Christmas Post Awaits

We're still in Kansas still celebrating Christmas still taking pictures!! The Christmas post will come soon enough!

Mommy Moments

1)  Grant is very into Levi and I telling him stories about when we were kids. Lately, as we're in the car listening  to Christmas music, he'll ask us to tell him a memory we have about the song we're listening to. When O Come All Ye Faithful came on, Levi told Grant a story about how his family was at a Christmas church function and his brother, Zach, broke his arm while the kids were playing in the basement as the grownups were talking in the church. During the next song, Grant said, "Oh, I have a story about this song." He proceeded to tell almost the exact same story Levi just told him. In his story he said, "The kids were all acting crazy and running around while all the grownups were still churching."

2)  We were driving around looking at Christmas lights and Grant said, "I like the lights that are dumb."  I asked, "What do you mean?"  His response: "You know, the lights that aren't very bright."  Me: "Oh, you mean the lights that are DIM?"  (Levi jokingly said, well things that are dumb usually aren't very bright!) 

3)  The boys and I were leaving McDonald's one day and there was an old motorcycle guy (think ZZ Top) sitting at the booth by the door. He had on a raggedy bandanna, sunglasses, biker gloves, and had a scraggly grayish/white beard. Wyatt stops dead in his tracks, points to him, and says, "HO HO HO!"

Oh, these moments make me laugh each and every day!!

My cooky little boys!!

Oh, Silly Shed!

Day 13- Shed thought my vase of Christmas ornaments was a ball pit! 

Day 14- Shed made the boys a Christmas card using their markers!

Day 15- Shed read this book ALL DAY LONG! Must have been a good read!

Day 16- Shed thought sitting on the lamp was the best place to watch Christmas movies!

Day 17- Shed sat on the tree on the morning we opened Santa's presents!! He sure had fun helping Santa unload the boys' presents from his sleigh!

Day 18- All the Christmas from the day before must have worn Shed out, because he made a sleeping bag and pillow out of kitchen towels. Poor little elf, so tired!

Christmas Came...Early!

Someday, we will wake up at our own house on Christmas morning, celebrate as a family before going to gather with the rest of our families. Someday....not this day. Because this year, Christmas came today!! We are heading to Kansas in a few weeks to spend the holiday with our families, so we wanted to have our own little family Christmas before we left. But go figure, the Navy always has a way of changing any plan we make! Luckily Santa is flexible and rolls with the Navy's punches. Levi was supposed to go out of town this weekend, leaving us with our planned Christmas next weekend, just a few days before heading to Kansas. Well at the last minute, his trip got moved from this weekend to next weekend. Which means, Santa had to come this weekend! We paid Santa a little visit Friday morning, so the boys were very excited he was going to come early!!! After watching Christmas cartoons every night since the day after Thanksgiving, the boys have been enthralled in all things Christmas, so they knew just what to do!! We made chocolate chips cookies for Santa yesterday to set out on his plate. We also left the reindeer some carrots and Santa some chocolate milk- his favorite, according to Grant. We also left Santa's Magic Key on the front porch, so Santa could get in, since we don't have a fireplace. When the boys woke up this morning, they came down to see Santa's perfect presents he picked out for them- Grant got his Imaginext Ocean Boat and Wyatt got a bouncy dog! Their faces lit up!! Grant gasped and said, "My ocean boat! I've always wanted that forever and ever!"  We unwrapped the rest of the presents from Mommy and Daddy and we couldn't have picked out better gifts! Each present was greeted with smiles and giggles!!! We spent the rest of the morning playing and watching the Polar Express!! It was a perfect early Christmas!! Now, we are sooo excited to go home and be with the rest of our family!!!

Mommy Moment

Tonight, we were watching a cartoon about the story of Jesus. During the part where the angel appeared to the shepherds, I said to Grant, "Wow! That must be really neat to see an angel. Have you ever seen an angel?"  He said, "Oh, sure I have. We just saw the Blue Angels."

Christmas Joy

Watching my boys enjoy Christmas as much as I do brings such joy to my heart!!

Christmas Riverwalk

Last night, we went to the San Antonio Riverwalk, which is all lit up for Christmas! The past few years we've always gone to St. Augustine, Florida Night of Lights and we were hoping this would live up to those high expectations! It was pretty, but I guess nothing compares to St. Augustine! But we had a great time nonetheless!! We got downtown pretty early so parking wouldn't be a hassle! We had a yummy dinner at Chili's (although I could've done without the 5 timeouts Wyatt needed to have!) and then headed to the river to get our boat tickets! There are riverboats that drive you around and tell you about all the sights and history. This is where we expected it to get Christmasy. We were hoping for some Christmas carols or something, but no such luck!! There were 250 trees lit up and lots of other pretty lights going on, so the boys definitely enjoyed looking! Hearing about the history of the Riverwalk was pretty neat too! The boat tour lasted about 30 minutes or so. I'm glad we did it, even though it wasn't as Christmasy as we were hoping!! It was still a night of family fun!!
(I wish I would've studied a little more about my camera settings so I could have made these shots even more beautiful!! Maybe next year!!)

I wonder if Enid will have anything special for us to do next year?!?!? 

Visit with Santa

We just got home from our visit with Santa! The boys were very excited, or so they said. I was skeptical! But seriously, they both walked right up to him with smiles and Grant immediately said, "I want a new Batcave." Wyatt just smiled at him! And this Santa has had one too many cookies, if you catch my drift, so he didn't really have a lap to sit on. So Wyatt squeezed on one knee and Grant got to stand. But their cute smiles came right out for the camera, and of course- Wyatt's "cute" face he always makes!! They got their candy canes and waved goodbye! It took all of 3 minutes, from start to finish- no lines, no waiting for pictures. Just finished!! I brought the less than stellar designed picture home and did a little tweaking! And I think the final product turned out great!! 

Ho! Ho! Ho!!

Must Brag

Is my camera cool, or what?!?! I read a little tidbit on Pinterest (DUH!) that I just had to try out!! I can't wait to get a pic of the tree with my little boys in front!! If only our tree wasn't 4 feet tall, it would be a heck of a lot cooler!

You can see my boys' homemade ornaments! :)

Gingerbread Tree

This was a total spur of the moment activity, but one I had planned to do at some point this month. The boys and I had gone to Michael's to pick up a few things for a project I am going to work on. Grant saw all the gingerbread kits and asked if we could get one. I knew the house would just be a pain in the rear, so I opted for the Christmas tree which looked oh-so-simple...and it was! We mixed the frosting, stacked the cookies, and decorated! TA-DA!! Grant was only interested in licking the frosting from the beaters and eating the little candies out of the bowl. Wyatt just wanted me to hold him and leave the gingerbread tree alone. So what started off as 100% Grant's idea, turns out I did 99% of the work and 100% of the cleanup!! As with most things in life!

Shed's Shenanigans

Day 9- I guess Shed decided to fly the Little People plane back to the North Pole instead of using his Christmas Magic to fly. Kinda lazy if you ask me! :)

Day 10- Shed was waiting in our Christmas card holder, hoping to receive some Christmas cards in the mail. He LOVES getting Christmas cards!

Day 11- Shed enjoyed watching us make our gingerbread Christmas tree. But I guess he thought it needed a little more decorations, so he got to work!

Day 12- I guess its true that one of the elves main food groups is syrup! Shed made some tiny pancakes upon his return from the North Pole. Little elves do get hungry!

St. Nicholas Day

St. Nicholas came last night while the boys were sleeping! Grant was very curious about St. Nicholas. Apparently he doesn't remember him coming the past two years. So we talked about what a giving and kind person he was. In order to differentiate between St. Nicholas and Santa Claus, I told Grant that St. Nicholas is Jesus' helper and he brings toys to little boys and girls who love Jesus. I told him about Nicholas giving all his toys away when he was a kid so other kids could have toys! He connected with that immediately since we had just made a donation of old toys yesterday! He thought that was pretty cool!

So before bed last night, the boys set their shoes out, we read a story about St. Nicholas and went to bed! Grant was so excited to see that St. Nicholas brought him a Batman Adventure set!!! Wyatt was a little bummed he didn't get a set too, but how was St. Nicholas to know he wouldn't appreciate a book from his FAVORITE author?!? Oh well!!  

I hope I can teach my boys the giving spirit like St. Nicholas has!

Fun with Shed

Santa's little helper has been quite busy these past few days!! On Day 4, Shed hid in our Christmas pockets, trying to tell us that Advent was starting! On Day 5, he was perched on our painting so he had a great view of the whole downstairs! On Day 6, he must have been hungry on his flight home from the North Pole because he snuck into some Hershey Kisses and DIDN'T throw his wrappers away. Grant wasn't sure why Shed would make such a mess and not clean it up! :)  Then Day 7, he was lounging on our new ornament holder. Grant thought he was thinking of something "super important!" And Day 8 brought another yummy snack for Shed, a candycane!!

I have to admit, its already getting hard thinking about places to put Shed. Our downstairs is large, but it lacks "places" to put anything. And I most definitely cannot put him anywhere within reach of Wyatt because I know he would touch him and then Grant would be hysterical if Shed's magic got taken away!! 

We'll see what other fun things Shed does in these next few weeks! Stay tuned...

Sickies

My little boys have had quite the sickies the past few days. Wyatt especially!!! It all started Tuesday night when Wyatt was up EVERY 30 MINUTES crying, coughing, wheezing, all feverish. He was a mess!! I ultimately decided an ER visit would be best, as opposed to *hoping* our Peds. clinic could squeeze us in (which they never can!). So I got Grant up at 6am and had to drag him along with us, since Levi had already left for work. It wasn't as horrible of an experience as I had expected, but it was still a long one. They did a chest X-ray on our little buddy, as they heard wheezing in his  left lung. They suspected pneumonia. After that came back clear, they decided it was Bronchiolitis (or croup), so they did a breathing treatment and oral steroids to give his lungs a boost! They sent us home with a pharmacy bag full of stuff!!  Unfortunately, nothing has seemed to help so far! The little guy still hasn't slept much and is coughing up a storm and running fevers constantly! 

Then, Grant came down with a fever yesterday morning and has been running a pretty steep one as well! He has a doctor appointment this evening, so we'll see what that turns up! But through it all, they've been snuggly, happy boys (for the most part!). Now if only we could get some sleep around here!!!!