Christmas 2011 at Grandma and Grandpa Hunter's House!

Christmas was such a fun time of year to visit Iowa! It gave us many opportunities to see so many people since they were in town for the holidays - friends, neighbors and family. Although I don't have many pictures of everyone, it was great to see them and catch up.

For Christmas Eve, we enjoyed a wonderful chili dinner at the Witte's house. It's become an annual tradition and we were thrilled that this year we got to join in the fun. The boys had a good time watching some of their first old fashioned Christmas movies. Liam loved Rudolph and was intrigued by the Abominable Snowman.

When we got home from the Witte's house, the boys put out a plate of cookies for Santa. Surprisingly, they didn't steal a bite. I guess they didn't want to risk upsetting the Big Guy since presents were involved.

"So you're telling me that Santa comes through this little opening with a bag of toys?"

It worked! Santa brought a lot of toys!!

Liam happily posing with the gifts from Santa! What a great day!

Santa brought Dylan a doctor's kit. Here Liam is listening to the baby's heartbeat on the stethoscope. Recently, Dylan was on antibiotics and Liam enjoyed helping me push the syringe of medicine into Dylan's mouth. I asked him if he was going to be a doctor when he grows up. He responded, "No, when I grow up, I'm going to get a dinosaur shirt." Okay.

Testing out the Stomp Rocket. See the foam rocket flying through the air. It will be lots of fun this summer in the backyard but in the meantime, the foam rockets are just fine to fly through the house.

Grandpa and Liam check out the talking Big Buzz Lightyear. This was the ONLY thing he wanted Santa to bring and thank goodness Santa's elves knew out to make one. He was so excited by it!

Dylan got a talking Big Woody doll. Woody wasn't exactly as huge of a hit as Buzz was but once we figured out that we needed to move the dial on his back from "Try Me" to "Play", he suddenly became much cooler. At first he was only saying the same three phrases over and over, but with the flick of the dial, the number of phrases he said quadrupled.  

Dylan "fishing" with Grandma.

The boys are very physical right now, climbing on everything. I asked Santa to bring some "energy buster" toys. These Bilibo toys have a variety of uses. Here the boys are spinning in them.

And, here Liam is using it as a helmet.

Although it's blurry, I love this photo. I think Liam is telling Dylan, "This Santa-thing is great! Look at all the toys we got!" Or maybe he's saying, "Don't even think about touching my stocking!"

Relaxing on the couch with their new fleece Cars blanket. A woman my dad works with makes them and last year Liam got a Toy Story one. It is the most comfortable blanket ever. This year Dylan got his own cozy blanket.

What a wonderful Christmas spent at Grandma and Grandpa Hunter's house! 

A Trip to Iowa for Christmas

Wow! The last two months have flown by so quickly!  So quickly, in fact, that I haven't had a chance to keep the blog updated. I have a lot of fun things to share and the kids have changed so much! 

I'll begin with our amazing Christmas in Iowa! When we arrived, Grandpa Hunter surprised the kids with this wonderful Christmas light display in the backyard. They loved it and took turns turning on and off the lights each day with the remote. Although I don't have a picture of it, Grandpa added a lighted daschund to the display in honor of Frankie, my brother John's family dog.   

The boys loved standing at the sliding door to watch their friends in the backyard. Since it was dark in the morning when they woke up (usually around 5am since they couldn't seem to adjust to the time zone change), the display kept them entertained in the morning and before bedtime.

My Aunt Rose and Uncle Bill generously hosted my mom's side of the family for a pre-Christmas Christmas! It was a great opportunity to see my Aunts, Uncles, Grandma and so many of my cousins. Many of my cousins hadn't even met Liam so it was fun to introduce them to the family. The boys had fun with Cousin Michael.

Dylan relaxed with Cousin Sam.

We were also happy to see Cousin Kate and her husband Chaz. They had finished two years of teaching English in South Korea over the summer and now live in Ames.

And, we got to meet the newest member of the family, Kieran, born in September. Here's Great Grandma with her great grandsons.

The boys loved the baby. It was good practice for them to be gentle with the baby!

A rare family picture!

A belly shot! This picture is taken at 26 weeks.

The boys love their Great Grandma!

It was a fun day filled with lots of good food and catching up with everyone. We played the "left-right" present game and everyone had a good laugh when opening up their white elephant gifts. We got a hand boiler and a weather wood. Since you probably have no idea what those two things are, they were true white elephant gifts. The family also did some caroling. I think Liam especially enjoyed hearing everyone sing The 12 Days of Christmas. Unfortunately, the stomach flu blew through almost the entire family after this gathering but since it was only a 24 hour bug, I have to say that it was worth being able to see everyone. Looking forward to the next visit with everyone and introducing another little one to the family. 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

The Christmas Season has officially arrived at our house!  And, it began immediately after Thanksgiving ended.

We took a trip to the Holiday Train Show at the NYC Botanical Gardens the weekend after Thanksgiving.  It was a perfect day for walking the gardens.  It didn't even cross my mind to bring sunblock since it's not summer but we left without any sunburns.  The boys loved the huge Christmas tree made out of three, large individual trees!

Me and my boys!

Our family with the gingerbread family.  (This photo is also on our Christmas card so pretend you haven't seen it yet!)

Dylan exploring the gingerbread house.

The boys enjoyed the butterfly chairs.  This is our second visit to the chairs that day because Liam loved them so much.

Dylan wasn't sure what to think of this giant insect made out of pine cones.

Our little rock climber.

After strolling the gardens, we finally made it to the Holiday Train Show.  The boys loved watching all the trains throughout the exhibit but the most excitement we saw from them was when the train Percy from Thomas and Friends came around the corner.  

Here is a close up shot of the little models in the train show.  You can see Radio City Music Hall, the Empire State Building (minus the top) and the Chrysler Building.  They are mostly wooden, made out of different parts of nuts, plants and trees.    

Still loving the trains.

It was a lot of work trying to keep the kids away from the models and train tracks, and from wandering away from us into the crowd.  Everything went well until right near the end of the tour.  We were so excited to find the Van Cortlandt Manor model since it's right in our town so we wanted to take a picture with the kids.  During this photo op, with mom and dad distracted, Dylan took the opportunity to remove a tiny, delicate, stick staircase from Van Cortlandt Manor while Liam decided to put his mouth on the wooden railing and blow bubbles.  We decided it was time to go so we picked them both up and headed for the exit!

Christmas continues... On December 1st, we attended our town's tree lighting with some of our neighbors.  The boys followed around this Toy Soldier on stilts.

The best shot I could get of the boys in front of the tree after the countdown to light it.

Dylan wanted to pull the lights off the tree while I tried to get a quick picture.  He kept touching the bulbs and saying, "Hot".  Since they hadn't been on for too long, thankfully they were really just warm!

Liam's turn to pose with the tree.

On December 2nd, I took the boys to the mall to meet Santa and for the annual picture of the kids on Santa's lap.  While taking the picture, Santa said, "I think they're falling asleep."  I think they were just in shock.  The looks on their faces are the exact same as last year.  When we got home, Neil asked Liam if he told Santa what he wanted for Christmas.  Liam said, "Yes, I told him I wanted a Big Buzz Lightyear and he gave me a snowman ball."  He sounded so disappointed.  We realized that Liam thought he was going to be bringing his gift home that day!  

"Mommy, can we take this giant giraffe home with us?"  Maybe he thought that taking home a big giraffe was close enough to a big Buzz Lightyear and certainly much better than a little snowman ball.

Meeting Santa, eating an Elmo frosted cookie and getting to wear these awesome antlers.  What a great trip to the mall!

On December 3rd, Daddy and Dylan went on a mission to find our Christmas tree and wreath.  Liam and I stayed home since he had a fever.  Here's Dylan proudly posing with his wreath:

These green balls look like lots of fun!

Daddy and Dylan came home with this cute, little Charlie Brown Christmas tree since we won't actually be home for Christmas.  It was the perfect size for the boys to decorate and since it's small, we were able to put it up high.  We knew that if we put it on the floor, Dylan wouldn't be able to keep his hands off of it and so far, we haven't had any ornaments pulled off!

Just making sure the tree skirt is perfect.  (And, a belly shot!)

Dylan got to hang an ornament, too!

Last weekend, Liam and I went to Sunset Park with our friends to meet Santa who arrived on a fire truck.  Here we are posing with Santa in the Park:

With Christmas songs playing in our house and a little countdown to light the tree everyday, the kids are really enjoying this season.  We can't wait to travel to Iowa to see Grandma and Grandpa Hunter for Christmas!  (I hope Santa reads this so he knows where to find Liam & Dylan on Christmas morning!)

Thanksgiving 2011

For Thanksgiving, we hosted Neil's family at our house.  We started cooking early in the morning and although it's not easy to cook with two little ones running around, they were actually really good at entertaining themselves that morning. We all enjoyed watching the balloons, bands and singers in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Liam was on the edge of his seat waiting for the Buzz Lightyear balloon.  I think it was much more exciting to him than Santa Claus.

While watching the parade, the boys were assigned to the table decoration committee.  They used their amazing artistic talents to decorate the turkey place cards.

Although we only had 6 people for dinner (plus 2 small children who don't really eat much), we cooked a 19 pound turkey!  Our first time cooking a turkey and it turned out really well!

After dinner, the guys played a little football.

Liam running for a touchdown!

Dessert time!  We had pecan pie, pumpkin cheesecake, molasses cookies and an assortment of pastries.  Yum!  And, Uncle Tim brought homemade Coquito, a Puerto Rican Coconut Milk-Rum drink that Neil's dad used to make every year.  Grandpa Rudden had originally gotten the recipe from someone he worked with so it's an annual tradition that is continuing in his honor.

We had a great day catching up with family and eating lots of delicious food.  Thanksgiving is always a good time to remember how much we have to be thankful for.  We're very thankful for our wonderful families (especially our two little boys) and that the cooking directions on our turkey recipe allowed us to cook an edible turkey!  Phew! Thanksgiving was a success.