Cameron the elf...

We introduced the boys to the Elf on the Shelf last night.  After a lot of debate, they named him Cameron.  We read the story of how he watches them each day and then flies back to Santa at night to report their behavior. It is also said that Cameron has eyes and ears out there (the other elves)to where he can see how they are behaving away from home. Then in the morning he finds a new spot to sit and watch for that day.  They have to search every morning for where he made his landing from his flight back home.   So last night when it was time for bed, they gave Cameron a wave and told him to have safe travels. 
               
                              The boys with Cameron.

This morning the boys found him on top of a picture frame. 

We will keep you posted on Cameron's many hiding spots.

Cookie Party

The boys had a cookie decorating party on Sunday afternoon.  This is their 3rd annual and we look forward to this each year.  The parents are very brave to have all of these kids in their home to decorate with frosting and sprinkles.  I am not sure that I could handle the stress!  The boys had a great time and we brought home tons of decorated cookies.
                               On our way to the party!

Getting started

The Christmas parade...

Saturday morning we got up early to sign up Ethan for little league baseball. He is excited but doesn't understand why he now has to wait until February for everything to start. Afterwards, we went to the Niceville Christmas parade. They shortened the parade a lot this year but we found a great spot in front of the coffee shop. We got some hot chocolate to warm us up since it was very cold.

The kids with CoCo the clown

The arrival of Santa

Aiden's humor...

Aiden makes a lot of funny comments and is often times very witty for his young age. I have decided to keep track of some of his sayings because he always has us laughing but then a few days later we can never remember exactly what he said.

It always takes him a while to get to sleep each night. This is when he likes to talk about his day and ask a bunch of questions that are running through his little mind.
A few nights ago, he asked us “how do eggs hatch if the birds are always sitting on them.” We thought- good question for a four year old but it was late and we didn’t want to get into the long process at 10:30 at night. The next night he said that he had figured out the answer- “they must have little knives on their bottoms”.

We will keep you posted… I am sure there will be more to come!

This is Aiden deep in thought!!

Gift from my 6 year old...

When Ethan woke up this morning, he said it was the eve of my birthday and therefore I was able to open my present he had made.  He and Aiden are allowed to open 1 gift on Christmas eve so I think he is trying to expand this to birthdays.  Below you will see my gift.
I am blessed to have my two boys.  Life is much more interesting with them around.   I love them both very much. 

This is the envelope for my present (he even included his brother in the gift)

He drew me a picture of a rainbow.

Christmas tree...

The kids have been asking for days to put up their Christmas tree (they have their own special tree to display all of their ornaments).  I was sick through out the holiday so I didn't have much energy to get things out and decorated.  Sunday night, we finally got motivated the kids were able to decorate their tree.

Thanksgiving

We started Thanksgiving with lunch at Nana and Papa's and then ended with dinner at Mimi and Poppy's.  A long day but we are blessed with both families nearby (so we can't complain).  Ryan and Aiden are both allergic to turkey so Papa had some yummy ham for them to enjoy while we ate the turkey.
After dinner we tried to get some pictures of the kids but getting all 4 to pay attention at the same time is close to impossible.

Ethan being silly

It looks like we will have to try again for a group picture.