.

We had a great time chatting and having fun with the Davises.  The boys had a great time getting to know and playing with their cousin MacKenzie.  Ben, of course, was just quivering with excitement waiting for Uncle Don to arrive.  For some reason, Uncle Don is about Ben's favorite person in the whole world, and he kept heading to the door all day long to see if he was there yet.  Benny dragged Uncle Don upstairs to play with toys at several points in the evening.  The meal was delicious, from the Grandma Zales cheesy corn casserole (not the Bitler version, but still delicious), to the mexican chocolate trifle for dessert.  It's always hard to get the boys to eat new foods, but I feel like they're gradually eating a little more every year at the Thanksgiving table.

(three turkeys)

(two boys cooking Thanksgiving dinner)

(all about the baste)

(playing with Uncle Don in the rec room)

(the Thanksgiving feast)

(the kids' table-minus Walker and Wesleigh)

(the other Thanksgiving table)

(the family poses during a break in the dinner preparation-aren't we a good looking group?)

After dinner was over, Gram could finally relax.  We had a great time just playing around the rest of the week.  Gramps even got a little bit of time off to see the boys.  On Friday, Gram took us to see The Penguins of Madacascar at the movie theater. Now, I wasn't too enthused about it, but it actually turned out to be a really cute movie, and just up the boys' alley.

Saturday, Uncle Reid and Aunt Candice came over and brought their dogs to hang out all day.  I was worried that Uncle Reid and Aunt Candice's dog Pepperdew would get into a fight with Ripple because Rip doesn't really get along that well with any dogs.  Luckily, Pepperdew was happy to submit to Rip's little dominant attitude and they had great fun racing and chasing in the backyard while Gram looked on worriedly from the window.  We actually managed to sneak in 2 games of Ticket to Ride that day.  Unfortunately, I didn't win either one, but as always, I had fun playing.  Ben is starting to enjoy coming to watch the game.  He wanted to join in and played on my team for a while, but it's a bit complicated for him just yet.

(Evan built a masterpiece)

(the train game)

(all this activity wore out a poodle)

(Evan's creation to monitor all the dog activity)

On Sunday, we finally had to head home.  It was a fabulous, relaxing weekend, and it was just what we needed to get ready for the holiday season.  Thanks to Gram and Gramps for being such wonderful hosts!

That day, we headed home and picked up the Christmas tree before we even took the suitcases out of the car to unpack, but more on that later...

We Have Good Friends

So, this fall, as usual, we've been having some great times with our crazy friends.  It's so nice to have people that you get along so well with and can just get together and have fun at any time.

Every week, we all get together with out great neighbors the O'Malley and Andersen families.  The kiddos play and the moms get to talk and maybe even have a few sips of wine.  Evan and Ben love learning all sorts of new things from their friends Izzy and Carolyn who are a few years older than them, and their starting to learn how to entertain our little neighbor, baby Cooper.  Whether we're enjoying s'mores outside in the cul-de-sac, or just going a little crazy indoors, we're always having fun.

(looking fashionable with Izzy and Carolyn)

(Jill and I illustrating the fact that, yes, I am short.  But if you look, I'm the same height as her in the torso, I just have no legs.)

We also love to get together with our friends the South family.  We've been friends since Evan and Nathan met in the 2's class in preschool.  A few weeks ago, we all got together again for sleepover #3.  Staying all night gives the kiddos a chance to play all night and the grown ups a chance to actually hang out and play games while the kids are sleeping, or at least pretending to sleep.  This time, we all enjoyed a delicious pre-Thanksgiving dinner.  We even pulled out the fancy china.  After dinner, the adults all played games while the kids tried not to go back to sleep as long as they could. What a great time with a great family!

(The big pre-Thanksgiving feast with the South family)

(Evan and Nathan post-slumber party)

(Ben and Anna also survived the night.)

Thanks to all of our awesome friends for keeping us all sane and making life a lot more fun!