Christmas 2017

Our Christmas started on Christmas Eve with Scott reading the boys "The Night Before Christmas." They were so into it.  All day long Gabriel kept saying, "I can't believe Santa comes tonight" and "I'm going to hear Santa's sleigh and wake Bennett so we can see him."  It was pretty cute.

After the story and the boys were sent to bed, it was time to get to work assembling the goodies.  I'm not sure why Scott and I wait until the night before to do all wrapping and assembling, but it only took an hour this year (record time).

We made the boys stay upstairs when they woke up.  I did not want them rushing down and opening everything.  And since Thomas woke up at 5:15 and the big boys at 5:30, it was a little easier to contain them.

Bennett checking out Santa's empty plate

Gabriel loved his scooter

Blurry, but G loved his Chelsea backpack from Santa Andrew

Thomas is testing out his new ride

Bennett got lots of animals this year

Big game of solitaire with Papa John

Talking polar bears with B

New snuggly blankets from Nana

Thomas is hoping for a better year for the Huskers

We had a great Christmas with family and friends and even an 18 hour long fire in the fireplace.  Oh and lets not forget, the white Christmas!

And that's a wrap on Christmas 2017.

Snow Day

It actually snowed before Christmas!  We rarely have a White Christmas, but wow did we luck out in our first Christmas in our new house.  I have to say, our house looks awesome with the snow out front.  

The boys loved playing in the snow as well.  We built a snowman, rather small, but snowman none the less.  We made snow angels and had snowball fights.  It was a fun 45 minutes of playing.  

Probably Becca's first real snow

Cookies for Santa

We, really I, made so many cookies this year.  I was trying out recipes without eggs for Thomas.  And in all honesty, he ate maybe 2.  Oh well, they were good and it made me feel better knowing he could eat them if the boys shared or if I shared with the boys.  

On Christmas Eve, Eve I made some sugar cookies and left the cookies for the boys to decorate for Santa.  We had a really good time adding lots and lots of sprinkles.  

After cookie decorating we settled in for a fire and Christmas movies for the rest of the day.  Santa was very happy with the final product.

Preschool Christmas

Our preschool has a wonderful Christmas breakfast and performance every year.  This year we had two boys performing.  We arrived early and the kids just ran around until it was time to eat.  The boys loved introducing us to their friends and we were able to meet some new parents.  Even Thomas thought it was a lot of fun.  

Waiting to preform for everyone.

Time for jingle bells

Even Santa showed up with gifts

The best part of the preschool party was for one hour I had free babysitting.  They kept Thomas for an hour, along with the other boys, so I could finish my Christmas shopping and grocery shopping.  Thomas did so well at preschool, I may try to sign him up for next year, just kidding, maybe.

Walker Baby

We officially have a walker!  Thomas has been teasing us with taking a few steps here and there every so often.  He learned that he was a much faster crawler and that was easy to keep up with his brothers.  Then this past weekend he just took off.  He is a non-stop walker!  Crawling is no longer the best way to get around.

Thomas is so proud of himself with his new found form of moving.  His face just lights up when he sees you waiting for him to walk.  He is the slowest of all 3 boys to walk.  Both Gabriel and Bennett were walking at 10 months.  Scott and I were content with his delayed walking.

Candy Cane Lane

We told the boys we had a surprise for them on Saturday night.  We decided to drive down to St. Louis Hills and walk around the neighborhood and check out the Christmas Lights.  We have learned that it is much more fun to walk around rather than drive.  One, you get the fresh(usually cold) air and it tires out the boys quickly.  Lastly, it is just so much fun to walk around and show the boys, Scott included, where I grew up.  I love showing them the trees I climbed or talk about the games we played.

This year the weather was insanely warm for December and I mentioned it would be the perfect night to walk around.  I was right, we loaded the wagon and hoodies and off we went.  Everyone had a great time.

Oh Christmas Tree 2017

Scott and I have cut down a Christmas tree every year except Gabriel's first Christmas. It's a great tradition that I love to do.  I enjoy it, even more, when it's not freezing outside.  This year we decided to go the first Friday in December.  We totally lucked out and it was a beautiful day.

Since we moved to the new house, we did not want to drive well over an hour down to Meerts.  I love that place and we have great memories, but it's so far.  We found a new place, Country Pines, about 30 minutes away. Since we went on a Friday, there was only 1 other family there.  It was so much fun to have the entire place to ourselves to really run and pick a good tree.

Bennett took advantage of the space

Thomas worked on his walking skills

We found our tree!

Helping Daddy saw it down

Thomas found a tree his size