Back in the swing

We're pretty much back into our normal routine now after the holiday break. Matt is back to work, Matthew back to school. Our mornings are playing and coloring and watching our favorite shows.

Our school day afternoons are spent at grandma's house where Daniel is now a full-timer.

Noah is getting better about me, Matthew and Maryann leaving for school which is a nice change in this new year.

Weekends are back to running errands and getting things done around the house. This weekend our mission was to get Matthew his bigger big-boy bed. That meant a trip to Ikea and of course a Swedish meatball lunch.

Matthew loves his new bed.

He promptly filled it up with 10,000 stuffed animals when it was completed.

And he even invited Noah to try it out.

Noah made himself quite comfy in big bro's new bed.

We rounded out the weekend with haircuts (Noah's 1st by a pro).

Today starts our first full week of "back to normal" - our first Monday of the New Year. Let's hope Friday gets here quickly!

Christmas Vacation

It's almost 8PM on New Year's Day. The last day of our Christmas vacation. Matt goes back to work tomorrow, Matthew goes back to school - we basically go back to "normal". We sure did have fun on our little break though.

We made cookies at grandma's house.

We had an awesome Christmas Eve party with family and an equally as awesome Christmas day.

We played with new bath toys.

Matthew mastered his new Jake & The Neverland Pirates LeapPad game.

We saw good friends and watched favorite movies.

I haven't made any resolutions for this new year. I'm going to take the days as they come. They go so fast as it is, I don't want to waste time worrying about the small stuff.

Happy new year everybody!!

Twas The Night After Christmas

We woke up Christmas morning to freshly fallen snow and a deer trio in our backyard having a yummy breakfast. Very Courier & Ives.

Matthew was up bright and early. He was excited about all his presents from Santa.

He kept saying "This was on my list! Santa brought me this from my list!"

He was genuinely excited about every single gift he received.

It was awesome to watch him tear into each gift.

Noah wasn't really interested in the unwrapping part. He enlisted daddy's help for most of it.

Matthew could turn pro if it was a sport.

Of course there were stockings full of fun stuff too.

And even though Noah didn't want to unwrap, he sure did want to play with everything.

After about seven minutes of being awake, our living room looked like this.

Both boys were quite happy with the hauls.

Noah took a liking to all of Matthew's gifts in addition to his own.

After breakfast we headed to grandma's house to continue the Christmas fun with all the cousins. Matthew was intrigued with the dress-up sets the girls got.

Noah was there for the food.

After all the good food, the good company and the good gifts, we all went to bed completely exhausted last night. And the crazies that we are, we got up early and hit some post-holiday sales today.

Now the snow is falling again and both boys are asleep. It's been a fantastic few days, and with Matt on vacation for another week there's more fun to be had. I hope you all enjoyed your holidays and that you're all ready for a great new year!

Merry Merry!

I found this image in my photo stream. Matthew created it in one of the free Christmas apps on the iPad. He said it makes him feel "Christmassy"

We're going to be busy the next few days - we're hosting Christmas Eve dinner at our house tomorrow night (that's a lot of people in my house!), Christmas morning at home and then off to grandma's for Christmas lunch with the cousins. All good stuff.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Holiday Concert

Today was Matthew's holiday concert at school. We were out early to get Matthew to his last minute rehearsal at school. We killed time at Starbucks with Noah while we waited for show time.

Noah was actually much better than I thought he would be at the concert. He sat and watched Matthew bust a move for quite a while.

Matthew was fantastic - he sang, he danced, he waved at us, he genuinely enjoyed himself.

When Noah became restless (there are only so many Christmas carols he can tolerate at once), I brought him to the little playroom inside the daycare room. Once he saw this slide he had no interest in going back out to see Matthew.

But I was able to convince him to come back out in time for the pre-k's dance routine to Run Run Rudolph. Matthew was paired with one of the tallest girls in the class. But he held his own - and to be honest, I think it was all the much cuter because of their mis-match.

At the end, the lead teacher made sure to call out all the kids names for applause. They all felt like little rock stars.

After the concert there was a small holiday party where all the kiddos got to chow on Gogurts, bagels, cheese sticks and waffles.

I convinced Matthew to pose for a picture next to the Santa list with his name on it. He didn't quite get that I was trying to get his name in the picture as well. You might be able to make out the big M next to his head (all the kids got to write their own name on the list).

And because no post about a holiday concert would be complete without a video, here you go:



Happy Holidays Everyone!!!

Wordless Wednesday: Close, Closer, Closest

Status Quo

Things have been busy around here lately. Not bad busy, just busy. Lots to do with the holidays coming up.

Matthew's school is in full holiday mode. He's been coming home lately with the cutest little art projects.

Matthew himself is in full holiday mood as well. He's very into decorating, our Elf on the Shelf, holiday art projects, Christmas books, etc. He particularly likes the candy cane lights on our front path because he claims when he grabs on to them that it makes him look like The Riddler. I don't really know how that's "Christmassy", but I'm not a 4-year-old boy obsessed with super heroes.

Noah has been good about staying away from our decorations for the most part. Although the snowman at the top of our kitchen steps seems to be too tempting at times - I regularly find that poor snowman hanging on for dear life after being pushed to the edge of the top step by young Noah. This picture has nothing to do with that story, it's just a random shot of Noah and his sock hands.

This face - keeps him on the Nice List.

So, aside from the everyday stuff, and the holiday stuff added on top of that, we're still just doing our own thing.

And having fun doing it.

Happy weekend everybody!