Christmas 2014

Merry Christmas ya'll!  

Christmas morning dawned sunny and warmish, a nice change from from dreary, rainy weather we've had.  Being a little stir crazy, and not getting any play outside time because of the weather, we had hoped the boys might have a later start to the morning.  Henry agreed, his big brother did not.  We held Brant off until about 8 or so, woke Henry up with the promise of presents and let the wrapping paper fly! 

Kinda crabby...waking up slow.

Henry LOVES hexbugs.  He plays with his brother's all the time, so Santa brought him his own.

Mickey hand washcloths from Mom and Dad

So Henry took his time opening and playing with his toys.  Brant wanted to open everything, then play.  It was a lesson in patience!   It was a lovely morning, still slow paced, enjoying our coffee and Stollen, then french toast casserole and sausage.  We continued with our Christmas Day tradition of a walk to the park and some time on the playground.

It was a quiet day, but peaceful and a joyful reminder of the true reason for Christmas, Christ's birth. 

Twas the Night before Christmas....and a very, very belated blog post

Almost a year.  That's how long it's been since I've blogged.  I go back and forth between documenting and recording their sweetness, and enjoying the moments WITH them, not from behind the lens.  I'm going to try and balance it, because as Christmas was coming I found myself looking back at the blog from when Brant was Henry's age.  There were so many things that I wrote, insignificant at the time, but now forgotten memories.  I want to have that for Henry.  So while the blog might not be as well written, perfectly aligned, edited photos and all, it will be perfect for our family.  After all, that's why I do it. 

Little Brant said today, Christmas Day, "Mom, isn't it weird how we were in school and all and then all of a sudden it's actually Christmas?!"  So true little man, so true.  Our fall has been a blur...Mommy had a wisdom tooth out (out of commission for 3 days prior to..), Mommy went to Costa Rica on a school trip, we all took an amazingly awesome trip to Disney, Thanskgiving, basketball, Holiday events...wow.  It's suddenly Christmas!

Christmas Eve was a relaxed event around here, we had made cookies for Santa the day before (Daddy had to work the long shift!) The boys loved it, of course, and Grandma came up for some cookie fun. 

Henry began to lose interest and started to sprinkle flour on Brady.  He then progressed to eating the sprinkles and colored sugar.

 The cookie fun eventually led to a warm bath. Henry had eaten so many sprinkles his hands were colored!

 Daddy was off all day on Christmas eve, so we had our Christmas dinner then.  This left us free to play all day on Christmas!  Little Brant wanted to make place cards, so he wrote each of our names in his best cursive.

It's always special to eat off of Great Grandmother Dunny's plates.  

 Little Brant casually commented that Mommy didn't buy them matching jammies this year.  I didn't, because they don't exist in their sizes when I waited too long!  But I didn't forget!  After dinner and baths the boys got to open a present from Mommy and Daddy.

Sporting the new jammies for Christmas eve!

 It's always fun opening the presents from Aunt Carol and Uncle Jim.  Those two hit it right on the money each year!!

Giving it a good shake!

 Also in the box from Mommy and Daddy was the movie How to Train your Dragon 2.  After the obligatory photo in front of the tree, we all settled down to watch.

Sort of.  Henry is still convinced that the ornaments are "ittle toys!"

and Grandma...the Unger is strong with this one!

 Before you know it, that "little old elf so lively and quick" made a stop at our house and it was Christmas morning!

Phoenix Phamily Phun

 The snow messed up our plans, as our whole family was supposed to attend the First Pitch dinner for the Elon baseball team.  Seeing as it was rescheduled, Daddy had to work.  Mommy decided to take Brant and let Henry stay with Grandma, as it would have been past his bedtime.  We joined up with Brant's friend Christopher and his parents and had a very enjoyable evening.

The ball players were around and sat at the tables with us during dinner.  The boys enjoyed getting autographs, Brant's eyes were googling at all the baseball players!

Coach Kennedy signed Brant's poster as well.  Christopher's Daddy knows everyone really well.  The field is named after his father, who was a catcher for Elon. 

 Giving away door prizes, Christopher won an ice cream sundae.  He very nicely shared with Brant!

The players who sat at our table.  It seems like most were from Florida!

 Sunday we decided to go to a home game.  Donning our maroon we headed out to Latham Field.  A beautiful February Sunday, we even got hot!

Henry had had enough, and so had we, so heading home, we were able to enjoy the rest of the evening as a family!

A snowy Valentine's Day

The big snow couldn't stop our Valentine's Day celebration!  We had our traditional pancake breakfast with the boys!

Chocolate before breakfast?  Why not?

We found Brant a card that had a jet you could punch out and fly.  He loved it!

The boys also got Camelbak water bottles, as they both loved the ones Mommy and Daddy had. 

By this time we were getting a little bit squirrly in the house.  You  know, the difference between having a snow day and having it turn into 5 unplanned days off is planning.  I usually have some crafts planned, and other ideas to fill some time.  But this time we were just busy and crashed.   Brant had been begging to go sledding again, and as Henry wasn't feeling that well (the real reason he was not digging the snow the day before) Mommy took Brant for some sledding time.

A little snow surfing!

 We also decided it was high time to make a snow man!  That snow was so heavy we had to work together to lift the head on!

It was good to have some one on one time with Brant, and we were good and cold and tired!  Hot chocolate was calling our names!