Girls can build too!

Preston got Lincoln Logs for Christmas and last week we opened them for the first time. I thought the boys would have a great time building all sorts of log cabins. But neither of them wanted to try. They only wanted me to build one of the "suggested" forts on the box. Let me tell you, after about 30 minutes and lots of repairs I finally finished. Those log creations sure are involved! I knew no one would believe me when I told them about my creation so I took pictures for proof. Not too shabby, huh?



I don't think we had windows and doors with our sets when I was growing up.

I will say that when this got knocked down a little piece of me was sad. Now I've had more practice and it doesn't take me so long. I guess being a boy mom I'm going to need to be good at building all sorts of things from Lincoln Logs to legos and even play forts out of blankets (which I have been trying to perfect). Preston is just now getting brave and trying to build on his own, next time he does I'll take a picture for all to see.

Yummy for My Tummy

Holden has been such a blessing to us. He is so content and happy. He smiles even when he might be running 103 degree fever (which happened last week). Next week he'll be six months and I have been feeling bad that we hadn't started him eating cereal. How can we get ready for fruits and vegetables is we haven't even begun rice cereal? Although, I must say that I've been a little worried about starting food because I know that once you start you have to keep going and I've got to rearrange my schedule to work in feeding him solids and having extra time to clean up the mess we make in learning how to eat. In hopes that filling his little tummy might help him sleep all night, last Thursday we decided to try some cereal. For his first attempt eating from a spoon I think he did extremely well. Here are a few pictures to document the event.

Bib on and ready to go.

First bite!

He really tried to open his mouth for each bite.

Sometimes it didn't all go in.

But overall he seemed to like trying something other than a liquid. I'll end this post with this video- he's just so sweet!

Christmas Day

We spent Christmas day in Frisco at Gram and Pop's house. They were so excited to pull the kids around on this little sled. As you can tell by Elic's face, they all loved it!

We opened stockings and then the kids opened all their gifts.

This little xylophone was a favorite among all the kids.

Preston got a Spiderman bike complete with a helmet and knee and elbow pads. Now we just need to work on peddling.

Preston loves his superhero book. That has been his choice of a bedtime story for the past week.

Team work

We can't wait to use this tent. I think we're going to set it up in the living room Friday for the boys to test it out. Thank you Aunt Crystal and Uncle Sammy!

Saying "Thank you"

Darren's only missing one boy to have the complete family on the couch (can you see Holding on the left?). Jersey seemed so nervous all day being with us- but then again, he's always nervous.

This is happy little Holden. He played on the floor (almost) the entire time we ate dinner. He's just so precious!
Christmas is always a jammed packed time of year, but we had such a wonderful time with all the family. We can't wait to see what 2010 holds in store for us.

Christmas morning

It was wonderful to have our first Christmas at the house. Preston woke up around 6:30 but we had him get in our bed and watch TV with us until Elic woke up. He kept saying "Santa brought me just what I wanted!" Here's a few snapshots of our morning.
F.Y.I. we had to take the stockings off their hooks because they were too heavy to stay on the mantle. I guess that's a good problem to have but it doesn't look as pretty.




Preston's monkey, Bananas, from Build-A-Bear got a batman costume complete with gloves and a cape!
Elic's bunny, Hops, from Build-A-Bear got a football outfit with a helmet and football.

Holden's new giraffe lovie.

I can't wait to play with the Lite-Brite. I LOVED that toy when I was a kid.

More super hero toys.

I loved how perfect the morning went. We opened all the Santa gifts and stockings. Then, the boys played with some of their new toys while I made our Christmas breakfast, which included homemade cinnamon rolls in the shape of a Christmas tree. We had round two of gift opening with presents from Mom and Dad. Then we all got dressed, took a few last pictures and headed out to Gram and Pop's house. Couldn't have been more relaxing.

Thought I'd throw this picture in. The boys "decorated" under the tree since all the gifts were gone. I've learned that "decorated" means put a whole bunch of toys around. While it was kinda a cute idea, guess who cleaned up all those decorations?

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we headed over to my mom's house. The past few years we have tried to do "Christmas Around the World" so that we don't have the same meal we had for Thanksgiving. We've explored Mexico, Italy, China. This year we had a luau. I know Hawaii isn't a country, but it was still fun. Our dinner included homemade mango bread (sooo yummy) and ham and pineapple kabobs. My brother, Trey, went to three different party stores but had no luck finding us some Hawaiian accessories to wear. We did play Jimmy Buffett's "Mele Kalikimaka" several times to set the mood. The kids did a great job of eating and then taking all the family pictures before opening presents.

All Nana's grandkids: Samantha, Holden, Elic and Preston.

Our "party of five"

The whole gang. It was great to have Richard and Jim with us this year.

Melissa, Samantha, and Trey.

Do you think I look like either of my brothers?

Preston waiting for the "go" signal.

Elic and his stash.

Preston's Christmas definitely had a transformer/super hero theme to it.

And Elic's was all about Handy Manny.

I love this picture. Preston would open a gift and then place it in a line that stretched all the way down the hall. That is SOOOO something Darren would do!

The aftermath.

Holden seemed to enjoy the music and all the entertainment the night brought. Isn't that smile precious? We ended the night with a few rounds of UNO and then headed home to set out cookies and milk for Santa. The boys even braved the snow to sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn. I wonder what kind of Christmas theme we'll have next year. Any suggestions?

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

This was our first Christmas at our new house. We enjoyed decorating for the season, although we found that we really don't own much to decorate with (we'll have to start collecting over the next few years). But here are a few pictures of our home dressed for the holidays.Our live Christmas tree full of kid ornaments. I've told Darren that while the boys are young we'll do the tree with all their homemade ornaments and when they go off to college, then I can have my pretty color-coordinated tree. I found a tip in a magazine that suggested using a different color wrapping paper for each child so that passing gifts out Christmas morning is made simple. That would have been nice to know BEFORE I wrapped gifts for both boys using both green and red for each of them. Something to try next year.
Thank you Stephanie for helping to make my plain home look fabulous all by using pretty ribbon and bows! Seriously, I was sad to take down the ribbon garland because I felt it added a warmth to our house that I am already missing.
Look at all those stockings! My mom said that if we have another child we'll have to move to a house that has a bigger mantle. Just a fun fact: the basket on the left of the fireplace holds small stumps from all the Christmas trees we've cut down. We've written one special fact about the year on each of them. So far they are mostly sayings like "Nyles first Christmas", "Jersey's first Christmas", Preston's, Elic's, and Holden's. We only have one stump with a year we didn't get a new animal or have a baby and that was a year we took a big trip to Oregon.
I know this is a horrible picture, but I was so happy that Darren (and Mark) put up lights on the house (and in the dark on the coldest night in December, no less). Next year we'll add lights around the walkway and bushes.

I thought all-in-all this was a nice beginning to our holiday decorating. I have a running list of ideas for next year- Darren beware!