Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas with our families. Christmas Eve we celebrated with my parents and brother.

Christmas morning we had our own family Christmas beginning with singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus, opening presents, and ending with star wars pancakes for breakfast.

Around noon we headed to Jason's brother's house to celebrate with all of his family.

We're all enjoying our presents and the time we got to spend with our families.

Making Christmas Cookies

The boys helped me make and decorate Christmas sugar cookies today when Kyle came home from school. I had made the dough the night before. Today they helped me roll and cut the dough to make Christmas trees, stars, candy canes, angels, and bells. Then after we cooked about 3 dozen we decorated them. We made different colors of icing and covered them with sprinkles. The boys had a very fun, very messy time doing it! :)

Gingerbread Tree

In past years we've decorated a gingerbread house around Christmas time. This year we decided to decorate a gingerbread tree. The boys enjoyed putting this together and decorating it. Max enjoyed eating the little hard candy balls. Unfortunately it ended up breaking his tooth (the tooth was already weakened apparently due to an injury a week ago). Thankfully it doesn't seem to bother him but he will have to get it fixed with a baby root canal and partial crown. The tree turned out cute even though it was missing a few pieces. It was supposed to come with 14 stars to assemble the tree. Ours only had 10, but the boys didn't seem to notice or care. :)

Santa

We had an impromptu trip to visit Santa at the mall a couple weeks ago. It was a great time to go because there was no line! Max wasn't quite sure who this guy was, but was very excited to meet him - not scared at all! Kyle was also excited to tell him what he wanted for Christmas. Kyle told him he wanted a lego set. Max said he wanted macaroni (macaroni and cheese specifically). He wasn't quite sure why we all thought this was funny! :)

Today at school Max got a visit from Santa at his preschool. I was invited to come early to pick him up and join the Santa visit. The kids came in the room and Santa gave them each a present (a book called The Christmas Gift). Then each child got to sit next to him and tell them what they wanted for Christmas. Again, Max said he wanted macaroni much to everyone's amusement! Then the kids sang a song they'd been learning called "Good News." Max was thrilled that Santa and Mommy came to his school!

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Train Show

Saturday we went to a model train show at the Lion's Club in Rockville. One of Kyle's friends invited us to meet them there. They had been in past years and it looked like something both boys would enjoy so we all decided to go. They had many rooms filled with a variety of model trains. There was a whole room of lego trains, a room of Thomas trains, and many other sizes and kinds of trains. After we were done looking at trains there was a playground outside that the boys played on for a bit before we headed home for lunch. It was a fun morning!

Happy Veteran's Day!

Kyle's school had a special assembly for Veteran's Day. They had speakers from various branches of the military and each grade level sang a patriotic song. Kyle loved the song he learned and was singing it all day and for the next several days after that. It's so cute I just had to capture it on video!

Karate Kyle's blue belt

Last Friday Kyle had another belt test and moved from a green belt to a blue belt. He did a great job, as usual and performed a jump axe kick to break his board on the first try! He's really enjoying himself and at this rate he'll be a brown belt in little ninjas by next fall. This means that when he starts the solid belt classes at age 7 he'll get to skip the white belt and go straight to solid gold. He has plans to become a black belt one day and we're very proud of him and will be happy if he wants to stick with it! Max can't wait till he's 4 so he can do karate too!

Happy 3rd Birthday Max!

Today is Max's 3rd birthday. We had a family party for him on Saturday to celebrate. It was a lot of fun and he had a great time being the center of attention! Everyone was able to come . . . Ma, Pa, Uncle Mike, Grammie and Grandpa Inman, Grandma and Grandpa Luster, Aunt Jessica, cousin Michael, Uncle Carey and Aunt Casey, and Uncle Jonathan. We had a full house! We ate lots of yummy food - chick-fil-a chicken nuggets, crock pot mac and cheese, fruits, and veggies. We also had a delicious chocolate Curious George cake made by the Mom of one of Kyle's preschool friends from last year. She has her own business making cakes and did a great job capturing Curious George for his cake. He was thrilled when he saw it! We opened presents, sang "Happy Birthday" and played with all his new toys. He got lots of fun things - a Thomas scooter, a Thomas motorized track set, building bricks, books, and more! I think he felt very special for his special day! I'm so glad everyone could come celebrate with us! I have lots more pictures than what I posted - once I get them organized I'll add the link here with all of them!

At school today the kids sang "Happy Birthday" to him and he got to wear the birthday crown. He also handed out special treats to his classmates in honor of his special day.

This afternoon when Jason got home from work we gave him our birthday gift for him which was a Leapster. He's been using Kyle's for the past few months and is actually quite good at it. Now we can avoid fights over it and they can each have their own. He was very excited to have "my very own Leapster!" We let him pick the place for his birthday dinner and he chose Red Robin. So we had a nice dinner there tonight and they brought him an ice cream sundae and sang "Happy Birthday" to him again. He loved it!

Harvest Festival

Friday night we went to our church's annual Harvest Festival. They have it every year at the Germantown Soccerplex. They have tons of games, moonbounces, slides, etc. set up for the kids to play and win candy. It's a lot of fun. This is Kyle's 4th year and Max's 1st year attending. They both had a great time. I think Max enjoyed the moonbounce the most and had fun playing the games. Kyle loved everything and even got to try the HUGE "Cliff Hanger" slide this year. We lasted about an hour before Max had enough. He had missed his nap that day for Kyle's school party so he had quite a LONG day! They both had fun, though, and got lots of candy! We usually arrive early and stay the first hour of the two hour event - there tends to be less of a crowd the first hour and shorter lines. The last picture is what it looked like when we left - it gets SUPER crowded!!!

Kyle's school Halloween party

Friday afternoon was Kyle's school Halloween parade and party. Families were invited so Jason took off a half day from work. I went in early to help set up, get the kids in their costumes, and walk on the parade around the school, which doubled as a mini-walk for the homeless. Jason and Max joined us for the party in the classroom. Kyle decided to be a storm trooper from Star Wars this year and Max went as Tigger. Kyle has a great class this year with very involved parents so lots of us were there to help and enjoy the party with the kids. Max was the only sibling that attended and he loved all the attention he got. Kyle's friends loved him! There was food, candy, balloons, face painting, and games. Everyone had a great time!