Christmas!

The two following pictures have nothing to do with Christmas, but they crack me up, so I had to include them.  Grandma Tami passed along these glasses to the boys that some girls from her apartment left behind and they thought they were so funny!

This was the Sunday before Christmas.  We opened up presents with Bo's family because his sister was leaving the next day.  Ryker got this super fun Fire Station that he was very excited about!

Christmas Eve was probably one of the worst bedtimes EVER.  The kids could just not settle down.  I think they finally crashed sometime after 10:30.  Santa was very good to the boys!

Ryker's favorite was this little etch-a-sketch sort of thing.

Brodie loves his Easy Bake Oven.  That kid is going to be my little chef when he grows up.

Brodie also got a new snow suit which was perfect because we had a very white Christmas!

Santa was also very good to Bo.  He got him a PlayStation 3.  I'm still not sure how that happened, but it did!  I also made Bo a cozy t-shirt quilt.  We have been carrying around his old shirts that he just can't part with for years, so I finally did something with them... and I hated every minute of it!  Please don't ask me to make you a t-shirt quilt.  I think it actually looked pretty good in the end, but it was a huge pain working with something so big in a very small space!

I wasn't really sure what my Christmas gift from Santa was until the day after Christmas when I got into another battle with kidney stones.  It was awful and this time brought on uncomfortable contractions.  At one point I had Bo drive me to the hospital, but once we were in the parking lot I decided the pain and contractions weren't bad enough for the money I'd have to shell out to be admitted, so I had him take me back home and it finally ended at 7 in the morning.  Anyways, I am so thankful that the stones didn't decide to move on Christmas Day.  That would have been a nightmare for me.

Now I feel like I need to get Christmas put away as fast as possible and get my house in order for baby #3.  If the kidney stones come back again, who knows if the contractions will stop on their own next time.  I'll be 35 weeks on Monday, so in two more weeks I'll be able to breathe a little easier if this little one comes early, but lets hope she cooks in there until February!

The Going-Ons.

I feel like I've been really busy lately, yet I don't feel like there's too much to report on.  I got all my Christmas cards out -- finally.  We ended up going with the following picture:

Hopefully no one noticed that Brodie's face is completely photo shopped.  He fell asleep in the car and when we woke him up to take a picture he was one grumpy bear and refused to smile.  I got my prints done at Walgreens and they actually wouldn't give me my pictures because they said that I didn't get the rights from the photographer who took it of us....   Are you referring to the tripod?  Because I am way to cheap to actually pay a professional to take our picture.  They thought that the background was fake, but I assure you it is real.  After some persuading, they did hand over the pictures.

Today I shipped off the last of the gifts to my family and I think I can officially say that I am done with Christmas shopping!  I also finished Bo's present which has been one of my least favorite projects of all time, but I won't go into detail on that until after Christmas.

The boys have been so cute lately.  They have really been playing well with each other and Ryker's speech is getting good enough to where he and Brodie can actually have conversations and understand each other.  It's also been the first time that they have been really driving me nuts.  I think it's because I feel so pregnant, not to mention that I was sick for a week with the cold and then got the flu on top of that.  My body just isn't working like it used to.  Poor Brodie got the flu too, but he handled it like a champ.  No crying and he got all his throw up in the bowl.  I wanted to cry non-stop, so I was very impressed with that little guy.  Tonight before bed time, Ryker drank too much milk and then jostled his belly too much or something and did a little spit up burp.  He was thrilled because he "threw up" and insisted that he was sick and needed a bowl to sleep with.

I haven't been taking any pictures lately, which I hate, but like I said, I feel like it's been pretty low key around here.  So there ya go!

Santa!

Brodie has finally grasped the idea of Santa this year.  Ryker is excited  too, but mostly just because his older brother is.  The other morning Brodie wanted to write Santa a letter on special Christmas paper to tell him what he wanted, so we did!

Then I told him that on Saturday, Santa was going to come to town and we would go visit him.  Very exciting!  Brodie said that there were a whole bunch of toys that he wanted and he couldn't wait to tell Santa about them all.  But, when it was our turn to talk to Santa... Brodie ran right up to him, then stopped abruptly, and just clammed up...

He wouldn't say a word.  Finally he told Santa that he couldn't remember what he wanted anymore.  Poor kid.  Ryker said hello to Santa, but he was really more interested in the candy cane one of the elves gave him.

Even though the boys wouldn't smile for me, I still love this picture... and it makes me a little sad.  Both kids look so grown up to me!  Especially Ryker.  How did he get so big so fast?

After we chatted with Santa we went and got some sandwiches for lunch.

Waiting on our order.

They were super good.  Then we got some hot chocolate and went on a sleigh ride.  It was fun, but FREEZING!  Brrr.  I think it was a high of 29 degrees today.

Only 17 more days until Christmas!!

Thanksgiving Visitors and The Beginning of Christmas!

Nana and Papa drove up to Idaho to visit us for Thanksgiving!  It didn't seem like they were here long enough, but we were happy to have them while we did!  One day we took some left over bread and went to the duck ponds.  Those ducks are very friendly when you have bread to give them!  I have to constantly kick them away from the kids so their fingers and hands don't get nibbled on.

Thanksgiving was really nice.  We had it at our house and my parents, Bo's parents, Bo's brother, and a sister of a cousin all came.  It was the perfect amount of people because our house is really small.  The food and company were fantastic and I love having leftovers for once!

Friday my parents went back home and our little family of 4 1/2 went out to get this years Christmas Tree!  I was thinking this year we would break tradition and just go buy a tree at a tree farm, but there aren't any Christmas Tree farms around here.  I called around to see what the parking lot Christmas Tree prices were and the cheapest was $49.99!!!  I couldn't believe that!  So we kept tradition and went and bought our $10 permit and went out into the woods.  The Christmas tree selection in Idaho is a little like their pumpkin patch selections... not a whole lot.  There were two kinds of trees as far as we could tell, one species had a great shape, but the needles looked yellowish to me and therefore looked like it was dying.  The other species was green, but it's shape was a little more sparse...  we went with the green one.  I'm sure it will look fine once it has lights on it and is decorated.

We also tried taking a family Christmas picture.... it was a beautiful background, but a grouchy Brodie who just woke up from a nap pretty much ruined every single picture with his grumpy scowl.  We'll see if I can do some good enough photoshop editing.  Later on he wanted to take the following picture to send to his Nana and Papa in the mail, because he said it would make them really happy!  So sweet.

The tree!  Way to go Daddy!  The kids were so excited to yell, "TIMBER!"

Wish I could have just chopped down one of these trees, they are so pretty!

After the tree cutting, we put some holes in our old pumpkins!

 And now onto decorating!

Twinkies

The news came out today that Hostess was closing their doors and even though I'm sure someone else will buy the company and the products will continue to be produced for years to come, as parents we had to make sure that our children experienced the taste of a Twinkie just in case.  The boys and I went to Walmart first and pretty much all of their Hostess products were wiped from the shelf.... including the Twinkies.  Next I went to Kmart and I was able fine one last single serve Twinkie package.

Since there were only two Twinkies and Bo and I had to have one last taste too, we cut them in half and enjoyed a little twinkie.

Well, I'm not sure if enjoyed is the right word... it was disgusting.  But the boys seemed happy!  Farewell Twinkie!

Potty!

Ryker went potty on the toilet for the first time ever today!!  I know a lot of people think it's weird when parents post about their children's bathroom experiences, but the first potty is just so exciting for a mom.  I think Ryker has been ready to be potty trained for awhile now, but to be honest, I've just been really lazy about it.  Diapers are so much more convenient, rather then spending the time and effort to teach kids how to go on the potty.  I started potty training Brodie when he was about 20 months old, but it seemed so much easier to do then.  Anyways, for awhile now, Ryker always asks to go on the potty.  He can even get up there all by himself.  But, every time I put him on the toilet, he just sits for a little bit and then says he's done.  Then he will usually go somewhere nearby on the floor if I don't put his diaper back on quick!  Over the last few days I've been trying little tricks like putting his hand in warm water while he's sitting on the toilet, but I still didn't get any results.  Then tonight Bo tried helping him and of course he does it!  I guess sometimes you just need a little help from daddy.  So now I think I have to actually buckle down and potty train this kid.  The joys!  Super proud of that boy though!

Other then that, there hasn't been much else going on.  Batman has been frequently stopping by the house and even made an appearance at Grandma and Grandpas last night for dinner, but that's about it.

Oh, I take that back, the other exciting thing is that I've been pain free from kidney stones for 5 days now!!!  Woohoo!  I'm not sure if I passed the stone or not, but I'll for sure take the break, even if it doesn't last forever.

Big Guns.

It's no secret that my boys love hunting and love guns!

Here are the guys on the last day of deer season.  They saw a couple does, but no bucks, so no deer meet for us this year. (Which is totally fine with me!)

We have a neighbor boy who comes and visits us occasionally.  Earlier this week the kids were in the front yard playing with their nerf guns and the neighbor boy brought over this ginormous gun!  I'm surprised Ryker could even carry it.

Bo's in full swing waterfowl mode, although he hasn't really gotten out too much yet.  He has brought home a couple ducks and a goose.  The boys were just thrilled!  It's so funny to see how much they get into it.  They intently watch Bo breast the birds and Ryker squeals, "Meat!  Look Mommy, Meat!"  As if it is a bowl of candy.

Love these boys, but it will be interesting to see what life is like with another girl in the mix!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was awesome this year!  Since I've been so sick lately we hadn't had a chance to carve our pumpkins yet, so when Bo got home, we dug in!

We've got a nice big bowl of seeds ready to be roasted tomorrow and two lit pumpkins on the front porch!

Then it was time to go trick or treating!  Brodie wanted to be Batman this year and was so excited about his costume.  Ryker had a tough time trying to decide what he wanted to be.  It was between a snake and a pumpkin.  I thought he settled on a snake, so this morning we went to the store and bought a hoodie and some fabric so that I could try to make some sort of snake costume.  As we were checking out, the lady who was assisting us asked the boys what they were going to be and Ryker insisted he was going to be a pumpkin... even after we just got done picking out snake fabric and everything.  That kid!  I told him he wasn't going to be a pumpkin and he would just have to be a snake and be happy about it.  He fussed for awhile, but then got distracted when a cowboy gave him a sucker.  Once we got home, I started making his costume and he asked me what I was doing.  I told him I was making a snake for him and he got so excited and said in his cute little voice, "Oh Thank You Mommy!  Thank You!"  There was still hope afterall!  Once I was done, I put the snake hoodie on him and he loved it.  Then 4 minutes later he wanted nothing to do with it.  Argh!  But, he willingly and happily wore it once I told him we were going trick or treating and we were going to go get some candy, so it all worked out in the end.

Brodie was so thrilled to go trick or treating!  Before we left the house he was dancing around in his costume saying, "This is going to be so great and I am going to be so happy!!!"  It was adorable!

The first house:

I told Brodie he had to wait for Ryker before he could ring the door bell or knock.  Ryker kept getting distracted by people's pumpkins, but Brodie was a great big brother and was very patient waiting for him.

Bo and I didn't dress up this year, although Bo wore a fancy shirt that he got at an old man's estate sale... he looked sort of like a Spaniard cowboy-cassanova to me.  One little girl asked if he was trying to be a bird, because the shirt had two birds on it, but I think it was for attention from her friends.  And I look so pasty white from being sick that I could just pretend like I was a zombie or ghost or something.  Anyways, when we got home we ate dinner and the boys each got to eat 4 pieces of candy.  Then they went to go blow out the pumpkins, but not before Bo took some sort of weird pictures.  It looks like the kids discovered some sort of magic pumpkin.

Like I said, awesome Halloween!  The weather was perfect and my kidney stone pain stayed away so that I could enjoy the evening with my kids!