Christmas Eve

Every year we buy a pickle present.  The pickle present is an extra gift that gets to be opened on Christmas Eve by the first person to find the pickle ornament  hiding on the tree.  Jesse hid the ornament while the kids and I were at Jazzercise, so when we got home, the hunt was on!  Seth found the ornament, so he got to open the present.  This year the present was a box of MagFormers.  We have all had fun playing with them.  Jesse made a hat out of them for Seth to wear.   You can see a sphere in Seth's hand, too.

 I don't have a clue what that blur is at the bottom of the picture, but it looks really cool.

We told the kids they could each open one present after dinner.  Luke didn't like having to wait.  

Seth didn't like waiting either, but at least he didn't cry.  

Seth decided to play in the curtains.

Meanwhile...  Luke decided to get a head start on dinner so he could open his present!  

Do you see this child eating salad right out of the bowl?  His brother won't touch that stuff with a 10 foot pole!

Finally, we all ate dinner and there was much rejoicing!  Luke got Gears! Gears! Gears! Under the Sea set and Seth got the Sonic game for his Leapster.  

Jesse got a new Wii game.

I got the perfect organizer for my craft supplies.  Yay!   I can't wait to fill it with all of my stuff!  I forgot to take a picture of it.  Jesse told me he looked 8 different places before he finally found it.  He got the last one, and it is absolutely awesome!

Christmas Baking

I'm so glad to be out of the kitchen!   I've been trying to get things made to take with us to Chris and Michelle's tomorrow and down to Jacksonville on Saturday.  These are a few of the things I've made:

Sugar Cookies 

These took a long time to make.  The boys were supposed to help paint them, but Seth bailed on me pretty early into the project.  Luke stayed a bit longer, but I ended up doing the majority of them myself.

Chocolate cupcakes with Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting

 

These were fairly easy to make.  Seth demolished the candy canes so that we could sprinkle them on top of the frosting.   I think they look really cute, and I'm glad I found a craft project that he really enjoyed.

Chex Muddy Buddies  

These were really easy to make.  I'll definitely be making them again next year.

I still have ornaments to make, pretzels to dip, and laundry to fold, so I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow to blog about our Christmas Eve presents.  I also need to blog about last weekend's trip to Summerville.  Then I'll need to blog about Christmas day and our trip to Jacksonville.  Hopefully I'll get all of that done by next weekend! 

Hair Salon

The boys desperately needed haircuts, so I pulled out my scissors and went to work.  Then, they decided that *they* wanted to cut hair, so they invited Jesse into their barber shop.  

First, Barber Luke performed an eye test.

Then he clipped Jesse's bangs back so that they wouldn't get in the way.

Then, Barber Seth began working on the back side.  Look at the expression on Jesse's face.  Can you guess what he is thinking?

Luke rejoined Seth and they took turns combing the hairspray out of Jesse's hair.  

And then Seth joined Luke in the front and adjusted the hair clip.

Seth went to the back again to admire his work.  Ignore the hot chocolate stain on his shirt.  His momma apparently lets him wear dirty clothes.

So I went upstairs to put the laundry in the dryer...

and when I came downstairs, I found the kids in the study.  Seth was playing an animal rescue game on the computer and he was letting Luke help.  

Sweet boys!

Thanksgiving Hats

We made Thanksgiving hats last Sunday.  It was two weeks after Thanksgiving, and our tree was already up.  It is not unusual for me to be late.  Just ask my friend Carrie.  I still have her baby gift upstairs.  Her little boy is 10 months old now.  I've probably seen her 25 times since he was born.  I keep telling her I have her gift upstairs, but I can never remember to give it to her.

Anyway, on to the hats!

This is what they looked like when we made them.  

The boys thought they were great, but soon gravity took over and the turkeys began to get floppy.  Here's a picture of Luke demonstrating the droopy turkeys.  

I tried to get a picture of both boys together, but I had a hard time getting them to pose.  In this picture they were behind the recliner goofing off.

I finally got them in front of the tree, but several of my pictures turned out like this:

And then I FINALLY got a decent picture.  

Can you tell Luke was tired of the flash going off?

Deck the Halls!

Well, really, we only decked the living room and kitchen.  This post is actually a little late.  We always decorate on Black Friday, which was 2 weeks ago.  I've gotten a little behind in my blogging.

Jesse always does the lights.  

This year he had help from Luke.

I fluffed out the branches.  Ignore my hair.  I had static.

Seth was on a secret mission.  We still don't know what it was. 

Jesse put together our Walt Disney World Train.

See how much Luke likes it?

See how much Jesse likes it?

Luke was quite fascinated by the real smoke that comes out of the engine.  Jesse was, too.

Seth had fun watching it, too.

After a while, they became mesmerized.

Then Seth started telling knock knock jokes.

When they got tired of watching the train, we put the ornaments on the tree.  We give the kids an ornament every year for Christmas, so when they move out, they will have ornaments for their own trees.

Here's Seth and Jesse decorating the tree:

Here's Seth decorating by himself:

Luke and Seth:

And Luke by himself:

It was an ALL day event.  It was dark outside by the time I took the last picture of Luke!

Parade Fun!

I took the boys to one of our local parades yesterday.  It was FREEZING!  Do they look cold to you?

They really enjoyed the parade and Seth told me he wanted to have his own parade when we got home.  He wanted me to get all the neighbors to line the street so he could walk in the street and wave to everyone.

They both loved the bands and the vintage cars.  The little old men driving the vintage cars looked like they were having a great time, too.  They grinned like little boys every time they blew their horns.  We even saw a trolley car, but it looks more like a bus in this picture.

Everyone riding by was waving and yelling, "Merry Christmas!"  This made Luke really excited and he would wave wildly and whisper, "Merry Christmas" right back at them.

And then of course, there was the highlight of the parade:

My fellow Jazzercisers.  

They looked awesome.  They were dancing to "Four Minutes." They were moving really fast when they passed us, so I didn't get any good pictures.  I wasn't able to be in the parade with them, but I'll be joining them for the next parade on Saturday.  Jesse has threatened to take video and lots of pictures.  I'm hoping his pictures will turn out like mine did!

Burr.

Well, I had big plans to post several blogs tonight, but it took about 45 minutes to get my pictures uploaded, so that I could do all of those blogs that I've been meaning to post.  Now my hands are freezing, and if I put on gloves, I won't be able to type.  I think I'm going to go wrap some Christmas presents and save my blogging for tomorrow.  Night Night.

Recent Nightmares

Two nights ago, Seth woke up and came into our room and got into bed with us.  He said he had a bad dream and wanted to sleep with us.  Shortly after, he started whimpering, so I woke him up.  He told me he was dreaming that he was trying to put on a play about Baby Jesus, but Mario and Luigi kept fighting and they wouldn't stop.  I think we need to limit his Wii time.  When Seth was three, he had a dream that Jesse was making him smell carrots.  He was SO mad at Jesse he didn't want to talk to him.  It took me a while to convince him that Jesse had *never* forced him to smell carrots.  

Last night, Luke woke up crying.  I went into his room and he was sitting on his knees in his bed crying, "shoes!  Shoes on!"  I said, Luke, "You're dreaming.  Its time for night night.  We'll put shoes on in the morning."  He and I sat in the recliner in his room for a while until he settled down.  He was determined to wear his shoes!  I finally put him back in his bed and went back to my bed.  Within 5 minutes, he was crying about his shoes again.  Jesse went into his room and they slept together in the recliner for quite a while.  I'm really glad his bad dreams are mild and not about monsters, or about anyone making him smell food.  

ATTENTION!

My blog will be getting a facelift soon.  I need something a little easier on the eyes.  As soon as Jesse fixes a little bit of code for me, I'll be able to change it over.  Have I mentioned Jesse is the greatest?

Here's a joke from Luke to entertain you while you wait for my next entry:

Luke:  Knock Knock, Mommy.

Me:  Who's There?

Luke:  moon.  who. Knock Knock.

Me:  Who's There?

Luke: house. who.  Knock knock.

Me:  Who's There?

Luke: paci. who.  Knock knock.

Me:  Who's There?

Luke:  blankie. who.  Knock Knock.

Me:  Wow, Luke!  What's that over there?  (*pointing at anything that might be remotely interesting to a two year old*)

Gingerbread House!

Every year we put together a gingerbread house.  Jesse bought one while he was out today, and Seth couldn't wait to start decorating it.  I put it together and put icing on the roof and front side.

  

My hand started cramping, so I handed it over to Jesse.  He used a toothpick to get the icing precisely where he wanted it.

Seth did most of the decorating.  He had a plan and knew exactly how he wanted it to look. 

 

 

Here's the front side.  

And the top and back side.  He did a great job!

Luke and His Stickers

Luke found some Thomas and Friends stickers today.  I found him putting stickers on the Little People Garage.  

Then I found a sticker on the slide.

Then I found a sticker on Luke.  He took it off and decided I should wear it.  Then he put 2 more on me.

Thanksgiving puppet show

I took the boys to a puppet show today.  There was a cute little turkey puppet that both boys really liked.  Luke didn't like some of the other puppets and spent a good portion of time burying his face into my neck.

Here's a picture of the boys waiting for the show to start (Luke was too excited about his lollipop to look at the camera):  

Seth was chosen to be one of the Indians in the skit they did.

Here he is with all the other kids in the skit and Ms. Polly (her head didn't make it into the picture) and Ms. Ester: