The backwards Red Wings fan

When Will was a baby, John's dad sent him an adult size (at least I think it's adult size) Red Wings t-shirt with Steve Yzerman's name and number on the back. Will had a day recently where he went through at least three wardrobe changes throughout the day for whatever reason. I cracked up when he came downstairs in this get-up because he'd obviously been sorting through his "clothes that are too big" drawer to find this shirt (and something else he'd worn earlier). The pants were on backwards, too, by the way. He told me he liked them that way. Whatever...

Christmas Chaos Part 2

After naps on Christmas Day we headed to my mom's for the second part of our celebration. Madness, I tell you, sheer madness! Don't believe me? Here's the tree pre-present opening!



And I don't think I got everything in the frame either. Yikes. Granted there were 13 of us there, which does add up to a lot of stuff, but it's still pretty daunting! My kids made out like bandits, but of course I was too busy trying to help them open presents to actually take pictures of anything they got. Oops. But I did get a couple cute pictures of the boys in their mostly matching Christmas outfits!

Will's favorite gift

Will's favorite gift this year was a Spiderman "shaving" kit that Miles got for him. It was a can of "shaving cream" with a pretend razor, shave brush (I'm sure there's a more technical word for it), and a comb. John showed him how to shave, and he spent most of the morning in his bathroom shaving over and over and over. He was so funny about it in the days after Christmas, too. "But mom, if I don't shave my face is going to get hairy." Uhhh...I really don't think you need to worry about that just yet. I'm glad it was such a hit!

Christmas Chaos Part 1

I guess technically this was Part 2 since the boys got early Christmas with my brother in the middle of December. We basically have two Christmases on Christmas Day--the one at our house in the morning and Christmas #2 at my mom's in the afternoon/evening. My kids--well, John and I too--are ridiculously spoiled by my family. The last two years it's taken me multiple trips from my mom's house to get everything home. I'm not kidding.

Anyway, Christmas morning at our house was fun, as Will was so excited about Santa this year. Miles was just excited the gate was gone from around the Christmas tree so he could finally pull down ornaments. :) No, he enjoyed it too, but Will had a great time. Santa brought Miles the Playskool Busy Ball Popper and a race car and race track for Will. Strangely enough, Santa probably could have gotten away with giving both of them the ball popper as it seems to have been the most popular gift.

Christmas Eve Night

I forgot to take a picture of the boys in front of our tree in the morning before we started opening presents, so this one from Christmas Eve will have to do!

Cookies for Santa

And apples for the reindeer! Will thought they might like that instead of carrots.

Snow in Arizona!

We're still trying to come up with a Christmas Eve tradition for our family. Pre-kids (well, even before Miles) we'd go to my aunt's for dinner and church if there was a Christmas Eve service. Last year John's parents were here for Christmas, so we went to Christmas Eve church at our church and that was about it. Plus Miles was just barely a month old. We struggled with what to do this year--did we go to my aunt's for dinner (my uncle grills a mean prime rib...), did we do something here for dinner and go to church then just hang out, go to Zoo Lights again. We came up with the plan of going to early Christmas Eve church, then out to dinner, then to a somewhat nearby shopping center because they had "snow" every night at 7:00 through Christmas Eve. yeah...turns out most restaurants aren't open for dinner on Christmas Eve. So John ended up going and getting us Chinese take-out in the afternoon, we went to church at 4:00, then came home and had our dinner, then headed to Tempe Marketplace for the snow.

I tell ya...next year we are going out there for that the first day they have it!! I had been in kind of a bah humbug mood for Christmas, but seeing all the decorations and "snow" really made it hit home that it was Christmas. I've lived in AZ for 10 years now and it's still weird to me that it can be 70 degrees on Christmas.

Will had a great time, although we quickly learned not to eat the "snow" because it was really more of a soap mixture than anything. Miles was pretty intrigued by it all. I'm so glad we went!!

John the Baptist

When Will was around one he and I took a music class with our friends Jen and Trevor. It was kind of wasted on the boys because they were really too little for it at the time I think, but Will has recently rediscovered the CD for all the songs in the class and listens to it during his quiet time every afternoon.

He was telling me yesterday about a garden song that said "yes ma'am" in it. I had no idea what he was talking about but when along with it. Then he said something about John the Baptist. Okay...John the Baptist...had we moved on to something he learned at preschool or Sunday school? It's hard to tell with him sometimes.

Fast forward to this afternoon, and Will's in his room for quiet time listening to the CD. He calls for me when the song came on so I could hear it. Turns out it's "John the Rabbit" and I told Will that, but he still insists it's John the Baptist.