Christmas Excitement!

Only 2 more days until Christmas! And only 1 more day until Nana and Papa R and Uncle Randy get here! We've been counting down the days until their arrival but of course the boys have no concept of time! Hopefully they will all arrive on time and safely from Seattle tonight. They have had record snowfall in Seattle and have been cancelling lots of flights!

(Christmas 2006 with Nana and Papa R - Bryce and Drew's age: 9 months)

Bryce and Drew are SO VERY excited about Christmas, they can hardly stand it. They have had fun the past 2 Christmas' as well, but they are now old enough to understand it...slightly!

They love their Christmas tree, their snowmen nightlights, Christmas music (especially Jingle Bells and Frosty the Snowman), Christmas movies, Christmas cookies, presents and even the Christmas picture frame that has jingle bells on it! Everything is so BIG and EXCITING to them! We've been hearing a lot of "Wow Mommy - yook, Chrismtas lights!" "Oh WOW...how cool!" "Aah, so pitty!" I think I'm just as excited or maybe even more excited than them! I can't wait for them to open their gifts and to give their gifts to others.

What I love most about them this year at Christmas is that they understand or at least say what Christmas is all about. They will walk up to people and say "Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus!" It warms my heart that at 2 1/2 they know why we celebrate this important holiday. They also know who some of the gifts are for under the tree and they are so excited to GIVE them.

They have enjoyed watching Mickey Mouse Christmas and some of the old favorites like Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph. But their favorite Christmas movie this season has been BOZ.

This is a wonderful DVD that reinforces what Christmas is all about!

Christmas Cookies

This weekend our friend Kelly and her 8 year old daughter Lakyn came over to make Christmas cookies.
We all had lots of fun... including the boys!



We made these cute Santa cookies...


These fun little Snowmen cookies...

And these yummy ice cream Christmas ornaments...


We also made chocolate chip cookies and my childhood, family tradition...popcorn balls! I have very fond memories of making these every year with my sweet Grandma!

Bryce and Drew adore our friends Kelly and Lakyn. In fact, every time we sit down to pray, this is how it goes..."Dear Jesus, tank you fo all da nanas and da papas. Tank you for Kelly and Lakyn. Tank you fo eveyting! AMEN!" We are so thankful to have such dear friends.


Lakyn is so sweet with the boys. She's like their big sister!



If you want to make any of these recipes, click on these links.

Santa cookies
Snowmen cookies
Ice Cream Ornaments

Our Family's Popcorn Balls

4 quarts air-popped popcorn (I never measure this - just one large bowl full or one batch in the air popper)

1 cup sugar

1 cup Karo syrup

1 Tablespoon butter

1/2 teaspoon white vinegar

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Food coloring (I do one batch of green and one batch of red)

Wax paper

Saran wrap

On low heat, combine the sugar, syrup, butter and vinegar. Stir until a soft boil. Remove from heat and stir in the soda. Add desired amount of food coloring and stir well. While this is working, spread out a large sheet of wax paper.

Pour colored syrup over the bowl of popcorn and mix well - stirring from the bottom up.

Once the popcorn is covered well and cool enough to handle start shaping small ball size amounts. Set on the wax paper. It's okay if they fall apart slightly. Keep a bowl of cold water nearby to dampen your hands after each one - they will mold easier. Once completely cooled, cover each ball with saran wrap and reshape if needed. ENJOY!

FedEx

Did you know that there are some hidden symbols in the FedEx logo? Look really close.

There is an arrow in between the E and the x. There is also a spoon in the small e. Pretty cool, huh?!

Just a little shameless plug for the company Jimmy works for. We are so thankful for his job. Our hearts go out to the families in our country that are without work.

Photo Of The Week!

Now that's what I call "multi-tasking!"

Christmas Card - 2008

For all of my blogging friends, Merry CHRISTmas!

Way Back WHEN-esday!

Dateline: December 2006

Bryce and Drew's Age: 9 months

The boys were fascinated by all the Christmas lights and balls. They were crawling and able to pull themselves up so we had to move all of the ornaments up the tree. They put everything in their mouths including candy canes, ribbons and ornaments! They were clueless though about the presents. Not this year! Bryce tells me everyday "I open Bicie's pesents!" We had to hide them or I'm certain they would already be torn into!

Family Food Faves

Here is super simple recipe that you can just throw in the crock pot. The chicken is really moist and flavorful. It's pretty rich with the whole package of cream cheese - I would probably cut it in half the next time I make it, or add some milk to thin it out. Thanks Sandy for the yummy recipe! I will certainly be making this one again!

Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff
4 skinless, boneless, chicken breast halves - cubed
1/8 cup margarine or butter
1 (.7 oz) package dry Italian-style salad dressing mix
1 (8oz) package cream cheese
1 (10.75 oz) can condensed cream of chicken soup
Instructions:

Put chicken, margarine/butter and dressing mix in slow cooker. Mix together and cook on low for 5-6 hours. Add cream cheese and soup, mix together and cook on high for another 1/2 hour or until heat through and warm.


Serve over rice, noodles or potatoes. I used egg noodles.

More Portraits!

Thank you Jennisa at Once Upon A Blog for updating my header with Bryce and Drew's 2 year old portraits.


Here's a few more potraits of my handsome boys in their flight jackets!

The Boys' Pick

The other day I went to run some errands while Jimmy stayed at home with the boys. As I headed for home down our street I could see that the boys were outside playing with their Daddy. I could tell something looked weird about their outfits but I wasn't quite sure what it was until I got a little closer.

Jimmy said they "insisted" on this outfit and just had to wear it outside!

Oh how they keep us laughing and on our toes!!!

Way Back WHEN-esday!

Dateline: December 2006

Bryce and Drew's Age: 9 months

This was obviously the boys' 1st Christmas! We dressed them up in their cute little santa outfits they received from our family friend, Sandy. They did not like wearing the hats or booties and kept pulling them off. So, to get this one cute picture, we must have snapped 50 bad ones!

Visit Twinfatuation to see who else is playing along!

Portraits

We got the boys' 2 1/2 year old portraits done awhile back. I don't "own" the images but my photograhper was nice enough to email me a few of my favorites. Unfortunately, they aren't the best resolution! We used our neighboor's yards for the settings.

We had so many good portraits to choose from that we ended up doing a couple of storyboards to get as many as possible!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

We got an early start on our Christmas decorating this year. We got the Christmas tree up and lights strung on Saturday. I told the boys if they had a good nap that they could help hang the ornaments when they woke up. It was a good bribe!

Bryce woke up first and was SO excited to help. I told him he could hang the candy canes while Drew was still sleeping, and when brother woke up, they could both hang the balls and ornaments.

Bryce is a boy of "order!" He likes things clean and organized. He likes to know how things work and tends to be an analyzer. He prefers his toys and things to be lined up in a certain order and fashion. And tends to have a "one track mind!"

It comes as no surprise that he hung his candy canes all nicely organized on one tree limb!

No matter how many times we told him to spread them out and decorate the entire tree, this is what he did.

Drew was thrilled too to help decorate. He followed his brother's lead and decorated the same way. Not only did the balls get hung on one branch, they hung them by color! It was a pretty funny sight to see!


We had such a fun day together. It kept the boys occupied ALL DAY LONG...and that's hard to do!

To top it all off, we woke up this morning to snow on the ground. The boys thought it was so cool!

I hope to get our gifts wrapped and under the tree over the next few days. I may regret doing this!