Happy Christmas happenings

With all the talk about our baby, I have not been so good at keeping up with what's been going on with my other two little punkins.

These two in fact. Brace yourself for this one.....

I may have squealed with joy when I was flipping through some recent pictures and came across this one. They are precious, truly truly precious. And despite the incredibly rough time we have been having in the getting along department. This is evidence of how much they adore one another. Bennett would follow "Tole" to the moon and back.

That sweet little gem was taken on our Christmas weekend kick-off. We decided to forgo their normal naps, let them sleep in the car ( prayed that our grand plan would not back fire on us!) and go do some fun, family Christmasy things.

We kicked off the festivities with some free cookie and cupcake decorating at a really yummy cupcake shop and candy store.

Cole took the decorating very seriously, and meticulously placed each of his candies right where he wanted them. And as you can see, Bennett.......well, he put them right where he wanted them as well. His belly. He wasted no time completely demolishing that cupcake.

And Cole sat and smiled, and chatted, and took a couple licks of his frosting, then said he was "saving it for later" a typical phrase from his lips. He is always "saving things for later".

We then tromped through the rain over to the candy store to decorate snowman sugar cookies. But unfortunately I didn't get any photos, it was busy and crazy, and too many people. The boys didn't seem to mind.

And they also didn't seem to mind at all when we had to leave to go get our Christmas tree. Come to find out Cole thought that the moment we put up the tree automatically meant it was Christmas.....and time to open presents!

We have finally seemed to get out of the ask-every-second-if-it-is-now-Christmas stage. Thank goodness. And our tree hunting was truly a success. We started off our trek by making a quick stop at our all time favorite donut shop. I gave each boy a crumb sized bite, in hopes of not getting the nasty sugar crash that usually follows.

At least it gave us the energy we needed to do this.

We trudged through mud in rain, sleet, and snow. Not even kidding.....we got it all. Bennett kept insisting we go in the opposite direction of every one else. And then they both enjoyed finding stumps to stand on.

 

The trees on the farm were HUGE, and I almost thought we weren't going to be able to find one that would fit in our house. After some annoying pregnant woman started complaining that she was cold, tired, and done with the endless walk in circles....her sweet husband chopped down a tree that was the smallest we could find. That same pregnant woman was still not convinced that it would look good. Someone really needs to remind her to get over her raging pregnancy hormones.....

But she did get swept away in the cuteness of two little boys eagerly watching their daddy cut down the tree that "they picked out" .

They yelled "TIMBER!" and Cole said "take a picture of this mom"

Geeze Loueeeeeze, he is growing up.

And then little brother offered to help daddy with the tree.

Such a big help, don't think daddy could have handled it without him. And yes, he held onto the tip of the tree practically the whole way back to the car. And Cole just walked beside them, with his hands in his new found pockets.

They both passed out in the car ride home, not as early as we had hoped....but when they awoke they were too excited to decorate the tree to be grumpy.

Yep, they decorate indeed.

Let's just say, the bottom of the tree is feeling the love.

And we finally told Cole that it would be Christmas when presents showed up under the tree. (They would never last if put under any sooner.....)

We've also been working through an advent book calendar, I think they are a little young for it quite yet. But Cole still asks to read a book every morning (and surprisingly he ALWAYS remembers what number we are on) So far Joseph has been referred to as the "The Word", "Kind" and "lives in a house". Although we made some progress this morning, and he told me he was the dad...couldn't remember who's dad. But we're at least getting closer. :)

All I can say is it has been so much more fun this year with the boys and watching their excitement and delight. We have heard a lot of "HAPPY Christmas" tidings throughout the week.

Happy Christmas indeed. Here's to making many more Christmas memories with my family.