Oh, Christmas Tree 2015!

The Saturday after getting home from Utah, we went for my sister and sister in law's birthday breakfast and then Christmas tree hunting. Cohen wanted all the tiny trees (and tried to pull them out like big weeds, his summer fascination)

 

The boys LOVED riding in the wagon, I wish the next one wasn't blurry, they were loving it!

And then they couldn't wait to get home to decorate it! The biggest tree we've had in our little house in years! 

Easter 2015

I'm a little behind, but here are some pictures from our Easter.

This handsome little boy was not pleased when I put this outfit on him. He cried and cried, sorry kid! I really wanted the boys to have bow ties to wear to church so I made them each one a couple nights before Easter, not perfect, but made with love!

Every year we do an Easter egg hunt with the cousins. My sister gets all the eggs ready and we go to a little park in between all of our houses. We had a little picnic and let the kids go "find" eggs, they really just ran around picking up as many as they could since it's just an open field. The boys loved collecting the eggs and stopping to open each one to see if there was candy in it. 

Easter morning we keep pretty simple. The boys each got a stuffed animal and some bubbles. Cohen was so curious how the Easter bunny got into the house. The Easter service at our church is always one of my favorites, we have an Easter choir and they always do a really great job. This is the best picture I could get Easter morning. 

I asked my sister to take some pictures of the boys in their Easter clothes before the egg hunt. I got the boys all dressed up and crossed my fingers that they would cooperate. The pictures turned out SO cute! Don't they clean up nice? They are the sweetest! 

Christmas 2014

We had a pretty quiet, calm Christmas over here. Just the way we like it. We didn't put any presents under our tree until a few days before Christmas so that we could start telling the boys they were going to get to open them soon. This year we went with the "something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to need" for gifts. And the boys didn't even need anything to wear so they just got a couple things each. 

Christmas Eve we had some hot chocolate, read "The Night Before Christmas" and the Christmas story out of their little Bible. Then we made peppermint hot chocolate and let Cohen open one present before bed. Once they were in bed we turned on a Christmas movie and set out to put their trampoline together (which was harder than we thought it would be). 

Christmas morning the boys woke up and wandered out to see their presents. Cohen was excited about the trampoline and wanted to open his presents on it. They were probably most excited about the chocolate kisses they found in their stockings (which had to be confiscated until after breakfast).

We had our traditional "coyote" breakfast (fried bread dough with powdered sugar on top) and just had a quiet morning at home. Later we headed over to my parents' house to have Christmas with my side of the family.

The trampoline has been a big hit and Cohen has been getting lots of energy out (and it's supposed to be good for building core muscles and coordination too - bonus!) And no one has fallen off and broken their necks either (another bonus!)

The Real Life Christmas Card

We have so far been unsuccessful at sending out Christmas cards since having kids (and before). This might be part of the reason...Just keepin' it real.

At least they're cute!

4th of July 2014

We had high hopes for the fourth of July this year. The past two years, our strategy has been to get Cohen in bed before the fireworks start. This year we were hoping that maybe Cohen was old enough to "get" fireworks a little more and that he might think they were cool. We borrowed a pair of earmuff headphones. We talked about fireworks! and his friends! and his cousins! And we watched firework videos on youtube.

We showed him his earmuffs and put them on him. He loved them so much he wouldn't take them off, which we took as a good sign. He loved doing the pop-its and made it through some of the early (LOUD!) daytime fireworks but after about an hour or two he had had it.

We had planned on putting Ezra to bed and keeping Cohen up but it ended up the other way around. Poor little fellow was shaking as we were putting his jammies on. We put a blanket over his pack n play so he felt closed in, turned on two fans, shut all the windows and prayed he would go to sleep. I think he used up so much energy being terrified of the fireworks that he was exhausted. He went to sleep and didn't move until we picked him up to take him home.

 I have to admit, my heart hurts a little that what should have been a fun experience was so hard on Cohen. He has always been so sensitive to noises and easily startled/overwhelmed by them (he had a startle reflex until he was almost 2). I hope someday my boy can enjoy things a little more without it having to be so scary and overwhelming.

Ezra, on the other hand, took a power nap in the Ergo and then stayed awake for the whole fireworks show. It didn't phase him at all, he didn't even jump once! Such a difference.

Overall, we had a good day celebrating America's birthday!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Danny's parents came up yesterday and we all went out to lunch. Our first time ever taking both boys to a restaurant (and probably the last time for awhile). 

We spent our day extra early, going to church, coming home for naps and then over to my parents for Easter lunch. It was supposed to rain all day, but surprisingly it didn't and we even got a little sun!

We made small Easter baskets for the boys, Cohen got one egg with candy in it and he opened it, shoved them all in his mouth, and then threw them back up. Yum. 

The kids had their annual Easter egg hunt with the cousins after lunch. This year they each had a certain color egg they were supposed to find. Cohen discovered there was candy and surprises in the eggs and had to open each one he found. Towards the end we told the kids that the rest of Cohen's eggs were up for grabs so they scurried around the yard grabbing up the rest of them. Once they open up all the eggs, they sort their loot and then trade with each other to get all the things they want. 

 Since I've been gone so much, Ezra has decided that he prefers to nap with me. He's cute so I'm okay with it. Check out those post nap curls in his hair!

Hope you all had a wonderful day with family and friends. He is risen!