"Two" infinity and beyond

Don't ask me how Bug is already two - I'm still trying to figure it out. I was all geared up for a "Cookie Monster" themed party, but he insisted on Buzz Lightyear. I tried to convince him that Buzz Lightyear was for big kids and Sesame Street was much better for two-year-olds, but you can see where that got me :) We had a fun party with lots of friends and family, and he loved every minute.

 Welcome to Bug's party!

Cake and balloons - we also had "Pizza Planet" pizza :)

 Birthday banner and gifts

 Happy Birthday to You!

 Enjoying the last piece after Sunday lunch

 His most treasured present - a harmonica specially selected by his sister.

 Sprinkle doughnuts for breakfast

 His big gift was a train table, and most of our family bought trains and track to fix it up!

 A new tradition - birthday lunch with Daddy!

 His afternoon choice of activity - cookies!

 Number 2 cookies

 Cookie Moster cookies (See? He likes Cookie Monster...)

 Birthday dinner menu - "michael" cheese and peas

Happy second birthday, sweet boy! Mommy can't believe the way you're growing! Your favorite things are Buzz Lightyear, trains, Cookie Monster, books (especially Tag Junior), being outside, playing with your sister, and music! You LOVE to sing and dance, and know the words to LOTS of songs! You are also quite the chatterbox! You have a pretty big vocuabulary for your age, and are easy to understand. Some of my favorite phrases are, "What you saying?" "I ready breakfast" "Turn it up please" and "Do you like___? I like_____" You LOVE milk, and your favorite foods are "michael" cheese, pancakes, and refried beans. You're still not a big fan of meat, but you're a great eater. At your doctor's appointment, you weighed 30lbs and were 36 in tall! You are growing like crazy, and Mommy loves every minute. I am so proud of you and thanful every day that you're mine!

Siblings

Had a "Proud Mama" moment while watching the kids play outside one afternoon...

 Tink is pulling Bug in the wagon

"Now you pull me" she tells him

 He pulls and pulls, but struggles

 So, she gets out and they pull the wagon together

What a sweet sister and a great example - love moments like this!

Christmas

Christmas is one of the highlights of our year. We look forward to spending time together away from our daily routine, the excitement of our kids, making memories, spending time with family, and celebrating the birth of our Savior.

We have a tradition of opening stockings before breakfast, which keeps me from having to get up too early to get everything started :)

This year, I decided to make red velvet doughnuts (on our finest china, as you can see).

Tink's "big" gift was the Disney Princess set

Bug's "big" gift was a basketball goal, but as you can see, the Buzz Lightyear wings were the definite favorite!

Tink asked for Snow White - don't even get me started on the difficulty finding this movie and how I feel about movies going into the "Disney Vault"...

Bug also got a pirate ship and costume

We left after lunch to celebrate with R's family.

This is the last time our kids saw R's Grandma - She was one of the most wonderful people I've ever known. She loved to see pictures on our blog, and liked to remind me about it if she hadn't seen any in awhile ;) Little did we know how truly special this picture would be!

On Christmas Eve, we continued to my parents' house to celebrate with the rest of our family.

This is my Grandad, who will celebrate his 90th birthday in April!

Nana is so good to buy presents that Mom would never dream of!

She even let the kids have "snowball" fights in the house!

If you ever see crocheted snowballs, buy them - trust me :)

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We truly enjoyed the Christmas season this year! It was a busy time full of fun, family, friends, and traditions old and new.

Being a teacher, I have quite the stash of Christmas books. After purchasing a few more, I wrapped 24 and the kids got to open one each night for their bed time story! I look forward to adding new books to our collection and continuing this tradition.

 

Our Advent activity book suggests beginning with a countdown chain. Tink made her first chain last year and had a lot of fun using it to see how many days were left until Christmas. We created one last summer to count down the days until our move, and she somehow merged the words "chain" and "pattern". It's now known in our house as a "chattern"...

 We made Christmas play-dough and I thought it would be fun to play in front of the tree.
It was such a hit that the kids wanted to sit there for

lunch

 drinking hot chocolate

and coloring. I eventually stopped taking it back and forth from Tink's room, and they enjoyed meals, snacks, and activities beside the tree. It's the little things :)

 We invited some friends to bake and decorate gingerbread men with us - a really fun, messy day!

 New Christmas pajamas! Any bets on how long it will be before they're wearing the same size?

 A visit with Santa  - who knew that my shy one would be excited and my outgoing one would be nervous?

 Making snowman pretzels for Tink's dance class Christmas party

 Dumping Decortaing Christmas cookies!

 New slippers, hot chocolate, and Christmas lights!

A Happy Birthday Jesus party with our cell group (we had so much fun that I forgot to get out the camera after everyone arrived). We had a delicious potluck dinner, watched The Very First Noel, and created a gingerbread navivity!

 Snowman pancakes

Snowman sandwiches - There are so many cute "themed" meal ideas out there and I decided to try a few. The kids loved them, and it made me wonder what I might get them to eat if it's in a fun shape...
Here's to wonderful Christmas memories, and many more to come!

Thankful

So, Thanksgiving wasn't as planned... We were so thankful to be home from the hospital with a healthy kid that we would have happily celebrated with pb&j! I did manage to prepare a small Thanksgiving dinner, and a quiet evening at home was just what we needed. 

This is our Thankful Tree. Each day in November, the kids got to add one "leaf" to the tree with something they were thanful for. I have a special gratitude album that we will add to each year with a family picture, the kids' leaves, and a letter about the blessings from our year. This year, they were thankful for:

ice cream, pumpkins, Mommy and Daddy, soup, rice and beans, books, apples, Nana and Papa, princesses, M (cousin), Bug is better, C & C (friends), sweetie treats, Grandma and PaPa, cheese (which Bug repeated about 10 days!), love, and Buzz Lighyear

I treasure the simplicity of the things they love and are thanful for. As usual, I learned a lot from my attempt to teach them about thanfulness.

We usually decorate for Christmas the weekend following Thanksgiving, but we were home, so we decided to get started! The kids were really excited to "help", and R was a good Dad and took the extra time to let them. A true lesson in patience ;)