New Years Eve

I want to start a NYE fondue tradition where we dress in fancy clothes and have dinner at home. I think our kids are still too little for dipping veggies and bread into hot cheese so maybe we'll start next year :)  Until then we will continue our tradition of going out to eat!!  It's always hard to decide on a place to take a family for a nice dinner that everyone will enjoy and won't end in 30 minutes.  I thought Benihana would be perfect place so I made a reservation for 6pm which was an hour later than our normal dinner time, haha.  Al's NYE picture.

I set up the tripod and tried to get a good candid one of all of us.

 Candids are always the best.

Excited for our yummy dinner together.  

Benihana is the perfect place for kids.  Cool hats, dinner entertainment, continuous food courses.  They got to eat miso soup, fried rice, udon noodles, and ice cream.  

The owner or GM kept coming over and talking to Cole.  On our way out we asked him to take a picture of us and he asked if he could give the boys a present which were those random glass figurines behind us.  He gave us a cat and a buddha and Alex and Cole thought they were awesome.  I'm not really sure why you would give 2 toddlers glass figurines, but let's just say I got rid of them the next day.  In fact Alex saw one in the garbage and said heeeeey why is this in the trash?  So his might have lasted a couple more days.

After dinner we watched the Madagascar NYE Countdown on Netflix. For some reason we went to the wrong video at first and watched the full 20 minutes until I said there wasn't a countdown and then we found the right video:)  We let them pull party poppers and run around like crazies.  It's all about the memories!!

On New Years Day I made us steak, crab, and twice baked potatoes.  Cole will always try new food and guess what he loved, crab!!   I couldn't crack it for him fast enough.  I'm excited to see what 2015 has in store and I'm very excited to work on my personal goals.  Goodbye 2014, hello 2015.

Post Christmas

It's always nice for things to slow down and give yourself a chance to breathe, but after a couple days I need to be busy again.  It's hard for me to not have anything to do and have my schedule out of whack.  We took Alex and Cole bowling one morning which turned out a- to be really expensive and b- a disaster with Cole.  He cried every time it wasn't his turn until it was his turn.

It was literally the most painful hour of bowling and we won't be trying again until he's older.  Later that day or maybe it was the day after he asked if we could go again?  DEFINITELY

Not our best bowling outing, but we had fun when Cole wasn't crying.

Cole is always the happiest when he has his Dad.

I've been wanting to potty train Cole, but decided I wanted to make the switch to a big boy bed before I took that step.   We took an afternoon and moved half of Alex's bunk bed into Coles room.  It works perfect because of the rails so he doesn't fall out!!

I was labeling bags of screws for the crib with a sharpie and must have dropped it somewhere in the process.  After I got everything set up I went downstairs to get ready to go to the outlets and dinner in Allen.  I heard the boys acting crazy and hyper upstairs, but didn't think anything since they do that everyday.  Maybe 15-20 minutes later I went up and found this!!!!  My heart seriously stopped and I just looked at them and said go sit on the couch, you're in timeout.  It was all over the chair, walls, their skin, clothes, carpet, baseboards, rug, and bedding.

I posted a picture on Instagram because I knew there would be someone that had a secret on how to get it out.  This lady Erica in our ward said she has this spray that gets out everything and she would bring it by.  With the help of Folex and rubbing alcohol we were able to get most of it out.  The chair looks a little worn from all the scrubbing, but so glad it looks decent and I still might be able to sell it.  I went to Home Depot the next day and purchased 2 more bottles of this spray and have been using it on everything!!

A quick lunch at our favorite spot, Chick Fil A followed by ice cream since someone threw up in the playground.  One of the employees put a wet floor sign over it and of course Cole was standing in it, YUCK.  I immediately took his socks off and threw them away.  

Christmas 2014

This was the first year we haven't spent Christmas with our families.  It was definitely a change of pace, but fun to be able to do our own thing and just relax.  On Christmas Eve we went to my friend Emily's for an amazing dinner and watched the kids act out the nativity story.  When we got home we let the boys leave cookies and chocolate milk for Santa and spread magic reindeer food in our yard.  When we put them to bed Alex asked us to close his door so Santa would come :)   Al and I got busy playing Santa and I realized how much time and effort my mom must have spent every Christmas Eve wrapping, stuffing stockings, and making it look pretty.  I'm still trying to figure out if we should wrap all our presents or leave the Santa ones out.  So many details you never think of until you are suddenly Santa!!

Christmas morning was so much fun!!  Everyone slept in until 8am which was amazing and then we opened presents.  Alex is at the perfect age for all the Christmas magic, but Cole also enjoyed it.

Alex randomly started saying he wanted a red robot toy for Christmas in November.  I had no idea where to get one, but thank goodness for the Internet and Google. One night  we were reading a Bernstein Bears book and he pointed to a page and said look a robot toy.  I'm not sure if the idea came from that, but that's the kind of robot he wanted and it was an old school looking one.  I found one on Ebay that said it came from an Estate Sale and that it might not work, but I didn't think twice about that and just bought it. On Christmas Eve we put batteries in it only to find out it didn't work.  What's the first thing Alex said when he saw it.....why doesn't it make noise and go woo woo woo as he pointed to the siren.  Santa gave me a broken robot :)     That night Al and I ordered the same robot on eBay from another buyer that claimed it worked and we told Alex we had to get batteries.  He kept asking if we could go to the north pole so Santa could fix it.  The second robot also didn't work so now we have 2 red robots that don't work :)

Aside from the robot drama it was a fun morning watching the excitement on their faces as they opened presents.

These two love showers, but only if they can shower in the master bathroom.  After their Christmas shower they got to wear their new Spiderman robes!!  Coles face in this picture makes me laugh. You never know what he's going to do.

Al took the boys to Target a couple nights before Christmas and let them pick out a present for me.  They got me a few things from the dollar section which was pink pens, a little organization folder which I love, and chocolates.  They were so excited to give them to me.

The aftermath!!  

My family always has a nice Christmas dinner so I kept the tradition going and had one for us.  It was basically a Thanksgiving feast which was so much work and it never tastes as good when you're the one making it.  

Cheers to Christmas 2014!!

Diane, Danielle, and Christian had dinner with us which helped it feel more like a holiday.  

Diane has been great to our family and done so many nice things for us since we moved here.  It's random because I didn't really know her before, but we hit it off and she made the transition of moving here a lot easier.  

Watching The Grinch in their new sleeping bags!!  Merry Christmas Alex and Cole, we love you!!

Christmas Fun

Alex's nursery class acting out the nativity story.  He loved that crown and wore it around for weeks.

I found a live manager in Frisco at the United Methodist Church.  They had real animals, a petting zoo, and tons of free kids activities inside.  Cole was obsessed with this sheep and came close to poking it in the eye.  

Maybe next year we can get him a part in the manger :)

The petting zoo was fun.  Alex and Cole both held chickens and bunnies.  I looked over and Cole had a chicken in his arms, yikes.  I don't know how these animals were so tame, but they were getting tormented by kids, haha.

Cole icing a cookie, best night ever.

Their new thing to do is to gain up on me especially while eating lunch or dinner.   Cole does silly things or Alex tells him to do them and then Alex laughs at him.  This day it was smearing his sandwich everywhere and Alex thought it was hilarious.  It's a vicious cycle that I'm sure will get worse with time.

We took a trip to the Arboretum to see the 12 days of Christmas.  The window displays were amazing.

and it was pretty warm when we went so we didn't have to worry about freezing.  The cold is pretty brutal here especially when it's windy which is almost everyday :)

Snowman Pizza

I've been trying to let Alex and Cole do more things in the kitchen with me. We made snowman pizzas and gingerbread houses one night

Cole definitely ate more than he put on the house.

Sadly we always get little bugs in our house and they found the gingerbread house and it was covered, so gross.

We found a new museum in Frisco that they loved.

Alex is really into building legos.  He builds a new tower everyday and then asks me to come look at it and take a picture.

Cole drinking his cereal milk, so funny.

Alex had a preschool Christmas program that was adorable.  Cole had a major meltdown as soon as we sat down so I took him out in the hallway and nothing would console him.   The school director said we have toys at the front desk and luckily they had a train that saved the day.  Alex didn't really sing, but he look adorable.

I helped with my friend Heather's baby shower which turned out so cute.  

Another trip to the mall and another ride on the carousel.....love this boy!!