Happy Birthday Natalie!

Guess who made her grand arrival into the world today? I'm not exaggerating in the least either. I was scheduled for an induction that started yesterday and she waited until 12:31 this morning to arrive right as a 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit! Of course, no one in the delivery room even noticed the earthquake because a baby was flying through the air (slightly joking?). It was just when everyone's phones starting going off with tsunami alerts that we found out what chaos she caused on arrival. There was also a tsunami wave *in* the delivery room, but that's another story...

Right after she was born, I was cuddling with her while Matt was trying to get ahold of my sister to make sure the boys were ok. Everyone was worried because the phone alert was encouraging costal areas to seek higher ground, but given our house is at about 300' elevation, I wasn't worried at all. Just getting some newborn cuddles from a slightly ticked off baby.

I totally failed at getting many photos of her today. In my defense, I had been in labor for almost 16 hours and was pretty exhausted. And there was a bit of chaos after she was born that's for a future post. Needless to say, she is beautiful and we love her so much. If the rest of her life is like her entrance into this world, we are going to have our hands full with this one!

The Dome is Back!

A year after the dome collapsed, it is finally open again and soccer is no longer in the smaller, darker dome. Don't get me wrong - the proximity to home was great at the other dome, but photos were very challenging!

Please for the first time ever, these two get to play on the same team! Henry is turning 4 during the session and Thomas hasn't aged out quite yet, so they get to play together! I think Henry was more excited about this, but Thomas seemed ready to show his little brother the ropes. 

Randomly, we managed to get jerseys that had their ages on them. I thought this was cooler than anyone else. Plus if I had switched where they were standing it would have been my age! Darn for not thinking that before taking the photo...

Henry seemed a little apprehensive about playing big boy soccer, but I kept reassuring him that he would do great!

Of course, Henry is Henry - so there were lots of goofy faces and actions. Haha - I love this kid and his mannerisms! Also, I wasn't paying enough attention to the pre-session emails. They were giving everyone soccer balls this time, which is fine and all - we already have 3 at home. But they are no longer providing socks and I totally missed that. Poor guys had to play in their dinky socks they wore in... "/

Thomas' at least partially covered his shin guards. But then his shoe came untied. They were a mess with footwear and it was totally my fault. Sorry guys! :(

Since the dome *just* reopened, it's not actually fully completed. There is usually a tall net that runs around the perimeter of the fields and protects the people using the track from stray balls. But not today! After the first few runners had to dodge errant soccer balls, Matt took it upon himself to stop the balls from going on the track. Such a thoughtful guy!

The boys actually both did really good today! Henry managed to keep up with the pack and seemed to be having fun. He did catch on that the coach would throw in new balls when the old one went out or made it to the goal. I had to convince him that he shouldn't just stare at the coach waiting for the "new" ball and should actually go after the ball in play. But overall - awesome first day playing with the big kids! :) 

Small Sledding

These boys want to go outside in the winter generally a bit more than their momma does. I know I am the one who wanted to move to Alaska, but some days I am just feel more like hibernating than freezing. But there two have been asking to go play in the snow a lot lately and I finally compromised with them.

"We can go outside and play as long as you want if it's in the back yard."

They were totally fine with that. :)

We have a small hill on the side of the yard, so they decided that they wanted to try sledding down it. It's clearly not the most exciting of sledding hills, but it is super easy for them to climb alone and it's a few seconds of a fun ride.

Henry figured out pretty quick that it's much easier to belly flop on your sled if no adult is helping you get onto the sled. 

Thomas quickly followed the same idea, but had issues with getting the bulk of his body on the sled. Once I pointed out that his legs dragging in the snow was slowing his down, he did a much better job!

Eventually their dad got home from errand running and came over to make the sledding more exciting. There are a few boulders in the yard and these guys slid straight toward them the first time I tried to help push them down the hill - thus the reason they weren't getting any help from me. I was standing between them and the closest boulder. 

Once Matt was there, he was giving them crazy shoves toward the middle of the front yard - which is where the rest of the boulders are. So I stopped taking photos in order to catch my flying sons... ;)

So while it wasn't the most exiting sledding adventure, the boys had fun and that's what really counts, right? :)

Matt Makes Dessert

One of the gifts that the boys (all 3 of them) got in their stockings this year was sugar to make cotton candy. I bought Matt a cotton candy machine years ago and it hadn't seen much action lately. "Santa" thought the boys might be amazed by it if it was brought back into service!

Of course Santa had to go through a bit of trouble trying to find the sugar locally since the idea came to Santa a bit too late to order it online. Luckily, there is a party rental place that will also sell the sugar - in 3 pound boxes. So we have a lot of cotton candy making to do... 

Thankfully, after Matt and I wrestled with getting the bowl onto the base, the machine fired right up and starting throwing out sugar threads!

The boys were not as "wowed" as I would have guessed with the machine making the candy...

But once their dad started making cones and putting the cotton candy on the cones, they got a little more excited! Well one of them did, anyhow. The other one had to be talked into even trying it...! What is wrong with my offspring??

Thankfully, they both came around and got pretty enthusiastic about their dessert. So I guess I don't have to start worrying about them too much just yet. Ha!  

Random December Photos

December is so full of Christmas planning and build-up. It's just such a happy month! I try not to play favorite, but I think it is my favorite month of all of them. :)

Henry didn't look super happy in this photo, but I promise he was having a great time. He was just a little bummed that Santa was handing out real candy canes instead of the plastic ones filled with Hershey Kisses. I was just happy that Santa Claus came to work again this year! Some of Matt's coworkers were helping take the photos and they were insistent that the baby be in the photo, so I made Matt join in as well. I think it's a cute family photo! 

Matt went to Lowe's to get something for the house and returned with this completely over the top snowman. I thought he was going to put him in the yard, but no - he wanted to put him above the fireplace. Getting him up there was a bit sketchy, but I honestly think he looks awesome up there. 

Also, we named him Frank.

(He might stay up there all year.)

Target had set up this cool photo booth and the boys wanted to check it out. For the life of us, we could not figure out why the santa and dog were upside down. As we were walking away from the display we heard someone else talking about how you had to take the photo and then flip it upside down so it looked like you were coming out of the chimney.

*duh*

So we went back and took more photos. And flipped them! Makes so much sense! Especially if I had just read the sign next to it... ;)

Last year, I took the boys to a Pinkalicious play that was in town since we all love the book so very much. This year they had a play based on the Fancy Nancy books. We've never read those, but I figured the boys would probably enjoy it either way. It wasn't quite as fun to them since they aren't "fancy" by nature, but they didn't complain. Unlike their dad in the background who was constantly giving me "why did you talk me into this" looks... 

Thomas did see a classmate or two though and he thought that was pretty exciting!

Henry had a Christmas party at school and I got to go over and hang out with him for it. These parties are still a bit chaotic, he colored for about 10 seconds before going over to the snow sensory table, then cookie decorating a few seconds later, etc. It's tiring just trying to keep up!

Natalie is having bladder problems still. It started when Matt and Henry went to Texas back in October. We've gone through several rounds of antibiotics to clear up the UTI she had. That still didn't resolve the leaking, so she's wearing her fancy pants until the new meds kick in. Luckily she's pretty tolerant of them and being confined to the tile part of the house... "/

Kathryn & Ben invited us over to their house for Christmas dinner. And Ben even made the boys some awesome balloon hats. Also, all of my cooking show watching paid off when I was able to rescue the gravy. That and an ice cream pie from Wild Scoops were about my only contributions to the meal. ;)

I had enough vacation unused that I was able to take off between Christmas and the New Year. So the boys and I got plenty of time to hang out together. The one day I was googling kid activities around the city and found a new one. Kinder Gym! It's a time set aside at one of the recreation centers for little kids to play with all of the kid gym equipment. Seemed like a bargain at $2 a kid. The boys had a total blast and we went back again the next day it was open for more play time. (I sat on the side and watched them have fun while drinking coffee - it was definitely more fun for them... Though I do like coffee drinking time!)

Henry was extra worn out from Kinder Gym and took a pretty epic nap that afternoon. So Thomas and I got some game playing time in while Henry snoozed. He picked Connect 4 first and lost soooo many times. I tried to teach him to pay attention to the moves he was making, but it was just not sinking in. 

So we swtiched to their new Sequence for Kids game. After losing that one a few times, he went and got Monopoly out. Judging by that smile, I am pretty sure he beat me big time on this one. 

These two are so silly. I was in the kitchen and these two run up and tell me that their bellies are bigger than mine! Haha - proportionally yes, but I think I am still the biggest at the moment. :(

Only one more month...! :)

Henry fell in love with sticky buns a few months ago and I had every intention of making them for Christmas morning. But by the time I had finished cleaning up the house it was too late to start making them. So he got them for New Year's Eve instead!

I don't think I've ever made them before, but they were amazing! Cook's Illustrated didn't let me down, though it may contribute to another lecture on weight gain at my next check-up... ;)

Well, that's a wrap on 2017. Hope everyone had a great year and looking forward to an exciting 2018! :) 

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas morning is so exciting! We usually open all of our presents to each other the night before, but Santa fills the stockings overnight and there is more fun for in the morning!

Speaking of Santa, there was a last minute panic last night from Thomas that we hadn't set out the milk & cookies! I promised him I would set them out somewhere the dogs couldn't get them and leave a note. They were super excited to see the empty plate this morning, but then I got accused of eating the cookies! I pointed out that if I *had* eaten them, I would not left crumbs behind. 

Also, you can see the dog ornament in time-out. That's a barking dog ornament that is super spastic and has been driving me crazy. Thanks Grannie... ;)

I was going to make sticky buns for breakfast, but by the time I was ready to start making them it was super late. So we ended up with waffled cinnamon rolls again. See how amazing they look?

Santa couldn't fit all of their presents in their stockings, so he ended up setting up the goals in the living room. They seemed pretty excited about the goals - I figure we must be a soccer family, so the goals and cones seem super appropriate. 

Apparently Santa thinks I need to clean my car more...

These two were pretty pumped about most of their stocking stuffers, but they were most excited about their new calculator watches. Books and calculators - my little nerds. :)

Henry got his first big kid Lego set and did almost all of it on his own. We're going to have two master builders in this house! (I actually bought it for him last year and decided it was going to be too hard. Which means I had one left gift to wrap this year!)

Thomas also helped me pick out presents for the girls. He picked out this pizza toy for Natalie and she loved it. Eliza tried to steal it from her and got growled out for his trouble. Didn't know these two old gals still had the energy to growl at each other. ;)

Finally picture time! The boys helped pick out the outfits this year. They fell in love with the elf outfits and we had to find pj's for the parents to go with them. They definitely wanted Matt to be Santa, but the Mrs. Claus outfits were pretty horrible. So I went with Rudolph instead - by far the softest and coziest pj set I've had for Christmas!

We got one good serious one and then the boys wanted to do silly faces. And by the boys, I mean all three of them - pretty sure Matt was the instigator!

But honestly, they are more fun anyhow!

And of course, they had to do one photo showing off their new calculator watches. We all got one and they were giving me a hard time about not wearing mine. But I already have a watch I love...!

Merry Christmas everyone, hope everyone had as much fun celebrating as we did. :)

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve and Christmas are both equally awesome in my book, so I woke up just about as excited as the boys did! They were in great moods and ready to play with their presents from the night before!

Which suited me just fine because I wanted to bake something for breakfast and the new toys wee bound to keep them distracted enough to not demand cereal right away. Baking and Lego building - everyone gets to have a happy morning!! (Matt too - he got to sleep in a little!)

Mmmm Eggnog Scones! I told you I was a little eggnog obsessed and knew I had to make these when I saw the recipe the other day. I ate waaaaay too many of these delightful little things!

We had a skype session planned with Matt's family for mid-morning, but it ended up being closer to lunch. But these two would have been in their pajamas either way - they loooooove wearing pajamas all day. We had a good chat with the family, but not a lot of present opening. I totally waited too long to send presents and everyone is getting electronic gift certificates this year. It's the last-minute thought that counts, right?? "/

Dinner time! We scaled back the fondue a little this year since it was just the four of us, but Nonni bought me a new fondue pot last night and I was super excited to test it out. Between that and a slightly different recipe, the fondue was super awesome this year! 

Of course my two food critics both decided they didn't like fondue and only ate the dippers without the cheese. Well too bad for you two - I am not getting rid of my favorite tradition! Pfffft...

Thomas randomly decided a few weeks ago that he wanted the giant airplane Lego set for Christmas, which was awesome since we had bought it months ago when Target was having an awesome sale on Legos. Luckily for us, he didn't change his mind in the meantime and was super excited when he opened it. :)

Henry was also equally as excited opening his big present, though I am not sure why his foot was so involved... We've been watching a lot of Chopped Junior together and the kids have been "chopping" eat other left and right (especially in regards to that broccoli cheese soup). But our favorite episode was the one that had a Henry competing and he won. "Henry won Chopped!!"

The kids on this show are so impressive with their cooking skills at such a young age, so the goal is to try and get them in the kitchen more. To that end, Henry got a giant set of kitchen tools sized for kids. Obviously he will have to share with his brother, but he *is* the Chopped winner, so he got it. :)

Finally it was time to open the presents from Thomas! He got me a christmas themed pair of spa socks (so cozy!) and a multi-tool hit for his dad. Henry got a set of christmas rubber duckies and this adorable snowman! It's the same brand as another stuffed animal Henry loves that has the same giant eyes, so Thomas knew he would love it. Such a thoughtful little guy!

All the new and exciting presents and the first thing they both sat down with was their new books. That definitely made me smile. I'd be more than happy if these two turned out to be book worms.Merry Christmas Eve to all and to all...

Get in your Christmas pj's - it's bedtime! :)

Gingerbread Houses

I'm sure it will come as a surprise to learn this, but I have never made a gingerbread house. I can't remember doing any growing up, but I know for sure I have never done one with the kids. 

No better time than now to remedy that! The boys have been asking to build them since we bought the kits, but I made them wait until it was closer to Christmas. I figured they might want to eat the candy off of it after Christmas, so the less time it was sitting out, the better.

We also got an early Christmas present - Nonni came in for a surprise visit! Best kind of surprise ever! Henry and Nonni worked on one house while Thomas and I decorated the other one. Between the two of them, there were a few spilled candy and icing incidents, but nothing that couldn't be recovered from. ;)

I had no idea how much waiting would be involved with these houses or I would have started the for the boys the night before. Build walls - wait an hour. Add roof - wait 2-3 hours. The boys were not impressed. But Thomas was happy enough to fetch cans out of the pantry to keep everything stable until it dried. 

These two were very focused on getting their walls up. Nonni claims her icing wasn't as easy to squeeze as the bag I had. She might be right - she was squeezing her hard enough that she broke the plastic bag the kit came with. Lucky for her, I have much sturdier bags on hand! 

Finally time to decorate! There were a few examples on the box and Thomas couldn't decide which one to follow, so we ended up with inspiration from many of them. He told me where to put the icing for him and then decorated away. 

Also, he got new glasses last week! His old frames (that we have bought 3 times) are no longer available, so he picked out these as his new favorites. So trendy!

Everything Thomas did was in a pattern. He even had to make sure he continued the pattern from once side of the roof to the other. I didn't do the right number of loops on the second side of the roof and had to scrape the icing off to try again.

Pretty sure Thomas does not know the meaning of the word random... ;)

I offered to let him take a picture of me putting icing icicles on the roof with my fancy camera. He got a super close up photo, but he was so proud of it. I'm eve smiling, so you can't even tell how nervous I am about him holding my camera over a tile floor, can you?

It was hard to tell if the house or Henry was getting more candy on his side of the table...

But these two were having a blast either way! Aren't they both super adorable??

The finished masterpieces! You should be able to figure out who made with house based on the utter randomness on one and the patterns on the other. I think they both did an excellent job and maybe next year we will make them from scratch so they aren't hard as bricks...

Emphasis on *maybe*, it's pretty hard to beat the convenience of a kit!

Since Nonni and Heather were both flying home tonight, I conceded on letting the kids open their presents early. I am usually not a fan, but it was a special circumstance. The boy piled up their presents to open, but got a little bored when we had technical difficulties getting Grandpa on skype. Hopefully none of Henry's presents are breakable!

Despite some audio troubles, we did manage to include Grandpa in on all of the fun. And the boys were super happy to show off everything that they opened.

Thomas' school had a holiday store for the kids this year where they could shop for presents for the family and the volunteers would wrap the presents so it would be a surprise. Once Nonni showed up, I added more money to his shopping fund so he could buy gifts for everyone. The day he went shopping, he was so excited about about the gifts he bought ("I bought two for Henry!"). And he did an awesome job keeping all the presents a secret. 

He got Aunt Heather a shiny Christmas wreath pin and Nonni got a jingle bell photo frame. I should probably send her a photo to go in it! I still have to wait until tomorrow to see what I got...!

And since I am horrible at getting photos of us, I made Heather's friend take one of us before I took them off to the airport. We couldn't get one of everyone smiling, but this was the closest! I'll just assume the boys aren't smiling because they don't want Nonni to leave. And on that, I can commiserate. But it was awesome to have her for some pre-Christmas fun!

Soccer, Skiing & Santa on a Train!

This is going to be a long post because it was a long and fun-filled day! Thomas already had soccer lessons and then I thought he should start skiing lessons and then booked us on the Christmas Train the same day. I have no idea what I was thinking...

But such a fun day couldn't have an ordinary breakfast! Grannie made cinnamon rolls in her waffle iron while Matt was down visiting and he raved about how awesome they were. So we decided to give it a try this morning. They were indeed awesome! As was the fact that eggnog is now in stores and both of my boys love it. :)

Henry wasn't convinced when I told him we were having waffled cinnamon rolls, so he wanted cereal too. Whatever makes you happy, little man! 

Soccer time! It's still in the dark dome, so it was just as frustrating as last time trying to get decent photos in there, but I managed to get a few of the little guys in action. The coaches all named their teams after real soccer teams, so his team name had nothing to do with the fact he has a blue & white striped jersey. I was so unimpressed by the boring name, I don't even remember it... ;)

We got there a little early today, so they both got a little fun practice time with their dad. Though I am pretty sure Henry was mostly just running away screaming... 

The Kiddie Soccer and U6 play at the same time and the new head coach has a big meeting before the two groups head to their different fields. The best thing was that he taught them hand moves to go with the fact they are learning "Mad! Wicked! Skills!". Thomas is demonstrating the sassy arm cross at the end. So cute!

Henry has been doing pretty awesome at Kiddie Soccer this round, which is perfect since he will be old enough for U6 next session. They will actually both be in the same group for one session - hopefully Thomas can help his brother get the gist of the game playing!

Speaking of game times, Thomas has been getting better and better! He still prefers to hang back a little instead of getting after the ball, but he is definitely improving. I think he just has the heart of a goalie and that's not really a position they have the U6 group play. 

Kiddie Soccer ends about 15 minutes before U6, so Henry gets to come over and cheer for his brother. He's definitely his brother's biggest fan! :)

Also, he is very particular about his socks. I always try to fold them over and he goes back and "fixes" them to this scrunched up weirdness. "It goes like this momma!" Ok...

Off to ski lessons! He was only getting half of his lesson time today thanks to the train, but half is better than missing all of it. Luckily the ski area is basically right up the hill from soccer, so it is pretty convenient! And doesn't he look super proud of himself getting geared up for his lessons?

Henry was pretty excited about getting to stay and watch the lessons today. And getting to hold the skis while Matt helped Thomas get all of his other gear on. Such a helpful little brohter!

I was probably most excited though - I haven't seen Thomas skiing either and Matt kept telling me what an awesome job he was doing. So I brought my zoom lens along for the day to get some photos of him in action. The bunny hill has a tow rope that he needed help with on the first day, but he was a pro at it by now! He walked right up to the line, looked back and grabbed it like a champ! 

Once at the top, he got out of the way and waited for his instructor to catch up. 

And skied down like a total champ! He was even managing to get some good turns in on the little hill. I missed exactly what happened at one point, but he fell halfway up the hill on the tow rope. I just noticed he was on the ground and his skis were off. I was worried no one would notice and help him out since the instructors have several kids.

But I shouldn't have worried. He quickly grabbed his skis and moved out of the way of the rope. He then put his skis back on by himself, skied down the hill and got back on the tow rope to go up. So proud of him!

Soon, he was headed over to the lift with the next level of skiers. He's obviously mastered the purple level skills and the instructors wanted him to get more skill practice in. He needed a little help getting on the lift, but then they were off!

Also, it's a little scary seeing your tiny kid on a lift for the first time. I'm sure it will be no big deal soon, but I am definitely not used to it yet. (And they don't have the safety bars on these chairs. Eeeek!)

Here he comes down the real hill! He had a little bit of trouble with speed control on this one and managed to plow into his instructor, but he still did pretty awesome for his first few attempts at skiing! :)

This guy was still excited for his brother!

On to the next exciting activity - the Holiday Train! Those might be the most half-hearted smiles they have ever given, but I promise they were excited. They just always get a little antsy until the train stars moving. 

The activity book they handed out was super big this year! There were so many coloring pages to choose from for the coloring competition and they both picked the gingerbread house. Not to spoil it, but Thomas ended up getting a prize for his!

Henry didn't quite finish his and then panic colored when it was time to turn it in. He was still pretty upset about not winning though. 

This train sells out so quick that it's easy to miss out on the fun. This year I sent out a reminder email to people that have told me they were interested as soon as the tickets went on sale. Luckily two of our friends managed to book tickets before they sold out the next day! Thomas was pretty excited to have his friend Lyla on board. (She is obviously more stylish than we are...)

Henry's friend Jaxson also joined us! They got *mostly* matching balloons and were super excited about it. The balloons were pretty adorable this year compared to previous years...

Also, I was excited that the two friends got to come because I also happen to be friends with the parents and got some grown up time in too. Win-win! :) 

Cookie time! We were in the car next to the food car, so there were about 4 trays of cookies that went by smelling heavenly before we actually got our cookies. A little bit of torture on the train!

Finally Santa and Mrs. Claus came by! Thomas was all about saying hi, but Henry was not so into it. He told Santa he wanted "Nothing!" for Christmas. But Thomas definitely was ready with his answer: "Legos!" Which was when Henry decided that he also wanted Legos! Silly boy.

Overall, a super busy, but super fun day!

We might just chill out at home tomorrow though... ;)

Random November Photos

Such a crazy month, which is bleeding over to a crazy December, but it wasn't without quite a bit of random fun!

This kid is still loving Tae Kwon Do. Look at all these stickers he has collected on his belt! I'm still not 100% sure what the yellow ones are for, but the black are for skills and red are for the responsibility sheets that we do at home. One red sticker away from being ready for his belt test!

Henry also got pretty good at FaceTime and talking on the phone while he was away for those two weeks. Nonni looks pretty happy to be getting some one-on-one time with her youngest grandson, huh??

Soccer got bumped up an hour one day, so I promised Thomas we would go get donuts after to make up for a more rushed morning. He thought my paw prints I made out of the donut holes were pretty awesome too. :)

I promised Thomas he could pick something fun to do both weekends we were on our own and I was not at all surprised when he picked the trampoline park one day. Look at that grin - he loves this place!

It was finally belt test day! I told Thomas I wouldn't be able to make it to his test because of work, but at some point that afternoon realized there wasn't anything I couldn't miss and left work to go see the majority of his test. Plus since I was there, I got to hold the board he had to break at the end of his test. I am not sure who was happier about it!

He's a white belt with yellow stripe now. Go Thomas!

Henry's soccer gets over about 15 minutes before Thomas' and most of the time he is pretty happy to hang out and watch his brother play. He looked a little bored today though... ;)

Henry had picked out his favorite cookie that he decorated and had been talking about eating it all day. Then Matt stole it and pretended to eat it. Henry absolutely flipped out. Obviously he got his cookie back, but the moment of captured drama was just too hilarious to not share.

I am sure this will come up in therapy at some point...

The days getting shorter makes it the perfect time of year to watch movies. And movie watching isn't complete without popping some popcorn. Thomas does a great job keeping an eye on the popper for me. :)

We had a last minute change in Thanksgiving plans that meant we had to stay home instead of going to Talkeetna like we had planned. On the bright side, we finally got to use our electric turkey fryer we got on post-Thanksgiving clearance last year! It worked like a champ. :)

Also thanks to the last minute change, I wasn't quite up to doing a full Thanksgiving meal. Luckily, there is a place in town that had a fully prepped meal to order that only required minimal cooking. I was sold on that idea and it turned out great! We obviously substituted our own turkey and I swapped out the too-fancy mashed potatoes for some normal ones. Overall, it was awesome and made even better by Ben & Kathryn joining us even though it was last minute. (Kathryn provided the awesome dinner rolls>)

I think all Henry ate was a roll and mashed potatoes, but he certainly loved the fancy sparkling apple-peach cider I let him have!

Thomas tried most of what was on his plate, but he was most excited by the fact that dinner didn't take "forever". Apparently Heather's slightly delayed dinner last year left quite the impression on him... 

Speaking of impression - check out this awesome turkey Matt drew on our message board by the door. We were all quite impressed by this turkey that showed up one morning. Matt gets so much done after we go to bed some nights and last night was clearly an art night!

Totally dropped the ball on teaching the boys to ski so far, but not this year! I booked him for group lessons as soon as they started up this winter. He was so excited to start his lessons!

Henry was not excited about missing out on the lessons, but he isn't quite old enough for the group lessons. I fully plan on letting him do some private lessons once we get Thomas through his first round. So to distract him today, we went and got some of his new favorite breakfast treats - sticky buns!

The boys have been super excited to start decorating for Christmas, but I have a firm "Must get past Thanksgiving first" rule in the house. But the day after Thanksgiving, we are full on Christmas spirit around here!

The frog hats haven't gotten much love recently, but they were recently rediscovered and worn all day. Matt helped keep Henry's frog hands out of the way while he was getting ready for bed by tying them out of the way. :)

These kids love fun bath time and we got a new can of bath foam thanks to Aunt Heather. I did the usual foam snakes, but the I had the brilliant idea of making Henry a foam Santa beard. Clearly, he loved it!

Obviously, we can't wait for Christmas! :)