happy valentine's day!

posted by owen and everett

for valentine's day, mommy and daddy made the whole day really special by serving food that was either in the shape of hearts, or was red or pink. everything was super yummy. we even wore red for the day and played really well together.

strawberry heart pancakes, heart-shaped bacon and homemade
strawberry milk for breakfast

heart pizzettes for dinner

zoob building

posted by owen

i finally got the hang of the zoob's that santa brought me. i kept pinching my fingers on them, but now i've figured out how to put them together.

piece of cake

i'm building something really cool...trust me

the sleepover

posted by owen

i got to have my first sleepover...with daddy! mommy and daddy figured it would be a nice treat and good practice so i know what a sleepover actually is. daddy and i got to eat homemade pizza and watch "finding nemo" followed by a trip to sonic for dessert and a few games of candyland in our fort. we finished the night with watching "planes" in our fort, which required a late bed time. daddy slept in my fort with me all night. it was so much fun! mommy took care of everett so it was just me and daddy for the entire evening.

our fort...thanks for the help mommy

it was so cool!

everett got to spend the evening with mommy

and i got awesome daddy time

a tale of two playtimes

posted by mommy and daddy

with our busy schedules, it seems that we don't have many opportunities to post anything these days and when we do, it's like several posts at one time. owen and everett have been interacting more and more lately now that everett is walking (he's also practicing his running, which is adorable). there always seems to be two playtimes, one with everett and one without everett. as you would expect, owen would prefer the latter.

the playtime without everett...all is peaceful and organized

everett awake from his nap...he took his shirt off during his nap

not sure if they are hugging or fighting

we were finally able to put his shirt on...

...only to have him take his pants off. owen giving everett the rules

merry Christmas!

posted by mommy and daddy

the scene all set for Christmas morning...yule log on tv with music, 
candle lit, warm vanilla milk ready, and coffee brewing.
(grammie is still working on everett's stocking, so his is a stand-in)

goodies left out for santa and his reindeer

a thank you note from santa and his thank you gifts to the boys

the sausage cheese ball never left everett's hand, 
even when it was his turn to open his gift from santa!

owen opened his santa gift and everett just kept
holding his sausage cheese ball!

finally a reason to put away that sausage cheese ball

stockings full of toothbrushes, movies, playdough tools, 
trains, zoo animals, and phones!

and new sandwich cutters - fun, fun, fun!

santa during Christmas

posted by mommy and daddy

we wrestled with the whole santa thing for quite some time until we decided that we wanted to figure out a way to incorporate the magical idea of santa along with celebrating Christ's birth. we both remember how magical and fun it was to wake up to gifts delivered by santa and how special it made Christmas. so we didn't want to give up creating that feeling for our boys. we decided to make sure our kids know that santa himself knows that Christ is the center of Christmas and that he too understands that Christ is the greatest gift of all. our decision was to have santa deliver personalized bags a few weeks before Christmas and tell the boys that he would like for them to put some of their toys in the bags for santa to fix up and deliver to other boys and girls who don't have much. he would then thank them by putting a new toy in the bag on Christmas day. the bags were wrapped nice and came with a neat little poem (written by daddy!) for the boys to read.

Christmas bags delivered by santa

santa's letter

texas sized thanksgiving

posted by owen and everett

we spent thanksgiving in texas with umma and uppa this year and had a blast. we got lots of new things to play with including the disney planes movies and planes toys. they also got owen his own bed from ikea. it has a fold out bed under it so both of us can use it at some point. while there, we got to visit friends, go to the park and eat lots of yummy food. it was also everett's first plane ride and he did great.

everett enjoying his new toy

owen enjoying everett's new toy

um, shouldn't the older one be pushing the younger one?

no remote needed on this remote control car

owen loved his new cars

everett playing with the doggies

umma helping everett with his snack

ready for thanksgiving dinner

owen especially enjoyed the cornbread

warm hooded towel from umma and uppa

each boy got his very own

everett was not a fan of this furry hat

everett smiling

owen smiling