Holiday Cheer

What an amazing holiday! We had such a great time and the boys are so spoiled...I don't have space for all their new stuff and this is after we took bags of stuff to Mission Arlington last week! First off let me start by saying I am completely and totally embarrassesd by the cowboys performance today...how disappointing!

Back to theChristmas celebrations. We started at my mom's on Christmas Eve. All of the family from my mom's side were there...it was festive and fun and the kids had so much fun.

Noah tearing in...

Gabe getting into the fun...

We are so happy!

We got home pretty late that night and headed to bed (after we set out our cookies for Santa that we had baked earlier that day). We woke up to a load of stuff that Santa left for us. I guess we were good little boys and girls (well 1 girl) this year!

Noah just couldn't stop staring!

Gabe LOVED this guitar (it's Barney, so of course he would love it!)

Then we ended our celebration today at my dad's...again wonderful food, time with family, and we got to watch the Eagles play against the local high school football team (or at least that's what it looked like). We had a great time!

My dad's side of the family...my grandmother, dad, my brother, me, and all of our kiddos!

We had a wonderful holiday and it just reminds me how blessed we are to have so many wonderful friends and family to spend the holiday with. The kids had a great time and I think that just makes all the stress and busy days worth it! I'm looking forward to the New Year and many more experiences that areto come this year. I am very excited too because I am off until the 5th. We have lot's of fun plans with my mom, sis-in-law and ny nieces. I can't wait for the coming week.

Merry Christmas

We wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Hope everyone is safe, happy, and healthy during their holidauytravels. I'm sure Santa will be good to all the little ones...I know he will be to my boys! Will post again soon with happy Christmas pictures.

"Homework"

Noah had a fun homework assignment this week. He had to cut out and decorate this Gingerbread Man. I'd say we did a pretty good job thanks to some craft items from my mom. It was really fun, and I'm not really very crafty but we added alot of detail. We used Trix cereal, Fruit Loops, 2 kinds of beans, 2 colors of felt, small black pom poms and tiny shell macaroni. I think it will be the cutest Gingerbread Man in the whole class!

Outside lights

Here is a picture of our outside lights. We got them done the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It was soooo cold and windy but it was worth it to see the look on Noah and Gabriel's faces when we were done! When it was all said and done, poor Syd spent over 4 hours either on the ladder or up on the roof. I'm not sure if you can even see it that clearly in the picture but I thought I would try anyways. You can click on the picture to see a larger version.

I really love this time of year. We took the boys to see Christmas lights last night and they just loved it. And I did, too! We played Christmas music in the car and all Noah could say was "oooh" and "ahhh" and "oh, how beautiful"...What a great memory!

Christmas Decorations

Well our tree has been up since last weekend but we just finished putting the ornaments on today. I love the way it feels in the house around Christmas. Noah had so much fun helping with the ornaments and Gabe did what he thought was helping (getting in the way). We had alot of fun though. Everything is finished, I will post pictures of the lights outside when it gets dark!

Thanksgiving Day!

We had such an awesome Thanksgiving! The kids had so much fun playing together, as they always do. We spent the day at my moms with my brother, sister-in-law and their kids as well as my grandparents, aunts and uncles. It was a great day filled with loving family and delicious food! The kiddos had so much fun playing and jumping in the leaves in my mom's backyard. how cute is Gabe...man he was having so much fun! And don't all 4 of the kiddos look so cute at the "kiddie" table waiting for their food? They were so good today and man they wore each other out. We left at about 8:15 after having been there ALL day. Gabe was asleep before we got to the end of the street...not too much of a surprise since he didn't have a nap.

Wish me luck in the morning...I will be hitting the snooze button around 4:30 so I can get up and brave the crowds in the morning. I know it's crazy but man I love saving money and the awesome feeling I get when I get a really GREAT deal on something! I won't be out all morning but for a while. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and on to Christmas, YEA! Time to decorate...Can't Wait!

Busy day!

I guess you could say we had a busy day! We spent the day at my grandmother's house with my brother, sister-in-law and their kids. We all went out to lunch and then went back to her house to visit while the kids played. They always play so well together and they usually wear each other out, as you can see by this picture. On the drive home Gabe fell asleep which was not out of the norm since he had missed his nap earlier in the day. We had put him to sleep in our bed when we got home and we hung out for a while. I decided to wake him up so I could fix dinner and he fell back asleep on daddy's chest. I proceeded to fix dinner and when I called everyone to the table...no one came. I looked over in the living room and this is what I saw. Three tired sleeping boys. I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Soccer Trophy

We went to Noah's end of soccer party at Chuck E. Cheese (groan...) on Thursday night. Not my favorite place but Noah had so much fun. Best of all...he got his trophy!

Here he is with the Coach Steve receiving his trophy.

He is so proud!!

Here is a picture of the trophy up close.

He is so darn proud of this thing. I was proud too of course. He says he loves soccer and wants to play again in the spring so I guess we'll see how that goes. I'm so glad he stuck with it, because there were some Saturdays that it was a huge fight trying to get him to go. In the end he loved it and already misses it...this was our first weekend with no soccer, thank the lord! I can only imagine what it will be like in a few years when Gabe starts playing too! Those will be some busy Saturdays.

Marker Happy!

Noah and Gabe were coloring last night and, of course, I wasn't in the room at the time. I think I was doing laundry or something...I can't remember. Well I walked back into the kitchen to find a little boy and a highchair covered in blue marker (thank goodness they were washable). Even his tongue was blue! Needless to say Gabriel was extremely proud of himself and what he had accomplished. I grabbed him up and we headed for a bath that immediately turned blue, Noah thought it was "So Cool!" to have blue bath water. Ha, Ha. It took alot of scrubbing and it still did not come off completely. It will just have to wear off I guess. Well anyway, this was the eventful Saturday night we had. Thought it was a bit humorous!

I love being a MOM!

I love being a mom to these two beautiful boys. They are getting so big now, they are really starting to enjoy playing together and doing activitites together. It's so fun watching them interact and love on each other, then beat each other up the next minute. I only wish I could keep them this age forever. Gabriel is just now beginning to talk pretty good but since he still can't express himself the way he would like he gets frustrated, then Noah gets frustrated. But Noah is such a good BIG brother. He has patience with Gabe when he should and he just loves him so much. And Gabe loves his big brother too. He copies everything Noah does and wants to do everything Noah does, it will be interesting in the coming years as Noah begins to do more extracurricular activities that Gabe can't be a part of.

I have been so lucky to have been with them at work since they were born, enjoying every minute with them. Noah being away at Kindergarten this year has been hard. I don't know what I'm going to do when I get a teaching job, it will definitely be an adjustment for the whole family!

Noah's first soccer game!

Well, today was so FUN! Noah had his first soccer game, his team is called the Wizard's. He had alot of fun and he really tried hard, but he has quite a bit of practicing in his future. We are so proud of him!

Big Smile!

He's running on the left side of the screen.

He got to be goalie. He was so proud!

I'm really excited that he is enjoying soccer, I hope he keeps with it for the next nine weeks!

Keep on, Keepin' on...

Well things are going pretty good. Noah is really enjoying school, his favorite parts of his day right now are taking his lunch to school and playing outside at recess. That doesn't surprise most of you, I'm sure. Gabriel is adapting to his new school, as well. I have changed locations with my job and so he came with me. He really likes his new teacher and he's having fun everyday. We are planning a birthday party for Noah and Gabe together since I didn't have one for Noah yet and Gabe's birthday is already here. It's going to be Cowboy themed. Noah seems really excited, he says he needs to have a party to "help him get 5." Ha, Ha I thought that was cute! Here's some pics of them from Anne's house a couple of weeks ago, they had fun at the party.

What a grin!!

He loves to say "cheese"!

As Noah would say, here goes nothing...

I decided maybe I would become somewhat tech savy and start a blog. More or less to keep everyone close to us up-to-date on how the boys have grown. It's amazing to me that Noah has started Kindergarten!!

Here he is on his 1st day.

He's so big and he just loves his new school. Everyday he comes home with new things to tell us and his eyes beaming. I'm so proud of him!

And then there's Gabriel...ha, ha. He is such a mess but you gotta love him. I look into his bright blue eyes and he melts my heart. He got a hold of Noah's Incredible Hulk Smash Hands the other morning and I guess pictures speak louder than words. They're as big as he is, but he's one tough little dude!

I think here he just needed to take a rest!