Wednesday, December 31, 2014

The Last Day

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On a normal New Year's Eve, we celebrate with Eric's parents.  This year, though, Mom was having surgery on her foot.  But she did well with the surgery and is already safe and sound at home, that was my NYE wish.   But in the mean time, for the first time, the boys and I just hung out at home.  Eric and Chris went to the store earlier in the day, because GASP! we were going to run out of honey flakey biscuits, which just can't happen, and they read my mind and picked up some videos from the video store.  How crazy to not just choose off of Netflix.  But the kids were so excited with their choices, that they spent half the evening watching cartoons upstairs.  Eric and I watched Iron Man 3, which as it turns out, is a Christmas movie, like Die Hard.  About 8:30 pm, we all watched Oz, the Great and Powerful, turns out PG is just fine for Chris, and Sam was in and out of the room.  I liked it, it stayed fairly true to the old movie, not sure how true to the books it was, it's been Ages since I read any of them.  The boys held up wonderfully. I though they might poop out before the ball dropped, but they held up like superchamps.


Jacob kept us company with his spiffy light. 
He was ready to cheer in the new year! 
Jacob cracked me up by waving Bye Bye to all the people in Times Square. 
Sure, babe, they are waving right back at you. ;) 


After Oz, we watched Ryan Seacrest freezing while we were cozy at home.  
We broke out some sparkling grape juice in real glasses for the big boys too. 


 Oma isn't the only one that can spoil a sweetboy now and then. ;)



Getting ready to watch the ball drop.  
We all had our drinks in hand, and were ready to go! 


It was funny how easily the boys stayed awake. 
Mommy got a second wind, but the boys never wavered.  We never even had to threaten them with bed.  Well done boys.  And I got to spend my New Year's Eve with my favorite sweetboys, just as I like it.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

The Festivities

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I finished these great crochet projects for the Julius girls for Christmas.  And we just barely got them gifted to them in time for their trip to meet some certain Princesses.  


We met up to do our Christmas fest at Monical's.  
Nothing says the celebrations like cheesy garlic bread! 

The girls loved their hats, except S who didn't want to wear hers, she just wanted to hold it. 
Close enough.  At least they like them.  


I made an Anna hat, an Elsa hat and a shades of teal Olaf hat.  
They told me they loved them, they fit perfectly, I'm really happy with how they turned out.  
Score!  
Hmm, now I wonder, would it be too crazy to make myself one or two too? 

Sweet dogs

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How cute are they?!

Santa brought Jacob his own Leap Frog dog, named Violet.  
Violet got programmed yesterday with some of Jacob's favorite things, like being able to say the name Jacob.  Jake kept stealing Sam's dog Scout, and now they both play with their own dogs again.  Jake came upstairs to play on his own, and this is where we found him, playing sweetly with his brother and their dogs. Such cuteness.  We had to update Scout's information too.  Instead of saying that Sam's favorite animal is a cat, it's a dog too.  And instead of saying that Sam's favorite color is yellow, which it was when he was 2, thus the nursery painted yellow, now it's green.  First it's their favorite color changing, next they'll be moving out to college.   Makes me sad to think of my boys growing up so fast.  
At least they are content to play with their little noisy dogs for the moment.  

Stay young and sweet my littles, at least a little while longer. Pretty please.

The Tickets

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Every year, Santa leaves some sort of ticket in our stocking.   Since the price of Butler games has gone up so much, we didn't think we'd be able to make it this year.  But at the last minute, Santa and the Lord provided.  So we got our tickets and watched Butler play at the newly remodeled Hinkle Fieldhouse.  Now the band plays up above it's hard to get seats near it, because it's the student section.  But the game after Christmas they opened up the student section and we were able to sit right by the band.  There's a new jumbotron too, and I kept seeing the band show up, without any cameramen nearby, it took me half the game to figure out they had Really Strong lenses up by the arch.  Just about the time the boys and I actually made it on the jumbotron screen while Devil with a Blue Dress was playing.  So of course, we all were dancing.  And we all waved at the jumbotron, not the camera, duh.  Oh well, maybe now that I know where the cameras are, I'll try waving there next time.  AND we won against Belmont.  I have no idea who they were or where they are from, horse country maybe?  I don't care,  it was Awesome! 


My boys all had a great time at the game.  Even when they weren't watching the game, they were nibbling on contraband snacks, and watching the band.  Yeah for break games! 


After the game, Eric ran for the car, and we went down to the court. 
This is my new favorite picture.  It is the base of the jumbotron.  So I was standing on the center court bulldog face, and looking up.  Very cool.  

The boys were sad that they didn't bring their basketballs to play.  
I'd asked many times during the day for them to get their basketballs and we'd pack them so they could play.  They couldn't be bothered with hunting for them.  Pretty sure they were in their bins in their rooms.  Time to clean!  But anyway, since we didn't have the balls to play with, we just went down on the court for cheesy pictures, with about 5000 of our closest friends. 


Since there were a bazillion people on the court, this was the best pic I could get of them standing on the center court bulldog.  


We had better luck for a photo shoot on Hink the Bulldog statue.  
I think he got some new paint in the remodel.  He looked pretty good.  
And the boys couldn't resist giving a ride!


My little bulldogs!


All three sweetboys riding the bulldog. 
I do so love my Dawgs! 

Good Game.  Good Win. Good Times.
Thanks Santa! 

A sweetboy's birthday party

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My nephew Cole is celebrating his first birthday today!  But we all celebrated his birthday on Saturday morning.  Erica and Karl hosted his First Birthday party.


I got to man Erica's camera, which is pretty similar to mine, and take photos of him eating his first cupcake.  Chocolate of course! 


Eric was using my camera, from across the table, and here's a few that we came home with.  
Erica had made an adorable cake, to look like Chica from Sprout.  Apparently, Cole stops and gets very excited when Chica comes on tv.  So the theme was lots of orange and yellow and a Chica cake. 


He didn't know what to do with it. 
And he got rather upset about it.  
Finally, his mama put a dab of chocolate in his mouth. 


Ah-ha!  That got him going!  
Now he got excited.  


And then he did a number on that cupcake.  
Here's the happy family. 
At least, he was happy until it was time to bathe him in the sink, to get all that mess cleared up. 
I think this is my favorite part of first birthday parties. :) 


Then we moved to the living room, and present opening.  
One is the perfect age for developing a great love of wrapping paper.   
And Cole did not disappoint.  He didn't care much for boxes, but he loved peeling the paper. 




He enjoyed his Elmo card from us.  What one year old doesn't love a nice noisy card?





We also got him some Little People Superheroes and a Batman T-shirt.  
Our sweet little superhero is super set!

But this video shows the big hit of the day to Jacob.  


Somebody loves balloons! 


Sunday, December 28, 2014

The Quazy Quilters

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Long ago, we were sitting around at Book Club, after reading this book about a Colorado widow woman who made quilts, and talking about how we've always wanted to quilt.  No seriously, fast forward a few months, and the subject comes up again.  And we were all like, no really, we should form a group!  I started a facebook group for the few of us, and we quickly realized that no new projects were going to come to any of us before Christmas.  All of us were working on projects that were gifts.  Me too.   I know, it's crazy for us to take something else on.  But that's why I called the group the Quazy Quilters, because we have to be Crazy, Quazy, in order to do it.  But I want to.  I have not been stretching my brain in any way since Jake was born, and barely been challenging myself since Sam.  But it's time.  And we figured by January, we'd be able to start something for ourselves.  Then A had a great idea!  Her Mom is a Quilter extra-ordinaire and was coming to town for Christmas, and she thought it would be wonderful for her mom to mentor us, and help us get started on our first quilt!


And so she hosted our first class! 

I'm sorry these couple pictures are terrible, they are point and shoots, and we were all busy cutting and piecing our blocks of fabric.  But I really wanted pictures of our class, to capture the frenzy and fun, because it was the high point of my day! 


K and I have the same sewing machine, but I didn't break mine out, I got to borrow A's Husqvarna.  Holy cow!  It's the cadillac of sewing machines.  The thing sews all by itself.  It made my singer look positively medieval!  It was AWESOME!   And fun to use.  I kept goofing up, it was my first quilting project in like 7 years, but it is for me.  And we made a lot of progress in our 3-4 hour class. I'm really pumped to start this group come January!  And I'm even more excited to make a quilt for me, and by me.  

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Christmas Day at Oma and Opa's


Man, it's Exhausting playing so hard on Christmas day!  
The boys were so exhausted from all their fun, that they crashed on the way to Oma and Opa's house.  Christopher said he didn't, but he certainly looked like he did, nobody looked home.  
But they perked up once we got there.  



My Dad took these couple photos.  
Of course, he had the tripod all set up! 
He managed to capture the boys all being sweet, and before they got covered in food. 


We're learning.  Capture the Cuteness early. 
This is the first year that we got a picture just the 5 of us though, I kind of enjoyed that. 


It was a small party this year. 
I missed my sister, and my cousin Suzy, and Grandma Pat.  
But it was still good.  There was definitely still lots of love and laughter, which is how those who were not with us, would have wanted it.  



Oma spoils the boys getting them some sparkling grape juice, and put it in real glasses for them.  
So handsome and so loved.  I love their matching sweaters this year.  Technically, the sweatervests were to go with the plaids they wore to church on Christmas eve, but we didn't get them, so they wore them separately, and I chose white underneath, because I knew they all had white shirts.  And they looked so dreamy! 


Oma and Opa save the tradition of putting the baby Jesus into the kresh for the boys.  Usually they have to fight some cousins for the job, but this year, they chose to share equally.  


They looked so serious as they put the baby Jesus in his manger.  
So sweet.


Opa got Chris a rockin' Colts hat! 


Sam got a pretty fabulous Colts hat too! 


But I think Jacob has the best Colts hat of all! 
I don't know if he agreed or not, but we'll be wearing it come next month!


The boys couldn't wait to rip into all their goodies from Oma and Opa, and as usual they were completely spoiled.  Not rotten.  Just spoiled.   They really shower these boys with gifts.  They are so loved, and it does my heart such good.  They even managed to find the things I'd been unable to find, like the Imaginext Blue Beetle for Christopher and an Octonaut Inkling and Dashi for Sam.  It had been dramatic, they weren't sure the Beetle would arrive in time, he arrive Christmas Eve afternoon - talk about the last minute, whew! And they solved the Octonaut problem by getting the full set of people.  Brilliant!  The boys wanted to open everything right then and play and play.  It was hard to tear them away and get them home.   It was a small party, and I missed my sis, and my boys got crazy, but we all did ok, until Sam peed in his pants.  Luckily, he'd received some pajamas, so we put the bottoms on him, and headed home.   

On Christmas day in the morning

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Merry Christmas!  

We hope that you all have had as wonderful and merry a holiday as we have.  But I know that you all want to see how the boys fared, and how adorable they were.  So here you go.

A Top Ten of Christmas Morning, also known as our at home celebration.

10.  The best moment.  The boys slept in until 8:30 - woohoo!  So we were very ready to come down when they were.  They couldn't wait to check out the cookies and milk, and read what Santa had left behind.

9. The boys dig in to their stockings!  Santa left candy, and some Octonaut water toys, and some stuffed Transformers.  They couldn't wait to dig right in!


8.  Jacob is not a morning person. If there was one of my children that might take to coffee, it would be this one.  He was also a snoochy mess, so he spent most of the present opening on Daddy's shoulder or in his lap.  It was a fair trade, he'd been in my arms or on my boob all night long.  Stupid viral crud at Christmas! 


7.  Santa decided that Sam is a big boy now.  Sam upgraded to real Legos.  He got Sam the metalbeard set from The Lego Movie.  Not sure who was more excited, Chris or Sam!


6.  Sam chose wisely.  The best thing about Christmas this year, was the presents that the boys picked out for each other.  At the end of November, Sam picked out this Leonardo Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle for Christopher.  Some week later, Chris sat on Santa's lap, and asked for a Leonardo turtle of his own, he plays with Sam's all the time.   I think he asked multiple times, and every time I just smiled, because the one who knew him best, knew his heart's desire, had been his little brother.  And yes, Chris was stoked.  


5.  Funny thing about the Santa choosing The Lego Movie legos for Sam.  Chris did too, and made Sam's day!  See?!  It's my favorite part of the day. 


4.  Santa brought what Mommy asked for, a Tent!  Christopher was as excited as I am!  It's a 2 room, 8 person jobbie, that's going to rock!  We are going to Camp this summer!


3.  Jake moved for this present.  Sam has Scout, a similar dog thing, and Jacob kept stealing it.  And Jake kept eyeballing this one at the store.  He didn't care if it was purple, like that would be girly or something.  It's the same voice as Scout.  And when he opened this one, he couldn't wait to play with her.  He didn't even wait for her to come out of the box! 


2.  This one was another big hit.  Sam picked out this light up Jake and Neverland Pirates thing for Jacob at the Disney Store.  Jacob loves it!  I worry if his eyesight will suffer, or if it will even survive to make it to our trip to DisneyWorld, but he's developing some great button pushing skills.  


1.  As you can imagine, after the Christmas tornado tore through the living room, the big boys took their legos and ran into the basement, not to be seen or heard for a while, and Jake had run of the place.  After he warmed up (imagine Jake on coffee!) he got busy to playing with his toys.  His pants kept falling off, so at one point, he came into the living room, pantsless, riding his ridealong, and smiling the biggest cheese.  It was great!  I do so enjoy our Christmas mornings at home.  


And a Merry Christmas too! 

Friday, December 26, 2014

A Merry Christmas Eve

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Thank goodness we let the boys rest between Chris's birthday and Christmas Eve. 
I would have hated to miss Christmas!  
We had Willman Family Christmas at Uncle Karl and Aunt Erica's house this year.   
When we arrived, the tree was surrounded with tons of presents for appropriate child spoilage.

I thought, Oh! I better get a quick picture of the boys together before they go bonkers with new toys and we don't see them together.   Good thing I did!  Even only moments after our arrival, Jake found his first present, a Fisher Price ridealong musical Thing.  And he fell in love immediately and loves riding on it.  


We had some snacks, brie, crackers, nachos, lots of goodies, and then we got serious into present opening.  The big boys were So Ready.  Cole (in the middle) just wanted to play.  He ended up being all about playing with the paper this year. 


Jacob learned quickly he likes the toys once they are opened, but then he realized he can play with them without having to wait for the boxes to be opened.  He was still feeling a bit puny, so he stayed close to Daddy. 


The big boys were given Marvel superheroes.  Chris had a whole line of them, I don't even know who all - Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Captain America, and Sam got Spiderman and a bunch of his friends and enemies, and these 'dolls' are like 12 inches tall, Huge! 
I love this pic because all three of my boys were playing with them. 


After presents, we played Apples to Apples. 
Jake sacked out on Daddy's shoulder, but Jeremiah still had some energy.  
Such big little boys. 
After Willman Christmas, we fully planned on going home to get the boys sweaters, but I had some goodies to drop off 'real fast' at my Mom's.  Well, we ended up hanging out there for a while, which was really great, and the kids were crazy, and when we got in the car, we discussed going to the Fam's church for Christmas Eve service.  We've not gone since we were newlyweds, because every year, until this one, one or both of us were involved somehow in the service.  This was the first year, that we weren't.  I'm glad I'd said no to singing, because I would have been singing bass, because of fighting these cooties the boys gave me.  And Eric surrendered bell choir this year, so Chris could do Cub Scouts.  But I think that's not going to last, he misses bells, and choir, so next year, I think he'll do one of them.  Anyway, this year, Alexis was going to be playing her cello, and I'd never seen her play live.  I wanted to go see her, and since we weren't doing anything at our own church, we made the last minute decision to go to church with Mom and Dad.  


We arrived during practice time, and Kaylee was happy to have her cousins to play with again, even though it had only been an hour and a half since they'd seen each other.  They think they NEVER get enough time to play together. 


Jake held up like a champ all day, he didn't take a proper nap, but he kept dozing off on Eric's shoulder. I was ok with that, it meant he wasn't screaming at us! 


Alexis played up in the loft, so I got a very special seat, to watch and listen.  
I didn't have my video camera, Mom got the song on Video on fb.  Here it is.  


I was busy taking photos.  That was hard for me to do, as I was blubbering, my eyes would not stop leaking.  This is my favorite Christmas song of all, and to hear her play it on cello, and so beautifully; It was Perfect.  
She has beautiful fingers for cello, long elegant things, not stubby things like I had.  No wonder she has such an amazing talent.  She was Born for this!  


I didn't realize this, but apparently we were attending the Child Friendly service. 
Turns out that was Great!  The sermon was a question and answer to the kids, and I was never more proud of my eldest as when he kept jumping up to answer the questions that Pastor asked.  
Oh yes, my boys Know the Reason for the Season!

And for the last song of the service, they passed out bells to all the kids. 
They were a big hit! 


Even Jacob got a bell to ring.  
He was not inclined to give it back. ;) 



As soon as we got home, we gave them their new special Christmas Eve pajamas, 
they suited up, and I was able to take a few pictures of them being adorable in them.   


They were so precious.  

They were also crazy.  And they almost lost their privilege of seeing their trains in place before bed. 
Eric put the trains together, so that Santa could bring them a new car, which he does every year. 



I think Christopher's train is getting so big, it may not be able to pull itself soon.
Next year may be the last year for a car, and we may have to start requesting some towns and background for him from Santa.  


Sam was pretty content watching his train go around. 


Instead of putting Jacob's on his own tree upstairs (where he was pulling the tree down, and it would be just too tempting) Eric put Jake's on the table we were given from Grandpa Willman.  Jake enjoyed watching it.  But since he was in my arms, half dozing, I couldn't get a picture of him with it.  He liked watching them go around from above too.  
We read the Nativity story at bedtime, and called it a night. 
It was a perfect ending to our Christmas Eve.  


And God Bless Us Everyone!