Christmas Bro. Stash Competition 2011

Christmas Morning

Jacob is trying to figure out what Santa has put in his stocking. His mind is saying, "Looks like slime. But what is it?" Only the best boy stocking stuffer ever. Farting putty! When you squish it back into the jar it squeaks like someone has gas. I thought it was funny! Jacob would watch for my reaction as he squished it back into the plastic jar. "Am I going to get in trouble?" :)

The boys are putting together their Santa / Stocking gifts. They each got a Squinky gum ball machine thing. Totally cool! They are so in to Squinkies. They play with them with their Legos, board games and in so many other ways. I love their imaginations when they play with them.

We got the boys an Xbox with Kinect. We thought they'd love it. Sometimes they have a lot of fun with it, but other times they have trouble focussing enough to stand in front of the sensor. The technology is pretty amazing.

Something hand made! I like to have at least one hand-made gift. This year I made Batman and Superman aprons. So they can look like super heros when they are helping in the kitchen, eating messy food, or working on crafts. Thanks to my friend Jennie for letting me use her pattern. I think they turned out so darn cute.

There are way too many presents under that tree, but there were some practical gifts under there too. What a Wonderful Christmas! Thank you friends and family for making this the best Christmas season ever. So much thoughtfulness and love shared by all of you! Love you all --emily

2011 Christmas Card

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning we ventured out downtown. We parked in Kelly's office building so that Jacob & Andrew could see dad's new office digs. Andrew loved to play with dad's office phone. He thinks it is so cool that "work phones" have a head set. Kelly was explaining to Drew the reason his phone has the head piece is so that dad can type while he is on the phone. Explained like that; Kelly sounds like a catalogue dispatch person, but he isn't.

We then rode the underground bus a few blocks to the mall so we could take the monorail to the Space Needle. The weather was awesome! We only needed sweaters. That is a big deal here in the rainy Northwest.

While up in the Space Needle we had a crystal-clear sky. Jacob & Andrew loved exploring the city from a birds eye view. They enjoyed pointing out dad's office, and this cute little park with very large tomatoes.

I love this picture of Jacob, he looks like a director in a major motion picture.

See the blue Washington sky? That doesn't happen every day!

Still at the Space Needle they had cookie decorating for the kids. The kids were given a cookie, a packet of frosting, and a variety of colored sprinkles.

They decorated, enjoyed and ate their space ship shaped cookies.

We then wished Santa good luck. Earlier in the month we asked for our wants. So we thought good luck was appropriate. He was in a darling "space ship" for the Space Needle. It was so darn cute. All his decor and the elves were so modern and futuristic.

We then drove home among crazy Seahawks football fans, and enjoyed a yummy dinner with our neighbor friends. It was the perfect ending to a wild day. After we were home for the evening. We put on our matching Grinch jammies and tucked our sugar filled, adrenaline flowing, children in bed for the night. I hope they stay in be 'till at least their regular hour of 7:30. Eeee!

I'm so excited for Christmas morning!

As I was looking through this post before publishing it. I realized that my jammies pants look so different. But there is a matching Grinch cuff on the bottom of my legs. I ran out of fabric so I had to make something that coordinated for mommy. I had waited to long and the fabric was all sold out. I like how it turned out even though. --emily

Candy Canes

Today after school the boys made Reindeer candy canes for the Christmas tree. They turned out super cute. Jake & Drew were so creative and crazy funny while doing this project. This was the first time I let Jacob use the hot glue gun mostly by himself. He didn't even burn himself. I was impressed because I always get a finger or two. --emily

Gingerbread House Decorating

The boys worked together to decorate this fun gingerbread house. It was hard work keeping them on task and not eating all the candy. --emily