A few pictures....

As you can only imagine I must have taken a billion pictures over Christmas, so here are just a few to get you started!

These are the pics from my parents house on Christmas Eve. Noah J kinda had a hard time - once again there was a giant misunderstanding! He really thought that since he told Santa he wanted trains that every single box he opened would be a train. You can just imagine his disappointment when the first 3 boxes he opened were other stuff. Stuff that he now loves, but was just completely stressed about at the time. Once he got a train he was completely happy to open the rest of the presents - it was just too funny - we snapped a pic right at the moment he opened the first present - just check out that face!

There he is also playing with his favorite Christmas decoration in the world - the tacky train in snow village thing that his Papa bought for him!!!! You know we got ot Target like 4 times a week, and every single time we spend at least 15 minutes in front of this train - just watching it go in and out of the tunnel. Well, it was $60!!!! Can you even believe that? Well it went on sale and his Papa snatched it right up and oh how the boys love it.

Wyatt took to opened presents like a duck to water! He immediately grabbed the closet present to him and started opening it! He was so sweet - he sat and played with his toys the entire time till we went home. He got fussy right at the end, but he was up so late it was to be expected. We had a great time and we all loved our gifts! Thanks G&G!

I love the pic of Joseph and Wyatt with my dad - isn't it too funny? You can see none of the boys wanted to take pictures - Noah didn't even make it to the couch, Joseph is taking his hat off, and Wyatt is screaming!

Run, run as fast as you can!

So the boys and I baked gingerbread men today, and we had a great time! We make gingerbread men and hang them on our table top tree in the kitchen every year, but I kinda decided we would skip out on it this year since its already so late in the season and we just haven't had time. But then I remembered how much Noah J loved eating the extra men last year, so last night I mixed up some dough and stuck it in the fridge so we could make the cookies today. And boy was he excited!!

It was really tough for me to let go, and let him smoosh them all up, put too much flour on them, etc and just let him have fun. But I did, and he did! I cannot even tell you how much flour and cookie pieces were on my floor when we were done! And he just couldn't wait to eat them - he wanted me to blow on them when they came out of the oven so he could eat one sooner! Wyatt also thought it was great fun to chew on cookie cutters, and he always loves to watch Noah. I love the picture of Noah looking at the dough closely - he just had to have it perfectly rolled out before he would use the cookie cutter. Can you tell how proud he is?

Is it December??

These pictures sure don't look like they are from December!!! But it was so hot the other afternoon and Noah wanted to play in the sprinkler, so I thought, why not?! And to our surprise as we took the hose down, there was a tree frog underneath it! Noah was SOOOO excited. He told me he wanted me to take a picture of it, and he needed his camera to take a picture of it also. I promised him I would put the pictures on the blog, so here they are!

St. Nicholas Day

So, for those of you that don't know December 6th is St. Nicholas Day. My mom celebrated it as a kid in Germany, so celebrated it when I was a kid also. And we're passing the tradition on to our little ones, much to their delight!

We always get/give a stocking (real panty hose!) on the foot of our bed when we wake up in the morning on the 6th, and its full of fruit, nuts, special candy, and little toys! Fun, right?

Noah had a late night the night before, so we didn't want to risk waking him up that morning, so we put the stocking under the tree. He was SOOOO excited that Santa came to see him. He got a Thomas whistle, some trains, an apple, some tub toys, and some chocolates and candy. He really loved each and every thing in it, so we were really happy. Wyatt only got one thing - a ring stacker, cause we were missing parts of Noah's. He really likes it, so we're happy with that too!

The best part of it all was that the night before, at Santa's Wonderland, Noah got really upset when he talked to Santa. He was so incredibly brave to talk to him, since he's so afraid of strangers, and we felt awful cause he thought that when you tell Santa what you want for Christmas that he pulls it out right then and there and gives it to you. Well, once he realized Santa didn't have any trains he got pretty upset. So it worked out really well that it just so happened to fall on the 5th, so the next morning he really thought Santa listened to him!

Memorial City Mall

So as I was perusing a friends website I came across pics of her son at a mall playground and just knew we had to take Noah J there. After some googling I figured out it was at Memorial City Mall, so we headed there the next day. They have this awesome playground with tons of tunnels, stairs, slides and ramps. It was really great cause it was gated with a guard, so there weren't big kids in it, and I didn't worry about him running out. And on top of it all, they have a double decker carousel in the food court. Noah was SOOOO excited - he wanted to ride the zebra on the second level.

Every time he goes to the mall he gets a cookie, and this time he saw those dinky doozies and REALLY wanted one. So we thought, why not? So you can see how excited he was about it. And he was also obsessed with the fountains outside, but was too scared to run through it. Josh had to pick him up and run with him. Too funny - playing in the water outside in November! He absolutely did not want to see Santa, and wasn't excited by the ice skating rink. Maybe next year!

Making pancakes!

So Noah's newest favorite food is Pumpkin Pancakes! We used the last pancakes we had a few weeks ago and I think Noah was getting tired of his chocolate ones, so I let him help me. He had so much fun making a mess! It was cracking me up cause he really wanted to stir it with the 1/2 teaspoon measure. Anything bigger than that was just no good. Well, he ate the first batch in 2 weeks, so Josh snapped some pics of us cooking our second batch. Looking at these pics I realized I can't believe I'm putting them up - look at my pantry, would you!!?! I totally should have shut the door. Oh well, now you all know that I"m a slob!

Wyatt and Santa

So we went to Santa's Wonderland last night, and here is a teaser pic, cause I have to go to sleep cause I'm just too tired. You'll notice, though, that Noah is absent from the photo! Hmmmmm. I'll write about it tomorrow.

Banana bread sticks!

So Wyatt had his first taste of banana bread sticks last week! He desperately wants to eat food off our plates, so I figured it was time to bake a batch of bread sticks for the boy. Not surprisingly, he absolutely loved them. He's so happy!

I LOVE this face!

So you know a few weeks ago I had that picture of Wyatt that I just loved. Well last week I took this pic of Noah and I just LOVE it. It is just so Noah! We were playing outside and Maddie had a hat, so he insisted he had one too. This was the face he gave me when I told him to smile!

My boys!

I don't know why, but I just love these pictures! I know Wyatt is totally upset in all of them, but I just think they are too adorable. We took these Thanksgiving day trying to get some nice pictures of the boys for Christmas cards - I guess we'll have to try again!

Setting up Christmas!

Noah was beyond excited to get all the Christmas stuff out of the attic. We set it up last weekend and he was obsessed with just about everything. He especially liked the pyramid - you can see him blowing on it getting it to move. It was really hard so he just gave up and spun it with his hands. He's been really good about everything. He goes and gets his stepstool and drags it to the stuff he wants to see/touch, but he's been super gentle and so far nothing has broken.

He was also giddy when we pulled out the blow up Santa that Granny gave us last year. In the top picture he was peeking at it as it blew up - he couldn't believe it was going to stand. He was so happy about it that he got his elephant chair from the garage and brought it out and sat next to Santa in it. We were cracking up. But when we unplugged him he had to grab his chair and run - he was panicked that Santa would fall over on his chair! So that's the next picture - him grabbing the chair and getting ready to run!

The last picture is Noah's masterpiece - we call it "Santa in hat." We have this little metal tree that has shapes cut out of it. You put a little candle under it and the patterns shine on the wall. Well, Noah thought it was a hat. So he went around the house putting a hat on everything that sat still. He finally decided that this Santa needed a hat. So there you go!

Playing in our jammies

Isn't it just a shock that Wyatt hasn't received a terrible injury yet? It's pictures like these that always make me realize that. We were just goofing around the other morning and they were having so much fun I thought I should get some pictures of them. You would think Wyatt would be upset, but he really loves it! They were all sitting in front of the fire - it was so nice! The first fire of the season. Can't wait for more!

Bowling bowling!

That's now Noah says it - you cannot say it just once. If you say, "Noah, what did you do today?" he answers "bowling bowling." I do not know why. But he loved it! A couple of weeks ago there was an episode of Sesame Street where Elmo learns how to bowl and Noah has asks to watch it about 8 times a day. It's so funny cause he even repeats it when he plays with his toy set - "Point, swing back, swing forward, and ROLL!" We figured we ought to try the real thing, and we had so much fun. Noah wanted to run down the lane, and he really liked rolling around on the ball on his belly, but other than that he really was great at it. We can't wait to go again!