Birthday Boys!

This year we celebrated both Wesley and Max's birthdays on the same day. Greg was in Missouri for Max's actual birthday, so I made the decision to postpone the celebration until he could be here with us. Grandma Alton made the Fire Engine cake...I made the cupcakes and used her leftover frosting (I should add that I managed to eat all of the leftover cupcakes in two days time...I don't think I shared but one with Greg).

The boys got lots of fun gifts - books, crayons/coloring books, monster trucks, Handy Manny toys, shirts, and more that I am sure I am forgetting. Wesley's got a big gift from Grandma and Grandpa Alton - A two wheel bike...Max will now inherit the tricycle.

On Max's actual birthday, we went out to Wendy's for dinner (his favorite) and then I took him to Target to pick out a toy...he of course choose a train that makes all sorts of noise.

Christmas Morning

On Christmas Eve Santa's helpers put together the boys kitchen...best gift idea ever.

My boys are only slightly spoiled.

The boys were so excited Christmas morning....they did not want to leave their new kitchen. But Wesley was asking for the ingredients to go with the kitchen...and to get those items he needed to open the rest of his presents and find them.

The Slinkie's were great presents for about a day - then my boys managed to destroy them...but they were fun while they lasted. Above Max is opening his car caddy - these are the best things ever for church, no more fights over who gets to play with which cars...both boys got one.

Playing with the kitchen before breakfast (yummy gingerbread waffles with lemon sauce). After some fun play time we loaded up in the car and headed to Grandma and Grandpa Alton's for more presents (I seriously do not need to buy the boys any gifts) and dinner.

This picture is from my friend Andee's camera - but it is the only picture I have of my ginormous pregnant tummy...

Christmas Cookies

On Christmas Eve we headed to my parents house to decorate cookies (this is one of my favorite traditions...we have been doing this for as long as I can remember). It was a ton of fun this year, Max was old enough to really get what he was doing and Wesley is getting more creative and knows what sprinkles he wants. I have noticed that we did not take a lot of pictures this year...I passed the camera to Greg and did not get a huge amount of pictures...oh well, there is always next year. After decorating cookies we headed down to the basement to play the candy bar game...Both boys loved rolling the dice but Wesley is starting to understand the rules.

Max...he was finally getting to eat a cookies (yep that is me and the other fun person is my Aunt Kristie).

Wesley (he was eating sprinkles of course!)

Uncle Charles

This was Patricia's first cookie decorating experience - the first is always the best.

Jeremiah...Gideon decorated too but of course, no picture (at least on my camera).

Christmas Party

On Decebmer 23rd (and yes Greg was home by then...he got home on the 19th for Christmas holiday - he left again on January 2nd) we headed to Middleton to have the Weyerman family celebration. We enjoyed a yummy dinner, fun talent presented by the different families, presents, and good conversation.

Cortney was trying to get a picture of the whole group by standing on his counters.
Phillip opening his gifts.

The only picture of Wesley...there were none taken of Max.

Grandpa and Erik

Our pile of presents to take home and enjoy.

One More Week and Counting!

Next week, on Sunday, I will finally get to pick my husband up at the airport and bring him home....even if it is for just two weeks. And really he is only going back for about eight days...after all these months that should be pretty easy and go by quickly.

I love these two but I will be so glad to have an extra pair of hands around to help me keep up with them - and to help me get better prepared for the arrival of #3, who had better stay put until after January 12th.

Monday

On Monday for various reasons the boys did not get naps...I tried for a semi late short nap but they just played in their room. Max might have slept if I had let Wesley stay in the living room. But Max fell asleep at 7pm in his high chair after finishing his oatmeal for dinner (we had a late lunch that was pretty big so I went with an easy semi lite dinner).

I love that he fell asleep while doing his normal banging on the bowl.
Wesley stayed up with me just a little longer but he was tired and being silly. Hence the wash cloth, he said he was dirty and needed to clean himself. At one point he had his shirt up and was washing his back and tummy.

The good news (in my opinion) was that even with the early bedtime they still slept past 8am. This is new around my house, but much appreciated by this pregnant mama.

Wordless Wednesday

There are no words because I honestly don't remember doing anything that would have caused this bruise...it appeared Sunday night and it looks worse today.

White Out

As many know from previous posts, that when it came time to feed Max solids I opted to make my own baby food. This included his rice cereal - I cooked brown rice and pureed it with formula (to add the iron you would usually get in the boxed stuff). Recently I joined a group on Facebook that advocates removing any thing white from babies diet. And I found this link to an article that also supports this. Since neither of my boys enjoyed rice cereal, I had no plans on starting #3 with rice. He will get a fruit or veggie as his first food and I will introduce oatmeal as his first grain. I have read a lot on this subject on the Wholesome Baby Food Blog (link in the left hand column) and really believe that this is the best thing for baby.


I will get off my soap box now...

Too Big for Naps

Most days Wesley will not take a nap, even though he may be tired and need one. On a few days, about once or twice a week, I can get him to lay down in his bed and take a good nap. But the reality is I think we are loosing this phase of life. Wesley is good at entertaining himself, and I desperately need naps most days, I put a movie on for him and let him play in the living room. Every so often I find him asleep on the couch...and yes, he wraps himself up in the blankets.

Oh, What a Mess

A couple weeks ago, I returned home (from a funeral no less) to find this mess waiting for me.

I believe this was responsible for said mess (he seemed very spooked to be in the kitchen for a couple days, it was mildly humorous).With the possible help of this.

Paper Chains

Growing up, every year for our countdown to Christmas we would make paperchains as a family. My Mom took the Christmas cards we received each year and saved the picture part for us to attatch our paperchains to. This was a fun project that we did sometime around the first of December. So this week I helped the boys create two paperchains - The long one is a countdown until Daddy comes home for Christmas and the short one is for the days remaining until Christmas after Daddy gets home. Since I did not save Christmas cards last year (and really we mainly get the family photo kind anyway), I printed the words "Santa Claus is coming tonight" for Christmas and "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home" for the other and let the boys color the pages. And for those that may be wondering...Greg will be home 17 days from today.

Snow Day!

Here in the Boise/Meridian/Nampa, Idaho area we do not get snow like this very often...in fact I can't remember the last time schools were closed because of snow. The news was saying to expect 3-4 inches...those of us that live in reality expected 1-2 inches...we got somewhere around 8-10 inches depending on where you live. It has snowed of and on for a couple weeks, but never enough to really enjoy it...So Wesley was super happy this morning to hear we had plenty of snow for him and Max to go play in. After breakfast we bundled up (I could not find our winter coats...my brother came by a little while ago and found them for me but trust me they are wearing plenty of layers to stay warm though not necessarily dry). Oh, and this post is heavy on pictures but this way Greg can see them without me having to print them off and mail them to him.

Max loved being out in the snow, even though it was up past his knees and he had a hard time walking around - he fell down a lot but it did not slow him down, he would get up and keep going...sometimes he had to back out of the snow on to the sidewalk where it had been shoveled to right himself and then he was off again.

Wesley being a typical boy loved digging in the snow and pulling out and throwing the chunks. It was hard to convince him to come back inside.

Flower and Mushu love the snow, they play in it each year but it is not usually this deep. Both struggled to move without jumping but they too loved it and were hard to convince to come in.Raja being a baby and never having experienced snow decided not to venture out very far...in fact under the car watching was good enough for him - No amount of coaxing could get him to come play.

The front yard before it was shoveled and the boys attacked it.

The back yard, where you can see Mushu's early morning run.

Greg's grill, not using that anytime soon.

Chunks of snow kept falling out of the boys clothes as I undressed them...I threw all the wet stuff directly in the dryer.

My garbage can that is in no way getting back behind the fence anytime soon...My HOA can kiss my pregnant tush if they think I can make it happen. Lucky for them my brother also helped me get it into the garage while he was here...hopefully there will be no hate mail on this subject.