Christmas Day

Christmas Day was wonderful this year.  The boys didn't get up too early and it was so fun to have a new member of the family participate(even if the wrapping paper was more fun than the actual gift)!

One gift I gave the two big boys and Darryl was homemade coupons.

The boys had coupons for things like a homemade dinner of their choice, more screen time, a chore of theirs completed by me,etc.

Darryl..well his coupons were a bit different..we'll leave it at that...

A new big boy gift this year....

Toms of Maine deodorant...

New Wii games are always a hit!

I made one of their favorites for dinner-fettuccine Alfredo with chicken and then we all had cheesecake for dessert. 

It was such a nice, relaxing day(I even scored a nap!)

Merry Christmas to Everyone!

Christ is Born!  Glorify Him!

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve was great this year.  We do the same thing every year, so the boys have come to look foward to the events.  

First, we always go to church...

Then we come home to open Christmas Eve gifts.  They always are homemade jammies and an ornament for the tree.

We always watch Polar Express on Christmas Eve, so when I found the ornaments from Hallmark that look like the bell from the movie and say "I believe" well, I knew that was the perfect ornament for the boys.

Peanut got Baby's First Christmas Ornament.

Then we settled into the living room for an appetizer dinner and watched the movie.  Afterwards, we got Santa's cookies, milk and reindeer food ready and looked up where Santa was in the world-he was getting close to North America so it was off to bed for the boys!

For Santa and Reindeer

Food to Eat

From Matt and Nick

Love you Santa

Your Super Cool

December 29th...holy Innocents...

Please, if you can spare a moment or two, read this beautiful essay written by one of my favorite bloggers regarding today, December 29th...Commeration of The Holy Innocents...

http://evlogiaonline.com/2011/12/28/holy-innocents-2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+evlogia+%28evlogia%29

For more information The Holy Innocents...
http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=103682


Christ is Born!  Glorify Him!

Visit with the family

We had an unexpected, but wonderful visit with family last week.  They came up on the boys' birthday and stayed for about 6 days.  I hadn't gotten to see my brother, Randy since summertime so it was nice to see him.  The boys love their uncles and I loved to spend time with everyone!

Here is me and Randy being silly...

We all love Grandma Sharon...aka...Mr. Georgia..

Grandma Sharon feeding Joey(it's a full time job-Peanut can eat!!)

Randy and Peanut.

Rofle with Peanut...

Nicholas and Matthew's birthday continued...

Nicholas and Matthew's 10th Birthday Party

The boys turned 10 a couple of weeks ago...ugghh..the time goes by way too fast.  I really wanted to make their birthday special this year, being that they turned double digits and all...

So, we had a spy themed birthday party!

We invited some of their friends to come and join us and had 9 boys celebrating with us and 4 spend the night. 

First, the boys had to get a code name for their spy adventures.  I had two bags with different names and they each picked a name from each bag.

Matthew picked Black Rattler

Nicholas was Slick Lightning

They all loved their names and I made name tags that had their real name, code name and special spy skill-

Then we headed outside for a spy themed scavenger hunt.

Of course, spy training wouldn't be complete without disguises...

The scavenger hunt was a challenge for the boys and I separated them into two teams.  There were prizes for both teams.  First place got a box of candy, a huge magnifying glass and a spy fingerprint kit.  Second place got the box of candy and spy kit.

The boys exclaimed this was the best birthday party ever~

We then played an observation game.  I took random objects and set them on the table.  I then had the boys close their eyes and I would take objects away and they had to write down what I took away.  We did it elimination style-I started with one object and progressively moved to more objects..it was hard!

Slick Lightning...

Black Rattler...

Even Peanut had a good time!

We played a couple more games and then had a taco bar for dinner and then ice cream sundaes for dessert(the boys don't like cake).  We had every topping imaginable and the boys all had their fill!

We then watched Spy Kids-the movie...

It was a great party and the boys all had a great time!

Happy 10th Birthday my sweet boys!