The Littlest Christmas Tree

Today we were invited to Kyle's school to watch their class holiday presentation of The Littlest Christmas Tree. Can I tell you how adorable it was, especially since Kyle was the Littlest Christmas Tree (my little star)! They have been prepping for this for weeks and loving every minute of it. I wasn't sure how it would actually go when all of the parents showed up, but they were so excited to perform for us. Of course we went armed with our camera and video camera. I even had a second video camera on hand just in case :) We were so proud at what a great job he did! He was the best Littlest Christmas Tree EVER!

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Ho, Ho, Ho...

As I mentioned earlier, we did get to talk to Santa in person and tell him all the things that we wanted for Christmas this year....well, at least Kyle did. Instead of ho, ho, ho, I think Ryan was saying NO, NO, NO! Gotta love the photo though, it's truly priceless!

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Letter to Santa

The other day, Kyle sat down to write his letter to Santa. We already talked to Santa in person about the things he was wishing for, but we forgot to tell him that we were going to Nana's for Christmas this year. He wanted to be sure that Santa knew exactly where to find us on Christmas Eve.

So, here it is. On the front it says, "Dear Santa, I want: fire engine, cars, legos, transformer."

He drew a picture of Rudolph and Frosty and below it are 4 jingle bells with the number 4, of course :)

On the back it says, "I'm going to Nana's house. So, please bring our presents there. Kyle."



Below it are pictures of presents: one for Kyle, Ryan, Daddy, Mommy, and Abbey (and he drew balloons inside). Then he drew two trees.

Here he is proudly holding his letter! We'll put it in the mailbox and send it off to the North Pole. Don't worry Kyle, Santa always knows where the good boys are!

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Happy 2nd Birthday Ryan!

Wow, my baby is two already! Boo Hoo! He's growing up so fast, much faster than Kyle. He adores his big brother and wants to be just like him, so he does his best to keep up. We celebrated with family on his real birthday. Grammy and Papa were in town to join in on the celebration. Here he is spitting, I mean blowing, out the candles on his cake :) Don't mind the cake, it was kind of a left over of the REAL cake I was making for the party with his friends for the next day. This mama couldn't quite get it together to make another cake, you'll see why later.

Who ever said the second kid gets gypped? Not this one. He made out like a bandit. He got this really cool firehouse from Grammy and Papa and this "roar", that's what we call lions around here.



I have to tell you, he loves the roar. He carries it, he rides it, he roars with it, and he puts it to sleep right next to his bed. Night, night roar!

He also got this me-mommer, I mean digger, from his Mommy and Daddy. Pretty cool huh? It's tough to think of stuff for Ryan, but I think we scored with this one.



As if that wasn't enough, he also got a fabulous sandbox from Nana and G-daddy. What kid doesn't love to dig and feel the sand run through their fingers. Both kids with love this one for sure.



The next day we had a party for Ryan and all of his friends at a place called Monkey Joes. It's a huge indoor space with tons of inflatables from bounce houses, to obstacle courses, to gigantic slides (a favorite for both kids). This place just screams fun. So, everyone put on their monkey legs (even Daddy) and jumped and jumped for hours. They had a blast!







We did manage to take a break for lunch and grab some pizza and cake before we went on bouncing!





Check out the cake! I think Ryan was pleased with his Spidey cake! I actually made it, believe it or not. I must admit, I was pretty proud, considering this was my first shot. Will I do it again? Who knows. I guess I need to make Kyle one to be fair, right, and then it's back to the bakery... ha, ha!

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Happy Birthday Daddy!

Monday, the 23rd, was Daddy's birthday! He turned the ripe old age of 34 :) We celebrated with his favorite dinner and, of course, cake. This year it wasn't just any cake. Back in September when Kyle was trying to decided which cake he wanted for his birthday, Daddy was telling him all about the cakes he had when he was a kid. One in particular came to mind, the Cookie Monster cake. We asked Nana to scan a picture of it and send it to us so Kyle could see it. It turns out that the Cookie Monster cake was really an Ernie cake! Must be the old age kicking in. Anyway, how could I resist an opportunity to make a Cookie Monster cake for a grown man. So, here it is....

Happy Birthday to my sweet husband, I hope you had a great day!

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G is for....

The letter of the week at Kyle's school this week is G and it just so happens that today we found out that we are having a girl! I can't think of a better G word, can you? I am actually shocked. I really thought we were going to have another boy, but I guess the cards say otherwise. We are just so excited. After 4 years of cars, trucks and trains, we'll have to start thinking dolls, princesses and ballerinas. Bring it on! My first thought, actually, was that I will be able to go into a store and buy a pretty dress instead of a pair of cargo shorts. Whoo Hoo! Then I thought about it some more and that is just the beginning. There will be beautiful summer dresses, Christmas dresses, princess dresses, prom dresses and hopefully one day the most beautiful dress of all, her wedding dress. What fun it will be for me to share all of those special moments with her as I did with my mother. And we can't forget how lucky this little girl will be to have two big brothers to watch out for her. I'm pretty sure Ryan has no idea what is coming. Kyle, on the other hand, is excited that he's going to have a baby sister. He's been saying it was a girl all along. He was right, and he's been telling me so. He's now thinking her name shouldn't be Happy anymore. His top choice at the moment is Hello (as in Hello Kitty). That would be a first, I think! Here she is.....our baby girl!

And here are her toes!

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A Zoorific Day

Sunday was an unseasonably warm November day, so we decided to take the boys to the zoo. We had such a blast walking around and visiting all of our favorite animals. We loved watching the gorillas. They really are smart. The chimpanzees were great too. This guy gathered up a couple of treats and sat right in front of the window eating his snack in front of Kyle. He thought that was pretty cool.

Here are the boys checking out the ostriches. Just thought this was a cute picture, ostriches really aren't that exciting in my book!



Now elephants, on the other hand, ARE exciting! Fortunately, this guy wasn't in much of a hurry, so we got to look at him for a good while! One word....enormous!



The rhinos were also out roaming with the elephants, but most were pretty far away, except for this one. He was more than willing to pose for a picture.



We also got to see the giraffes, zebras, lions (they were sleeping), bears, polar bears and much, much more! It really was a great zoo and we couldn't have asked for a better day! We'll definitely be back!

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Happy Halloween 2009

Well, we certainly got plenty of use out our costumes this year with all of the halloween parties we went to. I think Kyle has worn his 4 times already and Ryan has worn his 3! We had a blast last night trick-or-treating around the neighborhoods and the kids definitely raked in the candy! What we're going to do with it all, who knows? Here they are ready to go.....our Lightning McQueen race car driver and our little Spidey!

Ryan was hilarious. After every house we went to he would say, "See you later alligator!" And here they are with they're loot!



YUMMY!!!





Earlier in the day we carved our pumpkins. Kyle wanted a scary one. My little helpers weren't too much of a help as they weren't too keen on sticking their hands in all that pumpkin goop :) Maybe that's why I only ended up carving two of our three pumpkins!



Here are MY masterpieces :)



Two weeks before Halloween we went to a trunk-or-treat. We had done this before, so we knew it'd be a lot of fun. However, it was FREEZING!!!! We got lucky on Halloween night and it was actually quite warm, but look at these poor kids. Their faces tell it all!



Oh and I don't think we missed a single car. Ryan was all about it!




HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

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A language all their own

It's funny how kids come up with names for things that bare no relation what-so-ever to the real word. I remember Kyle had a few, but Ryan's latest makes us laugh every time we hear it. Kyle even thinks it's funny. Instead of digger, he calls it a me-mommer. Where does that come from? A dump truck is a dump truck. A trash truck is a trash truck. But, for some reason a digger is definitely a me-mommer. So, here he is playing with his me-mommer :)




Did you hear my translator in the background? Whenever I can't figure out what Ryan is saying, Kyle is right there to help me out! Sometimes I don't even bother trying to figure it out on my own, I just ask Kyle!

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How do you spell........?

Last year we struggled with writing our letters. Mainly no interest. It's a boy thing. They develop their fine motor skills a little later and it gets frustrating for them. Well, this year is a whole new story. Ever since school started, Kyle has been writing like crazy! He is a master at his name and quickly becoming a master of the entire alphabet and numbers. He's always wanting to write words, so he's constantly asking me how do you spell this or that. He loves to write "recipes" with words like eggs, milk, etc. I can also see that he is trying to figure out how to read. We let him "read" stories that he knows to Ryan at night. It's so much fun for me to watch him grow and learn. I'm so proud of him! We were outside the other week playing with chalk and we just HAD to write everyone's name!

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Cheese Please

For the almost 2 years of his life, Ryan would not touch cheese or any cheese product for that matter! But, for some reason, over the last two weeks he has decided not to snub the cheese and try it. He has actually eaten sliced american cheese, mac-n-cheese, a few bites of pizza, and last night he had his first grilled cheese! Whoo Hoo! Who would've thought eating cheese would be so exciting. Just say yes to cheese!

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Rainy Days

It's been raining the last couple of days here, so we've been trying to keep ourselves busy indoors.

The boys painted their pumpkins. This was actually Ryan's first painting experience. I think he liked it :)

Here are the final masterpieces!



We made a fort under the train table. Who doesn't love a fort on a rainy day? Even Abbey liked it, she went nuts when the boys disappeared.



And Kyle and I did a few science experiments. You've gotta love Chick-fil-a. They've been giving out little Mad Scientist experiment kits with their kids meals. So much fun!



And of course, we've played with lots of crayons and lots of play-doh! Bring on the sun please so we can get back outside!

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The Monster Mash

A friend of mine had done this with her family and she and her girls have been begging us to make our version. So, here it is, in the spirit of Halloween. Have a good laugh!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

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Cooking in style

It was a long road, 9 weeks to be exact, but the kitchen is DONE! It's been done for a month and a half now. I'm just posting about it now because hearing the word kitchen no longer causes me great anxiety! So, here are some pics, starting with the before picture.

I think it's definitely a big improvement!

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Rewind

The boys are getting so big. Kyle is in preschool, learning so much. Ryan is talking up a storm, trying to keep up with his big brother. Life is pretty easy these days, relatively speaking. Now we're about to push the rewind button and start all over again. We're expecting baby #3! Part of me thinks we're nuts and the other part of me is so excited to have a baby in the house again. I love my boys so much that one more will just complete our family. We don't know what it is yet. We have 4 long weeks until we find out, but I'm just wishing for healthy and happy. No colic please. Kyle thinks it is going to be a girl and that her first name should be Happy and her middle name should be Dora. Hmmm... Happy Dora...we'll have to think about that one.

I'm at 14 weeks now, so this picture was taken 2 weeks ago.

Even though this is our 3rd time through this, it's still so exciting! Check out those itty bitty legs. It truly is a miracle.

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Happy 4th Birthday Kyle!

I say it every year.....where did the time go? How can he be 4 already? It's just amazing how quickly they grow up. Well, Kyle was a lucky boy again this year. I think we probably celebrated his birthday this year a good 5 times! It all started 2 weeks before when Nana and G-daddy came to visit. Since they weren't able to make it to the big party this year, we had a little party of our own complete with balloons and lots of Transformers decorations.

Kyle and Nana made a really yummy cake and Kyle decorated it all on his own with lots and lots and lots of sprinkles :)



Oh, did I forget to mention these lovely teeth that Nana picked up at the store. Let's hope all those sprinkles don't send us to the dentist looking like this!





Kyle got a cool new swing for the playground and a new ride (a plasma car) to add to the collection of vehicles in the garage.


On to celebration #2. Aunt Stacy and Uncle Markie came up to visit Grammy and Papa, so we headed to their house for the weekend and managed to squeeze in a day at the beach too. Kyle had asked for an Optimus Prime transformer for his birthday, so Aunt Stacy and Uncle Markie came through.



He was super excited until it came time to "Transform and roll out!" This Optimus Prime guy turns into a MAC truck. Easy enough, the box is labeled Level 4, age 5+. It comes with directions. Piece of cake! Uh not quite. Daddy worked on it for quite a while, got almost there, but couldn't get Optimus Prime's head to disappear. Mommy worked on it for quite a while. She decided to read the directions, thinking Daddy might have skipped over something. You know how men are with directions. Then Uncle Markie gave it a shot. Now here we are two engineers and an aircraft mechanic and we're 34+, mind you, and we still couldn't get this thing right. So, we sent Optimus Prime back to Wal-Mart and picked up his level 3 friend Bumble Bee. Much better!

Here they are with the boys!



Now for celebration #3. This was the big party day. Bounce house and all. Only one problem.....the radar is showing a giant green blob over our town right when the party was supposed to start. Hmmmm.....now what. We so didn't want to cancel the bounce house, Kyle has been looking forward to that for weeks! So, we improvised and put the bounce house on the driveway, got a few pop-up tents, rented some tables and set up in the garage. It actually worked out pretty well. And the best part......it didn't rain. We were SO lucky! The kids all had a great time and wore themselves out! Thanks to Grammy and Papa for helping out.





And Mr. Kyle got his requested Star Wars cake. I think he was pleased :)





And of course he got lots of great presents.



And Ryan even got one too....



And finally celebration #4 and #5. This was the day of his actual birthday, September 22nd! He started off celebrating with his friends at school. He brought in some special treats for everyone. Here he is with his cool birthday sticker he got from his teacher. So proud!



Then we had a little family celebration that evening. I was told he wanted a car cake for this birthday. Little did I know this was a "different" birthday, so a piece of the Star Wars cake just wasn't going to cut it. Of course, this mommy couldn't disappoint. So, here's my car creation and one happy boy!



And here Kyle is with his present from Mommy and Daddy! A big boy bike! He loved it!



Oh, and I forgot one more thing. This might count as celebration #6! Grammy and Papa's present didn't quite make it in time for the birthday party, so they brought with them the next week. Here it is! How could he not love this! It even has a radio! And yes, Papa bought a Ford product! Can you believe it? I guess anything for those grandkids!



Check out Ryan! He just rides along with his arm out the window. This is my glimpse into the future when they're 16 and 14. Later mom!

Well, Happy 4th Birthday Kyle! It's been a great year! We love you!

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