Santa

A few days before Christmas we took the boys to the mall to see santa. It went surprisingly well. Last year Neither of them wanted to talk to him, and Christian screamed the whole time. This year Nicholas gladly told Santa that he wanted a Hot wheels race track set, and a play kitchen with food. Christian was shy as always but he did manage to squeak out a request for a train without looking a Santa the whole time he sat on his lap. They got what they asked for, and they were so excited!


In fact Christian didn't want anything else. We tried to give him another present to open, and he absolutely refused it. He thought he had to trade his train set for the other presents, and there was no way he was going to do that! It was probably 1/2 an hour before we could talk him into opening any more presents, but I think he was glad when he finally did!



Nicholas was happy to see that the hot wheels race track he got attached to his trick-tracks sets for even more fun!




They both really love the play kitchen they got from Santa too. They have been cooking up all kinds of good food for us to eat. Yesterday morning I woke up to Nicholas with a plate full of pretend french fries. "Here mommy! I made you a wonderful breakfast, eat it up!"

"Should I call the doctor?"

I went on a field trip with Nicholas and his preschool class. The whole time Nicholas kept pushing on his crotch. I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom. He said that he didn't, but he kept pushing. Then he started adjusting his underwear. I asked him if it itched down there. He said "No, it hurts." "It hurts? Are you sure it doesn't itch?" "No, It hurts." Hmmmm. What could make it hurt down there? He continued to push throughout the morning and afternoon. Later we were outside playing with my neighbor who also has a little boy. I asked he what she thought it might be. I wondered if boys could get a bladder infection? She said they could, but it's rare. I told Nicholas that if it didn't stop bothering him, then we might have to take him to the doctor. When it was nap time I told Nicholas to go use the bathroom before he went to bed. A minute later I heard him in the bathroom shouting "Hey Mom, come look! I got it out! Now I don't have to go to the doctor!" I hurried into the bathroom very curious about what "It" was. I walked in and he pointed to the floor and happily said "See! I got it out!" I looked down at the floor, and there was a little sprig of pine needles on the floor! I burst out laughing, just as relieved as Nicholas that I didn't have to take him to the doctor!

"Hey, Napoleon! Give me some of your tots!"

So, we were walking through the mall and Nicholas slowly reached into his pocket, pulled out a cracker, and discreetly put it in his mouth. Nicholas is totally Napoleon!

Williamsburg,VA

While Sam's parents were here we took a little trip 3 hours north to Williamsburg and Jamestown Virginia. We went to Jamestown one day, and Williamsburg the next. I was a little bit disappointed in Williamsburg, not that the city it's self wasn't fantastic, but the day we went it was very cold, my boys were sick with colds, and they certainly didn't want to stand and listen to people talk about the old colonial days. It really wasn't as kid-friendly as I thought it would be either, and you had to pay extra for everything. Overall it was still fun to see what we did. The Governor's Palace (extra money) was very fun to see. After the tour you could walk around the gardens, and they had a real hedge maze to walk through! We also saw the Fife and Drum parade, which was short, but the boys loved it! Grandma even bought them each their own tin flute, and the whole town got to 'enjoy' my boys beautiful music. We toured as many houses and shops as we could before the boys begged us to take them home.

Jamestown

JAMESTOWN



If you have kids, I would have to say Jamestown is the better of the 2. It is the historic town for the early pilgrims and settlers here in america. They had a museum there with so many fun hands-on activities. There where 3 main areas. The first was Pocahontas' village. We could walk through the huts and see the way they lived. Nicholas got to grind some corn into corn meal, and we learned how they made made rope from the stuff that is inside of a stick.




The next area was the water front with real ships that you could climb on and look around. I think this was one of the boys favorites! Nicholas kept calling them pirate ships!





The boys also learned how to make a canoe by burning out the center and then used seashells to scoop out the ashes.



Last there was the pilgrim's village. The boys helped fertilize the farm with ashes. They got to walk through all the homes, and buildings. Nicholas preached a sermon in the church. They wore armor while they listened to the gun demonstration, Nicholas didn't want to be shot! but even with all that fun, the thing that Nicholas was most intrigued by was the nail making. He stood there and watched the guy make nail after nail without making a sound.

Grandma and Grandpa!

So, when Sam's mom was here last July, she told Nicholas that Grandpa would come to visit soon. That's not a good thing to tell a 4 year old. Everyday for weeks he asked if Grandpa was there yet. Finally He stopped asking. I decided not to tell him that they where coming this time until right before they got here. When I did tell him that Grandma was coming and that she was actually bringing Grandpa with her this time, He looked at me, laughed, and said "Silly Mommy! Grandpa's Not a PRESENT!". I guess it doesn't take very many Grandma visits for a kid to figure out that they come with presents. The boys where so excited to see them! And of course being this close to Christmas, they did bring presents. Nicholas got a guitar, and Christian a drum set. We had a whole band! Nicholas insisted that Daddy get out his guitar, and play songs with him. We had a concert rocking out to Nick's favorite song "Called to Serve"!

Thanksgiving and Tree Decorating

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving. We had some friends come over and we feasted for a few days on all the leftovers!





Then of course there was Black Friday Shopping. This has to be one of my favorite holiday season traditions. There is nothing like the rush of standing in line outside in the freezing cold at 5 am, waiting for the store to open, and hoping the entire time that the 200 people in front of you are not there for the same item you are! I got all of my Christmas shopping done in 2 hours, I got everything I set out to get, and I got great deals on all of it! What a great day! Then to top it all off, Sam actually asked if I wanted to put up the Christmas tree that day. This is exciting because he NEVER wants to put it up this early. He doesn't like fighting the kids off of it. In fact there have been several years when he has tried to talk me out of putting it up all together! So we put up the tree. Since then we have of course had several casualties when it comes to broken ornaments, but luckily most of them weren't worth much anyway. Except for when Christian knocked down the tree. The only ornament that broke was on that was given to me on my mission by a lady I taught. It was hand painted on the inside. Very beautiful. Sam said I should just leave it in the box. I put it at the top so that the boys couldn't play with it. I didn't even think about the tree getting knocked over on it. That was sad.

Update...

Don't you hate it when you get behind on blogging, and suddenly you have a million things to post about, but you keep putting it off because there is way too much? My last few weeks have been super busy with Thanksgiving, black friday shopping, Sam's parents coming to visit, a trip to Williamsburg, Virginia, Sam's birthday, and several trips to the doctors to try and figure out why Christian has been throwing up so much lately . So instead of trying to write about everything, I'll just post a few pictures, and let them do the talking.