Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.

12/25/2008 - The boys were thrilled to see that Santa brought Nick his "bad-knight-and-good-knight-castle-with-bad-knights-and-good-knights" and Alex got his big wooden pirate ship. Despite that there was an entire room full of presents to open, we had to coax them (particularly Nicholas) away from these toys. It was almost an hour after we got up before any other presents were opened.

Once he started opening presents, Alex did not want to rest until everyone was open. They were so excited when Nana and Pop-pop came by to bring more presents!

Alex loves all of his new Fireman clothes

12/24/2008- Christmas Eve at Aunt Jenn's and Uncle Ryan's. Cassie liked her new food, but Alex and Nick were so sad to see the play food go to her. They wanted to keep it for themselves. Alex was kind enough to tell her what it was before she opened it.
Michael opening some presents. Aunt Jenn and the boys are in the background getting ready to open their great big present.
I'll have to get the video of this up. They were so happy to get Spike the Dinosaur!

Aunt Jenn even let them decorate a gingerbread house.

Indoor Energy Expenditure

12/21/2008 It is stinkin' cold outside, and though it will be regretted at some point in the near future, the "No Jumping Off the Furniture" rule was lifted so the boys could burn off some energy.Lots of pillows, yoga mats and blankets make the rough play a little less painful than usual.
Nick LOVES to jump.

Getting ready for Santa

12/19/2008 The boys love to "clean" which consists of playing with warm water and (theoretically) non-breakable dishes in the sink. LOTS of dishwashing detergent is required.

Nick looks like he is really cleaning!
The added benefit is that they splash so much water on the floor, that it sorta looks freshly mopped when they are done and after I dry it off. How's that for a win-win?

12/14/08 Here we are decorating cookies for Santa

OK - not much decorating happened. Nick just ate a lot of frosting.

Santa Visit

11/30/2008 - Smiling with Santa. Nick is on the left; Alex is on the right.

They also "rode" their first roller coaster. Nicholas rode 3 times in a row.

It is a fun little roller coaster simulator at the mall. He liked the racers from Cedar Point the best.

And he flew the helicopter.

Train Table

11/12/2008 - The boys finally got their train table set. This is what we bribbed them with to get them to pee and poop in the potty. Now that they have been pretty reliable for several months, I had to pay up.
They kept it nice for about 3 days, and then the first tornado went through. Daddy has rebuilt it a few times for them, but it continues to be destroyed by severe weather.

Halloween

10/31/2008 Trick or Treat at Nana's and Pop-pop's. Nick is Captain Hook and Alex is Peter Pan.


Waving at a train.

They didn't do much trick-or-treating. We had practiced all week, but as we were getting out of the car at Nana's and Pop-pop's, they saw an older kid with a scary mask, and it really freaked them both out. We went home for a little trick-or-treating, and Alex did pretty well, but Nick wanted to turn back at the first scary house, which was the second house down from ours.

10/26/2008 All the kids at Michael's and Cassie's Halloween Party. Nick didn't want to hold the pose.

But he did want to boink Vampire Mickey on the nose
Trick or trunk at Nana's and Pop-pop's church. We were too early for the trick-or-trunking.

We also went to Boo at the Zoo that day. It's been fun every year so far.
Monkeys pretending to be a tiger and a frog.


The haunted train -- which is exactly the same as the non-haunted train that you can ride every other day of the year.

Alex sitting with Daddy.

The boys driving the boat at the Manatee exhibit.

Circle S Farm

10/11/2008 - On the way in to Circle SDaddy and Nick

Nick "driving the tractor."
They have a huge barn completely filled with bales of hay for climbing and slides. The entire barn was so soft and squishy to walk through -- the boys just loved it.

And the hay slides were the best!!

Nick found his pumpkin -- we're still a few years away from the you-find-it-you-carry-it rule. Alex went for a big one!

The hay ride back was fun!

Nick likes to be tall.

When it was time for snack, the boys really fought us. They didn't want to stop playing. But, once they tried the freshly made donuts, they were quite content. And they downed nearly that whole bottle of water.

This was the one activity that made me a little nervous. It's a maze with a top on it, so only little ones can go through. The one rule is not to climb on the sides of it, so of course, the first time I see Alex, he is in the middle, where I can't get to him, and he is climbing on the sides.

The boys, of course, loved it.

Playing outside in the Fall

10/5/2008 - The boys are fixing the mower
Nicholas is mowing the grass

I always worry when I see them suddenly quiet down and focus on something.

But, they are looking rather innocent.

Turns out, they were just checking out a grasshopper on the play house.

Aunt Evelyn's Visit - Also over a month ago

Pre-kids, when Aunt Evelyn would come to visit from California it meant that we'd have an additional fun and interesting person to spend time with. Now that we have kids, it means that we get together with the family and closely monitor all of the boys playing with each other in hopes of avoiding a trip to the ER. 9/21/2008 - Although, perhaps it's not all the kids' faults. Here is the fun new game we played at Nana's. Start at the top of the hill with 2 big boys (Michael and Nicholas) in the wagon, one little girl (Cassie) on a very small big wheel and one big boy (Alex) running around throwing a fit because it's not yet his turn.
On the count of 3, give them all a big push. Thank goodness this time the wagon didn't turn and head for Cassie, like it did last time.
And then let the wagon crash into the shed. Then reload and repeat.

9/20/2008 Nick pulling Cassie in the wagon. Very nice.
Boys pulling each other in the wagon. Can't just pull in a normal way - must use pirate hook and light saber.

9/14/2008 - Aunt Evelyn wanted to throw a big combined birthday party for all the little ones, since she was here visiting. My children, who absolutely adore Chuck E Cheese (well at least playing there), are terrified of the big rat.

Alex's body language says it all.

This is Nick hiding under my chair.

We had to leave right after this. Unfortunately, it was right when that big wind storm hit - the one that knocked out power to most of the city for days. We had a scary drive home (lots of trees down, all the traffic lights were out, and branches were falling on the car). We were home for about 45 minutes before we lost our power. Luckily, we were only without power for about 10 hours. Some parts of the city were out for a week.

9/13/2008 - Playing at Aunt Diane's house. My Aunt Diane hosted a big family dinner in honor of Aunt Evelyn's arrival. The boys loved Aunt Diane's house, and asked to go back everyday for the next week.

They have a supremely cool sand box.

This is Jacob, Nick's and Alex's second cousin, holding Nicholas right before he got reprimanded at for doing so.

Michael and Nick in the hammock with Alex pushing.