Discovery Museum

Yesterday we finally took a break from our candy-scarfing, new toy-playing, not-showering-until-noon days to go to the Garden State Discovery Museum. The kids had a blast:

There were snakes and turtles, a boat to fish from,

a medical office with a huge "Operation" game, a bubble station,

a giant light-bright, a climbing wall,

a news studio,

a construction site, and much much more!

The kids were unable to pinpoint a favorite exhibit, but I think mine by far was this station where they were on a blue screen with different backgrounds simulated. They had fun "swimming" in the ocean and running with traffic!

The Best Best Best Best Christmas Ever!

That was Ben's glowing review of the day! A few days ago, we made gingerbread houses. Actually, graham cracker houses. The boys had a lot of fun decorating them. Sam, ever the junk food junkie, was so busy madly unwrapping and chowing down as much candy as he could that he hardly had time for putting any on his house.

The kids were dressed festively for church on Sunday, and I managed to get a few pictures before they got too disheveled:

On Christmas Eve, we made lots of yummy things! Jason made a turkey dinner. In the picture, Sam is just sitting down to the delicious spread, and asking for Teddy Grahams!

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We also made fudge, rice puff balls, chocolate covered pretzels, and of course, cookies for Santa.

Cailin took advantage of the chaos in the kitchen to try her hand at feeding herself. Not much made it into her mouth, but she didn't seem to mind!

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We had fun decorating the cookies, and even made a gingerbread shaped Uncle Alex and Aunt Christy, who are both on missions for our church. Ben also wrote a letter for Santa to leave with the cookies.

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We read the Christmas story in the Bible, and then let the kids unwrap their Christmas Eve gift: Flannel pj pants, and sock monkeys (which I had finally finished that morning!). They were a big hit. Even after Christmas day, Ben says the sock monkey was his favorite!

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The boys had a sleep-over in Sam's room. Before going to sleep, we got these pictures of the kids nestled all snug in their beds, visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads. Notice Sam has taken his pillow case off and is using it as a sleeping bag!

Cailin had a rough night, on the verge of cutting her first tooth, and I was barely back to sleep after crawling back into bed when Sam started crying just before 5 AM! Jason went to see what was the matter, and he had gotten back into bed (They had both started out in sleeping bags on the floor). I guess he was upset that he wasn't in his sleeping bag anymore. By the time Jason could figure that out, Ben was waking up. He told them both to go back to sleep, but it was no use. They played, sang made-up Christmas songs, and giggled for the next hour when Cailin decided to join the party. I was hiding under the blankets as long as I could, but when Cailin got up, we decided we'd better just get up. The kids were thrilled to see their presents, and everything they opened was "just what I always wanted for Christmas!".

Yes, Ben got a package of paper--and before you think we're terrible, it was part of a craft kit we put together and he loved it! He's always swiping paper from the computer printer, so now he's got his own! We had a full day of playing games, building legos, assembling things and eating candy (especially Sam, who was into everything chocolatey he could find!). I realized I'm turning into my mom when I told Sam he was going to go into a coma from eating too much candy! We're looking forward to the rest of this week, which Jason and Ben both have off.

The Season just got a little brighter

I made a most wonderful discovery at Target yesterday. We were shopping while Ben was at school, and walked by the Christmas candy isles. I looked over and saw these:

I wait every year for Easter to come around so I can eat a million Cadbury mini-eggs. Now they're here for Christmas too! Sam and I ate them all the way home. He recognized them right away, too--saying "Mom! Eggs!" This is what effect they have on a two-year-old:

Our Anniversary!

Eight years ago today....

Happy Anniversary Jason!

Watch out!

She's getting ready to join the mobile! She's been doing this for the past couple weeks, rocking. I was pretty impressed until I saw a little boy at church yesterday her age (7 months) who could stand up on his own!

Happy Birthday Jason!

This week, we celebrated Jason's birthday. The day started off very early--at 1:30 am I woke up hearing some weird noises from downstairs. I had been having a creepy nightmare, so waking up to noises freaked me out. I thought it may have just been my dream, so I layed there listening, and heard it again in conjunction with the sound of the air flow through our heating vents being interrupted. I woke Jason up and we went to go look at our heater. Sure enough, it decided to continue our annual tradition of breaking down! Of course, each year, we've been in a different house, with a different heater! I don't know what the deal is. Each summer, we need our AC repaired too. Anyway, luckily it wasn't a very cold night. We put some extra blankets on the kids and went back to sleep. We got a guy out to look at the heater and it took almost all day, and a few hundred dollars but it's back up and running. Ick. This is the same month that we had to spend several hundred on each of our vehicles for maintenance. When the heater guy was here, Sam was running around referring to him as the "other daddy"! He kept saying, "mom, where's the other daddy?" When he finally left, we started on Jason's cake. Ben wanted me to make a Zelda cake for him. I couldn't figure out how to do it, and wouldn't be a good Zelda artist, so I got some food-coloring pens for the boys to draw Zelda stuff on the cake themselves. They were very excited and proud of their work.

The yellow faced guy is Link, and the blue thing is a sword. Sam did all the red stuff on the left.

The boys were also very helpful when it was time to open presents.

This week, they held a Holiday Bizarre at Ben's school. Each class got to go to a little store they set up and spend an amount set and sent in from their parents on gifts for family members, friends, etc. Ben was soooo excited. When he got home, he brought out the gifts for Dad, Sam, and Cailin, and I helped him wrap them. He was very careful not to let me see mine, and wrapped it himself (with LOTS of tape!). He then labeled each one and put a bow on each--even though the bows for the most part were bigger than the presents. He was a little disappointed that we had to wait until Christmas to open them. He was somehow under the impression that we were to open them that night, and was claiming that we could open them on ANY holiday, and that it was indeed a holiday.

The kids are getting so excited for Christmas. With our online shopping, and family far away, we are getting packages delivered pretty regularly. One came yesterday, in which Grandma had included some left-over Halloween peeps. When Ben came home from school and saw them he said "Wow, Mom, you got us pumpkin peeps!". When I said no, Grandma sent them, he said "Oh--that Grandma, I just love her" Here's a picture of Cailin since she wasn't in any others! Her hair was so fuzzy that day, and the sun was shining on it, making it seem even fuzzier!