A day of nothing...a day of wonderful

Today was a normal day of nothing but it was wonderful. We went to library story time and it turns out Santa made an appearance.

We also saw the book Grant has been working on at school hanging up on the Author's Tree at the library.Grant had a play date with his friend Hunt. Cole had a play date with his friend Reece. Chad worked late. This evening the boys and I enjoyed delicious bread and soup for dinner, made homemade hot chocolate, ate Costco pumpkin pie, played Sorry, watched Prep & Landing and stayed up past normal bedtime. The boys were happy, Tyler has started rolling across the floor and I loved every minute of it.
I also have to put a picture of this adorable snowman that Grant made in art at school. Grant is so proud of it and so happy that we are keeping it as a permanent Christmas decoration.

How many shots does it take...

to get two boys to sit still, look at the camera and smile at the same time?I don't know because it never happened. All I know is that it's less than the number of shots it takes to get three boys to sit still, look at the camera and smile at the same time.

Third Annual Graham Cracker House Decorating Party

The tradition continues. We had our third annual candy house decorating party on December 9. This is probably my favorite tradition for the Christmas season. The kids love it and it's fairly simple to pull off.

(Before)

Every year, the make up and number at the party is different. This year, Grant invited his friends Hunter and Magnus from kindergarten. Cole invited his friend Reece from church. The party was a hit. We had a house full of boys for a few hours. It was organized chaos. Grant and Magnus were quite meticulous in their house creations. Hunter didn't last very long but his grandma kept him going and added her own contributions to his house. Cole started right out eating the frosting and Reece followed suit. Reece was more interested in eating the candy than decorating the house. The few bits of candy that made it on his house were put there by me trying to encourage him to decorate his house. Cole actually had a great time decorating his house and didn't just spend the time eating candy.
Each year we discover new, fun things to make with candy and new fun types of candy to use. This year the favorite candy was gummy worms. Not exactly what you think of when you think of Christmas but there were no gummy worms left at the end. We also found gingerbread men marshmallows that all of the boys had fun putting around and on their houses. I also bought a pack of chocolate Santas so that each boy had one for his house. Grant laid Santa down in the front yard of his house and surrounded him with numerous marshmallow gingerbread men. It resembled Gulliver's Travels.
When the kids were done with their houses they had a blast playing, yelling and running inside and outside the house. The boys had a great time driving and running from the Jeep outside. Magnus, who only has a four month old brother, and Hunter, an only child, were in tears when it was time to go home.

(In case you ever wondered what happens when two toddlers eat too much candy and frosting)

(The decorating aftermath)

The differences in my children

Grant and Cole are the best of friends but they couldn't be more different in temperament. I have started to see that in the last couple of weeks.
Grant is my spunky, sassy, stubborn, smart, tender, opinionated oldest child. He is strong willed, with his own ideas about how things should go. When mom says, "Up", Grant usually tries to demand down. He is a strong negotiator, always bargaining (or begging when necessary). Luckily, his mom is a tough, professionally trained negotiator or he'd walk all over everyone in the house. He is a smart, independent, loving son and oldest brother. Everyday, he amazes me with something new that he can do, discovers or thinks about. We butt heads often and I wish we didn't but the boundary pushing he does will make him a strong, self-determined man. I just have to figure out how to direct that stubbornness. Grant is also one of the tenderest little boys I know. The quickest way to send him into tears is to start crying myself. He wears his emotions on his sleeve. He is passionate and focused about the things he does and feels. I hope that never changes about him.
Cole is my mild mannered, even-tempered, generally quiet and calm, self-entertaining, snuggly child. He loves to kick back, crawl into a lap, suck his fingers and relax. It takes very little to direct him to and through the things he needs to do in the home. He is learning he is a capable person, able to do many things. He knows he can empty the dishwasher by himself (just the kids things), put his clothes in the laundry basket, get his own underwear or pull-up and take off his own clothes (I was showering a few mornings ago, when all of the sudden the shower door burst open with a naked, little Cole standing there ready to play in the shower). He is so innocent and sweet in all he does it is hard to be upset with him when he causes trouble.
My two oldest boys compliment each other perfectly. I am interested to see how Tyler fits into the fray as he gets older.
I am grateful we are not given children with identical personalities. How boring that would be. We wouldn't learn anything from each other if we were all the same in a family.

Tyler turns seven months

Tyler is seven months old tomorrow. I'm not really sure where the time is going. His neck is on the mend, having made vast improvements with just two visits to Dr. Ward. He will be getting a band for his head in the next couple of weeks that he will wear for about 8-12 weeks to reshape it. He is not yet in love with food. I have to force it in between his lips to get him to eat it. Tyler does, however, enjoy stealing my apples and pears. I can't eat one in front of him without offering him some to suck on. He is learning to sit up and is finally starting to roll over some. He likes toys, reaches for things and is quite handy at holding his own bottle. His ExerSaucer is still one of his favorite places. Tyler continues to be a sweet, mild mannered, ever smiling little boy.

Seeing Andrew

David and Melissa had their first little baby, Andrew David, on November 14, 2011. The boys and I took a quick trip to the valley from December 1 to December 2 to see Andrew and help out Melissa a little bit. We spent the night in Oma's brand new house. It started snowing on Thursday morning and snowed off and on throughout the day until we left town. Cole spent a lot of the day snuggled up on the couch keeping warm but did venture out for a few minutes in his new snow pants. Tyler and I sat on the porch to watch him play for a little while.


We also spent some of the morning before we left working on helping Tyler learn to sit up. I propped him with pillows all around and gave him toys as motivation. He's making progress but loves to just flop to one side or another or slide down to his back.

Kristen started the tradition a few years ago of buying the boys Christmas pajamas each year. This year, Shelli took over the tradition and put in a great amount of effort to find pajamas for all four of the boys. In the past they have been matching but now the sizes are too varying to find matching so she did a good job finding coordinating pajamas. We had a good time taking pictures of the boys together and with Oma.








We also took the opportunity of the family gathering to celebrate Shelli's 30th birthday again. We had a cake and candles a couple of weeks ago when Kristen was in town but her birthday was in just a couple of days so we gave her another cake and beautiful rendition of "Happy Birthday." The boys loved helping her blow out her candles.
After we got the boys to bed about 10 PM, finally, then Shelli and I took on the project of helping my mom rearrange her kitchen and get rid of some things she didn't need anymore.
The next day we enjoyed a breakfast of crepes then went to Melissa's to help her out. We cleaned her bathrooms and floors for her then headed back to Prescott in time for Chad and I to go to the ward adult Christmas party at the church.