Merry Christmas!

Praise the Lord for sending his son as a precious baby to this earth to teach us how to live and love and to die on the cross for our salvation! And, to celebrate this precious gift the Lord has given us, our boys were blessed with lots of fun and gifts this morning!

Thank you to all our family that sent gifts. We miss being with you this Christmas! Here are a few photos from this morning’s mayhem. We are enjoying a quiet family day at home with all these new goodies to explore!

Baby Lance is up first and wondering what is taking his brothers so long to get down and open presents! Greg went upstairs to get the boys up and then I heard the bathtub running, which is usually a sign that someone has woken up sick. Our current little trouble-maker, Eric, came down with the stomach bug that Aaron had last week. Poor guy, the one day we let him rip-roar through the house and he’s sick.

But, let’s flashback to yesterday when Aaron helped make some Christmas cookies with his little brother, Lance, who likes to sneak up behind him.

We opened up some of the gifts from Grandma Gloria the day before Christmas. I knew there were some cute new PJs she had sewed.

Here they are the night before Christmas. I wanted them to look all cute and open presents in the morning in them. And, they would have if Eric hadn’t gotten sick all over them the next morning. I think next year I’ll save the cute PJs to put on the next morning just in case!

Grandma Gloria also sent some cute and snuggly blankets for each boy. They are great, thanks!!

We got everyone cleaned up and put together enough to come and see what Santa had brought them. Grant decided he wanted to put on a stocking cap to complete his outfit.

Santa brought Aaron a remote control moon to put in his room that shows each phase of the moon.

Play tent, thanks Santa!! 

Eric came down and played about one minute in the tent before…

…ugh, “I feel sick, mommy”. Shortly after this we went back upstairs and Eric slept, and got sick a little more. Nope, never a day off around here!

Aaron made daddy a special Christmas tree.

Our little burglar, Grant, loves his new puzzle from Grandma Gloria and Grandpa Mike! And, Eric, trying his best to stay up for this.

UT FOOTBALL GUYS!!!

Thanks Grandma Terri and Papa Jerry!

Cardinal Championship Calendar!

Thanks Uncle Tyler, Aunt Susan, Jillian and Anna for all the other great Cardinals Championship gear! And, lots of wonderful Usborne books from Uncle Doug, Aunt Angie and Jaedon! Thanks to all!!!

A fun little race track for the boys from Uncle Ben and Kamren!

We saved Eric’s presents for when he got up. Here he’s feeling much better and ate a little bit. He’s already doing much better! Quick little stomach bug, I hope!

Yes indeed, this is the best picture I could get of all of them together. The twins love their new little animal chairs from Grandma Terri and Papa Jerry! And, baby Lance is ready for a nap.

Despite the unexpected sickies, we’ve had a wonderful day. Gonna go now to check on my boys and enjoy the rest of the day! Merry Christmas!

Best Bed Buddies

This past weekend we went ahead and converted Eric’s crib to a toddler bed. He started climbing out of it a few weeks ago just after Lance was born and we just finally decided that he’s not going to stop climbing out of it…so big boy bed it is! Grant (who is not a climber and has not figured out how to get out of bed) has been very impressed with Eric’s new digs. We have also recently taken the gates off of the stairs and put handle locks on any rooms we don’t want them in, so they are free to go up and down the stairs. I went to take Eric up to nap today and we found Grant crashed out in Eric’s bed. Eric is usually the more tired of the two, so I’m surprised Grant fell asleep like this. I loved Eric’s reaction. He was wondering why his brother was in his bed and how were we going to get him out so he could take a nap?

Mommy’s solution ??…I took Grant’s crib mattress out and put it on the floor for Eric. I’m sure Grant will have a big boy bed soon and it will be interesting to see what shenanigans these two get into at night!

Gingerbread House Fun!

This morning we had a playdate with friends to decorate gingerbread houses and had so much fun. This year I decided to bump it up a notch and graduate from graham crackers on little milk cartons to real gingerbread. I have always been fascinated with house these things are put together and thought I’d give it a try. The recipe for the dough is very simple, but the construction of the house was a little more difficult. I printed the recipe, templates and instructions from The Ultimate Gingerbread site.

Aaron with his friends Ian and Isabella. They couldn’t (and didn’t) wait to start eating pieces of their houses.

I glued the gingerbread pieces together with sugar glue, which is just a cup of sugar melted over medium low heat. I’m glad I took the advice I read and had a bowl of ice water nearby in the inevitable case that a beginner gets blazing hot melted sugar on her finger. Ouch! It dries very quickly and made the houses very sturdy.

I passed on making my own icing and just bought cans of white cake frosting from the store. It dries hard and works great!

The gingerbread creator with his creation. So glad we are starting this tradition! I hope it continues each year and we can make our houses more and more elaborate.