Happy Valentine's Day

Here are two of my cuties sporting cute shirts for the special day.  They are from a couple years ago so I don't have one to fit Nicholas and he couldn't wear it to school anyway.

Christmas

We had a full house this Christmas.  Burt's parents, plus my Mom and step-dad were here to celebrate with us.  We decided to break in the new house to its fullest potential.  The kids were very excited to get started that morning so we tried to get all the grandparents up and at em to see the festivities.  Unfortuantely my mom was not feeling well so she missed out, but Joshua made sure she got her presents and a run down of activities later that evening.  Thankfully we didn't have that many gifts to open since the big gift from everyone was a playset for the backyard that was put together throughout the week.  The boys loved opening their gifts and stockings and helping us all open our gifts.  It was fun to see Zachary get so excited this year too.  He would squeal in delight.  It was cute.  The big toy gifts came from Uncle Richard.  Already spoiling them :-)  It was a fun morning.  After we opened gifts we had our traditional breakfast and then got ready for church.  It was nice to be able to go to church on Christmas Day.  After the service we had a light lunch and then started to prepare the dinner items while the boys played with their new things and Zachary took a nap.  Later that evening we sat down for a wonderful Christmas dinner prepared mostly by Burt and his mom with a few things from me added in there.  It turned out to be a great day full of family and friends and best of all celebrating the birth of Jesus.

The boys had fun decorating the tree cake.  You can't really tell, but there is "snow" on the top of the tree.

Christmas Eve we put out the loot.

Waiting patiently for the grandparents so they can get started.

Yeah for stockings.

Zachary was so proud of his new chair.  He knew right away it was his.

On to the presents.

Giving Ajee and Ajah their handmade gifts.

Our traditional family picture by the tree.  No smiles from the boys this time around, but that's okay.

Ready for church in their cute outfits.

Gotta love Joshua's expression.  "Why are you trying to be nice to me?"

Joshua never cracked that smile.  What a stinker he is.  We had to give Zachary a distraction to even stay in the picture.

Our dinner "decorations".

Most of the dinner spread.

After dinner entertainment with Gramps.  Zachary loved to be up high.

 Enjoying the new playset the next day when the weather finally cleared up a bit.  We are going to have tons of fun with this I can already tell.  So worth it.

Some December happenings

Okay, yes, I know it is February, but I need to get these posts in, preferably before the baby comes.  So, here are some pictures of things that happened in December.

McWane Science Center- a train and dinosaur exhibit.  Our boys were in heaven.
We went with my cousin, her husband and two sons, my two aunts and their husbands and my mom and step-dad.  A fun adventure for sure.

 My cousin's son Preston.  Nicholas and him loved making designs on these boards.  Very cool.

They could have dug for hours I do believe.

 The other little guy on the end is Parker, my cousin's other son.

 Zip line

 Zachary having fun with the light up pegs.

 "May I drive you somewhere?"

 Joshua loved this experiment.

 Tug of war.  I did try to help Joshua, but that picture may not be shown. 

 This was at the entrance.  I do believe they could have watched this all day too.  The museum is a very cool place to go.  We will be returning there.  You could spend forever there.

Pictures with Santa

Party at Mrs. Leann's to decorate gingerbread houses
Mrs. Leann had extra decorations out for the kids to use, plus provided us with a wonderful lunch and great company.  It was nice to get together with the parents outside of school and Nicholas was excited to spend an afternoon at his teachers house.  He gave her a big hug when we left.  So sweet. 

Birthday Parties

Jeff was able to get Ian to sit with Santa, but no such luck with Zachary even though he squealed when he saw him come in.

Enjoying yummy cookies with frosting to celebrate Ella Harding's bday.

He was content playing with Eli's toys while he opened his gifts.

Not too sure about diving in.  He was very reserved.

Zoo lights with the Hemphill's
I don't have many pictures of the actually lights since the kids were of course running around like crazy, but it was a fun evening.

Zachary was not fond of sitting with Santa.

Christopher had a magazine full of trains to share with Santa.

At least we kind of got a smile out of Joshua.  Nicholas didn't even want to sit with him at all.

Sophie was the most excited and the cutest of course.  Love this little girl.