Winter Concert

Nolan's school puts on a Winter Concert and Nolan has been practicing all month. He was actually pretty nervous on the way to the show, something I don't see often with Nolan. Once we got there he was all smiles.

 The concert started with all the classes walking in with a candle. Nolan took this job very seriously!

 But then Santa came and and he was super excited! Here he is introducing himself to Santa when he should have been singing the welcome song.

 But he was able to focus again and do his shoemaker song and dance. Here's a long-ish video of him and his friend Isabel dancing together as shoemaker elves.

Afterward, he was so proud of himself. He was all smiles again the rest of the weekend.

Xmas II

Our other favorite late night activity is redecorating the Christmas tree. The damaged ornament count is now up to 5. Amazing since we keep most of them (except the bell) out of reach. I have a feeling that a certain big brother is getting them down for little brother. I won't name names of course since this is all speculation.

They are so cute though, I let them enjoy their Christmas tree and bring out the hot glue when they go to bed.

I would love to post the boy's santa picture here but I'm using it on another project that I hope you will see soon. ;) But I don't want to forget this visiting santa gem.

We finally went to visit Santa yesterday and when Nolan was asked what he wanted for Christmas this is his response, word for word:
"I have my Mommy and Daddy and Miles and that is all I need (long pause)...but I'd also like a computer that plays car games and a green tractor I can ride on." He always finds a way to surprise me! I love that boy!

Late nights

We've had a few late nights lately. Mostly with Miles, but every so often Nolan makes an appearance too. So while they work on getting tired, I work on figuring out night time camera settings. It's a win win for all of us!

So. Very. Cold!

After a few days of being stuck inside due to frigid temperatures. We layered up and made our way to a new park.

It was promising, beach, sunny day, fun toys to play on, everything 2 kids could ask for. But it was too cold! We lasted out there about 20 minutes and then jumped back in the car. All I ask is if it's going to be this cold, at least snow a little?

Xmas Begins

We gave ourselves a day after Thanksgiving to clean up but after that the tree went up! We have the perfect spot for a Christmas tree at the new house so I've been waiting to try it out. I wasn't disappointed! 

Unfortunately this photo opportunity was side tracked when Nolan refused to put on clothes (he had just come in from the hot tub) so all of our decorating the tree pics are of him in his batman undies. I might end up using this as our Christmas card so act surprised! ;)

Pat and I continued our tradition of buying each other an ornament that symbolizes our last year together. Now with 11 years worth of ornaments we no longer have room for "filler" ornaments aka plain bulbs. We also hang all the ones that the kids have made and of course the babies first Christmas collectibles (you can see Miles' rocking horse just above Nolan's head in the picture above) making our Christmas tree a time capsule for us. It's my absolute favorite tradition! This year, to symbolize us buying a house I got Pat this birdhouse, which has double meaning since we keep uncovering more and more bird feeders, birdhouses, nests and bird garden decor. The previous owners must have REALLY loved birds! Pat had an ornament made that had a picture of our kitty Tezzy since we lost him this year. I love that he will always be on our tree since he practically lived in our Christmas tree.

Miles loves the Christmas tree! Mostly he likes taking the garland and flowers down, we call it Miles flare.

He is also enjoying taste testing all the ornaments. This bell ornament felt good on his gums. Fun fact: this is also the first ornament Pat gave to me. He didn't know it was supposed to symbolize anything at that time, he picked it because it said the year on it. It is the kids' favorite ornament though!

This wreath ornament pinched, so it was not a favorite! This is also one of Pat's ornaments that he gave me the year I made everyone wreaths for Christmas...he's gotten better at this over the years!

The broken/damaged ornament count is currently at 3. Luckily we kept the glass ones up high so any damage was easily fixed with a little hot glue. Except for Nolan's salt dough hand print ornament which now has a lovely bite taken out of it. We have moved all ornaments to the top half for now but appreciate Miles attempts to add his personal touch to the tree. 

Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year and it was a blast! It was crazy and loud and had a mix of friends and family and pies. It was wonderful! I was having so much fun that I forgot to take pics until the very end. This is the only one I have of my boys together. Nolan was such a great host to all his cousins and buddies that it was hard to pin him down.

Miles was too busy snacking on things and looking adorable in his tie and sweater vest.

The babies took a quiet break upstairs in Miles room.

While the girls bonded. Clementine is a huge hit with 4 year old girls!

And a little cousin quiet time before dinner. When did these two get so big?! I mean seriously, are they going off to college in the fall or what?

We were so happy to have a full house and plenty of food for everyone. I can't wait for next year!

Catching Up

Sorry for the huge delay in blog updates. I would like to say that we've been busy but that wouldn't be true. It's been a lot of just life keeping me away from my camera and the computer. But don't worry I've been taking pictures on my phone. I know how much you love those blurry gems! There has been a lot of this going on:

Yup, crying and craziness is our new normal. Notice the piles of laundry, toys, shoes and dishes strewn about and the wrestling. I'm keeping it real folks. This is what our house looks like on any given day....unless someone is coming over because then we hide it away in the closets. With school, activities, cold fighting, teething and holidays it's been a whirlwind.

These guys have been awesome though, keeping us laughing (when they aren't screaming in our face) and slowing us down to contemplate the little things. Like why Nolan refuses to wear any clothing despite the intense cold or why he wants to get up close and personal with my camera, what else can we find in Miles' mouth and seriously another poopy diaper?!?

Here's a few highlights from the last few weeks:

Miles is almost running now but his new favorite thing is twirling. He spins around and around like a dainty ballerina and i love it!

Nolan is learning a lot about football these days, and amazingly we have been able to keep his language clean this year!

We all spend hours each day huddled up in Miles' room. Not only is it the warmest room in the house but there is something for everyone and somehow we all end up there just hanging out. It's one of my favorite times of the day. Be prepared for a lot of Miles' room iPhone photos.

I think we are officially done with outdoor activities. We've tried to go for walks every few days and the last one was brutal. It may say it's 40 degrees out but my frozen face begs to differ. So we are on the hunt for indoor activities from here until...April? Ugh! 

I finished the guest bathroom just in time for thanksgiving! I just have to hang some shelves now and accessorize and it will really be done. I was so excited to have our downstairs bathroom back!

And you are all caught up! Exciting times around here.

Haircuts

I took the boys to get their hair cut. Both of them had hair in their eyes and so I knew it was time. This being Miles 1st haircut I brought the big camera along and totally mom'd out on making sure i documented every single snip. 

I thought for sure Miles would cry but having Nolan by his side, not to mention the box of toys to sample kept him calm and collected the entire time.

I instructed to only cut off a tiny bit, this mama needs to take baby steps. So they cut off maybe half an inch. I wanted to make sure that they did not cut off all his curls.

I also collected a few pieces of his hair for his someday baby book. I should probably make Nolan's first!

Doesn't he look handsome? I didn't get any pics of Nolan getting his hair cut because I was chasing miles all over the salon but he also did great and is looking very handsome.

Halloween Sharks

Two shark brothers terrified by the camera flash.

The back of this costume cracks me up! He was a huge hit with fellow trick or treaters. He was so polite to the people handing out candy too, telling them happy halloween and thank you at every door. It was a very proud mommy moment. :) 

Back at home, Nolan was dying to dig through his goodies.

He was so sweet and shared all of his candy with us, handing out what he thought we would like (fairly accurately too!)  and letting us pick from the pile. 

Miles REALLY liked those suckers, I didn't think much of it until I noticed he was pealing the paper back with his teeth.

So I took that one away and this is the face I got.

He is so spoiled!

It was a great Halloween for all!

Pumpkins Part II

We pushed pumpkin carving to the very last possible moment and carved them on October 30. Nolan knew all month that he wanted to carve an angry pumpkin so he drew it out and got to work.

Miles was very confused about why we were decorating the food. Note the chunk of pumpkin he was gnawing on.

Not a fan of scooping out the guts.

But Miles thought Nolan's grossed out sound effects were pretty funny!

I carved this one for Miles. I used his toothy grin as inspiration.

Adding the final touch to his angry pumpkin, a scar!