Snowy Day

Last night we had our first real snowfall of the season! Wilmington got 8" of fluffy snow and we had a lot of fun in it today.  Ethan was spending the weekend with Grandma Jan and Chris, so we went out with just Jacob for a little snow fun.  He was pretty excited to be out there, but was even more excited when I shoveled a path for him from the front door to the garage.

 

He looks like he's excited to help me shovel, but I had a hard time getting his thumbs into his mittens so he wasn't really able to be very helpful.

After Ethan was home, we all went out again.  Jacob pulled the ol' "I don't want to go outside" thing until he saw Steve and Ethan outside.  Then he and I geared up and out we went!  This time it was all about sledding (which Jacob was not too excited about in our morning session).

 

I'll admit this doesn't look too safe, but Steve and I run down the driveway pulling them and then let them go into the snow in the yard.  You can see what I mean in the video.

It was a little too fluffy for full grown men to throw themselves onto a sled without a face full of snow!  And when we're down, one of the kids is required to jump on our back.  I think it's a law.

 

 

 

 

I have other video that I wanted to share, but I can't seem to get blogger to let me.  This gives you the idea of what we were up to out there!  It was practically dark by the time we came in to the house.  Both boys were pretty beat, but Jacob still kept up his bedtime antics.  Sigh...

Christmas at Home

There's no place like home for the holidays. We were so happy to put on our PJs last night in anticipation of wearing them all day today! Steve and Ethan were the only ones that lasted. I had to shower and change after an unexpected workout with the Wii (Just Dance 4 is AWESOME!) and Jacob can't keep himself clean all day so we had on new PJs by the end of the day. After a late nap in the car, bedtime was a little later than usual. Plus we had to put out the cookies for santa and oats and carrots for the reindeer. Lots to do, lots to do.

 

 

Cozy on Christmas Eve!

The calm before the storm...

Lots of books from Grandma Suzanne and Pop-Pop!

Ethan and I bought him a new hat for winter but he had been complaining that it left his ears uncovered.  I discovered this storm trooper hat at The Gap and he loves it!

The boys did remarkably well opening presents together.  It helps that Ethan's generally pretty patient with the little guy and Jacob was properly schooled on opening only presents that are his after a few mishaps leading up to the big day.  Every time we gave him one to open he would look at me and say "I can open it?".

Both boys got dream lights.  Ethan got a penguin to match Fancy and is calling it Fuzzy Wuzzy.  Jacob's is a (so far) nameless dog.

The bat cave has been less of a hit than expected...

...however, the castle is SO cool!  Both boys wanted to play with it all day.  Unfortunately it was given to Ethan, so there were a few times we had to give him his space, but I foresee lots of fun times ahead with this one!

A dangerous move around our resident gas man.

Our "dining room" has been a wrapping station and is now Lego city!  Ethan got 3 Star Wars sets:  The Republic Swamp Speeder, Palpatine's Arrest and Annakin's X-Wing Fighter.  The first 2 are together...guess what we'll be up to tomorrow!?

It was a long lazy day of playing, playing, playing around here.  We ate when we were hungry, slept when we were tired and just really enjoyed each other and our gifts all day.  Jacob is still banging around up in his crib.  He has been up late and taking marathon naps lately so I think it's time to dial back the nap duration.  It pains me, but he can't be up this late all the time! 

 

Merry Christmas to all who read this...

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we headed over to Grandma Jan's house! It was a wonderfully lazy afternoon. Jacob hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and refused to nap. We went for a walk and I had him in the stroller to try and get him to sleep. Emma, however, was walking and every time I tried to walk ahead to get him to rest, she would catch up to me! She is one determined little lady. After a bit, I decided I would just give up and Jacob started running as soon as I had him out of the stroller and didn't stop! Those 2 little monkey's ran the whole way. In the meantime, Ethan was riding his bike with Chris.
 

Yeah, you try to get 3 kids to look a the same time when there's a room full of presents!

Lots of princess action.  Notice Daddy getting a glittery purple crown in the background.

Sad on Christmas!?

So I tried again to get a nice picture of them all dressed up together...not so much.

Possibly our favorite present of the year!

The Statue of Jamie!

Ethan got a motorized dune buggy!!  He wasn't quite ready to take it out for a spin, but all of the kids enjoyed climbing on and around it.

We left at about 6 to drive home.  We didn't hit any traffic but both kids fell asleep.  Ethan went to bed with no problem at 9 (he knows Santa won't come if you're awake), but Jacob was up until 11!  We were so happy to be home in our house for Christmas Eve night...

Christmas Eve Eve

Having Christmas be a Tuesday this year worked out really well for our family! On Sunday, we drove to the Cape to celebrate Christmas Eve a day early at Great Grandma Nancy's house.  It was so nice to be staying overnight so that we weren't rushed or stressed about leaving.  The kids had a blast from start to finish.

 

First up was a dance party in the living room with Uncle Gary.



Tic-Tac-Toe was a little dicey with such fun markers, but they shared pretty well for the most part.

More dancing with Alex and the bear.

Great Grandma with her Great Grandkids...so much love.




Why should bows be limited to present decoration!?



3 Generations!

I was trying to get a decent picture of the boys in their coordinating outfits.  None of them came out great (shocking!), but I thought it was funny that I didn't notice Ethan had chocolate peppermint stick pie all over his face!!

This was the first of 3 Christmas celebrations.  It was a busy year!

Ethan's Holiday Concert

Today was Ethan's holiday concert at school! He has been so excited and we know that the classes have been practicing a lot so it was a big day. Ethan was really animated during the songs.  He spotted Steve and I in the audience and kept smiling and waving at us.  It was very clear that he was excited and proud...the feeling was completely mutual!

Of course he had to dress handsome for the occasion.

 

Let me orient you a bit.  Ethan is 5th from the left in the back row.  And yes, that is a woman holding an ipad in front of me.  They do take pictures and video which is great, but really, really annoying in an audience.

Now that you're oriented, here are the videos!  We were far away so it's hard to see him, but it gives you the idea.  I forget which song this was, but it's the one in which you can see him the best.

 

You can't really see Ethan in this one, but this was Steve and my favorite song.  It's in Spanish, La Navidad (?).  It's impressive that all these 5/6 year olds are in sync!

 

 

 

 

As I said, he was very excited.  I snuck up front to get a picture of him as they exit.  Parents weren't allowed back to the classrooms after the show so we just left!  I was kind of anticlimactic, but it would have been complete chaos.  There was a police detail at the door of the school along with the Principal letting the parents into the building.  It was comforting and upsetting at the same time.

 

Tomorrow is Polar Express day for the little man.  He gets to wear his PJs and bring a buddy.  He's not sure if he's going to bring Angry (his Angry Bird) or Fuzzworld (his penguin).  They will watch the movie and have special snacks...good times!

 

A few more items while I'm on here:

 

Ethan made an elf hat at school today.

I have been in an on line shopping frenzy for Christmas this year! I bought this dress for Emma and Jacob insisted he try it on. He told us that he was a princess.