Christmas Eve

On christmas eve we all get to open our new pj's. Andrew had been anticipating this ALL week! He was SO excited for his new jammies. He had asked for ones with feet this year. He has to wear them EVERY night. I LOVE IT!
Ben wasn't so excited about it only being jammies in his box. When I asked if he wanted to put them on he told me NO. He did pick these out though. They have race cars on them!!!

He was a little more excited to help daddy though. Daddy and Mommy got USC jammies!

As he saw everyone else get excited about there's and that jammies is what EVERYONE was getting, he decided they weren't too bad and was willing to atleast touch them.

After getting the boys in their pj's we headed over to a friends house for dinner and games. It was A BLAST!! The kids just ran and ran and ran. Ben was just about asleep before we even got home at the LATE hour of 8.

Because I wasn't on top of things this year and a little cookied out, we didn't make Santa any cookies. So Andrew came up with his own ideas. He thought he could give Santa oranges. Besides, Santa gets enough sweets. We helped him find a few other things for the bowl. You know, things WE thought Santa would like.

We ended up with oranges, Kudos bars, and some Lindor Truffles. NOT BAD! Oh and of course Hot Chocolate!!! He was SO excited for christmas. Yet SO tired from playing so hard at the Millers. Both boys CRASHED and slept until a VERY reasonable 7. We may have to do that again.

Christmas Morning

We had a great christmas. It was nice and relaxing. From all the excitment the night before the boys slept in. Andrew came in around 7 and asked if he could go and see if Santa had eaten the treats he had left. Then he came back in and said he had! When we asked him if he had left anything he said he didn't know, he didn't look. Then Bob had the great idea that even though Benjamin was still asleep, Andrew could go out and check out what Santa brought. It was a really great idea. We were able to spend a few minutes with just Andrew that morning and play with his stuff from Santa before Ben woke up. Andrew with his Santa loot.

Trying out the new guitar Santa brought.

While Andrew was playing with his new toys, Ben woke up and was ALL about his stocking. Especially the lightning McQueen remote control car he got....of course he picked it out a few days before christmas, but he still LOVED it!!

Checkin' out everyting Santa brought. LOTS of playdoh.

I had them take a break so that I could get a picture of them in their new christmas jammies. I guess Ben didn't want to look at the camera.

Ben got Andrew Bakugan for christmas. He was REALLY excited! I LOVE how these 2 are such good friends. I really couldn't ask for two brothers to be better friends.

Andrew showing off his Star Wars toy before daddy put it together.

Ben couldn't wait to open the BIG present. He was ALL about tearing off that wrapping paper!

To his absolute DELIGHT this is what was in that big box. Thanks Grammy! Bob couldn't put it together fast enough. Andrew was ALL about helping out good thing too, Bob had an awful migraine that morning. I kept telling him he didn't have to put their toys together, but he was the BEST dad and put EVERYTHING together that needed to be. Luckily there wasn't much.

Then came out the BIG GUNS!!! We had wrapped the boys nerf guns all loaded and ready to go.We also had a few loaded and ready to go too. They were hiding in the couch cushions.

Who do you think is having the most fun!! It was a GREAT christmas! We were able to relax and just enjoy the day together.

And Ben spent his day in his truck watching Diego and making sure his truck had enough gas.

Cookie Mania!

On the last day of school before christmas break we got together with friends and made MASSIVE amounts of sugar cookies. It was a free for all for the kids. Luckily they came and went in waves because there were at least a dozen kids milling around. It sure was a lot of fun though! Andrew and Ben taking there turn. Yes, Ben is on the counter. Like I said, the kids are in charge and have a BLAST!

Little Conner after making his cookies. They get SO dirty but we have to keep our mouths shut and just let them have fun.

Ben and Conner and Jacob had their own dough to play with. It got SO hard with all that flour. Hard to believe since Conner had so much on him huh!

Ben taking a break to pose. Look how involved Abby is. This is SERIOUS business.

Then the BIG kids had their turn.What could they possibly be up to?

Just cookies with in cookies. The starfish from sponge Bob and any other shapes they could come up with.

Check it out!! We moms got to decorate. Thanks to Janna for the amazing convection oven that lets us bake SO MANY. And of course for letting so many people invade your house.

Christmas Nativity

At the ward christmas dinner this year we decided at the last minute to do a Nativity. The kids sounded GREAT too bad no one could hear them:(

Andrew was Samuel the Lamanite and was able to sing song "Samuel Tells of the Baby Jesus" He did a GREAT job. He was really nervous though and wanted me to stand on the stage with him.

We decided that it was time to take a family picture. Bobs mom wanted one of each family, so we tried that night. Ben wasn't too excited about it, I think he wanted to go home and go to bed.

Nativity

This year our stake was in charge of the Nativity festival. I took Andrew with me to help set up. He was such a BIG helper! This is the table that he helped Ann Herman decorate. Some of the Nativities behind him our ours that he also got to help set up. He was SO proud of the work he did. Me too! He's DEFINETLY a Borland when it comes to decorating tables. Grammy would be SO proud!

We later took Bob back to see the Nativities and Andrew of course had to show him what he had done. One of the local news channels was there and we even made it on to the news! What an exciting and great way to start the Christmas season.

Getting ready for christmas

On Thanksgiving we get to put up our christmas decorations. Which, for the boys means we get to set out the train! They waited ALL day to be able to watch it go around. And after only a few little mishaps it was DONE!!

They were so excited! I can't believe I actually got them to turn around for a picture!

Ben wanted to touch it SO BAD! We had a few days where they would touch it and then that would be it. They learned REAL quick to NOT touch the train. See Andrew gaurding the controls, Ben got to them and the train jumped the track. So he and Bob had a little talk about what he could and could not touch on the controls. They got to run the whistle....NOT the speed. We knew he had it figured out when he told one of his friends VERY FIRMLY "NO TOUCHY TOUCHY!!!"

This is how I would find them most days, just laying around watching the train.

FINALLY

Fall seemed to come really late. And as you can see, even though the leaves were falling, it was still warm. And this was at the beginning of November! While all of our family was FREEZING in Colorado, we were running around outside in shorts and t-shirts! The boys were so excited that the leaves finally fell, they quickly gathered them all up so that they could jump in them.

After both taking a turn, they decided that the leave HURT! They were so dry that they really did hurt to jump in. Their legs got a few scratches on them. NO FUN!

So, their solution was to jujst ride their toys through them and listen to the cool crunching noise that they made.

They sure had a lot of fun playing in the leaves. Don't you just love our dirt yard.