Christmas Eve

Twas the night before Christmas and all the house, everyone was stirring even the dogs. To celebrate the long awaited day of the year, we had our traditional family Christmas party at our house. All of the Astolfos and Bartels shared in the merriment and were surprised to see Santa walk through the door. Santa decided the boys made the "Nice List" and were able to open one present from Grandma and Boompa. As soon as Brady unwrapped his new golf clubs, Cash had to run to the closet to pull out his old bag to size them up against Brady's set. Sweet boy!

PaPa and Granny

BoomPa and Grandma

Uncle Steve and Uncle Scott

John and Cousin Macie

Aunt Betty

Kasey and Bubba

Brady, Cash, and Mommy doing our annual Santa check up the fireplace before Night Night time.

Christmas

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way! I put a set of jingle bells on Brady's door so I could hear as soon as it opened because we didn't want to miss Brady's face of astonishment when he saw all of his toys. Much to my dismay, they weren't needed because he never woke up. Due to the day's hectic schedule, we had to eventually go get him which Brady later informed me, "Mommy, there's one problem, I was supposed to come wake you up." I think he's seen too many commercials. The first thing Brady saw was their new musical trampoline. He started bouncing right away. Greg and I have yet to move it upstairs because we love watching their happy faces as they jump.

Toys, Toys, and More Toys!

Drum roll, here it is! The only present Brady has asked for any time he sees Santa. Spiderman! And not just Spiderman. Spiderman with a webslinger, and a belt, and a button that you push, and that talks! This is the same response in the same order that Brady said every time you asked him what he wanted.

After all of the toys, would you believe that the favorite toy of the day was a BOX! Brady and Cash had the best time pushing each other around in Cash's Crazy Coupe Box all afternoon. Santa will try to remember this next year. Ho Ho Ho!

All Aboard!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Chug-a, Chug-a, Choo, Choo! While Cash was sick at home with Daddy, Brady and Mommy headed out to Jackson's 2nd birthday party. And what a party it was! Not only was there a train ride through the neighborhood to see Christmas lights, but also the train had a very special passenger...Santa! Afterwards Santa even came inside Jack's house to give everyone a jingle bell and read us a book...we BELIEVE!

Pottery Party and Park

Friday, December 18

Brady, Cash, and their friends had a fun party at Arts of Glaze. They painted, colored, played with play-do, and most importantly made some Christmas gifts. Speaking of gifts, check out the awesome superhero capes Kellie MADE the boys. They are even personalized on the back with a "B" and a "C" so they can be "real" superheroes and chase each other around the house. Thank you Kellie for the best gift ever!

No, you are not seeing double (or quadruple), Brady, Cash, Nathan, and Nolan are all wearing the same outfit. I must admit Kellie and I do buy a lot of the same clothes just because there is not a big selection of boy clothes out there and we tend to have the same taste. But, today, neither one of us knew the other had the shirts or knew we would pick the same day to wear them. It was totally random; regardless, the four musketeers look pretty darn cute!

Holiday Lunch

Wednesday, December 16

Every year, Grandma and Boompa take the boys to lunch at the Champions Clubhouse to see the pretty decorations and lights. This year, the main attraction was a huge dinosaur that the boys could feed leaves and ride. I'm still not quite sure how the triceratops fit into the holiday theme but the boys loved it.

Gingerbread House

Sunday, December 13

Brady could not wait to make his gingerbread house today with Cash. Brady's very detailed and precise (I have no idea where he gets that from) so it actually turned out pretty good. As soon as they were finished, Brady asked when we could eat it. Run, run, run as fast as you can gingerbread man or Brady and Cash are going to get you!

a very merry Christmas party

Saturday, December 12

Ho! Ho! Ho! Tonight was our Christmas party with our extra special guest, Santa. We had jolly good time with all of our friends and their kids, 20 to be exact. It was a full house to say the least. The highlight of the party was watching the kids' eyes light up with joy with the surprise arrival of Santa and then their anticipation to see what gift St. Nick had for them in his big red bag.

PG-13 ***not indended for kids' eyes or ears

Thank you so much Uncle Steve for coming from the Austin's North Pole to delight the kids. It's a family tradition that I would like to do every year but don't know how much longer we can. When I was putting Brady to bed he said, "You know Mommy, I thought Santa was Uncle Deve." I asked why and he replied, "He sounded like him and I didn't hear his reindeer." I was able to convince Brady otherwise, but Uncle Scott if you are reading this, your services might be needed next year.

Santa's Workshop

Friday, December 11

Tonight we had wonderful time visiting Santa, playing games, decorating cookies, and taking a hayride at Mommy's old community center. Brady couldn't wait to see Santa and to our surprise Cash sat like a big boy on Santa's lap and didn't cry at all. It was so much fun to see all of Mommy's old friends and watch the boys enjoy what used to be a big part of Mommy's life.

Christmas Program

Our shining star. Brady's "swavorite" Baby Jesus song.

"Ugh" from the "Pharaoh, Pharaoh" song.

Everyone dressed in their Christmas best.

Proud Brady in his classroom next to his "docking."

Poor Cash is so ready to go to school but can't until next year.

Thursday, December 12

Tonight Mommy, Daddy, Cash, Grandma, Boompa and Granny all loaded up to see our shining star, Brady, perform in his Christmas program. As expected, he did wonderful. We were pretty impressed to see that not only did Brady know the words, he also knew the gestures that went along to the song. Our favorite act was "Pharaoh, Pharaoh, oh baby, let our people go, ugh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah" sung to the tune of "Louie, Louie." I don't think there was a person in the audience who wasn't laughing, it was hysterical. I still can not get the song out of my head. Brady's favorite song was about the new star in his life, Baby Jesus.

I think our nightly "talent shows" have paid off because Brady showed no fear singing in front of the probably two hundred people. (For the last few months, the boys have been performing for Mommy and Daddy. They go upstairs and either sing, dance, play instruments, or have puppets shows while we sit on the couch and watch from below.)

Let It Snow

Friday, December 4

We had “snow” much fun playing in our little winter wonderland today. When it started snowing around nap time, I took the boys out to see the snow. My plan was to let them see the flurries fall for a few minutes, take a nap and then go back outside afterwards to play in the collected snow on the ground. Being from Houston myself, I wanted to see it as much as they did. Well after putting the boys in their beds, I walked downstairs and couldn't believe how hard the snow was falling. I immediately ran back up the stairs, got the boys out of bed and took my snow bunnies outside so they wouldn’t miss the rare occasion.

We went with Daddy on the golf course and ran around like crazy trying to catch snow in the course water cups to make our own snow cones. Then I had the most brilliant idea ever: We took a huge box from the garage and went sledding down the hills. Yes, we went sledding behind our house, something I never thought would happen! The boys had a blast going up and down the hills over and over again until the snow finally stopped falling. It’s a day we will never forget and I’m so happy we were all together to share in the fun. We only had a few nosedives and no broken bones, not too bad for beginners.

Brady wants to know now when we can go sledding again. Hopefully it will snow in Houston again while the boys are still small enough to fit in a cardboard box!