Petland Social & Fun With Our Buds

Last Friday, we went with the CECPTA to Petland to see and learn about some different animals.  We got to pet all sorts of fun furry (and spiky, feathered) creatures.  Anderson really liked the hamster and the hedgehog.  Everett liked the bunny the best.  We also got the chance to play with a puppy for a little while.  He was very playful and jumpy.  Everett did not like him, but Anderson thought it was pretty funny when he got got attacked with puppy kisses.

Anderson petting the gerbils.  He's crouched down in the green shirt.  Everett is hanging close to me over in the top left corner of the picture- he wanted nothing to do with those odd little creatures!

Everett petting poking a guinea pig.

Puppy Kisses Galore!

After the tour, we spent some time outside in the beautiful weather with our best buds, Brody and Matthew.

Some impromptu Ring-Around-the-Rosie:

Just being curious and adventurous boys.

~Everett, Matthew, Anderson, Brody~

These boys have literally been friends from the beginning!  Mendi and I met originally in prenatal yoga when we were pregnant with Brody and Anderson, who were born one month apart from each other.  Then we became closer friends in a New Moms group which then led us to forming our playgroup.  Then, we both (surprisingly to each other) got pregnant again with Matthew and Everett at the same time.  Our second boys were also born one month apart from each other!  They've played together since the beginning and have even gone to school together since the beginning.  So fun and special to have such wonderful friends!

Silly Face Time!

Videos from San Antonio & Lubbock

While in San Antonio, Grammy and I took Anderson and Everett to an indoor bounce house arena.  Although there was a special toddler area for children 5 and under, both boys immediately dismissed that zone and zeroed in on the enormous slide featuring Lightning McQueen plastered on the side.  While we were a little apprehensive that Everett wouldn't be able to make the climb all on his own, he proved his status as the tough little brother and followed Anderson with ease.  They both had a ball going on this slide over and over and over again.  

Eventually, Anderson would do tricks as he would come down the slide and Everett would try his hardest to copy Anderson's actions.  It was so fun!

While we were in Lubbock, Everett became enamored with Shadow the Horse, a ride-on bouncy horse that lives at Nana B's house.  He loved riding and bouncing on him and would occasionally even wear the cowboy hat.  On our last day in Lubbock, Everett was genuinely sad to leave Shadow.  He literally tried to drag him to the door towards the car when we told him to tell him goodbye.  Then, Everett got a little mad at Shadow since he couldn't come with us (he got a swat on the nose!), but eventually gave him a nice hug and kiss before saying "bye".  It was really cute.  

Christmas in Carrollton

Santa came to our house on the morning of December 20th since we were leaving later that day for our big drive around Texas to visit family.  On our Christmas Eve, the boys happily put out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, which they then proceeded to eat themselves.  

 

Anderson woke up about 6:30ish and hung out with us until we heard Everett awake at around 7:00. Santa had brought exactly what the boys had been asking for:  a Lightning McQueen big boy bike for Anderson along with a Squinkies Dispenser and a "baby bike" for Everett and a toy airplane.  After we opened gifts from Santa, we opened the presents under the tree.  We all had a fun time pausing only for some yummy cinnamon rolls.  After the presents were all opened, we set the boys loose playing with everything so that we could finish packing and getting ready to hit the road later that day.

Santa Visit 2011

This year our wonderful photographer, Teresa Berg, hosted a client appreciation event where we could bring the boys to see Santa, have cookies, and have a beautiful pictures taken.  It was SO nice of Teresa and it was very nice not to have to deal with any lines or crowds!

Anderson was very excited about seeing Santa this year.  On the way there he asked Reese and I how we knew the way to get to the North Pole.  ;)  We explained to him that Ms. Teresa was a very special friend of Santa's and that she invited him to her studio for the day.  Once there, he did a great job telling Santa what he wanted (a Lightning McQueen bike and a Cars Squinkies Dispenser {this random toy he saw at Walmart}).  He also was great at trying to help Everett have a pleasant experience.

Here are the gorgeous Santa pictures that Teresa took this year.  Please visit www.teresaberg.com to see more about Teresa's beautiful work!

Just Passing Time

On one of the many drives we made around Texas during December, we caught Anderson showing off his counting skills.  We told him that, "if he counted to 30 that we would be at Grammy & Boots' house" since we were literally at the last mile of a 5 hour drive.  Hence the "We are here?" question at the end of the clip.  I love how the one-to-one correspondence with the fingers slowly diminishes as the count gets higher.  :)

Counting Down to Christmas

This year I was thrilled to get a new Advent Calendar to begin a yearly tradition with the boys.  I spent lots of time searching for the perfect one and I was so excited to show it to the boys when it came home.

Each day during December, Anderson would open the appropriate door and find a small paper with a bible verse portion of the Christmas Story and then another piece of paper with either a special Christmas  activity or treat listed.  Some activites included: making snowflakes, building a gingerbread house, shopping for Angel Tree gifts, watching Rudolph with hot cocoa, making ornaments, and many more fun events.  A few days there were special surprises like candy canes or chocolate Santas inside for the boys to share.  Anderson became enamored with the Advent Calendar and he knew the date immediately upon waking each day. I appreciated that it gave us an extra opportunity to focus on the scriptural part of Christmas as we explained and talked about each day's verse.  I used these printable advent cards and they were perfect.  I sat down with our family calendar and some small slips of paper and filled out/coordinated the activities/treats the best that I could with what I knew was going to be happening during the month of December.  Since I knew ahead of time we were going to see Santa on a particular date, I put that as as activity on that the corresponding day, etc.  It worked out really well.  I can't wait to use our wonderful advent calendar again for many years to come.  I know Anderson will be SO excited to see it next year.  Everett was a little indifferent about it this year.  :)

We also welcomed back with happy smiles our Elf from the North Pole.  He came to us last year, but Anderson was a bit too young to fully grasp the concept.  

This year, he was very much on board with finding Elf (the name that Anderson picked) each morning, his magical powers of visiting Santa each night/flying, but not so much with really believing that Elf would relay bad behavior to Santa, therefore resulting in placement on the naughty list.  See...Anderson is a strong believer that Santa brings presents for everyone, no matter what.  He presented some strong arguments too, considering he's only three.  I always thought that I would just tell my kids that they "better be good for goodness sake".  Then they would want that Lightning McQueen bike bad enough that they would be perfect angels for the whole month of December.  ;) 


We had fun with Elf nonetheless.  Anderson really enjoyed hunting for him everyday and seeing the funny places he'd end up or the funny mischief he had caused around our house.  I'm actually disappointed in myself because I didn't take pictures of all of the really fun things Reese and I did with Elf.  The funniest one had Reese and I cracking up at ourselves late one night.  We took a dry-erase marker and drew all over the faces of the boys' most recent picture that's framed and hanging on the wall.  We gave them the works: beards, glasses, horns, antennae, holding flowers, etc.  Then we attached Elf to the top of the frame holding the pen.  We had so much fun setting it up and Anderson thought it was hilariously funny. Since Elf had to be moved each night, I kept running out of time to take pictures!  :(  Oh well... I did get a couple. 

Elf brought donuts from the North Pole 

Elf left a special message for the boys

Elf TP'd our formal living room!

Anderson was sad for him to go back to the North Pole for good, so I know he'll be excited to see him next year.  I just hope that Elf inspires a little more angelic Christmas behavior next year.  :)

I also happened upon this book in November and we all ended up LOVING it.

Countdown to Christmas  

This is the cutest little devotional for kids.  Each daily, two-page spread has a simple devotional following the Christmas Story, a prayer, a suggested activity or simple project (think make a paper-chain). Sometimes it discusses Christmas traditions like trees, baking cookies, etc. and provides open-ended questions and prayers for the kids to complete.   I highly recommend this book if you have little ones!

Mommy & Daddy's Fun

In early December Reese and I got a quick get-away to Vegas!  It was a semi-work related trip of Reese's, but it was a reward trip so there was no actual working while on the trip.  So, we had two awesome sitters (Grammy & Aunt Reagan) in town to watch our two wild boys and we hit the road.  We love Vegas.  We got engaged there in July of 2003 at the Bellagio and celebrated our first anniversary there among a few other trips here and there just for fun.

This trip, Reese surprised me with a late birthday present of a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon.  It was a wonderful experience and such an awesome way to see God's beautiful work.  We had a great trip.  Here are a few pictures from the helicopter tour:

Do I look as nervous in the picture as I felt? (this is right before taking off)

 Hoover Dam

 Flying through the canyon

 We landed for a picnic down in the base of the canyon.

 A champagne toast

 There were 5-6 helicopters in our tour from the same company .  

This was a few hundred feet in front of us as they were taking off from the picnic area.

 One more stop in the middle of the desert for a refueling.  

The take-offs and landings were really neat- so smooth and strange the way you  just start floating.

I actually sat in the front on the return trip (huge accomplishment!) and was really comfortable at this point. :)

While in Vegas, we also got to see Cirque du Soleil Love which is the Beatles show.  It was really good and was one I had been wanting to see for awhile.  We also had never been back to the Conservatory at the Bellagio which is where we got engaged.  So, we dropped in for a picture:

Standing in the spot where Reese proposed (it was decorated very differently at the time).  I tried to convince Reese to get down on his knee for a picture, but he wouldn't.  ;)

Factor in the wonderful dinners we had with friends who were also on the trip, the fun night out to an official "Vegas Club" where we were on the list, and a few hands of blackjack?  It was a really fast, non-stop, but FUN trip!

AND- even though it doesn't fit with the Vegas trip.... We also had a fun night at the Bain Christmas party.  It was held at the Dallas Museum of Modern Art and their feature exhibit of fashion icon Jean Paul Gaultier.  It was a fashion/red carpet themed party so there was lots to see, along with the very interesting exhibit.  

Probably the only red carpet picture we'll ever take!  ;)

Anderson's Gym Class

From October through December, Anderson took a gym and trampoline class at the community rec center that is literally 1/4 mile from our house.  I enrolled him to give him an outlet for some energy in the winter months on Wednesday mornings when we didn't have much else going on (and the class time worked well with Everett's napping schedule).  Anderson was a little slow to warm up to the class at first because during the first week's class he hurt his finger while doing a somersault on the trampoline.  So, he had to work through some fear issues during the next few weeks.  But, by the end of class Anderson always came out smiling and excited.  There was a nice big window area that the moms could sit and watch through so I got to see Anderson's progression from moving SO slowly and wobbly on the balance beam to being very confident, quick, and so balanced that he was able to do turns.  He even picked up some skills on the uneven bars (which I missed taking a picture of due to chasing Everett around!) We haven't decided if we'll re-enroll in the upcoming winter session.  It's really such a bargain price, though, that if Anderson wants to continue then we'll go for it.  Too bad Everett is too young to join the class with Anderson!  He wants SO badly to go in there with Big Brother each week. :(  Here are a few pictures I did sneak in and take on Anderson's last day.

Jump...Jump...Jumping across the big trampoline.

Time for the big dismount!

Steadddyyyyy

C   a   r   e   f   u   l 

wooooaaaaaaahhhhhh!  I'm Good!  :)