Sunday, January 27, 2013

Our Christmas day

 Since we were going to be in Florida for Christmas, we had ours at home the week before to give the boys something to play with during their 3 week long break from school.  As promised, Santa brought the big Lego set for the boy to share. He copied the idea from the movie Arthur's Christmas and strung a ribbon from their bedroom to down under the tree.



 Fuzzy picture of Joey's great gifts to Dad: A giant pen that says awesome Dad, and a wrist band that says rock star


 Joey also made us a great snowman decoration--to mark the year we started anew after losing all the old decorations in the move. And he gave me a band that said BFF. I asked him if he realized that BFF means Best Friends Forever. He smiled and said yes, and then I told him I would wear it forever :)  So cute!
 Under the tree was also a box of Christmas Crunch--since mom never buys "sugar cereals"

 Having fun with toys--building Legos and going crazy ninja on the punching bag

Thursday, January 17, 2013

December--Getting ready for Christmas

  The boys and I usually put up the lights by ourselves, so it was nice to have Peter here to help this year!
 We had a celebration party for Joey when he got 1/2 way through reading 531 of those Book of Mormon pages!  We're so proud of all your hard work Joey!
He requested a double layer brownie cake with Grandma Starkey's chocolate frosting and pomegranates. Boys got good taste!

Our yearly tradition of pictures by the little tree. We were heart broken when we went to get all the Christmas stuff out to realize we did not have all our Christmas ornaments. the big train that goes around the tree, or the mini light up tree we got the first Christmas Peter and I were married (the one I had planned to take pictures of the boys in front of their whole lives). We even sent uncle Joe over to our old house in San Antonio to ask the people who bought the house if they had seen that stuff in the attic. But no luck. All those memories had dissapeared--even ornaments from my and the boys first Christmas's.

But we bucked up and carried on. Luckily Amazon sells a tree that look exactly like the one we had (only at 4x the price), so we were able to get some pictures with the boys. And hopefully no one will know that the 2012 tree was any different from the original 2004 tree.

Cute Joey missing those 2 front teeth. You just can't help but sing the song when you see him. He did not get 2 new ones for Christmas. He's our slow tooth-grower.




 And cute, silly Kimball.





                                     


                                             



 The best were the father son pictures at the end. The boys were so cute and snuggly. They just looked so little in their Daddy's arms. Just proved again to me how much kids need their daddy

                                     


 Making popcorn snowmen with friends

Kimball's "head-wound." Haha, he just splattered ketchup all over himself when he opened the lid.
 

Kimball was showing off his fence climbing skills one day while neighbor friend Katie looked on like a princess in a tower. She was supposed to be taking a nap, but she often tries to talk with the boys from her bedroom window.

 The boys and I got to take a picture in front of our tree before we left for the ward Christmas party

The boys loved building ginger bread houses before we ate
 Joey was asked to be a wiseman in the Nativity performance. He was an excellent wiseman!





Kimball's cute candy corn decoration that had to get taken down.
                                          


 We went to the zoo lights for a special, yearly dinner that is sponsored for all foster families (and preparing foster families). The boys loved seeing the animals, the lights, and eating dinner right in the middle of the zoo! We were very impressed at all the work that goes into celebrating foster families.



 Joey and Kimball getting to sit on Santa's lap. Santa grunted when he tried to lift Kimball up and said, "Wow, you sure have been eating your vegetables." Santa must not be used to such "solid" kids.
The boys both asked for the biggest Lego set in the world. Santa said he would bring one to share.


That Saturday our neighborhood had its annual winter fest. the boys had lots of fun jumping, making their own picture frames to house the silly photo booth pictures we took, meeting frosty, and "ice-skating" on a plastic rink. We love good, free fun!


                                              
                                               


 
 Kimball's sweet splits









Joey and Kimball Thanksgiving performance at scshool