Christmas Preparations!

I am not sure where to start in talking about all we did to get ready for Christmas. There was the gift buying, cookie making, decorating, snow playing, movie watching, card sending, etc. It seemed like so much work, but a lot of fun as well.

I guess I will start with making Christmas ornaments. Charlie brought home a magazine from school that had directions in it on how to make the salt and flour Christmas tree ornaments. We decided to do this and had a great time. I think the recipe made 50 ornaments or so. I decorated a few, Jack and Dad a few and Charlie about 40. He sat in the kitchen until he was done decorating every last one. Then we set up our old Christmas tree in their bedroom and decorated it with all of the ornaments. This is something we will do next year as it was a lot of fun.

Then was cooking making. I didn't get many photos of this, but I got a photo of the boys counting out Hershey's kisses for the peanut butter blossom cookies. Charlie was so cute and serious about counting them all out. Then they both helped to unwrap them all. They took this job very seriously!

Next came new Christmas jammies for the boys. This year they were green flannel with sock monkeys on them.

Next came the first big snowstorm/blizzard of December 2009. This happened mid-month and we had three days off of school. They boys had fun playing outside and helping Daddy shovel, sort of.

One night before Christmas we made Christmas trees out of our food for dinner. We used french toast for the tree, bacon for the trunk and powdered sugar for the snow and sprinkles for the decorations. The boys enjoyed this and ate it all up.Doug and the boys did the Gingerbread house one night. It went pretty well. Each year it looks a little better.

Charlie had his kindergarten Christmas program. It was really nice and they sang some really cool songs. Some were traditional and some not so much. I couldn't get any really great photos because it was really crowded and the view wasn't so great.

I think that is about it. I am sure there is more we did of which I didn't take photos. There is definitely stuff that we didn't get to do that I had wanted to! Maybe next year!

November 2009

I guess I am going to do one big post today about our November. It was a fun month and pretty busy. It flew by, anyway.

At the beginning of the month, we took the boys and went with some friends to Spaghetti Works for dinner and then to a Creighton Volleyball game. We had a really good time and the boys enjoyed the game.

Also this month, we visited Lowe's and Home Depot quite a bit to do their kids' workshops. They boys LOVE this and always want to go back. So far they have made a trivet, snowman, race car garage and Charlie made a race track and Jack made a firestation bank. They are really proud of themselves after they build their item...not without a lot of help from mom and dad, of course.

Next we visited Bass Pro Shops to see their Winter Wonderland and Santa. They boys had a good time making reindeer ornaments, looking around, and seeing Santa. Jack wanted nothing to do with Santa and pulled away. Charlie told Santa he wants a Wii and some Transformers.

In preparation for Thanksgiving, the boys and I made our Thanksgiving tree. We cut out leaves from construction paper and wrote things for which we are thankful on the leaves. Then, we hung them from a tree branch that we found outside. The boys loved this and were thankful for some funny things. They listed the good stuff like mom, dad, grandparents, aunts and uncles, their pets, but also Red Robin, chicken, Scooby Doo, Freddy, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, etc. Oh and they were definitely thankful for their teachers and friends.

We had a good Thanksgiving weekend, despite both boys getting sick. They each spent a couple of days with the stomach bug, but it didn't stop us from getting some fun stuff in. We decorated the tree and house with Christmas decorations. They were both really excited to do this.

Friday night of that weekend was beautiful weather. We headed down to the Old Market to have dinner at Zio's Pizza. We then took the boys for their first carriage ride around the area to see all of the Christmas lights. They really enjoyed this and it was evidenced by their complete silence on the ride.

Halloween!

We had a very busy, but fun Halloween this year. The boys went trick-or-treating one day at Village Point.

That same weekend we spent some time decorating a haunted house with frosting and candy. They love doing this and did a really good job this year decorating it almost all by themselves. These kids love their arts and crafts.

The day of Halloween Doug took them outside to carve a couple of pumpkins. We usually don't do anything fancy with ours. The boys just like to Doug cut the faces out; for some reason, they don't really care to participate.

The night before Halloween a couple of friends had a Halloween party at their house. It would be the first time Doug and I ever dressed up for Halloween together. A pretty momentous occassion! We had a great time.

And last, but not least, the actual day of Halloween. We had our old neighbors over and my parents and ended up with quite a few other neighbors over as well. Doug smoked brisket and we had a ton of food. Grace, Conner and Spencer all came over to trick-or-treat together. Charlie and Jack were so excited to have some friends over to play with. The kids all played well together in the basement while the big people ate and drank upstairs.

Charlie's School Halloween Party

Friday I took a half day off work and helped out at Charlie's class Halloween party. I am glad I did, because it was a good time. We had games, crafts and lots of snacks. It was fun to see his room and see him with all of his classmates. There is a little girl in his class named Sydney F. He came home from school a few weeks ago asking if we could buy Sydney F. some princess gloves. One night at Target, we found some little pink and purple gloves with the Disney princesses on them. We got them for Sydney and he took them to school to give them to her. She loved them and wrote him a thank you card that appropriately said, "Thank you for the gloves. Sydney F." He came home from school after that saying that Sydney liked to sit by him and always saved a spot for him on the green carpet in their classroom. It was cute. He says she isn't his girlfriend, though. Thank goodness for that. I got to meet Sydney F. and she is a nice girl. I can hardly wait until they start to be interested in girls. Actually, I can wait.

Charlie and Mr. Greve

Charlie and Collin

Lancers games, etc.

The boys love Lancer's games. We went to one a few weekends ago and actually stayed for the entire game. This was a first for us. Usually Jack or Charlie want to leave early. The boys got an actual puck that the team used, so they thought that was really cool.
Jack and I spent some time taking pictures of ourselves. This is the only way I could get him to be in a photo.

My Birthday!

October was a busy month, mostly with fun activities. I turned 35 towards the end of the month. It was a Monday and I had to work, so it wasn't anything exciting. We had dinner as a family and ate cake. The boys and Doug got me some winter running gear and chocolate covered strawberries and my mom and Bob gave me some new, really nice kitchen knives. Here are some photos:

The boys are into having indoor picnics, so we ate cake on the floor. Amazingly, enough, it wasn't too messy.