Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope everyone had a wonderful day filled with family, friends, and love remembering our Savior's birth. We had a wonderful morning that didn't begin until almost 7:30, which is much later than the boys usually wake up, so that was very nice. We opened all our presents and had a yummy breakfast, then played! It is 3:30 right now and we are still in our p.j's! We will soon have to get dressed to go over to dinner at friends' house. More pics to follow.

Oh boy! I'm in trouble! I forsee lots of ambushes in my future.

Turning a blind eye to Daisy sitting on the recliner because it's Christmas.

What a sweet old cat!

Tons of Fun

We have been super busy lately, mostly with fun activities. We have only had a little bit of snow, so we haven't been sledding yet, but the sleds are ready and waiting in the garage. We came across this one evening after a particularly busy weekend. (They don't share a bed.)
Holding Coop while the big kids decorate cookies.

Putting together a Knex ferris wheel. It took hours! The boys were involved for the first hour, then Daddy had to finish it.

Santa rode through our neighborhood with the emergency vehicles, handing out cookies and candy canes!

O with one of his teachers at his Christmas party.



Decorating his snowman.

At S's school party.

S talking to Santa at the Math Dept. party.

Cookies!

We went to a fun party at our next-door neighbor and friends' house last weekend. The kids did crafts and had a gift exchange, while the ladies had a cookie exchange. It was super fun and the kids had a blast!

Making crafts.

Legos, the best gift, ever!

I think a few people ate too many cookies! These guys needed a nap after all the sugar

Breakfast with Santa

We have had lots of Christmas activities over the last few days, so there will be a few new posts coming up. The first was Breakfast with Santa on post. We have never made a big deal about Santa at our house, but I never realized how little he has been talked about until we were on our way to breakfast and O started asking questions. "Where does Santa go to the bathroom?" (????In the potty chair, of course.) "Does he have a house?" (Yes. It's very lovely.) "Does Mrs. Claus live with him?" (Yes.) "Do the elves live with him?" (Maybe, or maybe they have their own houses.) And on and on, until we arrived. I think he was a little nervous, but they were both brave when Santa came out. It was a fun morning with our sweet boys.

Here he comes!

I really wanted a pic of E and I together in front of the Christmas tree, so I asked S to take one and I think he did a great job!

Decking the Halls

We spent most of Black Friday decorating for Christmas. The boys have their own small tree this year and spent a little while making their own ornaments to hang on it. They had fun, but after a while it was just Daddy finishing up. Now the baking begins!

Thanksgiving Fun

We had a super fun Thanksgiving, with a ton of food and friends. E started the day out by taking the boys to a nearby park, where they could play and he was able to play football with friends. (And, most importantly, I was able to cook and do some last-minute cleaning.) We then had a huge lunch and finished the day by playing various karaoke games.
Hanging out at the park

The football players

Crooning!

Celebration

I am very late posting this, but we had a dessert party with a few friends to celebrate E's promotion. It was a fun night and I think everyone had a good time.

I'm so proud of E! He is such a great husband, father, and officer. He is hard-working, full of integrity, and he really cares about his students. I love him!

Alllllll the ladies(And Cooper!)
The guys, possibly sneaking in some football watching.

The kids had a great time doing art and playing dress up (although the girls were a little disapointed there were only super hero costumes and no princess dresses)!

Halloween

So just in time for my late Halloween post, I decided to put up a Thanksgiving background. I really, really, really wanted to skip straight to Christmas, but decided to put up a fun little Thanksgiving background for a few weeks. Time is flying by here and the temperatures are dropping. Can't wait for our first snow. The boys had a fun Halloween, starting with a short parade by the MP's, firefighters, and the spirit band through all the neighborhoods. /They threw a ton of candy. The boys loved it! After that we went to the post chapel to the carnival where the boys played games for candy. Lastly, we went trick-or-treating for a little bit. Until we got too cold.

Major Dad

Before I put up Halloween pictures we had a big event today that I wanted to blog about first. E was promoted to major today, so we had his ceremony and reception. His mom flew in yesterday to celebrate with us. It was a very nice ceremony and the boys were perfect.

Being quiet during the ceremony. Notice the legos from Daddy. They couldn't wait to open them.

Pinning on Daddy's new rank.

Fall Hike

Last weekend we went on a hike to look at the fall leaves. We had heard this was a pretty easy hike, but it was a little difficult because it was so rocky and pretty steep. We made it to the top, though, and it was well worth the effort. The Hudson Valley is so beautiful right now!