Staying Busy

All right, I promised myself I was going to post something tonight, so even if it means I have to prop my eyes open with a few shots of espresso, gosh darn it I am getting this done tonight... With what, I'm not exactly sure, but it seems like we have been busier than ever here. I guess its just that time of year when we get caught up with all the hustle and bustle of the holidays. My in-laws were down for a week and spent Thanksgiving with us. The boys really loved seeing them and their cousin, Holden, since they only see them about twice a year. (And I really enjoyed having just a little bit of free time while they played with the kids).



Here's a random picture of Calvin, enjoying one of the first cool days we had down here. We're so excited to get to wear pants and long sleeves.







As soon as Thanksgiving dinner was over we put up the tree and started decorating. Five days later I was about done. And now that I've had a few weeks to enjoy the decorations I can say that it is very nice to be in my own house at Christmas. It's hard to belive, but this is actually the first time in the last three years that we will be home for the holidays. We have a beautiful, 9 foot tree (Dave's choice, not mine). I made the mistake of wrapping presents and actually putting them under the tree ahead of time, not realizing that this would be pure torture to a 3 year old who just LOVES presents. Now I hear daily, "Mom, I want to open a present. I can't wait until Christmas, it's too far away." (imagine a very whiny voice) Which then turns into a threat, "Mom, I'm just going to open all of these presents." (demanding voice) Which then leads to my own threat of "If you open a present, I am giving all of them away..." Day, after day, after day - the exact same thing. I'll try to remember that next year. But hey, a closet can only hold so much.



Since we have no fireplace, we made our own. We took one of the (many) boards Dave had lying around the garage, painted it red, added some blocks for bricks and voila, a fireplace to hang our stockings on. Okay, so Dave did most of the work, but I came up with the idea, and painted it (well, the red part). I thought it turned out great.





Here's Calvin by the tree. His pajamas say "I've been good all year". Ha!







I got him doing the whole "I can't wait" thing.






The first weekend in December, Dave's squadron had a children's Christmas Party. They had a bounce house, a T-34 to sit in, face painting, cookie decorating, and of course, Santa. The boys had a great time. Here they are, waiting for Santa to come.



Santa rides in style, taxiing in on a T-34. By the way, is this not the skinniest Santa you've ever seen? Get that man some cookies...

Decorating/eating the cookies.
Calvin and I made a gingerbread house one day (totally from a kit). He was so excited to do it so we waited until Luke was napping, got everything out and sat down to work. As it turns out, I was the only one working. Calvin was really just excited about the candy. So I squeezed icing on and carefully placed little candies around while Calvin said "Mom, can I eat this? Mom, I'm going to have some of that..." Here is the finished product.

Looks great, right? You should have seen it two days later. Apparently I was off in my own world when Calvin mentioned that he was going to eat the gingerbread house. I walked into the kitchen one night and noticed the bites going up and down the edges of the roof... I think he wanted some icing...

We went to my sister's last weekend for my niece and nephew's birthday. Here's a Luke, coloring with the big girls. What you can't see are the three large blue marks on his face and arm that lasted for three whole days.



Sweet little Luke. It is fascinating to watch his personality emerge more and more every day. As much as Calvin is crazy, Luke is a little sweetheart. He loves to give kisses (and will turn your head to make sure he gets you right on the mouth) and has started walking up to you and giving hugs as well. He can repeat just about anything we say. For some reason he says "Claus" instead of Santa and will point out every single Santa he sees when we are out. He has also started saying "Luke" when I ask him what his name is (although it comes out more like "Wook"). And apparently, he is starting to develop his own fashion sense as well. One day I got out his blue shoes to put on him. He said "No" and pushed the shoes away, then went to the basket, picked out his brown shoes and brought them back, took the blue shoes back to the basket, then came back and sat down. I'm pretty sure he's too young to have an opinion about shoes.

Here's Cal in another of his outfits. I actually picked this one, but I intended the t-shirt to be an undershirt. He decided that he would much rather put the sweater on first, and the t-shirt on top. After much resistance, I finally gave in. He's very particular about his shirts and lately has been insisting on tucking in his sweaters. Yes, I have the kid with pants pulled up to his armpits, sweater tucked in. And we go out like that. All the time.

A couple of fun videos of Luke.