Christmas 2008

Since we only have Dylan for a week, we decided to move up Christmas so that he could have time to play with his presents. That being said, Christmas this year occurred on December 23rd.

It's official .... we've now reached the age that Christmas starts EARLY~ as in 4:45 am. I woke up to Brennan, Dylan and Nolan all crawling into bed to tell me that Santa had come. The looks of excitement on their little faces was too cute. It's the only thing that motivated me to get out of bed. When we got upstairs, the shouts of joy (and I mean TRUE joy~ the kind that comes from believing in Santa) were what made my morning. Forget the receiving~ the warm fuzzies come from giving (oh, that's mom coming out!).

After spending the week prior doing all of the wrapping... hours and hours of work were thrown about the floor in 30 min. Oh, well. Santa was really good to the boys this year. Brennan got nearly everything he wanted... Wii games, DS games, Board games, Legos, Pixos, Matchbox rockets, an Air hog, a scooter. Everything except Bakugans. Sad! Dylan got Spike the Dinosaur, a pirate ship, a castle, an Air hog, Wii games, a doctors kit and a bob bag. Nolan got Elmo Live, Elmo's restaurant, cars, cars, and more cars. Bet you can't guess what he LOVES more than anything! Here are some pictures from Christmas Morning.

Nolan LOVES Elmo! He was absolutely entranced with him.
Brennan and his Legos... Coming from the diaper box Santa had to borrow. When he first unwrapped it, he said "This isn't mine. It's Nolan's. Santa got it wrong. I didn't ask for diapers!"
Dylan and his Castle & Viking Ship
Notice the triumphant stance and raised present of Pixos. It's something he's wanted since he first saw the ad for them way back in April/May.

Nolan and his Elmo Cars
Gigi and Nolan playing with his Elmo Restaurant~ one of the most popular toys of Christmas (all the boys enjoyed playing with it)
Nolan and his new cars and car mat
Dr. Dylan (my idea! I even embroidered his name on the coat)
Don and Brennan playing with his new Matchbox Rocket
Nolan with Elmo again...I have like 10 different pictures of him playing with it. He really loves it!
Brennan and Dylan playing with Spike the Dinosaur. It is a really cool remote control dinosaur.
Dylan making Spike eat what Brennan is trying to feed him.
Don and Brennan playing the new Wii game "Star Wars: Light Saber Duals"
The light sabers really glow!

After a few hours of playing, everyone decided that they were hungry, so we decided that since it wasn't really Christmas day and restaurants were open, we would go to Mimi's for breakfast. I kind of like celebrating Christmas early!

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas (alright... it was a couple of nights before Christmas~12/22) and all the kids wanted to do was go home!

Now, this wasn't the typical night before... typically, that night is spent reading the Christmas story and having a nice home-cooked meal followed by opening the Christmas PJ's. The only typical part of our night was the PJ's, but we'll get to that.

After we spent the afternoon at the YMCA pool, we came home and everyone crashed! It was a much needed rest... to prepare us for the remainder of the day. Now, by the time we woke up, everyone was hungry and I wasn't in the mood to cook, so we went out and had Mexican...Yum! I swear this baby is going to come out looking dark like Dylan because all I crave is Mexican. Anyway, after eating dinner, we drove around a looked a lights around town. Then came the decision... do we go home for 30 min just to round the kids up again to go to the airport? Nope, we decide that we need more sugar! So it's off to DQ. After a sugar high, we drove to the airport to pick up Gigi. Except that Gigi's plane wasn't there yet... so we had to drive around and around the airport for 40 minutes. Brennan and Dylan just wanted to go home and leave Gigi there! Shortly after that comment was made, Gigi came out and we were off!

It is our family tradition to open Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve and sleep in them/spend all of Christmas Day in them. Brennan and Dylan remembered, but Nolan is still a little new to all of the excitement. He didn't know what to do with his present! Lucky for him, his two brothers were more than willing to help. In addition to the pj's, Brennan and Dylan also got robes (something that Brennan has been hounding me for since last Christmas). When he opened his robe, Brennan had the biggest smile and I got the biggest hug of the year! "It's just what I've always wanted~ You're the best mom!" Ah, the sweet things you wait all year to hear.

After opening presents, the boys jumped in the tub for a quick bath followed by their new pj's. Then it was off to bed. I thought that they would try to stay up and listen for the Jolly Man, but they were out within 5 minutes. After making sure Santa came, we were off to bed too!

Santa Cookies

Since Santa is coming early so that Dylan could be here to open his presents, we HAD to make his cookies tonight. It couldn't wait a minute longer... at least according to my children. I know I should have made the cookies from scratch like Tammy... but I'm not nearly the mom that she is. I used a box. Such shame.....

Anyway, we did roll out the dough, cut out the shapes, cook, and iced the cookies, so I guess that I'm not all that bad. After I iced them (I learned my lesson with letting them have frosting last night), Brennan and Dylan decorated them with sprinkles and sugar. All the while, Nolan ate cookie after cookie while watching them decorate theirs. I think that he thought he was getting the better end of the deal.

The Grinch ICE!

One nice thing about Nashville is that the Grand Ole Opry is only about 15 minutes away and they have some of the coolest things in their theaters. When Tammy and I went to the Grand Ole Opry, they had some advertisements for ICE! Now, I didn't know exactly what it was other than the Grinch and that LOTS of kids at Brennan's school had gone. Going on that information, Don and I decided to surprise the kids by taking them to see the Grinch.

ICE is exactly what it says it is... Everything is made out of ICE! In order to keep the ice from melting, it was only 9 degrees inside the building... Brrrrrrrr.... I can't say that it was what I expected or we would've worn more winter clothes. As it was, the boys just had their coats on, I had a light jacket, and Don didn't have anything. Luckily, they plan on it being much colder than the outdoor temperature, so they have heavy coats to put on over your coat. THANK HEAVENS! There was so much cool (punny....) stuff to see inside. Who-ville, Cindy Lou Who, the Grinch.... there was even the roast beast. The best part of the ice land were the slides made out of ice. The boys just loved them... though they only got to go down a couple of times because of the lines and how cold it was.

At the very end, they had the real nativity carved out of ice with a gigantic angel watching over the baby Jesus. Now that was really cool!

After nearly freezing to death, we went to meet the Grinch. Luckily, he was in a warm building just up the street. When we walked in, Brennan and Dylan both knew who he was and gave him hugs and high fives. Nolan, not knowing anything about him, thought he was the neatest thing he'd ever seen. I expected him to run away screaming, but Nolan kept running up to him, laughing and smiling, then running back to us. Back and Forth, back and forth. Such a crazy kid! We had the Grinch all to ourselves for about ten minutes to take pictures and be silly. The Grinch even danced with Brennan and Dylan.

You'll notice in the pictures that Nolan is holding an ICE sippy cup that has hot chocolate in it... bad idea when you want to take a cute picture. He would not let that cup go!

Although it was a little expensive, I'm glad that we took the boys out to have some fun. It's times like this that they'll remember and want to show their kids.

Gingerbread Trains

Yesterday, Don flew in from Tulsa with Dylan. The boys were so happy to see each other... they played for hours. It's good to have our complete family here!

To celebrate Christmas, we decided to decorate Gingerbread Houses... but Target was out of the houses, so instead of driving around hoping to find houses, we bought what they did have... TRAINS!

Decorating Gingerbread Trains turned out to be just as fun the boys as decorating houses... and just as MESSY! And just in case you're curious... they are missing the shirts because of the messy they kept making.

73 Degrees in December?

On Friday December 19th, Nashville recorded a record high of 73. Unbelievable! It's the middle of December.... you know, that month that is supposed to be insanely cold... and wet... and white. Well, we have NONE of that going on here. In fact, Friday was so nice, the boys played outside until it got dark... and even then, it was only in the 50's. Crazy!

I've come to the conclusion that I have the clumsiest boys in the world. Brennan can barely walk 50 feet without tripping all over his two left feet and I fear that Nolan has inherited the same trait. While we were outside, Nolan constantly kept falling down and hitting his head... so when you see pictures of the following days, he has this huge goose egg from falling and hitting it a dozen or so times in the same place. I promise I'm not beating my baby!

Brennan Update

This past month and a half has been a zoo! Constantly coming and going... not necessarily knowing exactly where... I feel like my head is about to explode! While it has been a lot of running around, it has done wonders for Brennan, so I am glad that he is getting something out of my insanity!



Karate Update: Brennan has earned his white belt and has earned a strip toward his gold belt. His Seance (teacher) called me yesterday to let me know how well Brennan is doing. He said that Brennan was a very polite boy (I was shocked!) who was taking his lessons very seriously and that he was proud of what he had accomplished.


Swimming Update: Brennan has completed his swimming lessons for the quarter. He has passed his minnow test, so now he can start taking the next level, though that won't be until the spring when Basketball is over.


Basketball Update: Brennan continues to practice with his team. While basketball may not quite be his thing (he doesn't really understand the game) he is enjoying playing with the other boys. Brennan's first game is the second Saturday in January. Pictures will follow!


Boy Scout Update: Brennan has come quite a long way in Tiger Scouts. This past pack meeting, he was awarded his swimming belt loop (he was the 1st in his pack to earn a belt loop) and a popcorn sale patch. He only has 2 beads left to complete with his den to finish his Tiger Badge. The picture is Brennan with his den leader Ms. Amy.


On a side note, I was also presented with an award at the last pack meeting. I was awarded a Cub Scout key chain and a ribbon to wear to meetings for being such an involved parent (I got it because I was the parent who logged on to the scouting website the most and logged all of Brennan's requirements/electives). So Yippee to Me!


This is a picture of Brennan performing "I caught a baby bumble bee" at their pack meeting. The scouts LOVE that song!