Christmas festivities from my phone...

December was a busy and fun month. Here are a few of the many things we did;

 

created Christmas crafts with friends,

welcomed in cold weather,

made some last minute decorations for the ward party,

sat on Santa's lap at the local library,

painted,

made and received lots of Christmas goodies,

attended the ward party,

looked at lights,

sat on Santa's lap at the Flint Hills Christmas party,

 

played in the bounce houses at the Flint Hills party,

fell asleep in the shopping cart from the Christmas shopping exhaustion,

attended a Christmas party with our friends at the local Methodist church,

looked at more lights,

ate all of mom's Lindor truffles from her friend while she wasn't watching,

 

 went to Sea World,

 

 

 

 rode on the train at Sea World,

 

and ate and ate and ate some more really great food. December was such a fun and busy month for us. Well minus the one week we were all deathly ill (besides Caleb who is never ill and has the most amazing immune system.)

Christmas morning

We had such a wonderful Christmas. My Dad came down to visit and spend the week with us. He spoiled these little boys and they loved it. Caleb decided to call him "papa" and constantly asked (and still does) " where is papa?".

Christmas morning the boys opened all of their gifts and they had a lot to open. They were spoiled by all our wonderful family and friends. I could hardly believe how many toys filled the living room after everything was opened. It was a good reminder of how blessed we are. I might have got caught up in all the excitement and forgot to take pictures so here are the few I have of the morning.

 

Caleb had the job of getting the presents from under the tree and bringing them to us to open. He did surprisingly well at this and only opened the ones we told him were for him. 

We also continued some of our favorite traditions which include; the lights on candy cane lane, picking out an angel tree name, Christmas caroling with friends, the Flint Hills Christmas party, picking out an ornament, unwrapping a Christmas book each night in December and opening up Christmas eve pajamas and a new movie.

About a week before Halloween Ethan busted his eye open on the side of the tub.  Nathan was at school and Caleb was almost in bed so I just cleaned it up and held him until it stopped bleeding. I knew the cut was pretty bad but I wasn't sure it was bad enough for stitches so I just used some liquid band aid and butterfly bandages to close up the gap. That worked really great for a few days.

Halloween night we took the boys out trick or treating and the loved it. After we came back we sat in the back of the truck and passed out candy. Ethan was playing around and hit his eye again on the side of the truck. this time it busted open and blood was pouring out everywhere. We debated for a few seconds on what to do and decided to take him over to Tia's (our doctor and good friend) house. When we got there she said it needed stitches so we could either go to her office and stitch him up or we could pin him down and she could use a liquid suture she has on hand that they use in the OR at the hospital. We opted for the liquid suture and pinned him down while she closed up the wound and while it dried. I won't lie all the crying and the pain really broke my heart. The liquid suture worked great and it didn't open again. He still has a pretty good and very noticeable scar from the two incidents but we are so happy we were able to avoid the emergency room. Thank you Tia!

 

joys of motherhood

 

I have an overwhelming sense of Gratitude for both Caleb and Ethan. They have brought a joy and happiness into our lives that could come no other way. Sometimes I wonder if other parents love and have as much fun with their kids as we do ours??? I sure hope so. We also have challenges, being a parent isn't ALWAYS easy. Yesterday brought a whole new challenge. Caleb was in his room crying hysterically and I ran in to check on him and discovered that he had tried to change his own diaper... only as he tried harder and harder the mess only grew and grew. His room was literally covered in poop, this picture is only a portion of the mess. I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or vomit so I closed the door and revised a plan to get him and the mess cleaned up. There really is never a dull moment around here.

 

Halloween!

We did celebrate Halloween this year! Last year I bought Caleb a really cute dragon costume on clearance in hopes he would fit into it this year. Unfortunately he fit into it just fine but was deathly afraid of it. After a lot of crying I decided to just let him go to the ward party and around the neighborhood in his Batman pajamas. Both boys loved the trick or treating and had a great time.

 

The weather last week was a little a little chilly. It actually got down to about 45, and my little boys were freezing and refused to play outside so we busted out our winter gear. It was fun for a few days to have cold weather but we are happy to be back in the high 60's and low 70's.