Christmas 2010

Christmas Morning playing with the new train table

Lucas showing off his new tractor (I accidentally cut it out of the picture)

Adam posing with his rocking Rudolph (he was feeding his ornaments from the tree)

Lucas with his bumble bee Pillow Pet from Santa

Lucas playing with his Mixer while Adam tries to fix it

Adam with his new Mickey Mouse Sleeping Bag

The boys ready to celebrate in their Rudolph shirts

Adam looking adorable next to his stocking

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! I posted a slide show of our entire December of preparations and celebrations. The boys enjoyed opening presents and new stuff of course, and we enjoyed visiting and seeing the joy on their faces.

We had numerous baking days throughout the month and enjoyed our goodies. We celebrated with the Will's the Sunday before Christmas and I got to watch all the kids open their gifts, what a treat for me since the last two years I was chasing Lucas while everyone was opening gifts :) The girls are growing up so quickly into lovely young ladies and Noah is quite the handsome young man, too.

We did our family Christmas on Christmas Eve morning. Andy and I exchanged most of our gifts then too. Andy got a watercolor painting from Lucas and I got new pieces for my nativity set from the boys. Lucas got a camera from us which he is using as a video game player instead of a camera, and Adam got a Clipos table. We had a wonderful relaxing morning.

We celebrated at our house with the Rudolph's on Christmas Eve evening. We opened an abundance of gifts and had a "fancy dinner" as Lucas called it. We had cheese plates, smoked salmon, chilled roasted vegetables, salamis, bread, and canolis for dessert. It was delicious. We watched the snow falling all night long and it was almost magical. The boys stayed up late and enjoyed their time with the family. We finally got them down and then enjoyed some adult time, before Adam decided to wake up from 11 until 3.

Thank goodness, the boys slept in until 7:30. Andy and Lucas got up and promptly came in to tell Adam and I that Santa had eaten all the cookies and milk we left out and Rudolph had eaten his carrot. We headed downstairs to check under the tree and found a train table, pillow pets, snow shovels, and a Alphabet game for Lucas and Wheelies for Adam. Our stockings were overflowing with bath items, toothbrushes, and candy for all 4 of us. The boys played and played all morning, while Andy drank coffee from his new coffee maker and I enjoyed one of my hot chocolate samples. The snow looked beautiful on Christmas morning again making it the perfect day.

On Christmas evening, we celebrated with the Embrey's, including Granny and Gordon Rumble. Lucas confidently kept telling James Gordon that he was not James and that he himself was Lucas James Rudolph. I think Gordon got a real kick out of getting Lucas worked up about having the same name. At the end of the evening as Lucas was saying his goodbyes, he got the best of Gordon when he looked at him and smiled and said, "Good bye, Gordy". We all laughed. Lucas also took some time to show his Great Granny how he plays games on Daddy's iPhone. It was very sweet :)

We all opened our gifts for each other and again the boys loved all their new goodies. Toward the end of the evening the boys started getting a little wild playing chase, spinning, and wearing their shirts on their heads when changing to PJ's. It was wonderful seeing them have such a great time. We let them stay up late again, but our last Christmas present was the boys sleeping through the night until 7:15 for Lucas and 7:45 for Adam. How blessed are we to have such wonderful friends and family to celebrate the holidays with.

Knife Skills

As you all know Lucas can't get enough time in the kitchen, so now when we play Playdoh he is working on cutting it into small pieces. All good chefs have fantastic knife skills. I know this because every season of Top Chef has a Quick Fire Challenge around slicing and dicing different ingredients quickly. I have very poor knife skills and proved it when I had to get stitches from a butter knife. Andy does pretty good. Clearly Lucas has been watching his Dad and Adam is taking after me or Adam is aspiring to be an Asian show cooking chef :)

Baking Day

Dena, Nathan, and Amber came over are we had a "baking day". Lucas was in heaven, being able to help everyone make their goodies. Adam was cranky and not interested, but enjoyed tasting everything. We made peanut butter ball, pumpkin breads, pretzel rods, peanut butter brittle, rock candy, tea rings, rice krispie treats, toffee bars, and the Embrey family tradition tea rings. It's all yummy and we had a great time.

St. Nick's Day

We celebrated St. Nick's Day this weekend. On Sunday, we attended the St. Nick Pancake Breakfast at St. Wendel Church. We enjoyed our pancakes with great friends, the Fishers and the Bretz's. All the kids sat down and ate together, it was almost peaceful. Then we all took turns talking to Santa and getting photos. The boys wouldn't sit on Santa's lap, so we got a family picture. Lucas told Santa he wanted a Bumble Bee Pillow Pet and train table.

St. Nick visited the boys this week and they found a Dr. Suess book, stuff animal and Santa cups in their stockings. We are doing an advent countdown with some new Advent houses, so the boys are anxious to open a door each night and find a treat. We are waiting anxiously for Christmas :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving. Lucas got the honors of eating a turkey leg, which was just too cute. Adam kept pointing for more (bananas, not Thanksgiving food). We also got to visit with Isaac, Jacob, Evan, and Olivia (and parents) as well. Lucas and Olivia watched some TV, and Adam accompanied Isaac on his piano solos. We are thankful for all our wonderful blessings.

Milestones

The boys each passed a milestone in the past few weeks and I'm a little behind posting them.


Adam got his first haircut. Grandma Kay did the honors. He did a good job sitting there but didn't like it much. He looked very handsome afterward but didn't really want his picture taken as you can tell by his grumpy face. Although we did cut a decent amount of hair off, you can't really tell all that much because he is so light on hair up front.


Lucas is now going on the potty. We tried to teach him to pee on the barn thinking he would think that peeing outside was cool, but we had no luck. So we ended up taking one weekend and putting him in underwear for the whole 3 days and see if he would figure it out. He did after just one day and 4 weeks later we have only had a handful of accidents. He is even holding it all night long, so we are done with pull ups too. We are still struggling a little bit with going #2, but that's how things go. Lucas was rewarded for successful trips to the potty with a sticker for his potty poster and candy. We are very proud of him! One little boy out of diapers and one to go :)

Halloween 2010

We had a great Halloween weekend. On Saturday we went trick or treating to see my Aunt Pam, Granny, and Dad and Eileen. On Sunday we did our annual afternoon trip around Oakfield with friends. This year we met up with the Hill's, Pugh's, Bretz's, Hopp's, Fisher's, and Vieke's. So we had about 13 adults with10 kids 3 and under. We all loaded up in the wagons and headed up the street. I think people were a bit overwelmed to open the door to our group of little ones yelling "trick or treat". The kids had a blast. Lucas lost interest a little sooner than we expected but he enjoyed passing out candy with Grandma Kay while Adam and Daddy finished up the street with the rest of the group. Adam did great and said "trick or treat" and "thank you" at most houses. Our little monsters had a great time with their friends.

I got two pictures of the boys together in their costumes, both leave a lot to be desired, but do capture the level of cooperation we normally get from the boys.

Halloween Prep Weekend

We had a great weekend jam packed with great times with friends and Halloween/Fall activities. On Friday, we went to the Pughs for delicious dinner and afterward the boys had a great time playing Pac Man. Yes, 4 toddler boys do think they can all play the game with the one joystick :)



On Saturday, we finger painted on pumpkins (and then on some paper). Then we played outside for a couple of hours before taking some nice long naps. That afternoon we made a special Halloween supper. We had mummy hot dogs, apple mouths with teeth and cupcakes all with lemonade.



After dinner we had a small camp fire and the Pughs came over. We enjoyed playing on the playground in the dark, roasted marshmallows, and laying on the blanket looking at the stars.

Eli, Jacob, Lucas, and Adam

Then on Sunday we carved our pumpkins into Jack-o-laterns and put then on the porch. We watched a little football and Nascar, and enjoyed a wonderful roast beef dinner made by Andy.



What a great weekend with the boys!

Dr. Suess Room

Lucas has moved from his crib to a big boy bed successfully. He has slept in his "new room" for a couple weeks now and is doing great! We decorated his room in Dr. Suess characters. Right now Dr. Suess things are Lucas's favorite. He loves the books and movies: Horton Hears a Who, The Cat in the Hat, Sneetches, Green Eggs and Ham, and the Grinch!

Mommy's Birthday

I had a great birthday weekend. On Friday, Lucas made my birthday cake. Adam wanted to help too, so Mommy had to step in and help out too. I love baking with my boys. We made a dark chocolate cake with chocolate icing, decorated with candy corn and sprinkles.

On Saturday, we spent the morning at the pumpkin patch (See previous post) and then in the afternoon we enjoyed the cake and maple pumpkin ice cream made by Daddy with family. Then we had a small campfire to roast hot dogs and marshmallows.

On Sunday, we just relaxed. I got to take a long shower with no interruptions (a mother's dream). We went to Kohl's to get Dr. Suess toys for the boys and then enjoyed a delicious dinner of pasta with mariana and garlic bread. I am so blessed!