New Year's Eve party

This is a picture of my 2 year old up at midnight with glowsticks, an exhausted face and sugary lips. What a mess he was the following day as you can imagine! We spent New Year's Eve with our friends the Souder's and Taylor's. The boys ran around with the other children playing bball, games, eating and watching movies. We all brought some type of Asian food and had a really yummy spread of food! The adults laughed HARD with the game Quelf. So fun to have belly laughs! We wore our robes for comfy fun and I got a distracted hubby to give me a New Year's kiss (he had been trying to get Levi down for a quick nap b/c he was melting down, but I made him come out for the countdown). Happy New Year! Let's have a healthy baby, get back into shape, give our kids some solid life skills and maybe even switch jobs? 

Wesley's 10 bday

A tradition that we have for our boys' birthday is to make them whatever breakfast they want, as well as have the brother's make them homemade cards. Wesley's special day was no exception! He came downstairs to chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream and a fruit smoothie. Homemade cards from Isaac included a rainbow and Austin made him a birthday crown. He then opened up his gifts; a robe, new shoes and a basketball (which Levi still thinks is his and cries over it whenever Wesley tries to play with it). That night we took the boys to Uptown Alley here in Surprise for bowling. They loved it! Didn't take them too long to figure out how it works, especially with the bumpers and dad around to help. I had my own bowling ball in my belly so I enjoyed watching from the sidelines. I love spending time with our boys when they are happy and enjoying themselves! Feels great to have a family. 

Christmas/bday dinner

We were invited to celebrate Wesley and Jared's birthday/Christmas dinner at Ms Jan and Gpa Lowe's house. What a delight it is to have family nearby! Ms Jan made a lovely turkey dinner spread with all the fixings, and of course soda, which the boys loved!  We later opened Christmas presents; animal blankets, jackets, and robes. We celebrated Jared's birthday with his favorite breakfast; hashbrowns, fried eggs, bacon, fruit smoothie and biscuits. Homemade cards were included (my favorite was Wesleys' cartoon drawing of a muscle man with Jared's photo of his head on the top). Happy 34th dadeeee!

Christmas

The big day was almost here! Lots of gift wrapping (some done while in Utah), guessing on what gifts could be under the tree, cinnamon rolls prepped the night before, and an intense game of Monopoly with Grandma Wilson! We spent Christmas Eve being spiritually fed with some nice videos on the Savior, as well as reading from the bible of His birth. We read some Christmas books and it was really nice.
Christmas morning we have a tradition of reading the "gifts" we have done for Jesus throughout the month and then putting those acts of service inside the gift box. Since we had Gma and Pipa Wilson with us, we invited them to participate as well. I think the boys recognize that Christmas is more about the Savior vs. gifts and they were happy to do that too.
One by one we opened up the gifts and tried to take our time so that the boys would recognize and enjoy the moments. I don't even remember most of the gifts given or received; a few basketballs, pocket knives, a bracelet loom, candies, some slippers and perfume. Every year the magic comes and goes so quickly, but hopefully our boys felt Christ's love in our home and special in our hearts.