Tough little guys with really soft hearts

These are my tough little football players. Because of daddy they are into ALL sports. These football uniforms were from Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas. They love tackling and wrestling with each other and daddy.

Even with all that toughness they are still so tender hearted and kind, even a little to the extreme. If one starts crying the other one will. I will ask "why are you crying now?" and Nathan will say "because Daniel is crying." They don't always get along but I don't think they could get along at all without each other.

"mommy I scared"

Daniel has always fallen asleep before Nathan, it just takes him longer to wind down. Without fail as soon as Daniel falls alseep we all know because Nathan will come in and tell us he is scared. The easy fix that works EVERYTIME is giving Nathan one of his dads hats to sleep with. He takes the hat climbs into bed and falls asleep just like this. He has always been a daddy's boy and I think it is so precious that he finds so much comfort just from sleeping in or with his dads hat.

Well Nathan is into Chocolate...or anything sweet! I have to watch this kid closely(he needs parental control when it comes to food choices) and I am pretty sure he is the one that caused my sweet cravings during pregnancy. It was a craving for fruit, fruit, and more fruit. I started to get anxiety if we didn't have fruit in the house. My sweet mother-in-law saw how much fruit I ate and made sure when I got home from the hospital after the boys were born, that the kitchen was stocked full of fruit. However, I saw it, it looked good, but it was not that important to me. The craving left as fast as the boys were born.

Daniel is my little dress up kid. He is something new everyday. His favorite is being a puppy, a cowboy, a mommy, and some kind of sword fighter(not my favorite.) Even on the hardest days these boys always bring me laughs and smiles.

Friends

I have always tried to keep my boys socialized with other children. I go to play groups, story time at the library, lots of activities where my boys can play with others. Sometimes I think I do these things more for me than them. I think I need the daily socialization with moms more than they do with other kids. I have always felt like they had each other and having friends would come in time. Then one day a cute little red headed neighbor named Vince came by to play. This is a first for me, and I felt like it might be more work for me than it would be worth it. I was WRONG!! Those kids have so much fun together and most of the time it is almost like a little break for me.

They went to their friends pirate party and had so much fun. They were pirates for days afterward. I guess I have to accept the fact that they are getting older and I Matt and I are not the only influences in their lives. I am just so thankful for fun, happy, boys that get a long so well with others, it's really a blessing.

Making the most of it!

Nothing like Hot chocolate with daddy after a fun day of sledding. I have to admit I was not really invited to this sledding party but I was grateful for a little break. I had my own fun with the boys when we spent hours decorating and (eating decorations) from our graham cracker houses.

It's always worth the work that it takes to make fun days for the boys. They are such happy and excited kids and they bring us so much joy!!

Christmas catch up

At this point I am just trying to get caught up on my blog mainly because when I go to make my year end book I want something to actually be in it. We don't have Internet right now, so it makes keeping up a little hard.

We did have a wonderful Christmas, of course we had our annual Christmas Eve party. I don't know how my mom does it but there is not one dull moment at those parties. We have an awesome dinner complete with EVERYTHING!! We do the nativity where everyone dresses up and sings while we read the Christmas story from the scriptures and the grand kids act out there parts. Then we have a talent show. All the Grand kids perform some random talent anything from the violin to stand up comedy. Then the kids all put reindeer antlers on and sing Rudolph. In the midst of all of this my mom's homemade gingerbread men cookies seem to disappear and all the kids have to go hunt for them. When all of this is over we then enjoy the chaos of opening presents. It's a crazy night, but always magical.

I also wanted to throw in some pictures of the Christmas pajamas and the sweet boys all tucked in waiting on Santa. Christmas is so much better with little excited kids around!

They can't ruin our Christmas!

We were visiting from Florida during our boys first Christmas. Heading back we of course had our suitcases packed FULL of all our stuff and Christmas presents. These things meant a LOT to us being as we were poor law students. Our luggage was stolen, I mean EVERYTHING, all the boys toys, clothes, books, and our camera containing pictures of their first Christmas. I cried and felt sorry for myself for a few days, and even now I miss some of those worldly items that really just can't be replaced.

So, this year it is the night before Christmas Eve. I am more excited about this Christmas then I have been in a long time. I have taken the time to ponder the real meaning of Christmas and I can't help but smile every time I think about my sweet boys opening their present. I tell Matthew to get the gifts out of the back of the car so I can spend the evening wrapping presents. Matthew comes back a little devastated to tell me that EVERYTHING has been stolen. Our main present for for our boys...which wasn't cheap, and all my presents from Matthew. I am not concerned about my gifts but I am devastated that the boys won't be getting what they expected they would get. I call my mom in tears. Within minutes my dad finds the exact same toys on the Internet and is off to Toys R Us at 11:00pm to replace our gifts....plus more. We were asked not to repay him.

I know Christmas means more than the gifts we give or get. I know it's a whole lot more important that just stuff. However, watching my children on Christmas morning and the light and excitement they had, is for me the magic of the Holiday. The thieves out there did not ruin our Christmas for the second time. What they did is remind me how thankful I am to have a loving, caring Father who went out of his way to make sure our Christmas was wonderful. What that did is remind me even more importantly of my loving Heavenly Father who has blessed us and will continue to bless us through every detail of our lives, even enough to send us his own Son.

As hard as it is to say, I am thankful that I don't have complete control of my life, a lot of things would happen quite differently if I had it my way, but I don't. I am learning to see that His way really is the better way.

"He puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas.....perhaps....means a little bit more!"