Winter Break

Ben is officially a huge fan of the break from school (no longer Christmas holidays, now just a winter break). He's loved sleeping in, spending the night with the grandparents, and NOT going to school! And since Aunt Stacey was enjoying her break too, we headed north to spend a few days with her and her family. With three little boys in the house playground trips were a must every day.

This was a terrific playground in Frisco. Reid loved the slides!

Ben climbed in, out, and over everything. The boo boo on his face that required a bandaid was immediately forgotten until some kid asked about it and Ben pointed to Alex and said "That kid hurt me".

Alex was really intrigued by the tightrope and did it over and over.

This balance beam was a hit, too. Despite being so top-heavy, this kid has a great sense of balance!

Naturally, they found the sand. Wouldn't be a real trip to the park without sand in the laundry.

This cracked me up - a bunch of other boys gathered around and they all started filling the slide with sand. Ben and Alex were right in the thick of things.

This little girl showed up and started yelling at all the boys for getting the slide dirty! This mother of boys got a good laugh out of that.

Back home we said goodbye to 2011 with some sparklers outside with the neighbor boys.

Nothing says a good time like matches and fire!

We have had a wonderful 2011 and look forward to 2012. We wish all our family and friends and healthy, happy and joyous year ahead!

Merry Christmas!

We had such a wonderful Christmas! It was magical for the kids and filled with family time and laughter, so we couldn't ask for anything more. We spent a few days with my folks before just to play and enjoy some time together. The weather was cold and rainy and made for perfect days to play games and open presents.

We let the kids open one a day to keep them busy and interested in new toys.

The mini foosball table was a hit with kids AND adults. I see some good times happening on this whether the kids are around or not :)

On Christmas Eve, we stopped for a beautiful candlelight service at church to celebrate Jesus then came home to get ready for Santa. Ben had to inspect the fireplace to make sure it was sound and not too dirty.

Goodies by the fireplace, reindeer food and carrots out on the lawn (which I realized was poor planning because I had to hose it down later to make sure it looked "eaten"...I had no trouble helping Santa with his cookies!)

So excited!!

As soon as the kids finally passed out, Matt and I had to get to work. Santa was delivering a 14-foot trampoline only his magic doesn't get it assembled when it's 40F and raining outside. A couple of hours later, we had one huge gift and icy hands and feet.

But it was all worth it to see their faces Christmas morning. Ben kept pointing to things and saying "Alex, look, you got what you wanted!" Very sweet! And lucky for me, Alex didn't notice that Santa had to make a few small substitutions. Rockstar Mickey for $45? I don't think so. Let's go with the $10 dancing Mickey from Walgreens. Just as happy :)

We had to get pretty specific for Mr. Details. He noticed pretty quickly that one of the items on his list was missing, but we assured him he had many other presents under the tree. Mom and Dad had to get credit for at least a couple!

He was thrilled to get a little microwave. I'm not sure where he got the idea for it but he's been talking about it for weeks and has actually played with it. I thought sure he'd get it and never touch it again.

Alex was so happy to get a trike. He's not crazy about a bike with training wheels yet so this should be fun until he's a little bigger.

It was still cold and rainy outside so he got to ride it inside for a couple of days.

The boys were happy to see the trampoline and were so excited to get a big one. We did promise them that if we sold their little one in Australia they could get a new one in our bigger yard.

I didn't last long out there but after putting in all the work the night before, I wanted to share in the fun :) The boys made several trips outside during the day and didn't seem to notice the cold.

Later on, we had all the family from both sides over to the house for lunch. What fun! All four grandparents, Aunt Amanda, Aunt Stacey, Uncle Jason, and Reid all came to celebrate together and we had a wonderful afternoon eating and playing. Reid was in heaven with so many cars and diggers around. He took his time opening his presents, unlike his two cousins who blew through a load of presents like hurricanes.

Just his size!

Toys galore - Ben is outside on the walkie talkie and Alex is working the bubble machine. Reid got to watch the fun through the window. Probably a good thing because shortly after this the bubble machine went in the trampoline and the boys made a slip and slide in there.

We did get some great group shots on Stacey's camera so I'll share those once she passes them along. We still get to spend some more time together and play with Reid because one afternoon isn't enough!

Today the kids and I had a very lazy day of recovery from all the holiday excitement. They never got out of their pajamas, even to go to Target. I finally got dressed just to not be the crazy lady buying groceries in PJ pants at 4pm. Lazy didn't mean boring to these two...they discovered lots of toys that still needing exploring or assembling and enjoyed every minute.

What a blessing to spend Christmas in our own home and still be able to share it with those we love the most. Ben and Alex both agreed that it was a perfect day!

Counting the Days

Even though we spent several Christmases here while we were overseas, I've still gotten overwhelmed with all of the holiday events and to-do lists. Our home leaves were always a whirlwind but living here and juggling the school activities, Christmas parties, shopping, and baking have left me feeling behind for weeks. I think I'll spend more time next year looking at the calendar and planning ahead! But at least we managed to finish almost everything and the boys and I are enjoying this week of school holidays with rest and play while Matt wraps up at the office.

We got our year-end stats on the boys (both at 37.5 lbs! B at 46in and A at 39in) and they wanted to look back at their baby books. Think they've grown a little? Ben's foot nearly covers the page!

Alex's foot

Alex's hands. The originals weren't great but we got an idea of the size of his hands. Since both kids were early we never got the pretty hospital prints.

Alex has been counting the days to Christmas and can tell you exactly how many are left every day! Now we're just trying to keep him busy to pass the time until the big day.

Ben is counting, too, but isn't quite as obsessed as Alex. He has so many animal friends to take care of it's a wonder he has time for anything. These guys all got their own blankets.

We've been playing with the neighbors a lot, too. Alex loves Michelle, another preschooler down the street, so her mom and I swapped some babysitting time to finish our Christmas shopping. These two had a wonderful lunch date.

We baked sugar cookies with sweet Sariah from next door and her brother. My first experience with four kids, icing and sprinkles.

They were so busy! I was busy with a wet rag and dustbuster to try and keep the mess contained.

Yum!

Uh, not exactly how I would have chosen to decorate them but the kids loved them. Nothing wrong with half a pound of sprinkles, right?

Alex enjoyed one last indian summer day in the sprinkler. Gotta love December in Houston when you still get 80 degree days!

Now we're ready to celebrate Christmas with our families and await the arrival of Santa. We're also hoping to take the kids to their first candlelight Christmas eve service so they can understand why we're celebrating in the first place.

Tis the Season!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! And these boys are all over it. Christmas in America sure beats Christmas down under (but we wouldn't mind a trip to the beach these days!) They were SO excited to go see Santa and both got really shy when they saw him. I know they still rattled off a list of things they're hoping to see under the tree but I loved seeing them awestruck with the big guy in red. We went really early so they had lots of time to talk and we took lots of pictures, and Alex looked like this in ALL of them!

At home we got a tall, pre-lit tree so I was pretty thrilled to save all the time stringing lights! The boys helped hang some of the ornaments but I didn't force the issue when they got bored because all of them would have ended up on one branch.

The fireplace is looking cozy and we've had lots of discussions about how Santa will get in. The best part of this picture is that the TV is no longer on the coffee table because we finally got a console!

The most fun we've had is with our Elf on the Shelf that the boys named Bart. For those new to this bribe, er, tradition, the story is that this little guy watches the kids all day then goes to the north pole at night to report to Santa. Awesome parenting tool.

Each day when he gets back from the north pole he shows up in a new spot so the kids have to find him in the morning.

We also went to the big Christmas pageant at our church in Houston and it was amazing! The kids loved parts of it but after the first 200 questions from Ben, I began to lose my patience and didn't get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked. I should have given him a limit on questions before the show started. Live and learn. Regardless, it was their first time to see the story of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus and I hope they'll remember it forever. That and angels all over the sanctuary and coming down from the ceiling, and even an elephant following the wise men. Really awesome.

Thanksgiving in Alabama

We all enjoy a trip to Alabama to play, get dirty, and escape from the real world for a while. We met Grandpa and Grandma Kirkham there for Thanksgiving and had a great time. It was our first time to visit since a tornado came through in April and destroyed about 80 acres of woods and damaged Grandpa's house and cousin Jim's house across the street. Both houses have been repaired (Jim's was pretty severe and just finished up last month!) and the salvageable timber hauled off, but the rest of the debris and stumps still needed to be burned. Jim had already piled most of the debris with Grandpa's new bulldozer, but they still got a little help from two willing volunteers.

I didn't plan this, but Ben happened to be representing Caterpillar courtesy of our friend Mr. Scott, who works at the Cat headquarters.

Shortly after these pictures, I learned that rolling in dirt gets the grease off of clothes. Who knew? My little pigpen cleaned himself up by getting dirtier.

The boys loved riding with Jim!

I even did a little driving myself. I have to admit it was really fun. Log across the road? No problem. I wouldn't mind cruising down I-10 in Houston traffic in this one day.

The boys' favorite part was going back out to the fires after dinner and roasting marshmallows....or "camping" as Alex kept calling it.


It's hard to beat a warm, gooey marshmallow! We're a perfect fit - I want the crispy skin, the boys want the mushy insides.

Messy? Nah, just the sign of a yummy dessert.

The boys' other favorite activity was catching grasshoppers outside. Ben loves anything he can keep as a pet. This one was Cheeky, his favorite. (but shhhh.....don't tell him I quietly removed one of Cheeky's legs so he couldn't escape!)

And Alex loved Donald. Poor Donald lost both his legs in a catch gone wrong, but turns out it didn't matter because Alex loves with all his heart and all his fist.

Little Donald didn't exactly hop away when Alex was finished playing with him.

Happy boys out in the woods!

It was a great Thanksgiving and we were so happy to celebrate it with family this year. Now we're thrilled about Christmas and can't wait for Santa to come down the chimney!