Holidays are Exhausting!

Will gave up his afternoon nap several months ago.  We knew it was time because our nighttime battles were just getting totally ridiculous.  Now he goes down without issue most of the time.  He does fall asleep in the afternoons every so often.  I guess the holidays really wore him out because twice in the past few days he took a nap all on his own.  Friday it was in the middle of the living room floor.  Today it was here, in the chair with the cat.  I don't think it gets any sweeter.

Merry Christmas

 The boys came down to find Chewy standing gaurd over their presents from Santa.  After signing Happy Birthday to Jesus the boys dug into their presents.

 Nonna and Nonno were there via Facetime and they were able to see Max's reaction when he opened his present.  It was pretty priceless.  He saw the Mario on the back and looked so sad.  We asked what Santa brought him and he told us a Mario game that would only work on the DS.  When we told him there was a DS in the box his eyes lit up in the sweetest way.  He was even more excited once Daddy got his DS up and running.

For two months this guy has been talking about the slippers he wanted from Santa.  Red slippers to be exact. He was so excited he just couldn't contain himself.  He wore his speical red slippers all day long. 
 I swear Sierra is the sweetest dog on the face of the earth.

 Jack had a rough morning.  He wasn't so sure about all the ruckus.  He jsut wanted to hold the phone so he could see his Nonna better.  

 I think he was just hungry.  After a yummy pancake breakfast he had lots of fun playing with one of his new toys.

I have been making the boys each a photo book for each year.  My goal is to finish all three boys books by Christmas.  I think two out of three isn't too bad.  Jack will have to hold out until his birthday for his.

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 We hosted a little dinner tonight and I can't think of a better way we could have spent our Christmas night.  The cousins as well as Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mark came over.  Of course Nonna and Nonno came, along with Uncle Tim and a close family friend, Mary Ellen.  A small but perfect little dinner.

Graham was so stinkin' cute as Max opened his gift.  He had to tell Max to be extra careful because the game came with a real life laser.  The boys proceeded to chase each other around with the laser later.  

Will is super into pretend play. This Dr. Kit was right up his alley.  Two hours into possession and I think I may be taking the batteries out of the cell phone that came with it.  Another wonderful holiday with our family and friends.  We have more blessings that I could ever count and I do my very best not to take any of them for granted. 

Christmas Eve

 What a wonderful, magical night.  My whole life we have always had our big family celebration on Christmas Eve.  It is so wonderful to see so many of our family members in one place.  It doesn't feel like Christmas until we are getting ready for this party.  The kids had lots of fun playing on the piano. 

 Will has always shown an interest in music and it looks like Jack may follow suit. Luckily their music didn't seem to bother anyone.

 Next year we will host the big celebration.  In some ways I love hosting because it's so easy to just put the kids to bed and just continue the celebration downstairs, but I seriously lack Aunt Carm's decorating skills and don't have backgrounds this gorgeous.

 Poor Jack was having a really rough go of things for a bit there.  Nothing was making him happy.  Not even the super exciting news about a job he has in April!  His godfather, Tony and Allison are getting married and they asked Jack to be the ring bearer!  I was so honored that they want our little one to take part in their big day.  It melts my heart how seriously Tony takes being a godfather.  They had an adorable card made especially for the occasion and they gave Jack this super sweet teddy bear.  I was in complete shock and if I'm honest I even cried a bit :)

 Will brought home some super special reindeer food from school.  So we had to test it out!  The boys were very serious as they sprinkled the food all over the front yard. 

Max loved throwing it up in the air and watching it flutter down.

We decided that Jack was hot so before we knew it all he had on was his onsie and his pants.  So that's how he greeted Santa when he came to the door.  Too funny!

As soon as the big boys heard Santa's special bell they knew the big guy was there!  They both came running upstairs.  Santa was kind enough to let the boys ring his special bell too.  As with most  things these days Max turned it into a competition and had to show that eh could ring the bell the loudest. 

Even Jack got in on the bell ringing.  As long as the bell was in his hands Santa was a pretty okay guy in his eyes.  There was a present for each boys in Santa's big red sack.  They loved it!

Will's Christmas Program

We love, and I mean love, Will's preschool.  We loved Max's program too, but he attended the district I worked in at the time.  With momma being at home, it just wasn't an option. 


Last week we celebrated the holiday with a special Christmas program in the church.  It melted my heart  to hear him up there singing about the miracles of Christmas. He actually sang a bit and did a great job with all of the hand motions.

Jack was a trooper throughout the show and we rewarded him with a yummy little cookie in Will's classroom afterwards.  I think he was good because he was able to spend the whole time on Nonna's lap.


All that singing worked up an appetite for Will!

 

 

Here is super teacher of the year.  Will just loves her to death.  She wrote him a thank you note that we just got on Tuesday.  Will was so excited to get mail and he was even more excited when he realized it was a sparkly card from his teacher.  We have been so impressed with the progress Max has made with her.  Before Will started school he didn't show interest in anything academic until he started school.  Now he always points out letters and counts accurately - rather than just calling out random numbers like he used to.

Holiday Pet Spectacular

We have visited Purnia Farms before and loved it. I found out that they had a holiday event and I was ready to go. Brian found out it was free so he was ready to go too. Although if we are honest there were some rough moments on the way out. Brian threatened to turn the car around while Will screamed and screamed. Eventually we figured out that he didn't want any music and the drive got better.

One side of the building had several different bounce houses.  The boys were in heaven!  I'm always so impressed with Will's climbing.  He is tiny, but strong!  Max flew through the big kid obstacle course with no problems - in fact he started racing random kids through it.  I think he got Brian's competive genes.

After watching the dog show - which was a huge hit - we explroed the other room at the center.  They had several farm animals that the kids could pet and Jack just lvoed it!  He cried when we tried to take him away from his new friends.  Maybe he is a country boy deep inside. 

 Max realized that while he was standing near the chickens one of them laid an egg.  In theory Max knew that eggs came from chickens, but I think seeing it in real life may have scarred him a bit.  I better give up getting him to eat eggs for breakfast, not that I had been successful with this before.

The only charge was for the kids craft area.  The boys were able to decorage their own sugar cookies and I don't think there was any part of those cookies not covered in about an inch of extra sugar.  They ate them in the car on the way home and loved every last bite.

They each made an ornament and a bird feeder as well.  Will was so proud of his bird feeder.  In fact he took it to his speech therapy session on Monday and told Miss Lolo all about it. 

 

Now I just need to do a little research to find another fun holiday actviity for us to visit this weekend!

Santa at the Fire House

Santa and firetrucks.  The stuff little boys dreams are made of.  On Saturday the fire department had an open house with Santa to collect toys for Toys for Tots.  The kids were pretty excited about going.  The line was crazy slow, but Santa was super sweet and Jack didn't even scream.  He just gave us a little 'help me' type look.  Progress compared to last week.

 

Santa was really sweet, especially with Max.  He listened intently to what Max had to say and gave him a bit of advice.  Write me a letter in case I don't remember.

Jack was a trooper.  I think a big part of his good attitude was the chocolate cookies they were passing out while we waited in line.

 Max and Will liked the cookies too :)

When we arrived there were several tables with coloring sheets and crayons.  I asked Max if he wanted to color a picture while we waited and he was quick to tell me no.  Then another boy told him it was a contest.  Whoever colors the best picture gets a ride to school on a fire truck.  Well you didn't have to tell Max twice.  He was all about it.  Today he even asked if they called yet.  I have to say this really is his best coloring ever.

The biggest hit of hte day for Will?  This fire hat.  He loves this thing.  He has been wearing it all over the house.  Last night before bed he put on a pair of my garden gloves - unused thank goodness - his hat, his snowboots, and a lunch bag.  He then informed us that we were safe becuase he was there to "do the hard work and fight the fire".  This morning when he came to our room he had all his gear on again and was ready to go.  Good to know we are so well protected.

Breakfast with Santa

Well that was fun.  Lots of family, lots of chaos, and lots of fun.  We met up with Aunt Carm, Uncle Mike, Nonno, and some other family members at our old church for mass and breakfast with Santa.  It always makes me smile because it's where Brian and I were married and where Max was baptized.  Not to mention the fact that is beautiful . . . I think Brian just like the lightning speed 40 minute mass.

 I'm still holding out hope that someday, somehow I will get a picture with all three boys smiling - or maybe at least looking at the camera. 

The line to see Santa took a little while.  There were lots of boys and girls very eager to see the big guy.  Poor Jack was exhausted and very cranky.  I didn't hold out much hope that he would like Santa very much and I was right.

 Max was so brave and didn't have any problems with Santa.  Will has been terrified the past two years, but today he did great.  He let Santa hold him and it was adorable.  As Nonna says he is growing up.  While I love watching the boys grow sometimes when I get reminders of how quickly they change it makes me sad. 

I don't think Jack really liked me much better than Santa at this point in the day.

And he really didn't want Aunt Carm holding him.  This picture just cracks me up.  The more she screamed the more she laughed.  You would think she was torturing the poor guy. 

Just for the record he got a great nap and was very happy for the rest of the day :)

Gardenland Express

The past few years we have taken time out the day before Thanksgiving to visit the Gardenland Express exhibit.  This year we went the day after :)  This train and flower exhibit is one of my favorite holiday outings.

It was so much fun!  Last year was all food related - and it was a bit lame.  This year was so much better!  They focused on changes in the garden over time.  There were lots of pictures from long ago compared to today.  I even think Max got a bit of a history lesson out of the whole thing.

 As in years past there was a scavenger hunt for the kids to complete.  Both Will and Max took this task very seriously.

I feel like Max is just looking so grown up lately.  I'm going to blink and he will be in high school and driving.

 

 Jack has so much fun exploring everything!  It was tough to try to keep him from pulling the flowers, but he just couldn't contain his excitement.  I just love those big blue eyes and that wild, pin straight, super fine hair of his.

When Nonna is around he wants nothing to do with me.  On Friday that love extended over to Nonno too.  Jack was pointing out all kinds of things to his Nonno and jibber jabbering away about it all.

 

 

 Then there was our man in the middle.  As I mentioned, he took his scavenger hunt task very seriously.  So seriously that he refused to let me take his picture. 

 Whenever I tried I ended up with something like this.  Which was actually pretty cute because he would just laugh and laugh.

We tried to get a shot of all three boys, I guess I will have to settle for this.  Aren't they just too sweet!  I love them to pieces!

 I love the holidays, it is such a joyful time of the year and there are so many fun things to do!  Tonight we read the Elf of the Shelf before bed.  I think our little Elfie may return from the north pole to keep an eye on the boys.  We did this last year and it was so much fun!  I can't wait until the boys wake up in the morning to see if Elfie returned.