Staying extra busy

The month of December is just flying by. We have been extra busy with our Advent calendar:

Day 5: We decorated our Christmas tree. The boys had a blast doing this. It was so much fun watching them get so excited. Usually they loose interest really fast, but they both stayed interested the whole time.

Day 6: We went and purchased a present for Toys for Tots. Charlie picked out what he thought would be a great gift for a boy in need.

Day 7: It finally snowed, so we made snow ice cream.

With all of the craziness, I have been trying to be a little more organized. I have found that means I am becoming "The Bag Lady".

This is what my table looked like this morning as I was trying to get everything ready. First was my purse. Then Charlie's backpack for preschool. Then the boy's backpack for daycare. After that is my school bag with papers I was correcting. Finally, my lunch bag.

I have also been wondering why we are planning on buying the boys any toys when they are entertained by a box for hours.

Advent Calendar

Day 2: This was a busy day. We had cookie baking at Nana and Papa's house. This has become a yearly tradition with Corey's family. I made Swedish wafer cookies and Molasses cookies. 

While we bake, the kids are busy playing.

The boys also went and cut down our Christmas tree.

Day 3: Corey was home alone with the boys. I had my 5th graders Christmas program. Corey and the boys made puppy chow and hung out together.

Day 4: We had planned on decorating the Christmas tree, but our daycare provider was sick. Corey stayed home with them so the boys were a little stir-crazy. They decided to go to the basketball game tonight while I cleaned our house.

Countdown to Christmas

The advent calendar was hung today! The countdown is on.

Charlie pulled down Day 1 and on the back it said "Hang Christmas Lights". So Charlie and Daddy tackled that project today.

The Christmas Dinosaur is making an appearance in our front yard again. Charlie sure thinks he is cool.

Elf on a Shelf

Susie the elf has shown up at our house again. Every morning, Charlie stumbles out of bed still half asleep to find her. 

She has already found some unusual places to hide. One of the first days, she made a snow angel in some flour on our counter. I forgot to take a picture of that one.

Another day she needed a shower:

This morning she was way up on top of the clock:

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for! Especially these 2 boys:

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year. It was wonderful to not have to travel. Yes, I had to clean and prepare food, but it was worth it. We only hosted our parents, so we didn't have to prepare to much.

Here is the table all decorated and ready to go:

After lunch, we were able to relax and take it easy. Grandma Cindy brought the boys reindeer antlers. Hudson had a blast with them.

Halloween

One of the boys always seems to get sick at Halloween. 

Wednesday was a very busy day. Charlie had a Halloween party at school. Then they were dressing up at daycare. When I picked the boys up, I found out Hudson had screamed all through his nap and never fell asleep. He had also started running a temp.

We decided to keep it low key for Halloween. I didn't want Hudson to miss it, so we dressed him up, took some pictures, and went to 5 houses. Then Mommy and Hudson came home and handed out candy while Charlie and Daddy went to a few more houses. 

Spiderman

The unhappy duck:

Which picture is better? The one where Hudson is not looking, or

the one where he is screaming his head off?

First stop of the night:

Charlie and his friend Aaron

Hudson is happier now that he has candy!

Carving Pumpkins

We have been looking forward to carving pumpkins for awhile now. Charlie has been asking every day, and Hudson loves playing with the pumpkins. We had been waiting so they would still be good for Halloween with how cold it is now.

We started by making apple cider to drink and popcorn to eat while we were working. Hudson found a creative way to drink his cider.

Here are the pumpkins they picked.

Waiting for Daddy to take the tops off so we can start scooping.

Charlie loved scooping the guts out. He kept calling them zombie brains.

Hudson was a little freaked out by the inside of the pumpkins. He didn't want to participate at first.

But then he found his saw and thought he would try that.

Here are the finished products :