1st Snow & Christmas Party

Today we went to Columbia for Laura's company Christmas party. First, we stopped in Dundalk to pick up Gavin so he could go to the party also. The boys love to play with Gavin so the three of them had fun together. It started to snow pretty good once we were on the way from Dundalk to Columbia! Once we got to the party the kids ran around and played for a bit. Then we made candy trains, played BINGO (both boys got Bingo), made gingerbread houses (the boys chose not to do this, too much sitting still), and had a visit from Santa.

Gavin & the boys

Gavin greeting Santa

Santa

(anybody notice who Santa looks like?!?!)

The boy with Santa

(if only they knew who was under the red suit)

Zak did not want to sit on Santa's lap

Ryder was looking for his escape route!

The boys got some very fun gifts from Santa today. They got a Barney DVD, grocery basket with food, doctor kit, and the Leapfrog Trucks Fridge Magnets. Unfortunately, we just realized (after being home) that we left the gifts at the party! We were busy trying to get coats on, pick out fish and get outside that the gifts got sat down and never picked back up.

Isabelle with her gifts

Gavin with his Handy Manny sitting with Santa

Our newest pets which were from the party

Snow in Columbia

Snow at our House

***If you couldn't figure it out....Ben was Santa today!***

Twincess Bows

One of the twin moms I "met" online makes hair bows that are adorable! Since we have 2 boys I didn't think I would have the need to order from her, but then realized I do have 2 nieces! So I placed an order with her from her website Twincess Bows and they arrived the other day. She has lots of different styles to choose from and then a million different ribbons to choose from as well. Each bow is 100% customized and made to order. If you have any little girls in your family take a look at these bows! (If you do make an order make sure you tell her I referred you)

Piper's Bows

Up-Close of Piper's Christmas Korker Bow

Dolphins colored mini-korker bows

for Amie & Justin's Baby Girl

Madelyn's Bows

(Christmas gift from me)

Up-Close of Madelyn's Monkey Bow

Videos & Dinner on the Counter

The other day we pulled out the video camera and started using it again. It was fun to look through the old videos...the boys used to be so tiny! I have a horrible time getting videos from the video camera onto the computer (main reason we stopped using it a while back). After lots of online searching I discovered that I need a program to transfer them from the camera to the computer, but you have to buy it. So I got a free 21 day trial to use for now. Also, I just realized that the sound didn't transfer when using this program! So for these videos just imagine a lot of laughing!

Last night Ben took a cute video of the boys hugging each other...you know boys, hugging has to turn into a wrestling match!

Each night before we give the boys their milk we have them do the "milky dance". It all started one night when they were very excited to get their milk that they both stood and waved their arms around which then led to the full "milky dance". Recently, Zak has also started to shake his butt...sometimes he gets really into it and bends all the way down to get his butt in the air!

Tonight for dinner the boys had a peanut butter sandwich and a pear. We will fixing dinner for ourselves and the boys wanted to be involved so they sat on the counter eating their dinner.

Christmas Traditions

I love Christmas time! I love to decorate and enjoy the yearly holiday traditions. I remember several of the traditions we had when I was a child so I want to pass on some to my boys.

On Christmas Eve they will get new Christmas pajamas and before bedtime we will get in the car to drive around and look at the decorated houses.

I want to have a nativity set each year. We had the same one every year when I was little so that is my goal at some point. This year we have the Little People Nativity Set which the boys are loving!

The advent calendar is another yearly tradition that I always looked forward to. I have the advent calendar that I used as a child and look forward to the boys using it as well. There is a little mouse that gets moved each day; I remember Chelley and I fighting over who got to move it and I am sure there will be the same problem with the boys. We would always get something in the pocket each day whether it was money or candy.

This year my mom found a really neat PlayMobil advent calendar for the boys. Each day you open up a door and get some pieces to a whole set. By the end you will have a whole play set which is a neat idea. I just recently found out that they make several different versions of this so I think we might make this a yearly tradition as well. I will try to find a new play set each year for the boys so they will have a new toy by the end of the advent calendar. This year it is a snowy setting in the woods with animals. I didn't realize you had to actually put the advent calendar together though! When I opened it I discovered you have to put together the calendar by putting in the dividers and separating out the toys into each compartment.

A few more pictures of the beginnings of decorating the house....

We get a personalized ornament for each of the boys and our family every year. We have already gotten them for this year.

I could go on and on, but won't. Hopefully Ben and I will create some of our own traditions and continue to pass on the ones we both remember from our childhood.

Little People Nativity Set

After searching long and hard I finally found the Little People Nativity Set! I have had a rain check for it at Target at a great price, but they have yet to get it back in stock. I was even at the store about 10 minutes after they opened and it was sold out the very first day they had it! Today WalMart had it in their ad, but for a much higher price. I went soon after they opened and they only had 3 left! Apparently, this is the first year you can buy it in the store and it seems to be a big hit. I went ahead and bought 2 of them (1 for Madelyn, 1 for the boys) even though it cost over double the amount that Target had it for. After some research my mom discovered that the price I paid was actually a good deal because it had more pieces than the one you can buy online from Fisher Price. Tonight we gave it to the boys and they love it! Zak is having issues sharing so Ryder wants his own...we are working on the sharing!

I also plan to get our advent calendar out and hung up to start on Tuesday. Ours has a pocket for each day and a mouse that you move from day to day. It is the one I grew up using so it has sentimental value to me. We usually got money or candy put in it each day...not sure what we will do for the boys this year.

Pictures

I have been playing with my new camera this weekend. I have messed with a ton of settings trying to learn everything it can do so the pictures have not been 100% great since I am still learning. Hoping to have it all figured out soon! Enjoy!

Today Ryder and I spent a few hours in Annapolis. I needed to pick up the jackets from Chelley and then we went to Colleen's for lunch. I took a few pictures of the kids and Ryder enjoying the dancing snowman.

Here are a few pictures from yesterday around the house.

Here is the Little People Nativity Set I have been searching for! I did find it at WalMart today. After some research my mom has found that it was more expensive at WalMart because it is a bigger set. There are more people in this set than in the one found at Target or even online at Fisher Price. This set includes the 3 Wise Men which are sold separately through Fisher Price online. So now we don't feel as bad about paying more!

Black Friday Shopping

Yes, Ben and I braved the stores and went out shopping! Our first stop was Toys R Us which opened at midnight. We arrived there at about 11:25pm and found a line already wrapped around the entire building. I couldn't believe it! We stood in line (cold, windy, rainy), but were surprised to actually make it into the doors by 12:10am. Once we were inside the chaos began. You could hardly walk anywhere and needed to really know exactly what you were looking for (which of course I really didn't). Finally we found the line for getting into the electronics section and Ben stood there while I wandered looking for a few things. Our big success was that we got the very last DVD player which was one of the main reasons for going there! We also picked up a few others things. We were out by about 2:30am which is not too bad.



We decided to come back home for a bit before going to stand in line at Best Buy because it was just way too wet/windy/cold to stand outside for a few hours. Well, my luck was good for the second time today! We got to Best Buy around 4am and the line was wrapped around to the back of the building, but as we stood it started to get shorter and shorter. This is because Best Buy hands out tickets for their big doorbuster items and once people get those tickets they can leave the line and just go in once the store opens. As soon as we made it in the door I rushed to the camera area which was all roped off to create a single line (great idea). We were third in line and very quickly got to buy my camera. We were out of the store by 5:30am which was awesome.

Once we left Best Buy we drove to WalMart & Target (in the same parking lot). It was a mess, but we were able to find a parking spot close to Target. We decided to go into WalMart first, but were unable to find jackets for the boys. (Side note: WalMart was a mess because they allowed shoppers to go in at midnight, but not touch the Black Friday sale items until 5am which made for massive chaos!). So we walked over the Target which also didn't have jackets for the boys. We walked around a picked up a few things. My mom had called to say she didn't get her camera from Target before it sold out, but Ben found it at ours so we picked it up for her (will mail it with Piper's Christmas present). Then Chelley called to say she found jackets for the boys at Old Navy! In the end we walked away with everything except 1 Christmas gift...then we will be done shopping.

The goodies we walked away with today....

Electronic Drum Pad (for the boys)
Military Play Set (for the boys)
Chixos (for Isabelle)
DVD Player (for the boys)
DS Game (for Taylor)
DS Game (for me)

Nikon Coolpix P90 camera (for me)
Camera Bag (for me)
Extra Camera Battery (for me)

Stacking & Ball Toy (for Haleigh)
Nikon Coolpix S203 (for my mom)
10 Piece Picture Frame (for me/us/house)
Angels & Demons (for Ben & I)
HellBoy II (for Ben & I)
Tales of Desperaux (for the boys)
Stocking Stuffers for the boys
Socks (joke gift for Taylor)

Jackets for the boys that Chelley got!

Overall, we had a good night/morning. I will more than likely try to take a catnap before we have to go pick up the boys from Rich & Laura, but knowing me that might not happen. We don't have any plans for tomorrow, but Ben will be out of town Monday-Wednesday this coming week.

Haircut Pictures & Cooking

It is hard to get good pictures to show off their new haircuts, but here is what I got today. You can see that it is shorter on the sides and in the back.

This morning the boys helped me make the rice krispie treats. Ben helped make the stuffing while I was making the broccoli casserole. We plan to head over to Shannon's house around 2pm and eat at 3om. The boys are then going to spend the night at Rich & Laura's house so Ben and I can go shopping bright and early. On our list is Toys R Us (midnight), Best Buy (5am), Target, and WalMart.

Hair Cuts

I have been wanting to cut the boys' hair for a few weeks, but have not because I wanted to leave it longer on the top and I have not become good at doing that on my own. Tonight I called around to find out how much it would cost to take them some place for a "real" haircut. After lots of talking (& whining on my part) I convinced Ben to let us go and get them haircuts. We went to Hair Cuttery and all 3 boys got their hair cut! Here are pictures of Zak & Ryder after their haircut (can't really see much, but will try to get better ones tomorrow!)....


On Monday the boys and I spent the day in Annapolis with Josephine and Jamison because Chris & Colleen had to work. Also, I had an ulterior motive for doing this...I wanted to pick up my Best Buy gift card from my mom so I can buy my camera on Friday! Well, Colleen & the kids found a stray dog on Thursday night which spent the night and was there when I got to the house on Friday morning. Luckily, Kay kept the dog so we could run out and do a few errands. Then we played at Kay's house with Nathan (3 weeks younger than the boys) which everybody enjoyed. To make a long story short, the dog is about 10-12 months old and was rescued by a woman in the neighborhood from the pound just before he was going to be put the sleep. This woman rescues lots of dogs and has about 15 right now. The dog they found got out of her house and she did not respond to the lost dog fliers in the hopes that whoever found him would keep him. Right now the dog is living with Natalie! He is a cutie and pretty well-behaved...

When we got home on Monday evening there was a box for the boys on the front porch. We opened it up and found 2 Barney sleeping bags, 2 Barney books, and a Barney VHS. The boys were so excited! They have slept with the sleeping bags since that night.

Tomorrow we will be watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It has been tradition since I can remember to watch the parade and I have enjoyed watching it even more since I was in the parade while in high school. I will be making stuffing, broccoli casserole, and rice krispie treats to take to Shannon's house. We plan to eat at 3pm, but will probably go over before that.