Cousin Christmas Party

Logan went to his annual Cousin's Christmas Party on Wednesday night. Grandma and Grandpa Bradley take all the Grandsons- wait all of the Grandsons that are "old enough"- out for an evening to see the Christmas lights at Tillis Park. Last year, Logan was old enough for the lights but not really old enough to handle a sleep over with his big cousins. This year, he was old enough to spend the night!! Grandma and Grandpa had a free hotel room through their rewards program so they took the boys to the Best Western in Festus (it used to be the Holiday Inn- if you are Festus folk.) The boys got to swim and sleep in the same room as Grandma and Grandpa. I think they had a blast. My parents delivered a very, very, very tired little boy back to us at noon on Thursday. After he had taken a loooong winter's nap, he told us all about his time out. I thought it was cute that he can now retell everything that happened so I interviewed him and wrote down his version of events.

Did you go see the lights with Grandma and Grandpa?
Yes. There were lights. There was a penguin too.

What did you eat for supper?
Sausage!!! And eggs! And Grandma love eggs!!
I think you ate that for breakfast. What did you eat for supper?
I don't know.
I think you went to Burger king.

Did you go swimming at the hotel?
yes. Grandpa hold my belly and help me swim. Nick can swim by himself. He go fast. He go SO fast. Someday I swim by myself. Someday I will.
Did you go under the water or jump in?
No. I swim and say, "Sharky, sharky follow me. Sharky, Sharky, follow me." so then I say, "I get you, Nick. I get you, Alex. I get you Pa-pa."
What about Grandma? Did she swim?
Not really. She sat in a chair. The water was very cold. It too cold. Grandpa and Alex get towels.

Did you eat breakfast at the hotel?
I eat eggs! (Let's just remember that this kid won't eat eggs at home.. or mac 'n cheese-which is what Grandma says he ate for supper... but I guess when his big cousins do it, he joins right in.)

Other things he told me:
I go to Julie's house. She have SO many presents. So then, I see presents. I see a present for pa-pa and one for MEEEEEEE! (And then he danced for a few minutes).
I see Casper. Julie have a dog. Julie have a dog Casper.


Needless to say, he had a blast at his cousin Christmas party. Don't tell Tyson how much fun they had.! Tyson did enjoy staying home with mommy (and a sick daddy) and getting lots of extra attention.
Well, off to celebrate Christmas Eve with my boys and Greg. We are staying home due to sickness, not having our van, and snow! We are just going to try and relax and enjoy being together. Merry Christmas everyone! I'm sure I'll have pictures of a fun Christmas morning up soon!

Advent- Week 2

Here are some things we did for Advent in the past week or two. (I'm losing track of time, I think ;)
We made a whisper tube and talked about how Jesus's birth was the good news. We talked about sharing the Good News of Jesus with our friends. We practiced whispering things into the tube that we could say to our friends about Jesus, like, "Jesus loves you."

You never know if any of the things you are doing with your kids are "sticking" with them. But this one did! We made our whisper tube in the morning. Greg got home really late that day and Logan was ready to go to bed. Greg and Logan were talking in the bedroom and I heard Greg ask Logan if he had learned anything that day. Logan said, "yes. I learn about Jesus." and then he whispered to Greg, "I love you." I just thought it was cute that we had practiced telling our friends Jesus loves you and then he whispered it to Greg :)

We also read Luke 2: 1-5 and talked about how Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem. We talked about how they might have gone on a donkey or walked or ridden in cart. We talked about how they would have been outside. (Thanks to Julie K. for the outside idea). Then, since it wasn't so bitterly cold as it was earlier in the week, we went outside for a walk. The boys rode in the wagon and we went around and looked at all of the neighbor's Christmas decorations.

Seriously, that is how they rode. With Tyson all laying on Logan like that. They seemed to enjoy it. Eventually, though Logan was ready to get out and pull the wagon. (Ps. Tyson always does the #1 sign when he sees the camera. He is really a crazy kid.)

The next day, I gave the boys a flashlight and we talked about how Jesus is the light of the world. Except ALL of our flashlights were out of batteries... so that was kind of a bust.

We also learned about Jesus in the manger. I gave the boys a shoe box, some "straw" (a cut up Hawaiian skirt), and a blanket to swaddle baby Jesus. We also put a bow on Jesus to show that he was the best gift of Christmas. They love playing with this. We made an edible nativity. We used a cupcake holder, some corn flakes for straw, and marshmallows for baby Jesus.

We also celebrated Grandma and Grandpa's Birthdays with a BIG PARTY! I'll post about that soon!!!

First week of Advent

We are celebrating Advent at our house this month. Usually I blog about all of our fun activities at my "other" blog, Ready. Set. Read! But since none of these ideas are my own ideas, I decided to just record what we did here on my Baby Blog. I want to remember what we are doing each year and hopefully create some memorable traditions that carry on from year to year. So here is what we did last week. First of all, I decorated for Christmas. We have this really ugly wall in our house that we haven't been able to redo yet. AND, I had this roll of really BAD wrapping paper from Target that I got last year. I rips every time I try to wrap with it. SO, guess what I did? I covered the whole wall with wrapping paper. Now it's like a giant bulletin board to post all of our Christmas crafts. I thought Greg would freak out when he saw it but he just said it looked better than before!

Day 1- We got out our Little People Nativity Set, minus baby Jesus. I introduced the "cast of characters" to Logan and Tyson- while Tyson gnawed on a donkey head and Logan banged Tyson in the head with a sheep. Once we got all of that settled out, we decided to "look" for baby Jesus. I gave Logan a present to unwrap and Baby Jesus was inside! We talked about how Jesus is the best gift of Christmas.
Then we did a lot of playing with gifts. We hid toys in gift bags. We shook the bags to see what sounds they made. Logan played a memory game where he tried to remember where I had put certain toys. Tyson enjoyed pulling things out of bags, dropping them into bags, and eating bags!

Day 2- We read Luke 1:5-25 and talked about the angel telling Zechariah that he and Elizabeth would have a baby. We talked about how Angels in the Christmas story bring Good News!
We made a shape angel.

We reviewed the shapes, triangle, circle, and oval.

Day 3- We read Luke 1:26-38 We made handprint and footprint angels.

 I made one for Tyson and one for Logan. Then I taped them to a toilet paper holder and used them as our tree topper. I know not everyone would want this on their tree but it's special to me, I don't care if it doesn't look "fancy".

Day 4- Read Luke 1:57-80 and Matthew 3:1-11. Logan dressed up like John the Baptist, in his "camel hair" robe and leather belt.

We played a game where we matched pairs of socks and laid the matching pairs in the hallway, which made a straight path for us to run on. We talked about how John was born to prepare the people for who was about to come- Jesus! I talked to Logan about how our life is all messy (like a pile of socks) but when we follow Jesus, he makes our paths straight. Matthew 3:3 "Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight paths for him."

Day 4- We actually messed up and did Day 4/5 out of order but it's ok! We read Luke 1:39-56 and made a Joyful Tambourine to represent Mary's song of Praise.

I've found that I can read to the boys from the Bible while they are in the bathtub. They are contained and they listen (somewhat). God says that his word does not return void. I know that even if they are spending most of their time splashing and playing, the seeds of Gods word are being planted in their hearts. I pray that someday they will know Jesus, the reason for Christmas.

Thankful

I am so thankful that Greg and I both have such wonderful families.

I am also thankful that they all live relatively close. We were able to see both families in the same weekend with minimal time spent in the car.

I am thankful for the amazing food we ate! But not for the numbers that will be on my scale this week!


Greg after a delicious meal.




The boys having dessert. I didn't get any pictures of the meal because I was feeding kids!

 I am thankful that my kids had fun people to play with all weekend!



Logan loved playing with the big kids.




Tyson and Jacob (his cousin) sharing a toy.




Logan doing a puzzle with papa.




Tyson riding in the car in Grandma's basement.




Logan helping with Grandpa and Alex's windmill project.


On Thanksgiving day, we went to Greg's Aunt Donna's house for Thanksgiving dinner.

We got to see Greg's Aunts and Uncles and cousins and Greg's parents and sister and kids. My kids really enjoyed seeing everyone. Even though they don't always see their extended family, they warmed up right away.

After Thanksgiving dinner, the kids played with toys and the adults talked.
Then we celebrated Jacob's first birthday!!

The kid is such a neat little eater! I didn't get any messy cake pictures at all. This is the only semimessy one but it's blurry.

On Friday we went to Grandma and Grandpa Bradley's house. We had a yummy dinner. Then the boys all went to the basement while Julie and mom and I cleaned up. You will notice there are NO little girls in any of these pictures- there are no little girls on either side of the family! But I have to say, we're getting pretty good at the "boy stuff".

Nick played video games. (Look at Uncle Greg buggin' him while he tries to concentrate!)

Alex worked on cars.

Logan learned to ride a bike!!!!!

(I'm very excited by this one! Doesn't he look big riding that bike all by himself. At first he could only pedal but couldn't steer or brake. That was wild. But then my dad taught him to even steer and brake by himself!)

Tyson rode in the little car for more than an hour-- until he discovered that he could push the car-- which was much more fun!!

It was a fun and crazy day and I am thankful for that!

My Super boys

Logan and Tyson dressed up as Superheros for Halloween this year.  Logan was Batman. He requested his own costume this year. The only thing he knows about Batman is that he likes Batman fruit snacks!

Tyson was Superbaby!

Logan got to go out for Trick or treating for the first time. We just went on our street and part of Estates. Logan had so much candy in his pumpkin, it was overflowing! Our neighbors were all so thrilled to see him and so sweet with him.
He wasn't so sure about it when we started off. He knocked on Kim and Terry's door and Terry came to the door. Logan said, "Trick or Treat." and Terry gave him a huge bag of candy. After that, he was pretty much sold on it and kept saying, "Let's go another one house."
He even said, "Thank you." and I didn't have to remind him! Daddy really works hard with Logan on manners and it is paying off.
I honestly wasn't sure I would enjoy trick or treating. I mean, it seemed a little uncomfortable to go to neighbors houses and beg for candy. But Logan and I had a blast. All the other kids were out on the street and weirdly enough, they all mostly knew Logan's name. Most of the kids on our street are upper elementary aged but most of them stopped and talked with us and made a big deal out of Logan's cute costume.

Tyson stayed home with Daddy and helped pass out candy. Logan thought it was super hilarious that we trick or treated at our own house last and that Daddy got to give him candy.
The next morning, at 7 am, Logan told us, "I want to go trick or treating again."  Hope he can wait a whole YEAR for that.

Ps. I love this picture! I love that Logan can WAVE at the camera but he can't bother to LOOK at the camera. LOL!
Now, we're outta here..

Chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga,

Choo! Choo!
I took the boys to the Museum of Transportation for a fun Friday outing. It was actually the easiest and best outing I've done with them by myself since Tyson was born. I think they are starting to get to the ages where going out and about will be easier.
We started our morning by going to Creation Station. With an adult admission, you can purchase admission for you and your kids to Creation Station for $1.50 per person. I didn't have to pay admission for the boys to the museum so we did Creation Station. I'm so glad because it was the best part of the day. It is a giant playroom and you get one hour of free play time. It is geared for preschoolers but the lady in charge had put down a blanket with stuffed toys and books which was perfect for Tyson.

 They got to dress up

play with trucks and cars

play with the train table (imagine every single item from the Thomas catalog. It's like kiddie toy crack!)

Climb on a wooden boat and dress up as pirates

and play together and with other kids

After Creation Station we rode the train. It's about the same size as the zoo train. Unfortunately, it doesn't go very far. And it costs $4.00 to ride (in addition to the price of admission for the museum.) But you can't go to a museum about trains and not ride the train. So we rode it.

After riding the little train, we went and explored the big trains. We spent most of our time in the freight train area. We could go inside the cars and the boys both loved it.

Then we went up to the passenger train area.

We couldn't get into all of the cars. They were fun for me to look inside but the boys could have cared less. They were getting tired and also hungry.
So we left and went to McDonald's for chicken and fries. (Well, Tyson actually had applesauce and sweet potatoes. poor thing!)
They are building a new visitor's center at the museum of transportation. We'll have to go back and see that some day.

"Daddy caught a catfish."

About 5 times a day I hear, "Daddy caught a fish. It was tall. It was messy. It was a catfish." After naps I hear about how many fish each person caught... (cause I think Logan is dreaming about fishing already). I hear, "Papa caught 1 fish. Daddy caught 1 fish. Brian caught 2 fish!" All of this is because way back in September, we took Logan to "THE LAND."

We took our minivan off roading through mid missouri to some property of Greg's parents, affectionately known as "The Land."

We went with Grandma and Papa and Brian and Kari for a family day of fun and fishing. It was kind of chilly but Logan and Tyson really enjoyed their time at the land. And we were able to go into the barn when it got cold.

Grandma made chili and hotdogs and Grandpa came up with a very ingenious plan for cooking the dogs.

After lunch we headed down to the lake for boat ridin', fishin' and hanging out.

Logan was so comfortable at the land. In fact, I took the boys up to the barn and while I was putting Tyson down for a nap in his pack-n-play, Logan took off. He walked all the way to the lake (where Greg was waiting) by himself. He was wearing a bell necklace that day and Greg said he looked up and saw Logan, walking down the path, singing 'Jingle Bells' at the top of this lungs!

While we were waiting for everyone to pack up, Logan and I took a wagon ride around the land.

Notice he already has his jammies on. We had 2 very tired boys after a busy day of play at the land.