Our Big Christmas Announcement!!

On Christmas day we let the boys know that we had received an amazing gift from God and are going to be having baby #3 in July (you will note a countdown ticker on the side now)!! We also made the announcemet to our families. For my parents, we gave them a Christmas card with an ultrasound picture. Then, later in the day, when all of Dan's family arrived we let them in on the excitement too. I have spent the last couple of days letting other in on our news and now it has become official on here! We are very excited and feel very blessed!

A Wonderful Christmas Day!!

The boys were up by 6:10 this morning excited to go downstairs and check out if Santa had been here. We began our day opening many wonderful presents. Caleb got his treasured Lego "Mars Mission" set he asked Santa for and Elton got his crash up cars (among other things). Dan's big gift was a flight simulator remote helecopter. I got a cool new tiny little camera that I can keep in my purse.

After all the presents were opened, Dan was very busy with assembling toys for the boys. I cooked up a huge breakfast skillet for breakfast and we all enjoyed "Candy Cane" coffee. After breakfast, Papa Jack took the boys to the garage for one more surprise - a Jeep for them to drive. They both loved it, but Elton spent most of his morning in the garage with Papa Jack practicing his new driving skills. Not a long break before preparation began for Dan's family to come over. By noon we had a 17lb prime rib cooking. In the afternoon I made us all a "Christmas Cream" Latte.

Dan's family joined us around 3:30. By 5pm the prime rib was ready as were all the fixings to go with it. We had a wonderful meal!! We then opened a few more presents and were faced with dessert. The choices were a fruit trifle (I made) and strawberry cheesecake. In the end most of us ended up sampling both.

Now get this, the boys were totally excited to take a bath when everyone left because they received bath sets with foam soap. They went to bed eagerly with new stories to listen to with their TJ bear they got last year and new Baby Einstein books. When I checked on them a little bit ago they were passed out side by side in Elton's bed with flashlights still on from looking at their books. It was too cute.

We Are Ready!

We are ready and excited for Christmas! Nana and Papa Jack arrived this past Sunday afternoon for the holidays. Caleb had his last day of school and party yesterday. He brought home his #5 reading book and the teacher informed me that he fixed one of their computers that they thought they were going to need a part for. We don't let Caleb use our home computer often and we were quite surprised by this. When I asked him how he knew how to fix it he said from watching "How It's Made"!

I have been excited each day to check the mail for Christmas cards. We finished our shopping a few weeks ago and all of the presents are wrapped. We are just going to hang out and enjoy the next few days so I will try to update a little more often.

Of Singing And Gingerbread!!

Last Monday I delivered surprises of little Christmas boxes with some of the sugar cookies we made. On Wednesday evening, Caleb had his school Christmas concert where they shared Christmas songs telling the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus. He also sang again in church on Sunday. On Sunday afternoon, Dan and I took Caleb to the movies to "Enchanted" and we all loved it. The weather has cooled off and we have gotten a couple of good snows with things really starten to slicken the roads up. Last night we broke out the gingerbread train kit and had a fun. Caleb loved helping to decorate, but all Elton wanted to do was eat the candy. This morning he snuck downstairs, got the stool up to our counter and helped himself. When I came down quite a few of the candies were gone off our decorating!!

More Reading Progress!

Today when I dropped Caleb off for school the teacher wanted to talk to me. She said that Caleb is doing so well with his reading (book #5), that she was wanting to start him on a special workbook that she showed me. I couldn't believe it! I am so proud of how he is doing. When I picked him up he had completed his regular work papers as well as 3 pages in the new workbook with no mistakes!! Way to go Caleb!

The Countdown Has Begun!

I got our advent calender set up the other night and the countdown has begun! On Friday I made sugar cookie dough and on Saturday cut out, baked, and decorated over 100 sugar cookies with frosting and and crushed peppermints! Caleb helped me a little, but with the quantity I was doing it worked best to let me do the majority of it.

This afternoon the whole family went to the festival of trees and then to "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" at the cinema. We liked the movie and Caleb can't wait until it comes out on DVD.