Gadget from Santa

Thomas loves cheese. I mean....he only eats cheese! Cheese quesadillas are his absolute favorite. This year Santa brought the family a quesadilla maker! We have already used it a few times and everyone in the family LOVES it! Thomas and Nathan can have the simple cheese ones while Ken and I get to load chicken, onions, and peppers on ours. It's so nice to fix a meal the entire family will eat! Yay!

Time for a Bath

"Nathan, time for a bath." Well, he was very ready as we gathered his jammies and diaper. He's so quick! He loves getting a shower! Can you tell?!

Thomas Learns to Shave

Thomas' favorite Christmas gift was the Toy Story shaving kit that Ken and I got him. He thinks he is so grown up and literally shaves three times a day. He has already told me that he plans to wake up early on the mornings we have school so that he has time to shave. ha! Today I even let him wear a little bit of aftershave. He said he LOVES the way his face smells!

 

Thomas' First Camp Out

Thomas and Nathan got a tent with a detachable tunnel for Christmas and they have had a lot of fun with it in the house. (Not nearly as much as the shark tent.) On Tuesday night Thomas asked if he could camp out in the living room. Oh, he loves camping out now! Plus, he slept in his tent the whole night. :)

Christmas!

Our Christmas got started at 8am with Thomas coming to our bed giving us a full report of everything Santa brought. He was so excited about Christmas it was a miracle that he slept all night long! Santa made his stop at our house and the boys must have been very good this year! Nathan loved seeing so many Elmo and Blues Clues toys! He also loves the new car race track. Thomas got a new bike and Mario Cart, which was on his list. Amazingly, his favorite gift was a simple Toy Story shaving kit! I think he has shaved three times in 2 days! We also enjoyed the company of Ken's family Christmas morning and then saw more of his family for lunch in the afternoon. Here are some highlights from our fun filled Christmas!



Christmas Eve Church



Putting reindeer food outside



Santa arrived!









He loves the new Elmo slippers.
P.S. That's how he smiles when you say, "cheese!".



Race track

New shaving kit



It took only minutes for Nathan to figure out how to climb up onto Thomas' new bike!



The first of many competitions!

Christmas with the Coffaro's

In keeping with tradition we celebrated Christmas early with the Coffaro's.  This year was extra special thanks to their new addition, McKinley Quinn. We all had a great time and enjoyed extra baby snuggles. Happy First Christmas to McKinley!



Another Half Brithday

Today Nathan is 18 months old (or one and a half)! It seems like only yesterday we were having his monkey birthday party and now in only 6 months we'll be celebrating again. Time is passing so quickly! He goes for his 18 month check up tomorrow and we are anxious to see how much he grew since our last visit! Nathan continues to climb on all the furniture. He also learned to jump like a frog, which is so fun to watch. He loves Blues Clues and Elmo. And his new found hobby is coloring. He cut 6 teeth in 6 weeks, including 4 molars. He is starting to say more sounds which represent words, which is a great improvement. It amazes us how well he keeps up with Thomas and how much he is changing from a baby into a sweet little boy!

It's Snowing....well, sort of!

After seeing Santa we already had plans to go to Oviedo's Snow Mountain. It was very cold so we didn't stay long since Nathan wasn't feeling his best. We stood in line for about an hour for the kids to play in a big snow mound. The lines we incredibly long and after you play in snow you get wet and even colder. After such a long day, Thomas was on the verge of a meltdown of his own, so we decided to cut our night of snow short. It was still fun, but I think playing in the real stuff is more fun, plus you don't have to wait in line! :)

Seeing Santa

After we took our holiday pictures, we went to Bass Pro for Ken to pick up something and decided that since the boys were still in their cute shirts we would have them see Santa while we were there. Apparently we weren't the only ones with that idea! We waited in line for an hour and a half and briefly saw Santa. Nathan was petrified! Thomas told Santa about all the animals he wants and even asked, "You can bring real pets right or no?" The smart Santa replied, "We'll see."

Holiday Pictures

When we visited Great Day in the Country this year, a girl had a booth that made hand made shirts for boys and girls. I ordered matching "tie" shirts for the boys and a necklace for myself to wear for some family holiday photos. Since the days seem to pass quicker than I plan, we didn't get to have a family photo taken...yet, but we decided to go to Lake Mills to take pictures of the boys for our holiday cards. Here are some. The out takes are rather funny since Nathan refused to be still or smile!

Yes, Nathan was making this face on purpose! Such a stinker!

Buzz's Return From the North Pole

Last year, one of Santa's elves, whom we named "Buzz", came to our house to help watch the boys have great behavior. Everynight he flies back to the North Pole and reports to Santa about how the day was. Buzz returns in the morning, but not in the same place where he once was. Every morning Thomas rushes out of bed to be the first one to find where Buzz is hiding. We are happy to report that Buzz has returned to our house and I'm sure he is very pleased with all the great choices Thomas and Nathan are making. They are making Santa very proud.

 

Thanksgiving Art

Our house was very decorated with Thomas' wonderful artwork and writing. It's amazing how much progress he has made in his writing in just one year. Hanging up all his beautiful work is one of my favorite traditions!

"I like Thanksgiving because you celebrate being together. I will eat turkey."

"Hooray For Thanksgiving"

Today was Thomas' Thanksgiving Show at school called "Hoory for Thanksgiving". It was so nice that Ken, Papa and Aunt Emily came to the show. Thomas was an Indian in the show and made his costume from a pillow case. The children sang about 6 songs, performed the play and we saw a movie that the children created in their computer lab class. Thomas' picture shows that he is thankful for "his guinea pig, his rabbit, angry birds, and his dog". Mind you, we have NO pets at home, so when I asked him about it, he said that he wants to have a guinea pig one day and when it dies he's going to get a rabbit to eat all the carrots off his plate! He said that the angry bird was about the video game that is on my I-Touch. Oh how this kid cracks me up! I had to get back to my class, so I was thankful that Emily took pictures of Thomas with some of his holiday artwork. It was such a cute show! What a fun way to start off celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday!