Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, I loaded the boys up and went to Hobby Lobby, they had their Christmas stuff already on clearance for 66% off. They did that last year too, so I took them to get a few things. I think this will be our Christmas Eve tradition. :) The boys were in the middle of playing pirates at home when I told them we were going shopping, so they asked to wear their bandanas

I put the boys in the cart and I carried a basket and loaded it up. A lot of wreath making stuff had "Christmas" on it, so it was marked down and I needed ornaments for my holiday tree, like green ones for St. Patrick's Day. I also got some craft stuff for the boys for next year. That was one of the biggest things I was looking for was fun craft sets to have for next December, the boys love doing them, but it's such a better deal to get them on clearance the day after a holiday and have them for next year. I also got a Rudolph stuff animal, I had bought one for Evan that made sang when you pushed his paw, but they didn't have anymore that worked so I just got the one. So, when I went by that aisle on Wednesday, they had them marked down, so I went ahead and got one for Carter, it doesn't make noise, but I thought it'd be nice for them both to have one. I managed to get it, put it in my basket, carry it through the whole store, and pay for it without them seeing it. Haha.

I also snagged this cute little plate to put our cookies for Santa on.

These plates weren't on clearance, but they were super cheap, so I got them to paint them with chalkboard paint and have a countdown to spring, easter, etc. like I did with my Christmas countdown plate. The boys have loved checking the Christmas one every day, so I thought it'd be fun to do some more holiday countdowns.

When we got home, we made some cookies for Santa, I got some major cleaning done and I cooked the stuff that we were bringing to my parents for Christmas dinner. The boys played really good while I did that. They  worked on some Christmas puzzles.

Carter doesn't normally do puzzles, Evan is the one who really likes them, but he ended up doing a few.

I got this in the mail from my friend, Brandi. It was addressed to Evan and Carter, but had a little note for me in there and when Greg saw it, he said "is that for me?!" because he loves Taylor Swift, so this is definitely a gift the whole family is excited about. We listened to it immediately!

 After cooking and cleaning all day, I didn't feel like cooking anything for dinner. I also didn't want to make something and have leftovers since I knew we'd have a ton of leftovers from Christmas dinner, so we ended up going to the Pizza Joint for dinner. I checked my blog and we actually went to Pizza Joint on Christmas Eve last year too. I think this is going to be our little tradition, dinner at Pizza Joint, then looking at Christmas lights on the way home.

Evan brought in his snowman puzzle (one with the square pieces that you have to keep sliding to get them in the right spot--I know I'm not explaining it very well, but I don't know what they're called) and Greg was helping him with it.

Carter, always willing to take a picture with me. :)

After we got home, we put the boys to bed and I everything ready for Christmas. I took the cookies and left a note from Santa thanking them for the cookies and how yummy they were. I filled up their stocking and put their goodies out from Santa. I've been ordering books from Scholastic (through their preschool) all school year and just putting them up when they came in so I could just give them all to them at Christmas.

I opened their castle and bat cave so they could just start playing with it right away. For their stockings, we got more figurines to use with these. I actually got the two batman things on the right for $3.00 on a Facebook yardsale. I just couldn't pass up that amazing deal.

Some Melissa and Doug dress up outfits (that I got for 1/2 off at Target!)

All the presents wrapped and ready for the boys in the morning.

I went through and took a picture of some of the crafts the boys and I did throughout the month of December. It's been a lot of fun doing crafts with the boys and I was able to fine so many ideas that cost next to nothing to do. I think this is something I'm going to continue to try and do with the boys on a regular basis. I've looked up some ideas on Pinterest and I'm going to try and do a couple a week with the boys.

I also wanted to take a picture of the letters the boys filled out for Santa. Their teacher sent these home this year for them to do and I loved sitting down and asking the boys the questions. I saved these, but I wanted to be able to look back on my blog and see what their answers were like this year. I did this with them separately, I filled out Evan's with him while we were in the waiting room when Carter was back with the speech therapist. I had Greg take Evan upstairs a few days later and I sat down with Carter to do his. I didn't want them to hear the other's answers and wanted them to come up with it completely on their own. They both said they'd leave orange juice for Rudolph--haha. And they both talked about the rescuebots they wanted.

 

So, that sums up our Christmas Eve this year.

Cinnamon Rolls, Crafts and Errands

Saturday afternoon, we went to my parents for "Brinner" (breakfast for dinner) My dad made homemade sausage gravy, which was the point of the whole thing--I wanted some biscuits and gravy! My mom made French toasts, bacon, sausage, and biscuits. I have been wanting to try Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls forever and finally decided to make them. They weren't hard, but you have to mix the flour and yeast, let it rise, add some more ingredients, refrigerate (if you want the dough to be easier to work with) then it makes several pans! I had almost 8 pans, but I ended up combining one, so we ended up with 7 pans total. we had two pans on Saturday, then my parents took two to freeze, my sister took a pan, and we took two pans to freeze. I froze them with and without frosting and I'll see how they are when we defrost them and have them later. They turned out amazing, though. I absolutely loved them and they were definitely worth the work and it wasn't real hard to make them. I made a pan with the maple frosting that she uses, but I was afraid not everybody would like it. The maple frosting calls for 1/4 cup brewed coffee and I wasn't sure how that'd be and I definitely wasn't giving the boys frosting with coffee in it, so I made Pioneer Woman's cream cheese frosting as well. The maple frosting ended up being amazing, but the cream cheese frosting was good too. Click here to get the recipe.

Sunday morning, the boys got a package in the mail from Aunt Brandi! Does anybody else get mail on Sundays? We've been getting packages on Sunday for a few months now. I don't know if it's a seasonal thing that will stop around the holidays, but I always feel so guilty when I go to the door on a Sunday and it's the mailman.

The boys were so excited. We get a lot of packages because Greg and I do a lot of shopping online (if we can order it online instead of going to the store, we do) So, the boys were excited when I said it was for them and that they could open it.

The only thing the boys have asked for from Santa this year is Rescue Bots. I actually went out and got a couple for the boys to put in their stockings and Brandi ended up getting them each one for Christmas and it was not the same ones I got the boys, so it worked out great. They were SO excited when they saw these.

They also got another kids bible since the other one they have is for toddlers and we've read through it SO many times. I didn't get a picture of it, but it's bigger and has a lot more stories, but still perfect for their age. They also got a Melissa and Doug number puzzle that goes up to 20. They're working on numbers in school and are getting stuck on some of the "teens", so this is perfect for them.

Evan with "Heat Wave" I never thought in a million years that I'd know the name of the Rescuebots. This one turns into a fire truck.

They have played with these nonstop since they opened them on Sunday. Greg actually said to me later that day that he's never seen them play with a toy this much. And that was on Sunday--it's Tuesday night and they've still played with them nonstop since they opened them. They LOVE them. There was no fighting on Sunday, they played together so great.

Sunday, we ran errands together as a family. It was the first time in a long time because while I was in school, Greg would take them and I'd do homework or I'd run to the store with them during the week. It was nice going together, it's so much easier having an adult per kid. I offered to let the boys stay in the car while Greg ran into Sam's Club and we could watch a movie, but they weren't having any of that--they know Sam's Club has samples. They were so funny when we were in there, they can spot a sample stand from a mile away and were directing me where to go.

When we got home, it was more playing with rescue bots.

They wanted to make sure I got a picture and they each told me the names of the rescue bots a million times. They also wanted to make sure that I knew exactly how they transformed and showed me a million times that day.

They also played with their number puzzle. Greg worked on it with them while I was cooking dinner. He made it into a game and worked on their numbers with them.

Monday, my mom came over and I went to the dentist for 3 hours to get a root canal. Fun stuff! Apparently, I grind my teeth at night and I do it so hard that I cracked my tooth. I had put it off as long as I could, but my tooth was killing me. I got there at 10:00 and they got started right away, but for some reason, I do not get numb when they give me numbing medication, so it took almost 2 hours and several shots to numb my mouth. I have no idea why that is, I actually had a problem when I went under anesthesia in May, I kept waking up during the procedure and they had to give me double the amount they planned on. So, Monday, after my appointment, Greg came home and took the boys out to run some errands and let them play at Chick-fil-A and I took some medicine and slept from 4:30-9:00. So, between my appointment and sleeping, Monday was a waste. :(

Tuesday, though, I tried to make up for it with some fun crafts with the boys. I got a snowman craft at Target on clearance last year and it came with 20 snowmen, so the boys were able to do one for my mom, dad, and sister and I turned them into magnets for them to put on their fridge.

The boys had so much fun doing these. We still have some snowmen left, I wish I had done this craft sooner and they could have made some for friends and family that don't live close and we could have stuck them in the mail with their Christmas cards.

The boys did them all by themselves. I pulled out the letters and put them on the table in order but that was it, the boys did the rest.

After our snowman craft, my dad stopped by while he was in town and we gave him the snowmen to take home and put on their fridge. After he left, the boys got to work on their gingerbread house. This year I was smart and bought a kit, after learning last year that using graham crackers does not work.

Evan was way more interested in eating than building. He kept asking me for a bite of frosting. I spread the frosting out on the house and left the room for a second while they were decorating and I came back to this little stinker licking the knife.

The boys had fun decorating their house and even more fun eating the candy and marshmallows while they did. I had a hard time finding a safe gingerbread house that didn't have peanuts in it and wasn't processed in a factory with peanuts. I finally found one at Publix, but it wasn't on sale, so I just got one. I debated going back and getting another one all month, so they'd each of their own to decorate but I'm so glad I didn't. One was plenty for them.

You can see Evan double fisting candy in his mouth--haha.

The finished product.

It was wet and nasty on Tuesday, but I had errands to run. Some of them, I was able to do without getting the boys out of the car like picking up my prescription from Walgreens for my antibiotic (for my root canal), returning library books, meeting people to sell some of the boys old clothes, etc. So, I went through the drivethru at Mcdonald's and got some chicken nuggets and the boys had lunch in the car and watched a movie while I did most of my errands and sat in a ton of traffic (running errands two days before Christmas was the best idea)

The boys loved doing errands when it means some yummy chicken nuggets and a fun movie.

We did have to get out twice while running our errands and so I put the boys to work and gave them each a 2 liter to carry. Apparently, carrying a heavy object is the key to keeping the boys in line while we're out. They weren't able to go crazy or run off because they were concentrating on not dropping the soda. This may be how I do my shopping from now on. ;)

So far, the boys Christmas vacation is going good. Greg gets a 4 day weekend for Christmas, so I'm really looking forward to that and I know the boys are too.

Christmas Program and A Recipe

Last Wednesday, the boys had their Christmas program at school. They have been practicing their Christmas songs around the house for awhile now and were really excited about it. I thought they looked so cute before school that morning. They love wearing their tie and bow tie, they always talk about how they look like daddy when they wear it.

My dad came with me to the Christmas program, my mom had a doctor's appointment and Greg and my sister were working, so it was just me and my dad, but the boys were so thrilled that he got to come. This is the first preschool program of the boys that my dad has been able to come to.

It was really cute. The boys sang along and did really well. They've been doing these programs since they were 2, so it's fun to see how much they've changed the past couple of years. (you can read about their first Christmas program here)

The kindergarteners all dressed up like different things and did the Christmas story, which was so precious. It's hard to see from this picture, but they were dressed up like wise men, donkeys, sheep, and animals. It was really cute. I didn't get a ton of pictures and I didn't take video this time. I just wanted to sit and enjoy it so I just got a couple of pictures then I sat and watched the program. I didn't get any pictures of the boys with my dad, which I'm really disappointed about, I didn't think of it until after we got home.

 

And just for fun, here's a picture from the boys first preschool Christmas program in 2012 when they were just 2 years old. How cute are they!?

On Thursday, Carter had an appointment with a speech therapist. A speech and occupational therapist came to the boys school and did free evaluations on all the kids and Carter passed, but the therapist said that he may benefit from a full evaluation. So, I spoke with his pediatrician and scheduled an appointment. They take him back and do the entire appointment with just him and then call me in at the end and go over everything with me, so I brought Evan to the appointment since I knew that I would be able to be in the waiting room with him while Carter was in his appointment.

The receptionist on the phone said they had a special siblings waiting room with toys and things, so I didn't bring anything for Evan. When we got there, we found that there wasn't a single toy and just a couple of books. Luckily, I had a pad of paper and some colored pens which Evan thought was the best thing ever.

He was so happy to use all the different colors and it ended up being enough to entertain him while we were there.

Carter did fine and scored in the normal range for everything, so we don't need to go back. The therapist did give us some things we can work on at home, so we're going to start that over Christmas break. After the appointment, we went to McDonald's and the boys got ice cream (with their giftcard from Grandma and Grandpa Westover) and played for awhile. There were a couple of other kids there, so they had a great time.

Friday, the boys had their Christmas party. The theme was a birthday party for baby Jesus. All the kids brought a wrapped gift for a baby and they got to switch them and open them up in class, afterwards, all the gifts were donated to babies in need, which I thought was a great idea. I took the boys to Target and let them pick out the gift themselves.

When I got to school to pick the boys up, the class was having a snowball fight with big cotton balls. They were all having a blast. This was the best idea, the boys talked about it all day. Y'all should have seen these kids, they were seriously having the best time ever. Such a good idea!

When the boys got home from school, they found Dennis ziplining from the tree to the ceiling fan. They didn't go in the playroom before school, so they didn't find him until they got home that day. Dennis doesn't do much, I just move him every night and the boys have such a great time finding him in the morning. I'm running out of ideas, so I decided to do this since I've seen it all over Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, etc. It was so easy and only took a couple of minutes to tie the ribbon and put him on it. It was so worth it too, the boys got the biggest kick out of this.

The next day, Saturday, I had Dennis toilet paper the boys tree in the living room. I found a random roll of toilet paper while cleaning up and decided to do this. I thought the boys would think it was so funny because they think all things "bathroom" related are so funny right now (typical boys) and they did when they first saw it, but later Evan told me that this was not nice of Dennis to do. I don't like the idea of him doing naughty things, but I was running out of ideas of where to move him to. But, now I know, Evan does not appreciate Dennis being naughty. ;)

It's been awhile since I've tried any new recipes, so last week, I made Spicy Avocado Enchiladas, with homemade Spanish rice and Pioneer Woman refried beans. The rice turned out to be really bland. I picked the recipe because it was fast and easy and didn't call for much, but I should have known that it was going to be bland since it basically just called for tomato juice. The beans were pretty good, but also a little bland, next time I'll add some spice to them.

The Spicy Avocado Enchiladas were pretty good. I have a couple good enchilada recipes, but I really wanted to try something new and these seemed pretty different than anything I've made before. Greg liked them too. They are really good if you top them with sour cream and some salsa verde. Here's the recipe: (I got it from the Novice Chef and you can click on the recipe below to go to her blog)

Spicy Avocado Enchiladas

Ingredients

for the sauce:
1 tablespoon butter
1 Serrano pepper, minced (I removed the seeds in case the boys ate any)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp flour
1 cup chicken stock
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 cup medium salsa verde
1/2 cup fat free sour cream (I used full fat sour cream)

for the enchiladas:
3 cups chopped cooked chicken breasts (about 4 breasts)
8 oz Cabot Monterrey Jack Cheese, shredded & divided
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3 avocados, peeled and chopped
8-10 flour tortillas

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a medium sauce pan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Saute serrano pepper and garlic, for 1 minute. Stir in flour, constantly stirring, and cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in the chicken broth, cumin, salt and pepper and bring to a low boil. Once boiling, whisk in the sour cream, salsa verde and cilantro. Remove from heat.
Spray/grease a 9×13 baking dish. Add 3/4 cup sauce to the bottom of the pan. Add chicken, Cabot Monterrey Jack Cheese, onion and avocado to the center of each tortilla and roll, placing seam-side down in the dish. Pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas. Top with leftover cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes or until bubbling. Serve immediately