New Year's Eve and demolition day

We spent New Year's Eve at home watching a movie and eating pizza, and then just before bed we rang in the new year with poppers in the drive way- never mind that it wasn't even 8:00!

Then on New Year's day we started a new tradition- demolition day! I think this is the boy's favorite new tradition and I'm pretty sure that next year's ginger bread houses will be built with a different purpose in mind.

And I've already heard comments from them like, "next year let's see whose is the strongest and we'll try to knock them over with our remote control trucks!" or "next year let's drop them off the roof!" or "next year let's back over them with the car!"

Oh well, it may be destructive, but at least it's memorable.

After Christmas fun

The main activity after Christmas was Lego building. Tyler always impresses me with his ability to follow the instructions for these things, especially with how complex this set was. John helped with the motors that make the moving parts function, but Tyler was very involved even in that process. I think this was a really fun project for these two. They were pretty cute working side by side.

Occasionally we did venture out of the house for a little break from all the construction. Here are just a few of the fun things we did.

We had a few days of really nice weather- chilly, but nice, so we headed outdoors. The boys had a great time playing at the park.

Until it got too cold and everyone needed to head back indoors for more cuddles :)

On another particularly nice day we headed down to Stockyard Station to watch the cattle drive. This is typically one of our Thanksgiving traditions, but we didn't make it out there this year, so we figured we'd head down during Christmas.
While we were there the boys got to ride the ponies. They loved it!

This was the first time Robby had ever ridden a horse (or pony, I should say). His face was so cute. He smiled from ear to ear the entire time and kind of had this look on his face like, wow. I'm a big boy. I'm really doing this like a real cowboy. He was so cute! They also had a small petting zoo that was also a huge hit. Robby wasn't timid at all, but he did particularly like all the little goats and would say, aw, look at the little baby goats! Come here little goat! Tyler was a little more timid about touching the animals, which I thought was kinda funny.But after watching his younger brother be so bold, he came around.

And of course, no holiday would be complete without a little bowling and a movie (wink, wink- right Grandpa Bob?)

Christmas day

Magical. Is there any other word to describe Christmas morning? Here is a video of Robby's reaction when I woke him up Christmas morning. When he gets excited his voice goes up by like three octaves, but in this video, he's just barely waking up, so his squeaky voice just can't quite go that high. It's dark because I didn't just want to flip on the light, but you can still hear his adorable, excited reaction.

Tyler, of course did not need us waking him up Christmas morning. We told him to stay in his bedroom and not to come out until we came to get him just before 7am. At 6:30, I was awake and told John I was sure Tyler was too so I might as well go upstairs and cuddle with him for a bit. When I went into his room, he was already awake (but still in his bed at least). As we lay in his bed, I said to him, "Do you think Santa came?" He said, "Oh yes. I know he did." Then when I asked him how he was so sure, he kind of stuttered and said, "Um, yeah, because he always comes." Then I started questioning Tyler if he peaked. After a few seconds, he broke down almost in tears and told me that he had in fact peaked and just couldn't help it!" I think he thought I would be mad, but I just laughed and laughed and then we talked about what he saw under the tree.

That's one of the reasons why I love this next video. Tyler has no reaction of surprise for his present from Santa because there is no element of surprise for him. He'd already checked it out earlier in the morning! Robby though, was pretty surprised to see that Santa had remembered that he wanted a truck- so cute!

Santa had brought Tyler this remote control lego truck. I thought it looked way too difficult for Tyler (ages 12-16), but I was wrong. He loves it!

Here he is studying the instruction maunal. Gotta get prepared to build!

Robby also got a remote control truck- it's very cute watching them drive their trucks around together.

And this video I just love because it shows how sweet these brothers are together. I can remember how worried I was about the age difference between these two (family planning isn't exactly up to us), but they are truly the best of friends. Yeah, they fight sometimes, but I'm thankful for that too because that's just what siblings do. But for the most part they play surpsisingly well together and genuinely enjoy one another. This is Tyler giving Robby the gift that he picked out himself. Love it!

We had just enough time to eat and play before heading off to church :)

I loved Christmas being on a Sunday. It was the perfect way to celebrate and to put things back into perspective. This year I particularly enjoyed making a point to be involved with our ward choir. Going to practice each Sunday was a highlight of my week. The music was beautiful. We have so many in our ward who are so musically gifted. I was grateful that they let me participate, even with my minimal talents. It was a treat for me to hear their wonderful voices and try to participate a little too.

We spent the rest of the day over at the cousins house where we had dinner and the kids played so happily. I wish I had taken a few pics, but I suppose I was too busy enjoying the day.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve traditions are some of my favorites- my side of the family gets a visit from Alonzo Snodgrass and John's side of the family gets dinner delivered from Santa. It's difficult trying to mesh the two, but both are equally fun. This year, since we were with the Carsons, Santa was good enough to deliver our Christmas Eve dinner.

Tyler noticed a Christmas ribbon flapping in the wind out the kitchen window. When he went out to investigate, he discovered that the long ribbon was attached to a box placed on our roof. The kids immediately knew it was Santa who must have been in a hurry and simply dropped off our dinner in the most convenient way for him.

After a few attempts at getting the box down, John finally climbed up on the ladder and brought down our Christmas Eve dinner.

We brought the box inside and the kids had a great time opening the individually wrapped meats, cheeses and crackers. Least you think that sounds like a meager meal, let me assure you it is not! This is by far the best meal the entire year. Forget Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve is the best! We have every kind of cheese, meat, cracker, spread, dip, mustard, and a really fantastic fruit platter as well.

The food was fantastic, but the entertainment wasn't too shabby either. We sang songs and acted out the nativity. Robby was especially cute. He did a good job of elaborating on the script and added his own lines. We couldn't get the shepherd to sit still enough for the picture, so he's not in this photo. Oh well.

We were so happy to have cousins and grandparents with us on Christmas Eve. It was so special being together with family. Last year was our first Christmas at home, but I'll admit, it was a little lonely at moments like this. It felt so good to be surrounded by loved ones on this special holiday.

The party ended, and off to bed went the boys. Shortly after putting them to bed, I heard a little voice at the top of the stairs: "Mom, we forgot to put out the milk and cookies."

Whew!

Christmas activities-3

Another one of our favorite activities was sledding at the Texas Gaylord. It's no Soldier Hollow, but we'll take it, and the boys loved it!

While at the Gaylord, we got ice cream and checked out all of the amazing Christmas decorations and displays. Robby LOVED the trains. He could have stood there all day watching those trains.

And then it was time for the second annual "sleep-over under the Christmas tree." Last year it was just John and Tyler and I think they made it to at least 2 am when John woke up and carried Tyler to his bed. This year Robby joined them and I think they lasted about 40 min. It was WAY more excitement than Robby could handle and when Tyler finally declared that he was too tired to listen to Robby talk all night and wanted to sleep in his bed, they all bailed. I think John was so tired that he could have slept through anything.

Here they are after countless, "Robby, please be quiets." Daddy is zonked, Tyler is almost asleep, and Gus is having the time of his life.

My assessment of this Christmas activity: sounds way more fun than it actually is

(which is why I haven't joined them on this one)

Christmas activities-2

Just a few days before Christmas, each of the boys got an email with a video from Santa. Somehow (wink wink) Santa knew a little about each boy and he even had a few pictures of them in his file. Tyler was shocked that Santa knew about his triathlon and about our trip to Disneyland. In the video Santa puts each boy's file into the naughty and nice machine to determine if they have been good. When it was time for Tyler's file to go into the machine, he sat there quietly with his fingers crossed. I loved watching each of their reactions as we watched the videos. Ah, the magic of Christmas- love it!

Another one of our favorite Christmas activities was building gingerbread houses. Watching Tyler carefully plan and decorate his house was particularly fun. I think this was the first year that he was more into the construction of it than in the candy.

Robby on the other hand, has too much OCD for this to be fun. He couldn't stand it every time he got frosting on his fingers.

But he was still pretty cute.

And the finished products made me smile every time I saw them sitting on the counter.

Christmas activities 1

This Christmas was definitely one of my favorites. We stayed home and didn't travel anywhere and yet we were surrounded by family. Last year John's brother and his family moved here and live only about 15 minutes away! That meant that we not only had instant family close by for the holidays, but it also meant that we had more reasons for grandparents to come to Texas too! And so that's how it went down. We were thrilled to have Nani and Papa come stay with us for the holidays.

I wanted to recap a few of our favorite moments for two reasons- one, because I wanted to document some of the fun activities we did and two, I'm trying to sell my parents on coming out next year! See how much fun we had mom and dad?! So I've split things up into a few posts just to make it more manageable for me. Here are some of our favorite activities in no particular order:

A visit to Frisco to watch their town square light show. Music, lights, trains, hot air balloons- doesn't get better than that.

A trip to the Bass Pro Shop to see their Winter Wonderland.

They had lots of games and activities and even a carousel.

And an opportunity to visit Santa. Funny side story: one of the interactive game displays was a rifle range with laser rifle guns, and next to it was a display of Red Ryder BB Guns. Tyler love it all. When it was finally his turn to talk to Santa, Tyler was asked what he wanted for Christmas. Much to mine and John's surprise, Tyler told Santa that he wanted a BB gun. I had to stifle my laughter and was so disappointed when Santa didn't tell him he'd shoot his eye out.

At home there was plenty of time for wrestles with Papa...

...and reading with Nani

...and fun games with everyone.