Merry Christmas!!

Hard to believe Christmas has come and gone already! We had a great time as always in the days leading up to Christmas. This is a long post since it covers most of the month of December!

The boys had to take a silly pic at Kids in the Rotunda. We didn't get to as many as we wanted to before their winter break, but we'll try to get to more in the second session.

The boys were being silly and running around the house with the largest stuffed animals on their backs. Sam had the biggest one that we have.

Joey and Sam decided to have matching attire for decorating for Christmas. Shorts, Westside Wildcats shirts, tiger socks and spiky hair.

We visited G&G and Maebel was there too, so we took her outside to try to get her tired to take a nap. It didn't really work!

Joey pushed her around in the stroller and then took her blanket! She just goes with the flow though and really didn't care.

This was going to be our Christmas card picture, but I changed my mind.

We went to a pancake breakfast, and Santa and Mrs Claus were there. Joey was too nervous to go up to them, but Sam went and started talking right away.

Sam's school had a cookie decorating party. Sam loaded up his cookie and enjoyed it!

The boxes from the Christmas deliveries made for great fun. They have been houses, forts for Nerf gun wars, towers and obstacles!

One attempt at a picture by the tree.

The boys and I got to go to Brunch with Santa this year with G&G, Jay and Maebel. Maebel was in awe of it all.

Here is one side of the table.

 And here's the other!

Standing by the beautiful decorations.

Maebel was not a fan of sitting on Mrs Claus' lap (or Santa's for that matter).

 

We made cutout cookies, and both boys did a great job. They rolled, cut and decorated.

 We went to Cookies with Santa with the Park and Rec, and they had some fun cutouts to take pictures with again.

 Joey's face is too funny in this one!

The finished product!

The same day as Cookies with Santa, Joey got a Math Wizard award at school, he got to eat lunch with 3 of his friends in the guidance counselor's office, and he got the Logosaurus at LOGOS. Needless to say, he was a very happy boy having pretty much the perfect day!

Some pictures of what he and the Logosaurus did. Since Joey got him on Hawaiian night, he added a lei to the assortment of items.

On the 23rd we celebrated with G&G Hyland, Jay and Amanda and Maebel.  We had it at Jay & Amanda's since they were leaving the next day for Texas and had some appointments earlier in the day.

Sam thought that Grandma needed to have the polar bear on her head.

We got Maebel a tea set, and she loved carrying the cups and handing them out (and taking them back) :)

We got Mom and Dad tickets to Daniel O'Donnell in June.

G&G even brought the rocking chair from Monroe so that the kids could get their annual picture in it.

We finally got to celebrate Grandpa's birthday too.

Joey and Maebel danced to the Holderness family. Maebel loved it. She would come back to Joey with her arms up for him to dance again.

 Taking a little break to watch Peppa Pig's Christmas.

Tired out on the way home.

The next day was Christmas with G&G Rikli.

Sam and Grandpa were being silly.

Sam decided we needed to use the pink dishes for Christmas so we did!

We put the cookies out for Santa. The boys decorated all of these except the penguin, which was mine that they said I had to include. The dark green cookie on the top right has so much frosting and sprinkles that it just kind of became a rock of sugar.

G&G Rikli took the boys to look at lights, and when they came back Santa had come!

We had a pirate attend the festivities.

Grandma made lots of cute, yummy desserts. The snowman cake looked so cool!

Christmas day we went to church and then came home and spent the rest of the day in our jammies. We watched a couple movies and made a lot of Lego sets.

Sam had to be silly in his Christmas jammies.

Joey got Wethead from Santa and wanted to try it. It is his kind of game!

Sam played too, and was very proud because he never pulled the pin that would give him a wet head!

Hopefully we can finish Christmas break with a few more fun things. Joey got a 24 hour bug in the middle of the week, so as long as the rest of us can escape it, we can hopefully squeeze a few more things in.

Happy New Year, and we look forward to a great 2017!

More of November

The last post ended with part of Sam's birthday but didn't cover the actual day of his birthday. I was off all day so while Daddy was hunting, Sam and I went to get a bagel and then went to Prairie Kids Club. Sam got right to it!

He had the most fun playing in this little car and pretending to go on calls for emergencies.

We then went to the "soup place" for lunch. Sam told the man working there that it was his birthday and the man was very nice to Sam. Then as we were leaving, the store owner came out and said, "I hear it's Sam's birthday today. Here is a free coupon for a kids meal." Sam was THRILLED.

When we got home, he had his last present waiting for him. Minecraft Legos!

I got to be snack helper at school with Sam, and he had a great day.

Ready for snack and waiting for the kids to come in from outside. We got to go inside early to set up.

Sam chose strawberries, popcorn and chocolate milk to bring for his snack.

Sam got to be the Super Helper since it was his birthday which meant that any kid unable to perform their job, he got to do. He got to be the meteorologist since the meteorologist was currently still eating his snack :)

Dr. and Mrs Breadon invited us to join them at Mt Olympus in their suite for the night. The boys had So much fun. G&G Hyland and the Breadons had to leave early Saturday morning for an Optimist meeting, and the waterpark and theme park didn't open until 10am so we had some lounging time watching cartoons and playing with Minecraft characters.

We hit the arcade at about 9am because the boys could not sit still anymore!

Sam started with the Star Wars game.

After that we hit up the theme park. This ride was a hit with both boys this time. Sam hadn't tried it before, but he loved it.

This is where they spent the most time. There are tons of light soft balls that you can shoot out of air cannons and climb on this structure. Both were red faced and sweaty after being in here!

Sam got invited to Kona's birthday party at Prairie Kids Club. He had so much fun. Kona is in a different 4K class this year, but that didn't bother them.

Just like last year, Sam managed to sit next to the birthday boy. It was a fun time!