Happy New Year 2011!!

We got out the New Years Party box about 5:30, so we could celebrate the New Year early at 6:00 pm. They will be lucky to make it to 8:00.

Eric saw them both put their heads down at the dinner table tonight, so they are already tired boys. Good thing we didn't make any plans to be out with them tonight.

I made Evan put on my tiara! Daddy says they are for girls. It still looks cute on his head:-)

Happy New Year Everyone! We are headed to bed:-)

Merry Christmas!

For someone who is afraid of Santa Claus...Evan was having fun wearing this Santa Suit! Merry Christmas!

The boys got some nice presents for Christmas! Alex isn't really into opening presents yet. He was a little under the weather, so he saved some presents for this morning. Evan was more that willing to help him open presents!

Milk cup in one hand and his new dragon fly flashlight in his other hand. He wasn't feeling well, but he was still having some fun with their new toys.

This Dora guitar was a big hit and will get you singing those Dora songs in your head. They both LOVE Dora. The guitar is a little girly, but they don't care!

Evan got a new Curious George Story Book. He Loves reading and watching Curious George.

Christmas Eve we opened some gifts with my parents! Alex got some bedding for his "Big Boy" bed that he will be moving into one of these days. Let us know if anyone needs a crib...we are gonna have two of them to unload! We've had Evan's on Craigslist for a couple months and haven't had any calls on it.

Mom's favorite present...a Sweet Martha's Cookie tub from the State Fair filled with Sweet and Sour sauce from McDonald's. She was excited thinking it was cookies and even more excited when it was Sweet and Sour sauce! Speaking of the MN State Fair...the other night at dinner Evan says to me ..."Mommy can we go to the State Fair"? I told him we have to wait until late August to go to the fair again. He really has a good memory for stuff like that. With all the snow we have I don't think the State Fair would be very fun this time of year.

Evan got some new track for his Thomas Train. He had fun playing with the train cars. He got a new Percy train and it kept catching up with Arthur and Thomas, because they have been around awhile.

Playing with the trains is a tough job. There are lots of derailments!

Santa brings them an easel for Christmas and Alex has to go in between the sides!

Santa brings them a big tub of Mega Blocks and Evan empties it out and climbs inside!

I bought an under bed storage container from IKEA and what do they do with it? Where is Evan?

SURPRISE!

Both boys try out the storage box!

Christmas Day we went to Eric's parents. The boys got a bunch of CAT equipment. Gay gets out the macaroni, so they have something besides sand to move around.

You can see all the macaroni on the carpet...and you can see what I mean by a bunch of CAT equipment. They all have buttons to make noise and play music. Some of these will be heading back to Grandma and Grandpa's. There is a big TONKA dump truck too. That makes a lot of noise going up and down the hall without any button!

Uncle Greg helps Alex hook up the boat trailer to his truck.

Evan climbed into the laundry basket tonight and said he was Baby Jesus!

Alex got a Buzz Lightyear cell phone for Christmas. This has probably been the most fought over toy. Why is it you buy something for one kid and the other kid has to have it or like it better than the kid you gave it to!

We had a wonderful Christmas and are so fortunate to have such wonderful friends and family! We hosted about 23 people here for Christmas Eve. Thanks to my parents who do most of the work. Eric's parents and Aunt Michelle also joined us. Alex went to bed about 8:00, but Evan stayed up until 10:00 to wave to the last guests out his window before going to bed. He got to meet his new 3rd cousin Eva and gave her one of his favorite toys when he was her age. Eva has the same Birthday as Alex (March 3rd)...so they are just a year apart! Eva's Mom and I were born just a couple days apart in the same year!

New Kids on the couch picture

It's been just 3 weeks since we were together for Thanksgiving, but we took another picture of the kids on the couch. They each held a toy to keep them in place:-) If Olen was looking up the rest of the kids were not, so we got a good shot of his head.

Ada(5), Evan(3), Olen(almost 3), Alex(almost 2)

We went out to air the kids and Evan had fun sledding down the road with Daddy. He did go down the hill a couple times at Barb and Spences too.

Alex chilled out in the stroller. He had fun racing Evan in the sled. Alex kept telling me to go fast! go fast!

Alex got a drum set for Christmas and here is a picture of him holding the drum sticks. The drum holds a bunch of musical instraments and he loves it!

We are having a great time with Elf on a Shelf. He moves to a new place each night while we are sleeping. The first thing Evan does in the morning is look for the elf (Clyde)! Christmas Eve he will leave for the North Pole to live with Santa until next Thanksgiving! We will miss our friend Clyde.

Our tree. I got all the presents wrapped on Saturday night. First ever that I was done so early. It will be so nice to not be wrapping the night before Christmas Eve.

Evan with Alexs' drum strap around his neck. I see a marching band "geek" like Daddy!

Turkey!

Evan put the boppy pillow on his head tonight and said..."I'm a Turkey!"...I said yes you are!

Alex was really tired tonight, so he didn't get any pictures, but this was him eating his dinner on Saturday night. He must not have started to eat his yogurt yet, because it would be all over his face and bib. He insists on feeding himself and usually doesn't want to wear a bib!

We got a huge snowstorm this weekend and were pretty much confined to the house. Eric went out shoveling twice on Saturday. The boys went out with him for a few minutes, but the wind blew the snow and they did not like that. Alex demanded he wanted to go outside and lasted all of 2 minutes and he came inside and I don't even think his boots were wet when he came inside. Thank goodness for a couple of neighbors who have a snowblower and 4-Wheeler who helped Eric with the end of the driveway. Eric had to help a snowplow out that got stuck at the end of our street. The city kept up with the roads. Sunday afternoon Eric took the boys to Lifetime to go swimming and I got some present wrapping done. I haven't put any under the tree yet, because I'm not sure that Evan won't unwrap them:-) Maybe we'll have to start with a couple!

Too Much Christmas!

Snow and Christmas tree

Friday evening it took me 2 hours 45 minutes to get home from work. I was going 3 mph for an hour and a half. This is going to be one long winter!! UGH! There was only a couple inches of snow for that hour and a half. Saturday morning Eric got up to shovel the driveway. When Evan finished his cereal he went out to join him. He had to bring out the tractor and trailer again:-) When Alex finished his waffle he wanted to look out the window and watch them.

A short time later....................Not sure what he was crabbing about! Eric said maybe it was this yoga position:-)

During my long commute on Friday Evening Eric brought out "The Polar Express" for the boys to watch. They are captivated by it and want to watch it over and over! The MAGIC of CHRISTMAS!

Bob and Gay took the boys yesterday, so it was time for us to break out the Christmas decorations. It was about 50% easier to decorate without them. Funny thing is...Bob and Gay let them help decorate their tree. They said Alex had little interest, but Evan did some decorating. We did leave out a few decorations for Evan to put on the tree when he got home today. He is interested in Santa on the deck, but he is still scared of Santa. This big Santa is on our deck. Eric was just putting him together inside the house.

Eric forgot to put the cover on the grill so he turned it on and was trying to melt the snow off of it. mmmummmm grilled snow!

I think Alex was trying to take ornaments off the tree. He left it alone for the most part. Notice my red neck stockings hanging from the window above the tree. They say you can't put the stocking hangers on the mantle or the kids will pull them down and bang their heads. I thought this was a good way to get use out of them, because the kids can't pull them down. Of course Scooby Doo and Elmo are taken down, because the kids want to play with them, but at least the hangers are out of reach!


Last week Alex decided to vacuum!

Family photos!

Back in October we had family photos taken for our Christmas card. I put our Christmas cards in the mail today! We had a beautiful day for our photos! Our photo shoot was at 1:00 and the weather was nice and warm for October 16th!