Much to blog about...December Part 2

The first half of December was actually quite warm, with some rain. We didn't get a snow storm until right before Christmas. We Matt took advantage of the nice weather with many trips to the park with the boys. We have an old, closed down school just 2 blocks away, there is a big parking lot behind it and it's a great place to take the boys and their bikes. I joined them one sunny night.

 That same night me and my friend Bree surprised our husbands with a FUN date!!!

My sitter came over and we all drove to an indoor shooting range. It was our first time at an indoor range, it was really LOUD! And for some reason freezing cold. But it was a lot of fun and the boys LOVED it.
Aren't we cool?

 Matt in his new fancy pants coat, that he loves. He is quite smokin' in it, if I do say so myself!  :)

 Me and Bree-the cool wives.

 Afterwards we took them out to Penn Station (a really good, greasy man-food-kind of sub place). It was so much fun! 

The next day I took my boys to the Cleveland Rockefeller Greenhouses. They were having an all FREE, kids Christmas fest. It was like this little gem that we discovered! It was awesome! I told a few people about it, but only one family showed up...and I know everyone else was sorry! They had free lunches for the kids, and then let them go into a room (by themselves, but we could see them the whole time) and pick out whatever toy they wanted! They were pretty awesome toys too! And then back in the garden was Santa and he gave them bags of candy. It was awesome! I love finding fun, free stuff like this! 

 Luke: "Mom, I think that was Santa's helper because his hands were black."

Gotta love Cleveland!

 The poinsettia display was really lovely too!

 On to more randomness...

 Dev "falls asleep" all the time like this. ;)

 I got my busy baking/candy making on this year and made lots of caramels for friends and also some delicious fudge, divinity, and toffee. Mmmmmm....

 Matt really is such a fun dad. We played hide and seek...and really had the hardest time finding him...

 This is up way back in Devin's closet (which goes up and in really deep). It was pretty hilarious.

 A day at the mall to see Santa for the hundredth time. He was a very nice-looking Santa though, who gave out crayons and coloring books.

 Matt has been on THE BEST rotation of residency...and we've been soaking up every minute of it! I swear some weeks he's working like 25 hours...ahhh we've loved it! Well, he also lucked out big time around Christmas and somehow got 6 days off. These are some of the things we did...

 Twice a month they have Family Night at Chick-fil-a. Kids eat free, there is a clown that ties balloons ..oh and Santa Cow was there too. Plus of course the play place. It was great!

 

Devin really is our hilarious little munchkin. One of his latest tricks is faking dead....He does this many times a day. It's usually funny...but sometimes also a little annoying (like when we are trying to get him dressed!). Notice his tongue?

Back to more work on our blasted window...Matt plastered it, let it dry and sanded away. It took him about 4 hours to get it smooth. Luckily I covered our couches with sheets, because we found a layer of dust all over our entire main floor, even back in the kitchen. It was a mess! But at least we did the most deep cleaning we've probably ever done since we moved in. He's working machine!

 Next day we took off to the children's museum! Every year for about 6 months, during the winter, they get this awesome sand exhibit. It's a big room just full of sand. We spent almost 2 hours in that room! We loved it!

 Matt convinced Devin to climb this tower (we had a 3 yr old and 5 yr old with us that wouldn't even do it)...but alas...Matt had to shimmy up there and get him out. It was quite entertaining for myself and like 6 other parents to watch. 

 Lots of shoveling.

Texas Roadhouse Grill (our fav).

A night in Kirtland to see the Nativity exhibits...

 We opened some presents from our cousins...the boys thought they were awesome (especially since we let them open them on Christmas eve eve).

 Christmas Eve....

 Daddy made snowman pancakes for breakfast.

 Luke's list to Santa.

 A morning at the bowling alley...

I love this little face!

 Some money spent at the arcade and lunch at Five Guys.

 And just like his birthday, he requested to wear swim shorts when we got home for his nap. 

By the way....also during this week he went on a no-napping strike and one afternoon I went to check on him and found little toes poking under the door. I opened the door and he was completely naked and his dresser was totally empty. He had his swimming suit in his hand and said, "Mommy, let's go swimming!"

And in case you are wondering...he is back to the naps and my life has been saved!

My next post is a much more detailed Christmas one.

But a glimpse of Christmas morning....

(Notice our window?!! Well, a little. We finished it after a couple hours of painting, then cleaning like crazy and putting everything back together, just in time before Christmas Eve. YAY!)

 Luke and Dev got a bunch of Play-doh stuff this year...but I think this one was more for me. :) An ice cream shoppee (I need a little girl).

 The day after a good friend was willing to watch our boys for a good 4 hours or so and Matt and I went to the new Les Miserables movie. I cried like a baby through almost the whole thing...but I pretty much LOVED it too (except for a few parts, but you really can't beat Hugh Jackman). We also had a blizzard, so that night the boys played and did lots more shoveling.

I asked Luke to clean his room and a few days later found this mess up in our guest room....Nice.

 Dev got a train for Christmas. It was very simple and he absolutely loves it.

This is one of his many "funny faces."

 And eventually Matt did have to return to work (sniff, sniff) and I ventured out to shovel our extremely long  driveway, yes by hand. Did you know that ALL of our neighbors have snow blowers and think thatwe are so lame that we don't (even though we are in better shape!! :)....I may have had a bit (or a lot) of snow blower-envy that day...and a back ache. #pregnancymakesmeawhimp