Our Saturday and Christmas Traditions

Saturday morning, we went to Breakfast with Santa at the church where the boys preschool is. They had pancakes and sausage, a coloring table, a craft table, kids movies, and Santa. The boys had so much fun. A friend from their class was there and his mom was actually in my labor and delivery class (from when we were pregnant)--it's such a small town, I feel like little coincidences like that happen all the time.

These pictures are out of order, but I didn't feel like fixing them. The boys had orange juice for the first time and they were obsessed! They drank cup afer cup after cup. They got one last cup before we left and we went outside to drink it. I was taking pictures of the boys and Carter scooted up right next to Evan without me even having to ask.

The boys loved the coloring table.

Another picture of them drinking oj. I probably annoyed Greg with how tickled I was (I may have talked about it all morning. ;)) at the boys and their love of orange juice, but it was just so cute to see them so happy. I love how simple things make them so happy.

The boys with their friend, Konner.

Santa was there and taking free pictures with the kids. We asked Evan if he wanted to sit in Santa's lap and he said "yes" and ran over to him, turned his back to him and backed up to him so Santa could pick him up and put him on his lap. It was so cute, Santa laughed when Evan put his back to him--he knew the drill! He talked with Santa and smiled and just loved it. I know he doesn't get the concept of Santa bringing him presents, so I'm not sure why he loves him so much, but I'm so glad he does. Carter didn't want to sit on his lap, and we were fine with that, we didn't push him.

More pictures of the boys drinking orange juice. Look at that happy face!

I didn't even have to beg or bribe Carter to smile for the camera, this is what he looks like when he has orange juice! I'm obsessed with this picture, I love it. Needless to say, on our way home when we stopped by the grocery store for some things, we also picked up a gallon of orange juice. :)

I love their cute Christmas shirts from their Grandma! They were perfect for our Breakfast with Santa.

The weather was so nice today that we decided to stop at the park on the way home and let the boys play.

Another oj pictures, out of order, last one, I promise. :)

The boys had a blast at the park.

During the boys nap, I did a little Christmas shopping. The stores were insane and I'm so glad that I went during their nap instead of trying to take them out with me in that madness. The boys got up and watched "Aladdin" for the first time, Greg was able to get it from a guy he works with and they loved it. We had dinner and then we all changed into our Christmas pjs from Greg's mom and drove around to look at Christmas lights.

I made hot cocoa for the boys to drink, but it was too hot to bring with us, so it cooled while we looked at lights and they got to drink it when we got home.

Christmas this year is so different now that the boys are older. I love that we're able to do more things with them like the parades, breakfast with Santa, driving around looking at lights, and they actually get it. I know the next several years, they'll understand more and get to do more and I love that. I love that we're starting our traditions that hopefully we do year after year with the boys. I want to enjoy this and soak it all up because I know this time will pass so quickly.

Our Week

I know I've mentioned before that Greg normally works 6-3 and gets a 3 day weekend every other week. Well, every few months, he has to work 10-6 for two weeks, with no 3 day weekend during that shift. It's a totally normal work schedule, but we're so spoiled with him getting off at 3:00 normally, that his late shifts are rough! I love his normal schedule and I'm so thankful for it. This week was his first of two weeks working the 10-6 shift. I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I normally do, but here's our week in pics.

Monday, we hosted our moms of mulitples (aka SuperMOMs) playgroup at our house. I didn't get a single picture of the playgroup, but here's the boys playing before everybody got to our house. This is what they wore during the play date, too. They didn't want to change and since we weren't leaving the house, it wasn't worth the battle.

They love their train table and play with it every single day. Evan loves putting together the tracks and is so good at it.

We ran several errands this week. We normally do those after Greg gets home, but this week I took the boys by myself to the places we needed to go. Most of those errands went well, except for an epic meltdown in Walmart. We went by the post office to get stamps and the sweet guy working gave the boys stickers. He told him he was making them honorary post men for the day and everything. He was so nice! Carter wore his sticker all day.

I ordered our Christmas cards, stamped the envelopes, and addressed them. I'll write more about them (and post a pic) after I get them mailed out.

We got the boys winter coats at Sam's Club this week. it's getting pretty cold and they have to have them. They wore them for the first time on Thursday at preschool. I thought they looked cute in them, but apparently Carter gave the poor teachers a hard time about wearing his. But, they said he gave in after a few minutes and agreed to wear it to the playground.

Thursday, I turned 30. Whomp, whomp... But, it was a really nice day. I got to sleep in (the plus side of Greg going in later) and Greg took the morning off and we ran errands and went to lunch while the boys were in preschool. I didn't get a single picture, of course. When  picked up the boys from preschool and came home, my friend came over with this sweet gift. How cute is that!!

The boys thought it was pretty awesome, too!

:) Mmmm.....lollipops. That night I had a MOPs meeting, so Greg and I didn't do the normal dinner and cake thing. The MOPs meeting was our Christmas traditions meeting where they invite moms that have grown children to come talk to us about the traditions they did with their families over the holidays. I was so excited to go, it was the perfect meeting to have on my birthday.

The boys love coloring. They spend so much time during the day coloring. It's so cute to see them. I got them these $1.00 packets at Target that have a coloring book, stickers, and crayons in them. The "theme" was snowmen, so I thought it was a fun thing to bring out this week.

Friday afternoon, I had run out of ideas of things to do with the boys, so we ran a couple of errands and then went to PetsMart and looked around like it was a zoo. The boys love just looking at the fish and birds and stuff.

We also had picture day on Friday at the boys preschool. Carter refused to sit for the photographer. But, Evan sat and posed for her. We get the pictures back next Friday and I can't wait to see them.

It's here!

Source: google.com.au via Samantha on Pinterest

Trip to See Santa

Sunday morning, we took the boys to the mall to see Santa. I cannot belive this is their third time! The boys were really excited while we were in line and Evan went right up to him and hopped on his lap, but Carter did not want to sit on his lap. He gave him high five, said "hi", but cried when I tried to sit him on his lap. I have no problems putting a crying kid on Santa and getting a picture, but Carter was NOT having it, he immediately got down. So, we decided to get a family picture with Santa.

Evan kept looking at Santa and the girls wanted him to look at the camera. I was holding Carter and wasn't able to tell them, but I would have loved to have one of him looking at Santa. It was so sweet. He answered his questions and everything, like they were best buds.

Such a big boy!

Here's our family picture with Santa.

They give you three pictures, so we got another one with Evan and Santa.

Here's the boys in line before we saw Santa. I love their shirts!

After pictures, Santa gave the boys each a mini candy cane. The boys LOVE candy, since they just recently discovered it. In retrospect, I think if we would have given Carter candy, he would have sat on Santa's lap. Oh well. We tried to get a picture in front of the Christmas display, but they are all about those mini candy canes.

Evan was having a hard time getting his out and Carter wasn't wasting any time eating his.

Evan, giving us his "cheese" face. And of course, Carter is blurry.

I love taking the boys to the mall to get their pictures taken with Santa, and we'll do it as long as they'll let us. The boys both liked Santa and are starting to get the idea, so I'm super excited about our breakfast with Santa this Saturday. It's a breakfast with fun activities and Santa will be there. Since, we've already got our pictures with Santa for this year, there will be no pressure to get any with him there, so the boys can go up to Santa and talk to him and give him five or just eat pancakes and color. Whatever they want to do is fine. We love getting out of the house with the boys so this busy holiday time is perfect for us.

Stanardsville Parade of Lights

Saturday was such a fun day. Saturday morning, we just lounged around in our pjs and relaxed. Greg slept in and then when he got up, I went back to bed for a little bit. It was so nice to not have anywhere we needed to go in the morning and just sleep and let the boys play.

 

After the boys got up from their nap, we ran a few errands. We needed to go to Walmart, so I stayed with the boys in the play area and Greg picked up a couple of things we needed. The boys were more than happy just playing on the riding toys/games, they didn't even know what they did, they were just happy sitting on them.

This is the way to go when we only have a few things to get. It's much easier than trying to go down the aisles with two kids.

We dropped off our stuff at home and then went and grabbed an early dinner from Taco Bell. The boys got some more playtime in since they have an indoor playground there. Carter will go up a little ways and then comes back down.

Evan, on the other hand, likes to go all the way up to the top and go down the slide. He loves to get up there and yell "I'm up here!"

Then, we headed over to the Stanardsville Parade of Lights. The actual parade started at 6:00 but they had a band and some kids activities that started at 5:00. We parked our car and then walked down to the Bounce house and let the boys go on that for awhile. Then, we got the boys some hot cocoa and walked back to where we parked and found the perfect spot on the grass to watch the parade. It was right near where we parked and right where the parade started, so when it was over, we didn't have to fight any traffic going home.

I had a hard time getting any pictures because it was dark, but I managed to get a couple. The boys had so much fun. They loved their first taste of hot cocoa. They both drank a lot and kept asking for more. They waved at all the people on the floats. It didn't take them long to realize that the people in the parade were throwing candy to the crowd. They would go down and get the candy, come back to our sitting spot and eat that one piece of candy they got. When they were done, they'd go back down and wait for more and get just one piece and come back and eat it. They loved the candy. When Evan got his first sucker, he picked it up, turned to the crowd, held it above his head and screamed "SUCKER!!!!" haha.

You can tell how happy he was in the picture.

 Carter had just as much fun and it was so cute to see them waving to the floats. It was seriously the best time. I love that they're old enough to enjoy these things. We left when the parade was over, got the boys home, fed them, got them bathed and in bed by 7:30. They normally go to bed at 7:00, so it wasn't too much later than their normal bedtime.

 After we got the boys in bed, Greg and I watched an episode of Dexter from Netflix. We just finished season 4 and the season finale was such a shocker that when we got Season 5 in today, we had to watch the first episode. :) Then, I headed upstairs to make 6 dozen cookies for a cookie exhange the next day. The kitchen was a mess, so I cleaned that up, boxed the cookies up, got the boys iron ons on their shirts for the next day, etc. It was a late night, but it was worth it.

 I got these boxes at Hobby Lobby in Georgia before I knew how many cookies I was going to have to make, and they ended up being the perfect size.

We've been busy, but this is the best kind of busy. I love doing fun things like this--parades, baking, etc. I love that the boys are old enough this Christmas to enjoy and get excited about the activities we're doing. I have some more fun things planned for this month and I'm so excited about the Christmas traditions that we're starting.

Friday Fun

We've been spending a lot of time inside lately because it's been so cold. A lot of blanket forts, playing with empty boxes, trucks, trains, coloring, etc. It's amazing the things that will entertain 2 year olds.

Friday, Evan got into the freezer and found a bag of frozen blueberries. He got it open, but luckily, I caught him before he made a mess. After trying a blueberry, he begged for more, so I put the boys in their high chairs and let them enjoy their messy snack.

Then we changed and enjoyed some coloring time.

I don't know why Evan will get down from his chair and color on the floor next to the table, but it's so cute.

Carter in his Christmas shirt that he got from Grandma Westover. They both were wearing them, but they were not cooperating with getting their pictures taken in them.

Then we headed to the park. It was cold, but not so cold that we couldn't spend a little time at the park. It was so nice to get outside and I could tell the boys had so much fun.

I haven't taken the boys to the park by myself in awhile and they did really good. There's a huge open field that they like to run in next to the park, but they listened so well when I told them to stay on the playground.

They're wearing their fleeces from Aunt B that they got for Christmas last year.

It's supposed to be warm the next couple of days, so we're definitely going to take advantage of that. I love winter and all the fun holiday stuff we can do, but it's nice to be able to get outside too. I think it's good for all of us to get some fresh air.