Playing Pretend a Little Too Well...

A funny conversation from lunch today:

The boys and I were sitting at the table eating our lunch, when I noticed that Ben has devoured his veggie corn dog, but has not touched his sweet potato fries - something he loves and usually gobbles up.

So I say, "Ben, do you want to eat your french fries?"

And he says, "No. He's sad" holding up the littlest fry on his plate.

So, I reply, "Oh no. Why's he sad?"

Ben: "Want Daddy."

Me: "The french fry is sad because he wants his Daddy?"

Ben: "Yes" as he scoots the little fry to sit next to the longest french fry on his plate. "Dis Daddy. Dis Brother." (this is Daddy, this is brother) as he scoots another little fry over to the two.

So I say "What about Mommy? Where's she?"

Ben: "No see her." (I don't see her)

Drew - ready to be a part of the conversation too - looks right at Ben and says very matter of factly, "Mommy a Car-get." (Mommy's at Target).

Possibly I should go one week without visiting our home away from home.

A Holly Jolly Christmas

This past weekend we were able to celebrate Christmas with Michael's side of the family. MawMaw and PawPaw braved the terrible Midwest weather and came to see us...although it was warm here until they came, so we think they must've brought the cold winter weather with them. ;) We took them to see the lights at the Opryland Hotel; something we like to do every year. We missed going last year, though, so this was the first time the boys really enjoyed it. Here are our little guys in front of the HUGE christmas tree of lights....or as Drew and Ben kept saying "the BIG wock-et". Try as we might, we couldn't convince them that it was a Christmas tree. It was definitely a rocket to them. The Grandparents and the boys behind one of the waterfalls.
Here is our best attempt to get a family picture. Unfortunately for me they were much more interested in running as fast as they could all over the place than posing for a photo-op.

And then we capped off the evening with cookies while looking at the twinkle lights. Of course, they each just had to pick out their own cookie, and no one was surprised that they each picked out a sugar cookie topped with a huge snow-ball sized mound of icing, complete with red and green "pwink-uls" on top. Needless to say the sugar rush that ensued was more than us four grown-ups could handle in a place that big.
We decided that since it was rainy and cold on Saturday that we'd just have our own version of Christmas morning. I made us all breakfast and we all exchanged presents. Ben had a great time opening everyone's presents, while Drew really enjoyed playing with whatever had just been opened.
Here they are playing with two of the new games that Dressie, Aunt Chelle and Uncle Dan gave them: Lucky Ducks and Splish Splash Fish. Both are cute little games that they have had a ball playing with.
But for sure the biggest hit of all was a choo-choo train that MawMaw and PawPaw gave them. They both love choo-choos, and have played with it almost non-stop. I wouldn've put a few more pictures of them tearing into all the boxes and paper, but somehow I ended up in all of the pictures the boys are in. And let's just be honest, there's no need for the whole world to see me in my pj's with no make-up and bed-head. We'll try to do better when we do Christmas again next weekend.

It was a great weekend, and my buddies are taking looong naps to recover from all the fun. The only thing that was missing was Dressie, Aunt Chelle and Uncle Dan who weren't able to come this year. We sure did miss you!!!

That's about all we have going on for now. Thanks for checking in on us....more Christmas pics to come soon!

Better Not Pout, Better Not Cry?

We officially kicked off our holiday season this weekend with our church's annual Breakfast with Santa. We always look forward to such a special event - the team that puts this on ALWAYS does an amazing job - and this year didn't disappoint.

We began with a time of worship in the sanctuary, followed by breakfast, then stood in line to get our picture made with the Big Guy, and then should have made Christmas pillow cases as the craft. But we had to skip out on the Christmas craft this year since we had so much else going on and nap time was well upon us. Here's Michael entertaining Drew as we stood in line to wait: The boys seemed to be excited about getting to see Santa since we've been talking about him, and we had told them that they would get to sit on his lap and tell him one thing they'd like to have for Christmas (as if they don't have any toys to play with, and need more). They were fine while we waited in line. They were fine as we stood ready to go next. They were fine when we sat them on his lap. And then......
...This is what happened when Ben saw me walk away from him. Never mind that I was still in eyesight and standing less than 4 feet in front of him, he still didn't like Santa.
Drew, on the other hand, did great and was really interested in his beard. I'm telling you, that kid never meets a stranger. But Ben? Well, all the coaxing and bribing in the world wasn't going to get that sweet boy to calm down for a good picture. What worked, you ask?
Sitting on Mommy's lap while very politely telling Santa that he'd like to have more cars, "pwease". If you look closely, you can almost see the half smile that Ben finally gave him. Almost.

We Really ARE Thankful....

....I just forgot to post about our Thanksgiving fun at MawMaw and PawPaw's house. And honestly, I didn't really take that many pictures either. I know, I'm falling down on the job altogether. But I'm back in the swing of things [sort of] and I figure I'd better get caught up in my posts since this is such a busy time of year. I'm sure there'll be plenty to take pictures of in the coming weeks.

Basically we've been going non-stop around here. Last night Michael and I got back from a quick little trip to New York, where he had some work to do, and I tagged along with him to keep him company. We had fun, and I had never seen the city during the holidays, but we are so glad to be home with our buddies.

Coincidentally, our good friends Jeff and Laurie were in the city at the same time. So we had dinner with them one night, and then went for brunch and ice skating in Rockefeller Plaza the next morning. Lots of fun to be with the one you love AND some good friends there during Christmas.

Here are a few pictures.

There are plenty more pictures, but I figured I'd leave it at these since - after all - this blog is supposed to be about Drew and Ben. ;)

We are sooo in the Christmas Spirit around here. The boys are excited about getting some "pwe-sents" from Santa, but we're trying really hard to reinforce that giving the presents to others and remembering the birth of Jesus is really what it's all about....But let's just face it: they're two and really only understand that there are pwesents under the tree. Oh well...here's hoping for next year.

Thanks for checking in on us. Hope everything is merry and bright for you too!