Christmas

The weekend before Christmas was spent at my parent's with both my sister and their families.  There was no snow (until after we left, thankfully, which made the driving easier!) and it was actually warm enough to go play at a local state park one afternoon, which the kids loved!  (Warning: This post is picture heavy, but don't miss the big news about our boy at the bottom if you don't want to look at all the cute pictures in between.)

Boo is looking so much older!

my little sister, her husband, and their youngest, W, who was born in November

Becky and her oldest, C

Grandpa and Becky's middle boy, E

my older sister and her oldest, J

Grandma and my one-and-only!

Grandma, J, and W

Daddy was going to take Boo to the state park on Saturday afternoon when everyone else had fallen asleep because we couldn't get him to fall asleep...I guess all that was needed was about 30 seconds in the car (no lie, it was that quick!), some sunglasses and the stocking cap pulled low.  He was out for an hour and a half after that!!

I absolutely love this picture of me and my sister's oldest boys.  I am so happy that Boo has such wonderful cousins on both sides of the family!!

me and my godson snuggling

holding Daddy down on the floor and then pretending to go to sleep.  I don't think anyone's buying it, bud.

the kid's table...looks like fun!

Playing at the state park, throwing walnuts into the lake.  Who needs presents?!?!  These boys could have spent the whole day doing this alone.

Grandpa and W

boys being boys!

Z learning some yoga poses

What would getting together with my family be without Chris getting down on the floor to play with the boys??  I love my hubby and the joy he finds letting the kids climb all over him!!

Grandpa and Z

Brenda and her youngest, Z

Kissing cousins...so sweet!

The best shot I got of the six boys.

We all left on Christmas Eve so that we could be at our respective homes for Christmas morning.

Awesome reaction to his new bike!

Had to take it out for a spin in the afternoon.  He's doing really well pedaling already!!

Oh, another H.U.G.E  piece of news is that it looks like the potty training idea is finally clicking in Boo's head!!  Yippee!!!!!!  We started him in pull-ups again before traveling to my parents and he had no melt-downs there when we told him it was time to go potty.  I think part of this is because of his cousins, two of whom are potty-training now as well.  He got training underwear in his stocking from Grandma and Grandpa and has been wearing those here at home the past couple of days.  And guess what, people??  He's been dry during the day for almost two weeks and telling us when he needs to go!  AND he told his teachers at school that he needed to go potty, which is a first!  They are so excited for him and his accomplishment; I love how much those women care about him and will be a little sad when he has to switch classrooms next year.  (Guess I should get used to that, though, huh?)  It looks like the potty training is really happening this time, and we couldn't be prouder and more excited of our little big boy.

What a way to ring in the new year!  Celebrate!!

Movie Monday - Holiday Program Preview

Boo's daycare is having a holiday program in a couple of weeks where the kids will sing a couple of songs.  They sent the words home so that the parents can work on them with our kids.  Here is Boo practicing one of his favorites:

I'm a little snowman, short and fat.
Here is my broom and here is my hat.
When it's cold and icy, I will stay,
But when it gets hot, I will melt away.

Holiday Happenings

The weekend before Thanksgiving is the first hunting weekend for Chris.  He usually drives south on Thursday evening so he can go out and hunt on Friday morning.  In the meantime, Boo and I have started what I hope will be our own tradition on hunting weekend: we cover that 3-hour trip south on Friday morning…on a train!!!!  This was our second year in a row to do this and, oh, what a difference a year makes!  Last year, Boo didn’t know really what was going to happen, but he DID keep reminding me all week long about not forgetting the tickets.  I also remember the pure joy, excitement, and astonishment on his face when he first caught sight of the train pulling into the station last year.  I absolutely wish I had thought to get a video, or at least a picture, of that one moment in time, but alas, hindsight’s 20/20.  And he rode almost the whole way down there with his nose/face smooshed up to the window, informing me of what was out there: another set of tracks, two sets of tracks, oh, and what’s that??  Yep, another set of tracks.  It. Was. Awesome.

This year, we crossed off the days on the calendar until we got to the day with the train Mommy had drawn (at least, my replica of a train).  Then we knew it was time to go.  When we got to the train station, Boo waited near the windows to see our train pull in and we were one of the first ones to get on.  He could not wait to give our tickets to the conductor, but was slightly disappointed when the guy only scanned the barcode on the ticket instead of hole punching it!  (Thumbs down to technology advancement in this instance.)  As we rode south, he was a bit less enamored of the train ride than he was last year.  But it might have had a little lot to do with the fact he was watching a movie on the Kindle Fire this year!  Anyways, we had a good trip down and Daddy and Grandpa picked us up at the train station on time.

We spent that weekend at Chris' aunt and uncle's house.  Boo did some yoga with great-aunt Amy:

"downward dog"

"triangle"

Amy showed him these poses once, for fun, and he copied her really well!

We spent the Thanksgiving holiday driving around to visit the rest of Chris' family.  We had some fun with Grandma and Grandpa and some extended family.

breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa

He got to open up some Christmas presents while there and had some fun with the box it came in.

Aunt Lisa

We then got to spend some time with Boo's cousins.

Boo and I had some fun making and decorating our own Christmas trees that following week.  He really enjoyed decorating the trees with stickers and using the glue stick to put "ornaments" on it.

I used a hole punch with different color construction paper to make the ornaments for the tree and then we pulled some cotton balls apart to glue "snow" on our trees.

Boo's final creation.  Pretty cool, I think!

We also took some time to practice letters and look at that E!!!!

That is the first time I've seen him trace a letter that actually turns out legible.  I love watching him learn and master new things.

We visited Santa yesterday and Boo did really well.  This was the first time we've seen Santa because we just never got around to it last year and the first year home, we didn't think he was ready for something like that.  What I thought was really neat about it was that Santa's "elf" asked if Boo had an Elf on the Shelf at home and what his name was.  We have one, so we gave his name and when it was our turn, Santa got a "call" from Son (our elf) who told him how good Boo was being this year.  He sat on Santa's lap and told him what he wanted for Christmas and then gave a huge grin to daddy, who had taken some video and got a great picture of the two of them.

Today, we got our Christmas tree and decorated it.  As Boo said, "It's bee-you-tee-ful!"  No pictures, just gotta take our word for it.  The lights are up outside already; last weekend's mid-50 degree weather made that a no-brainer to get done!  So we are ready for the rest of the holidays, my favorite time of the year!!

Card Play

Boo and I were playing a simple matching game this morning and we had both taken a few turns already.  He turned over two cards that didn't match, although one of them matched a card I had just flipped over on my previous turn.  He realized it right away and placed one little hand over the back of each matching card and said, very seriously, "You can turn over any card, but not these two!"  Those were the ones he wanted on his next turn.  :)  

Guess I should just be happy he was letting me take my turn!

Wordless Wednesday - Fall Fun

Last Camping Trip

These are from our last camping trip of the season.  We specifically made the trip when we hoped the leaves were going to be changing colors and we hit the mark!  The colors were gorgeous and I hope these pictures do them justice.  But there's nothing like seeing them in person.

We also spent some more time with our favorite northern family and went back to Camp 5, a logging and railroad museum where you have to ride a train to get back to the camp, which with two boys who love trains, was absolutely no hardship!

(this doesn't look fair, does it?!?!)

We then had a dinner cookout at a lakeside campground we found and then said our goodbyes to come back home.

I think the boys had a great time together, don't you?

(Can you believe that they're 17 months apart in age?!)

Can't wait for next year!!