Christmas in Lubbock

Christmas in Lubbock was tons of fun and tons of cousin love with the boys and Jacob and Olivia. I also have a ton of pictures, so I'll get right to it.

Before we really got things started on Wed. night (which was the Lubbock Christmas night), we let the kids open up their stockings from Nana and Grandad.

Luke immediately saw his mini Boston hat and said now his Baby Tiger had a B hat, too.

Ryan thought it was perfect for his own head.

All of the kids got new Red Sox hats and shirts from Nana and Grandad's trip to New England.

All 4 kids also got new monogrammed suitcases - they will all be able to use them when Jacob and Olivia come to visit this summer.

Ryan was so thrilled about his suitcase. He gave a little shriek and then ran to Greg to tell him that he now had his own suitcase to carry around and to use on an airplane and at hotels.

Luke loved putting all of his Christmas gifts inside of his suitcase.

Aren't they all so cute?

4 generations with Nanny.

I found this rocket at Target and seemed like the perfect project for 4 active kids - it kept them all occupied for over an hour one afternoon.

We often found Luke and Olivia down the basement by themselves having their own art class.

Conny got all of the kids their own nutcracker to paint - this was a great project and it was so funny to see how different all of the kids worked. Luke was the most deliberate - he started quickly and knew exactly what he wanted to do and was the first one done. Ryan was much more exact with his painting and needed some help at times to brush out all of his paint. Olivia wanted to make her nutcracker very colorful and Jacob did great completing a craft project with only a little help from Conny at the end.



They all turned out super cute and very unique.

Ryan's new Bozo the Clown punching bag - it should be the perfect thing to let this little boy get all of his sillies out.

The boys spent one morning in Nana's bathroom drawing pictures of Lucy sleeping in her bed.

Ryan's picture of Lucy - I love her toenails and big smile. Ryan signs all of his drawings Ryan R. in order to distinguish it from the Ryan H. that is in his class at school.

Luke's Lucy - I love her little triangular head.

And now for a few Lucy photos:

Lucy and dad are a sweet combination - he has wanted a lap dog and I think he has found one.

Lucy's other biggest fan is Ryan. He is in love with this dog and it is funny that at times he is more interested in spending time with her than with his cousins.

Lucy and her little purple sweater.

Ryan and his buddy.

We had a great time in Lubbock and Greg and I were sad to leave the boys this morning for a few days. We are headed to California for the Rose Bowl and the boys are going to hang out with Nana and Grandad until Monday. We miss them already! (although it was nice to have a quiet adult dinner this evening)

Christmas in Denver

We had a wonderful Christmas in Denver. We hosted the Christmas Eve party this year that Greg's family has every year. It worked out great for everyone. I got to keep the boys home and cook for a bunch of people (which I love to do) and everyone else got to come over and relax and enjoy. Greg's brother Bill did just fine in a new environment and I think he will be excited to come over again next year.

On Christmas, the 4 of us stayed home and had a nice quiet day together. The boys woke up about 6:30 (which is actually somewhat late for them) and we headed downstairs to see what Santa Claus left for them. The boys were thrilled that Santa brought the requested Marble work and helicopter. We opened the few presents that we had for each other and then ate breakfast and spent the day relaxing, watching Toy Story 3, playing with new toys and enjoying the beautiful warm weather outside (Greg was even able to take the boys on a long bike ride). We also spent a little bit of time getting ready to head to Lubbock the next day. Greg asked the boys if they had a favorite present and Ryan said it was his marble work and Luke ran upstairs and brought back the new strawberry toothpaste that was at the bottom of his stocking.

Ryan's new remote control car - from his Papa and Grandma - our wooden floors are perfect for it and he has had a blast driving it around the house.

Tommy was fascinated with the boys' scooters - I wish I had been able to get a picture of him standing on it while the boys pushed him around the house.

Luke got a total of 3 art sets for Christmas - he is thrilled about that. He spends a large amount of his day drawing pictures and now he has some great art supplies to help him out. He even spent most of Christmas day laying on the floor in the kitchen writing and illustrating his third book - Christmas, by Luke (I'll have to post it sometime - it is so sweet).

The boys were excited to leave milk and a cookie for Santa and a carrot for his reindeer.
They were even more excited the next morning to see that Santa drank all of the milk, ate most of the cookie and took the carrot with him.



One of them got a working stethoscope and they spent part of the day listening to every body's heart. (including the cat).

Luke and his art sets.

We are now in Lubbock and Nana and Grandad have a new addition to their family - Lucy, a 10 week old miniature dachshund. We will be having our third family Christmas on Wednesday before Greg and I leave for California - I'll be sure to post pictures of this week as well as some of the many pictures of Ryan with his new little best friend.

Cookies and Birdhouses

The boys and I have stayed busy this week doing some stuff around the house - including making Christmas cookies and painting birdhouses.


Ryan had a lot of fun choosing a wide variety of colors to paint his birdhouse.

Luke chose to start painting his house pink and told me that his house is for girl birds and Ryan's is for boy birds.

We spent pretty much all day yesterday decorating cookies. I had promised the boys that I would let them decorate a couple of their own - they weren't really patient, but they did like watching me and sneaking a few bites of left over icing when they thought I wasn't looking.

I got icing markers and they liked being able to draw a picture on their own cookie. I'm not exactly sure what Ryan drew and I didn't really understand his explanation, but he liked it.

Luke drew a picture of a person going into their house with the moon and sky at the top of the cookie.

My cookies:

The TCU cookies are for my college roommates. I'm going to send some to Dalis who is totally bummed that she is going to miss the Rose Bowl and to Kim who got us our tickets (for like the 4th time - she totally rocks).

Visit with Santa

There are many reasons why I love this blog - the main one being that it is a way to keep a journal of my kids - but another reason is that it helps to refresh my memory of prior events. I was reading last year's Santa post when I was reminded that there is a system to seeing Santa Claus. It took 3 trips to the mall last year to get our visit and picture with Santa - that is because a reservation is required (which seems ridiculous, but it actually helps to limit the wait time in line). I had completely forgotten about that - so I was glad to be reminded and therefore we only made 1 trip to the mall and waited in line for about 10 minutes.
The boys loved seeing Santa and Luke even gave him 2 pictures that he had made with Christmas stickers. I've been trying to limit the boys to only asking for 1 thing from Santa - and they did good with that initially until Santa asked if there was anything else - that opened the floodgates and even Santa laughed that they wanted the whole store.


The boys have been playing nicely with each other lately - it helps to remind them that Santa is watching them and their behavior.

Ryan started taking art classes with Luke last week. He is really enjoying it and doing a great job. Last week the kids drew a puffin and this week they drew a dolphin.


Greg usually picks up the boys from school and one day this week the boys told him about the instruments that they learned about that day. Ryan asked if he could play the trumpet when he is older and Greg told him that we have a trumpet in the basement that he could play now. The boys have enjoyed playing it all week, and Ryan, in particular, has some pretty impressive chops for a 4 year old.


Short video of the boys seeing Santa.

Past pictures with Santa:

2009

2008

2007

2006