Christmas 2011

We had another great Christmas this year. I think I was more excited for it than the kids but they were definitely pumped up about it too. Cason had a Christmas party at school after his Christmas program, we went and saw lights at Texas Motor Speedway, we walked around and looked at lights on multiple occasions, went to a living nativity, and baked special holiday treats.

I tried to stress the joy of giving to the boys, it's hard at this age because they love to get new toys but Cason took a new toy to school to donate and I had them help make Christmas gifts for relatives. I also took each boy separately to the store to pick out a gift for each other. Then I took them to the supplement store and let them pick out protein bars for Daddy.

On Christmas morning, I waited until both boys were up and then gave them their stockings. They are both super into Mickey Mouse right now so their stockings contained a Mickey drinking glass, Mickey utensils, a Mickey movie, Mickey jammies, and some candy.







Then we let them open two presents and munch on their candy while we made breakfast. Kelly and I each picked out a present for each of the boys this year. Here is Cason opening the real model rocket that Kelly got for him.



After breakfast, we moved to the playroom and opened the rest of the presents. Here is Bryce opening the baseball glove that Kelly got him. It's too big for him, we knew it would be but it's the smallest they make and he really wanted one. He'll grow into it!







Watching his new Mickey movie, wearing the helmet Grandpa got him, playing with the trains that Cason picked out for him.



Reading one of Bryce's new books.



He loves the trains that Cason got him.



And all his new football guys.





Cason loved all his presents too. His new Trio block castles were big hits.



They both love the giant fire house from Grandma and Grandpa.



And the rocket.







On Monday, we headed to the "park" to launch Cason's rocket. The boys loved it, I added a video as well.

Cason's Christmas Program

It's been really busy around here but I wanted to post this video of Cason's preschool Christmas program from this morning. Cason doesn't like to sing and his teacher told us that he hasn't been participating in music class lately so we have been talking to him about doing his best and how sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do. We even told him he doesn't have to sing but to do the motions and maybe even pretend to sing. This morning was his program and each class sang two songs, then all of the classes got back on stage to sing two more songs as a school.

I was so proud of him, he looked so nervous during the first song but he actually sang. He warmed up by the last song and even did some motions. When I picked him up, his teachers told him he did such a great job singing. He was even proud of himself and told me that he didn't want to sing but he did it anyway.

Fire Station

We work out with quite a few firefighters at our gym and have become good friends with them. Bryce likes fire trucks, like most little boys, so he loves to talk to the firefighters, especially Erik. A week or two ago, Erik said that we could bring the boys to the fire station to check out the truck sometime. So yesterday afternoon, we took the boys there. They were so excited to go and they loved everything they got to see and do.





Erik showed the boys some of the big hoses and one of them responded that they have squirt bottles at home. So Erik got out his squirt bottle and let the boys spray it. It sprayed some sort of chemical foam.





Then Erik got out one of the ladders and let the boys climb it.





He went around the outside of the truck, showing them all of the tools and letting them get their hands on them. Here they are testing out a hydraulic spreader.







Neither of the boys wanted to try on his big fire coat or boots but they both did like trying on the helmets.









Next they sat in the front of the truck.











Then Erik pulled the truck out so they could spray some water from the hose.







And of course he had to turn on the lights and the boys ran around the truck, checking them all out.





Then we got to ride in the fire truck. Three firefighters accompanied us and we just did a quick spin around the neighborhood.



Firefighters use headsets to talk to each other in the truck.





Erik showed us around the rest of the fire station and we saw the kitchen, living room, bedrooms, bathrooms, workout room, lockers, etc. But that was boring in comparison so we quickly ended up back in the garage. We also checked out the two ambulances but the boys were more interested in the fire truck.

Halloween 2011

On Halloween night, we have a tradition of going over to Chris and Lacy's house to order pizza, let the boys play, and go trick or treating. It is a blast and we all look forward to it. Kelly and I didn't dress up for trick or treating but we wanted to get a family picture of our costumes. We wore these costumes to HalloWOD at CrossFit Aledo the week before. Kelly was a steak, I was a fried egg, and together, we were Paleo. Ha ha. I actually made my egg costume myself for $8 and was proud of how it turned out. The boys both wanted to be astronauts and I found great deals on ebay so I got them matching costumes.



Lacy took almost all of these pictures. Between the two of us, we have 5 boys between the ages of 4 and 3 months so we know that the best way to get a genuine smile for a picture is to yell potty talk words or pretend to vomit. Thank you, Lacy, for taking these pictures for me, I love them!









Josiah was a ninja, Luke was a fire fighter, and this picture is missing Baby Elijah, who was a jalepeno pepper.



Our little spider monkey. He's 2 and a half years old but his legs apparently don't work half the time and he demands to be carried everywhere.





Happy because he's eating Skittles.



The two oldest boys had a blast trick or treating and would run up to doors and knock and say "we're here! we're here!" Bryce and Luke had fun getting the candy but weren't as into the trick or treating itself, seeing as how they had to be carried around and were always last to get to the door.



The one picture that I took that turned out pretty cute.





Josiah proudly told us all that he didn't get scared because "ninjas don't get scared". The highlight of the night was when Josiah and Cason went up to a door and a huge 6 foot tall figure had motion detectors on it. When they got close, it lit up and the head started moving and making noises. Both boys jumped back but they didn't run away. They stared at it for a minute while all the adults had a good laugh. We finally told them to go knock on the door and they cautiously walked past the figure and knocked to get their candy.