Christmas Eve 2015

Before we headed out to Sugarland for Christmas dinner at GiGi's, I snapped a few pics of the boys together. I am glad I did because we didn't get many more over the two days of Christmas celebrations. Ryan was in a very cooperative mood because we told them they could open a present from under the tree afterwards.

Poor Charlie needs a haircut so badly, but hey, we got 4 out of 5 done before the holidays. So I call that a success in my book!

 Ryan is READY!

 B was pretty pumped about his MagnaDoodle and still is actually!

 Ryan was pretty excited for his Lego set and had no idea there was more to come!

 Charlie opening his book

Then, we headed to the garage so we could give Ryan his Lego table that Wes had been slaving away over the past few weeks. I think he spent about 10 hours on this masterpiece. I was pretty impressed with how it turned out.

Ryan, checking it out. I think he thanked us each 3 or 4 times over the next 24 hours. He is absolutely loving having it in his room where he can go build all of his sets without his brothers bothering him.

We then headed to GiGi's. When it was time to open gifts, B was such a good helper playing Santa with Allie.

Charlie showing off his cookie. I think he was much more interested in sitting in dad's lap and eating sweets over opening his presents.

 "Anymore presents?!?"

 Just a boy and his puppy. Love this little guy so much!

I don't think this is when B opened his stamp set, but when he did, he was so pumped. He kept going around saying "can't believe me got my own stamp set."

Ryan was pretty pumped for his own official art set (a nice step up from Crayola!) These kids burn through art supplies like they are going out of style. However, I do think we are all set on supplies for a good while. If you could see our art closet, you would think I have my own art school.

This was a pretty big hit. Aunt Megan and Uncle John got the boys some superhero bath towels. These two fight over the same stupid blue towel every night. I am sure Ryan just made a big deal about it once and it stuck. Ever since then, they both want the same towel (for the record, there is absolutely nothing special about this towel at all!), and we have even had to start a rotating system on who gets the towel which night. I am hoping this will solve all towel related problems (or at least until Charlie starts having his own opinion on the matter!).

 Charlie just wasn't having the group photo....

 ...but it sure does make for a humorous picture!!

 B and GiGi

So GiGi was kind enough to get Charlie his own deck chair (like the other two received last Christmas), stained it, and was able to get the same pillow that the boys have as well. This was a pretty big hit with him. I took so many picture because it was just too funny watching him get in and out, put his cup on one side, move it, repeat.

 And he looked like such a bum lounging in the chair!

 Livin the good life

 ...and now I think I will take a drink!

After dessert, we headed home so they boys could get in their Christmas jammies. They opted to read the Polar Express (as we had read T'was the Night Before Christmas that afternoon). Then, it was time to put out the milk and cookies for Santa. Ryan was so cute. He wanted to hand-write the note and pose for the pictures. He truly did just LOVE Christmas this year. That reminds me. I forgot to mention his daily routine (or at least I think I did; forgive me if I already blogged about this). Every morning, Ryan comes down stairs to see where Mr. Ducky has moved, he then pulls out the step ladder to change the Christmas Countdown chalkboard, then turns on both Christmas tree's lights, and finally moves the candy cane on the other Christmas calendar. He likes the routine and it seems to give him a sense of peace! He had anxiously been waiting to start the process from November 20th and was pretty bummed out when there was no more counting down to be had.

 Here is a close up of his note to Santa.

They were pretty excited before bed. B kept asking if he was going to be able to hear the roof bumps when Santa came. Where he came up with that term is beyond me, but oh so cute! They actually all went to bed with no problem and no one woke up all night either! Then, it was time for the elves to go to work (with a cocktail in hand!). Stayed tuned for Christmas morning....

Christmas Festivities

Lots to catch up on from the past few weeks. The week or so leading up to Christmas was filled with quite a few fun activities. It started with Bradley's preschool program. They split out the programs by age group, so just the two's class performed Christmas songs together for about 20 minutes or so. B has been singing Away in a Manger, I wish I was a Christmas Tree and Jingle Bells since Halloween around our house. I knew he was probably going to be pretty serious throughout it all and he did not disappoint. I was hoping to get a pic of us together before we left for school, but he was being shy.

All of the kids lined up very nicely on their tape. It was funny watching them throughout as each kid at some point would look down, then shift back on to their spot. They were trained well. It took B a while to warm up, but about halfway through the program he was in full on hand motion and singing mode. I think through the entire first song he just stared out into the audience and would smile every few seconds (probably because there were so many cameras pointed at the kids, he thought he was posing for pictures for the first 5 minutes; it was so cute).

 Both Two's classes at Grace

 Here is a short clip of Away in a Manger

"Two by Two" was probably the cutest song; watching all the animal hand motions and them shouting "GET ON THAT ARK!" This was B imitating the lion.

He was so cute afterwards and was talking about how there were so many people out there watching him.

 B and his girlfriend, as he frequently refers to her, Hannah.

Decorating gingerbread cookies with his class during their party.

I have to brag on Ryan for a minute. They do a holiday store at the school (more like a fundraiser since all of the stuff is so cheapy) and I sent him with $10 because he really wanted to buy a few things. Well, he came home with nothing for himself, but items for me, Wes, and B. I could tell he put so much thought into them as well. My gift was a purple pair of stud earrings (he said I didn't have that color), he got Wes a coffee mug that said Dad on it (because Dad loves coffee so much and he always sees him bring a mug home from work), and B received a purple pen that smelled like grape (in Ryan's words "B loves to write with pens and loves smelling things"). I was almost brought to tears seeing how thoughtful he had been; it made me so proud of him. Here he is wrapping the mug for Wes. He was so excited!

Ryan didn't have a Christmas party at his school. They did build gingerbread houses, get to wear PJs to school on the last did and attend the holiday sing-a-long. He came home with this cute little piece of artwork one day.

When I asked him whose idea it was, he said he and his little friend Ashley came up with it. Not surprised in the slightest.

We had all of our neighbor friends together at the park one afternoon to play and decorate sugar cookies. They had quite a bit of fun with all of the icing and sprinkles.

Ryan came down with strep throat Sunday morning. Luckily, we were able to get him into a Walgreens clinic, tested and came out with antibiotics super fast. Unfortunately, it meant neither he nor Wes (and Charlie who had a runny nose and we weren't too sure if he was about to come down with it) were able to make it to my aunt Vivian's house for her annual Enchilada Christmas dinner.

B and I went and had a lot of fun. CoCo even brought cupcakes to celebrate his birthday since that was his "actual" birthday as he commonly referred to it all day long.

At one point, he told me "this not feel like me actual birthday!" I am sure part of it was due to the fact Ryan was really sick, so all of our plans for the day got thwarted at the last minute (although he and Wes did at least make a trip to the donut store that morning). He was just as serious as he was at his birthday party while my family sang to him.

 I think he could have eaten a gallon of the icing and it still wouldn't have been enough.

Even Mr. Ducky caught strep throat that night, but it was nothing a few M&Ms and donut holes couldn't fix.

Our nanny brought the boys over the sweetest Christmas gifts. We are now a Snackeez house and I am not sure how we survived prior to them. The boys are obsessed with them.

 One way to this little boy's heart is trucks, cars, and anything with wheels.

On the morning of the 23rd, the boys were still in their PJs and sitting in the living room, so I thought I would snap a few pics of them in front of the tree. Out of all the times I have ever wanted pics of them together, I have never seen Charlie so eager to pose and cooperate. I even pulled out the nice camera!

The couple of shots were on my cell phone before I got out my camera.

 I just love their smiles here (now if only B would learn to keep his eyes open!)

We then headed over to my parents house for some holiday baking. The boys helped my mom make chocolate covered pretzels while I baked a few different types of cookies. Somehow, over 4 hours passed before we were finished!

That evening, we went out for some Mexican food in the 80 degree weather we had this Christmas. Then, we picked up some hot chocolates (because it seemed like the right thing to do) and headed out to go look at Christmas lights. There's a cute neighborhood, called Pin Oak Village, just a few minutes away from us that has great lights. One house in particular even has their own website called ChristmasKaty. The cars line up for it and they have the lights timed to a radio station. It's pretty neat. The kids loved looking at all of the lights and would have probably looked around for hours had we had the time. We will definitely have to get out to a few other neighborhoods next year.

Up next, Christmas Eve festivities!!