Happy New Year to Your Stinky Behind

The day after Christmas, Nana and Tickle Grandpa came to visit for a week! The boys were in seventh heaven having them around (at some point 'Tickle Grandpa' has become my Dad's official name so we just go with it!  Since Brady and Brody are creatures of habit,  I suspect the name will linger for quite some time!). We had a great time visiting and spending so quality family time together.

We had a very nice, kind of low key week.  One night we invited the California family over for dinner and some visiting.  It was so fun to get everyone together and to spend some quality time catching up.  We do not typically entertain because our house is small, but with a quick switching of some furniture and a lot of help from my parents and everyone who came, the house worked out quite well.  It was especially nice to have the boys in their own element and not have to worry about them getting into [too much] trouble because they were on home turf.

The rest of the week we did fun things like go to the park and farmers' market, play mini golf, go out to dinner and just hang around the house playing with new toys and spending time together.  Chris and I headed to the city for a date night (dinner and a show) and had a very nice time.  We also rang in the new year with a local 5K.  The boys were able to run the last lap and ring in the new year with joy and energy just like us! The trip went way too fast, as usual.

Being that we now have 3 year old toddlers, they are doing their due diligence and acting like little boys.  They like to talk about their stinky behinds A LOT and when Nana wished Brody a Happy New Year- his response was "Happy New Year to your stinky behind".  That may be the tag line for 2015!  So- to everyone we are missing, Happy New Year to your you know whats!

The 2014 Holiday Season

Having December babies means that we are pretty much celebrating something from Thanksgiving through to the New Year.  We transitioned from celebrating the boys' birthday in Disney right into Hanukkah and then directly into Christmas.  It was so much fun to do all of the things that have become "tradition" in our house and to make new ones.  We made latkes, played with dreidels, baked cookies, walked around to see Christmas lights, read Twas the Night Before Christmas, and made empanadas for Christmas Eve super.

Some traditional Christmas moose, porcine, squirrels, whales and schnauzers.  The schnauzers were for Nana and Tickle Grandpa who arrived the day after Christmas.  

On Christmas morning, Chris and I were up bright and early waiting for the boys to get up.  Santa Paws came for the dogs and cats so they got their gifts before the boys rocketed into the living room.  Rocco happily chewed on his toy while waiting for the boys to get up.  Once the boys were up, there was no stopping them.  Last year they were little angles who savored each shred of wrapping paper and opening presents took hours.  This year it was mayhem.  They torn into gifts, squealed with delight as they shook every gift, and once the wrapping was torn off and the packaging revealed,  they quickly started to forage for their next gift.  It was fun and crazy.  In addition to opening presents, we also face-timed with my both sets of grandparents and Auntie Ray-Ray.  Once everything was opened and the reality of possessing some new toys set in, they wanted to play with everything.  We spend the rest of the day playing and enjoying the holiday. 

Excited arms and faces on Christmas morning.

 

 The binoculars from Aunt Brenda and Uncle Steve were quite possibly the hit of the morning.  Brody bypassed the trains and the train table, picked up a random gift and asked "These my Christmas binoculars?".  Once he found and opened them, they hardly left his hand!

We love presents!

  It was a wonderful holiday season!