Celebrate {Nolan's Birthday Party}

The weekend before Nolan's birthday (1-17-12) we had a celebration at our house with much of our extended family. My mom baked him this fabulous dump truck cake and we also had a ton of cupcakes (there are a lot of us needing to eat). Nolan loved the flame on the candle and after that was gone was way more interested in the donut wheels...so Grandma gave him one. He also consumed a cupcake (the kid is happy as long as you keep the food coming). Last event of the day was opening presents...he got spoiled of course and like any one year old was more interested in playing then opening the next one.

Mini Celebration {Wesley's Birthday}

On the morning of Wesley's actual birthday (12-29-11) - I let him choose his breakfast. He wanted Bacon and Eggs with Hashbrowns....so I cooked away and he was super happy. Instead of birthday cake, I made donut muffins and he blew out the candles on those. I think I am loving the non traditional traditions we have been starting this past year :)

Birthday's {Nolan turns 1!}

Nolan turned 1 on January 17th - my Little Bit is growing up. Everyday he is looking more like a little boy and less like my baby. He is a crazy crawler and walking is coming quickly (I think he can walk better then he lets on...he just wants me to carry him). This little guy is a total Daddy's boy. We have loved (almost) every moment of his first year with us.

Birthday's {Wesley turns 5!}

On December 29th my sweet Wesley turned 5! He has grown up so much from the surprisingly huge baby that he was. On his birthday we went out to lunch at Panda Express because this guy loves some orange chicken and noodles. After eating we went to the store for him to pick out a new toy (they get a price limit) he was able to get a couple smaller items he wanted for his little budget. Here are some pictures...

Christmas 2011 {Christmas Morning}

Santa brought lots of fun gifts for the boys this year...new train pieces, new RC cars, clothes (not the favorite gift), bubble bath (it usually lasts all year), movies, and more. The older boys loved ripping into their packages, looking and discarding for the next one - sometime a gift was awesome enough that they wanted it opened right away so they could play and we had to coax them to open another with the promise we would play later.

Eventually, so that Greg and I could open our own gifts we put on the boys new Cars 2 movie to distract them and Nolan got cranky which equaled a one way ticket to his crib for a nap.
After lunch and naps at home we headed to my parents house to open more gifts (no pictures, way to distracted with opening packages)...then we enjoyed a yummy dinner before coming home to relax and open the gifts in our stockings - something we had forgotten to do earlier but hey it just spread out the fun of the day.

Christmas 2011 {Christmas Cookies}

Ok, lets face it...I am behind on blogging but I am ready to play a little catch up. On Christmas Eve we decorated cookies. A fun time for all of us to pretend we are young again and enjoy watching the little ones play.

Aunt No-No will probably kill me for the above photo.

Trish preferred to eat more then decorate but the older boys are starting to enjoy the decorating part almost as much as the eating part.

This is Nolan's first year with the cookies and of course eating is much preferred to the decorating which takes awhile to get. Daddy made Nolan very mad because he would eventually take that cookie away because Nolan was making a mess...So Mommy put Nolan in the high chair where he proceeded to eat two cookies and smear a large amount of frosting on every surface.

Christmas in Three Days

For us Christmas is a three day affair...We start on December 23rd and the party doesn't end until late on December 25th. I tried for a good picture of the boys... but this is the best we got, typical of our daily lives.

December 23rd - This is the day we celebrate with the Weyerman side of t he family. We went to Brittney's house to have dinner and open presents. This is always a fun evening - between dinner and presents we take the time to share Christmas stories and musical talents in the family. I love to hear the children play the piano, sing songs, and listen to the fun stories and poems - in many ways it helps us remember the true spirit of Christmas before we dive into the pile of gifts. This year we planned a special gift for the Grandma's and Greg's mom opened a fun present fro m our family...a box of pink balloons.

December 24th - On this evening we get together with my family to decorate Christmas cookies, a tradition for many many years in our home (more pictures of that later). We also play the candy bar game...a fun time where more sugar is provided for us to eat. Before the game we let my mom open her own box full of pink balloons...and yes we are super excited that baby #4 is a healthy happy baby girl. When we got home we let the boys open their new jammies

and got them ready for bed. Then I hurried and finished wrapping the gifts for under the tree and filled up the stockings.

December 25th - Christmas morning we hurried the boys through a quick breakfast and getting dressed and out the door for church (it is was early 8:20am). We chose to wait and open gifts and have our big Christmas breakfast when we returned from church. Luckily since the boys are still young we were able to pull this off. I love watching the boys open their presents - there is a magic about Christmas and part of that is only seen through their eyes. (Pictures of Christmas morning to also follow later). After quick naps, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Alton's to open gifts there and have dinner. It is a busy time of the year but I love that I get to spend it with family.