25 days...

The boys have been counting down the days until we could put up our Christmas tree. We always put it up the day after Thanksgiving so we had a lot to look forward to in 2 days! After fighting the crowds in the morning (which actually weren't too bad) we were ready to have some family time at home. We had a snack spread for dinner of cheese/crackers, apples, grapes, home made chex mix and cookies for dessert. Ben did a great job of putting up ornaments and helping Sam put his on the tree. We listened to Christmas music and had a great night. Ben and Sam each picked out a new ornament for the tree and have made sure everyone that has stopped over has seen them. Unfortunately, we are now being asked at least 5 times a day if today is Christmas. It could be a long month!

Bens new robot ornament:

Sams new rocket is on the left:

Sam the dancing machine:

Ben wanted in on the dancing action:

Sisterly bonding

Thanksgiving morning Corrie told me that Old Navy was opening at midnight and selling jeans for $15. Who can pass up $15 jeans??? We had some late night caffeine and headed out at 11:30. We were amazed at how many people showed up. We knew it would be crazy since it was officially "black Friday" but since it was Old Navy, we didn't think it would have the same Target or Kohls craziness (we happened to be across the parking lot from Target where a line was already formed. They still had 4hrs before opening). We were in line around the side of the building--in the rain. Luckily, we were only on line for a couple minutes and got inside in the first rush. We realized we were dealing with professionals when we walked in the store and saw people were already checking out. We only needed about 30minutes to fill our arms and try some things on. Then we saw the check out line. It started at the front of the store, went all the way to the back then made its way back front to the cashiers. We tag teamed and did a little more shopping and trying on while in line (thanks Corrie for your camera creativity)! We thought things were moving quickly, but we actually spent 1.5hrs in line. I'm so glad I had a shopping buddy because it made the line feel so much shorter. In the end, I saved 50% on my purchases. I had a great time, but I think I will stick to our pact to not do that again until 2020!

Happy Thanksgiving

We have been ready for Thanksgiving for a while. We've been listening to Christmas songs on the radio. We've started our Christmas shopping. We helped our friends at Chick Fil A decorate their Christmas tree and Ben has been counting down the days until we can put ours up. We've been ready for Thanksgiving and getting the holiday season officially started. We had our first round of Thanksgiving on Sunday. Cross Point had their annual Thanksgiving lunch. It was Sams first time eating turkey and he loved it! Ben is still the pickiest eater on the planet and refuses to eat turkey unless a piece of pie is on the line, even then its still 50/50.

Someday we'll get a picture where both boys are smiling at the same time!

Getting ready to go to Mo Mo and Pa Pas:

I dropped the boys off at my parents house yesterday. This morning, Jon and I did a 5k with Corrie to benefit breast cancer and his dad did a 5k walk. It was really cold, wet and windy, but we were rewarded with pumpkin pie at the finish.

Pre race, dry and warm, as warm as you can be at our house!

Post race, very cold and very wet!

We headed to my parents house for the rest of the day. Both my brothers were home for the holiday so it was a nice treat to see them. The boys did not nap, but were kept busy by Pa pa and "Sam burritos" with uncle Dave so thankfully the crankiness was kept to a minimum. After dinner, we headed down the street to the see the crazy cul de sac get lit up. Every year on Thanksgiving an entire street lights up their completely over decorated houses and even set off fire works for the occasion. The boys loved the fire works. Sam kept asking for more all night. After a very long (but enjoyable) day, the boys finally went to bed way past bed time. They were so exhausted they were asleep before Jon and I made it down stairs.

Thanks to our family for a great run and an excellent dinner.

Wordless Wednesday

Pajama day at school.

Ben and Me

This is a guest post from my hubby who wanted to share the details of a special night.

A few months ago my employer rewarded us with Dave and Busters gift cards for all our hard work on our conversion. Our group decided to redeem our reward last night. As an added benefit, I decided to bring Benjamin with me. (Sorry Samuel - I would have loved to bring you too, but I don't think I could handle two in there. Your outing with daddy is coming this weekend.) After a long day at work, I rushed home to pick up Ben. When I walked in the door to get him, I was greeted by all of my family dancing around the living room and singing Feliz Navidad. I, of course, couldn't be left out, so for the next few minutes, the four of us happily sang and danced until the end of the song. (Side note here for the artist - he does not end the song correctly. Doesn't he know that after a song like that, you have to end it with "Cha Cha Cha!"?)

After our dance party, we headed out with out a hint as to where we were going. Benjamin waited anxiously as we drove there, asking questions such as "Does this place serve food?" "Yes Ben, it does." "Are we going to Panera?" "No, this place is much better than Panera."

We finally arrived and he was astounded at all the lights and sounds. He glanced back into the game room and excitedly asked if we get to play games. A coworker gave us a game card so we headed back to check out the games until the rest of our group arrived.

I think the phrase "sensory overload" would be a bit of an understatement. After seeing the game area, he didn't know where to go first. We walked around a little bit and he said he wanted to play one of the racing games. Unfortunately for me, he couldn't reach any of the peddles, so he sat on the chair steering while I contorted myself to be able to help steer and keep the gas peddle pushed down. (Of course he wanted the seat all to himself.) Then I talked him into a snowmobile game where he did share the seat with me.

That wiped out the remaining credits on the card so we headed back for dinner. I must say that I was very impressed with Benjamin during dinner. He sat at the table, talked with everyone, drank his pink lemonade and ate all of his dinner, all this with out constantly asking when we could go play games.

Not only did dinner come with a $20 game card, another coworker gave us her game card. Score!

The next hour was filled with racing games, skee ball, air hockey and various novelty games where you can win tickets to redeem in their gift shop. The highlight of the night was when I won him a small teddy bear from the claw game. After I won that, he didn't let it out of his sight for the rest of the night. And, my little boy, who hasn't wanted to sleep with a stuffed animal in close to 5 months, slept with it all night, and has carried it with him all day at home today.

When our play card was finally exhausted, we went to cash in our tickets to redeem a prize. As we were going up there, a coworker handed us tickets that she had won over 8 years ago. And they accepted them! That put our total to a little over 2000 tickets, which was enough for us to get a big water gun and a claw sucker. (I don't think Benjamin knew it was candy, and I'm not spilling the beans.) Since it was already past his normal bed time, we headed out after getting his toys.

On the way home, I offered to give him one song and a dance before bed since that has been a night time activity that we have done for the past couple weeks. He was very excited about all this until we got home when he told me that he was too tired to dance and he just wanted to go to bed. This floored me, as this is just not something that I would expect to come out of his mouth. We got ready for bed and sang a couple songs. (The boys are great at stalling bedtime, and who can say no to those little faces asking for songs?)

I must say I had a great time, and I have no doubt that Benjamin did too. I know that he can be tough at times, but then there are evenings such as this that make me remember what a blessing he is. He can definitely bring a smile to my face, and reminds me that even a teddy bear that was won from a carnival game can be a treasure. I love you Benjamin, and thank you for a wonderful night. I can't wait to do it again.

Wordless Wednesday: Brothers

They really do love each other!

Silly boys

I love the time just before we put the kids down for bed. Everyone is winding down, pj's are on, we get to cuddle together to read stories and sing songs....and we always have time for being silly!

Dads night

Last night, Bens school hosted a dads night. It was a chance for all the dads to come in for a craft, some games and surprises. It sounded like they had a good time. Ben is always excited to have one on one time, especially with dad. If you are on Facebook, you saw Bens clever response to his teachers question of what is dads favorite place to go? His answer: To work. He has to make some money so we can live and eat. Of course, I forgot to have Jon take the camera, but we remembered to take an "after" picture.

Bed time is still a challenge around here. Ben is a pro. He gets in bed, stays in bed and would go to sleep, if Sam would let him. Sam gets up and walks around, checks out the toys and drives Ben absolutely crazy. For some reason, Ben can't go to sleep until Sam is in bed. Sam wont get in bed if Ben is awake and willing to talk (yell) at him. As you can imagine, we've been getting very little sleep recently. However, Sam has been all about getting one of us to sing him songs before bed time. Ben has been using this to bribe Sam to stay in bed. After a long conversation about how Sam had to get in bed and close his eyes, Ben rewarded him with a song we recorded off the monitor so their is no video, just sound.

Of course not even 30 seconds later, Sam was up and walking around again and Ben was screaming at him to lay down.

Football

The boys are football fans just like mom and dad. Ben has been asking to go to a football game, but his soccer class was on Friday night, so we missed all the high school games except the last game of the season. Last Friday, we babysat for a friend and took the kids to the Lakewood/Hudson football game. We bribed them to sit semi still with popcorn. When that was gone, we had to improvise. Olivia turned into a model and I think I took at least 100 pictures of her. Ben wanted to sit in front of us, not next to us and Sam went back and forth between everyone. We only stayed through half time. Lakewood lost terribly and both half time shows were AWFUL! The kids liked watching the bands, but had to hide at how bad it was! It was cold and the kids were squirmy, but I think we all had a great time.

Hiding:

Wordless Wednesday

Ben will often come up to us and say, "Look how handsome I am!"

They both are.

Bed time

As you know, Jon and I have been discussing bunk beds for a few months. Unfortunately for the boys, I never felt completely comfortable with any of the sets we saw. Jon and I couldn't agree on one or if we did, it was way out of our price range. Then, Ben fell out of bed. His little toddler bed that was like 4 inches off the ground and had a rail on each side that went down to his knees. After that, bunk beds were pretty much off the table. Jon found some platform beds on a store website and we decided that would be perfect for the boys. The best part was Jon was sure he and his dad could make 2 beds for less then we could buy them for. On Saturday, Jon got up way too early and headed to Ravenna to get the job done. It took them a lot less time than I thought it would especially since they didn't have any plans to go off of. The finished result is AWESOME! The boys love them. Add on the air plane comforter and they are in heaven! We even got a treat with the mattresses. Jon got a deal on a set that were on a bunk bed display and the store had a deal--buy a mattress, get a box spring for $10! We are holding off on the box spring until they get used to the beds, but when they are ready for them, it will be like getting a brand new bed again.

Saturday night was Sams first night out of the crib and it did not go well. We spent 3 hours listening to them scream, cry, fight...at one point I walked in on Ben holding Sam down so he wouldn't get out of bed anymore. They are getting a little better each night, but its going to be a while before they go to bed at a decent time. Seeing the smile on Sams face Sunday morning when he came out of his room with Ben and crawled up on our bed, was worth it!

We still have to paint the beds and maybe invest in some curtains, but they have a big boy room now.

The living room, now that we added the love seat to it:

Thanks Jon and Pap. You guys did an amazing job!

Happy Halloween

We headed over to the Calaways house last night for some trick or treating and hot chocolate. Once again Ben was excited to dress up as a magician and even made miss Lindsey disappear. Sam was not thrilled about being a monkey again, but when we told him candy and not wearing his monkey hat was involved, he was ready to go.

The street was full of houses passing out candy and ready to scare us. We had to walk Ben up to a few creepy houses, but for the most part, the big boys wanted nothing to do with the parents. Sam was just as excited to walk with Paisley as he was to get candy. They came home with more candy than we know what to do with and we all had a great night.