More Pre-Christmas Fun

I guess we are starting a tradition of gingerbread house decorating.  I like making the gingerbread and then using the leftover from the house to make some cookies.  Kind of kills two birds with one stone I guess.  No sugar cookie decorating at this house at Christmas time.  The gingerbread is pretty tasty too.  The boys loved the sprinkles on the cookies.

I wish I could adequately relate how Ben says sprinkles.  It's so cute.  And he has a little hand motion that goes with it too.

And they really liked eating all the candy from the gingerbread house decorating.  Isaac picked off the candy the next few days too.  I couldn't keep him away from it.  Even when I tried to put it up high.  Oh well!

That's about what it looked like as it was finished...about.

Oh, and we saw Santa.  Sarah's girls wouldn't have anything to do with him. (To be fair, her youngest is only 4 months old).  And I was surprised at how timid Isaac was.  That's not typical.  Ben however, was just happy as a clam to climb on up on Santa's knee.  Eventually, with the help of candy canes from Santa, we reached this arrangement.  I think Isaac was mostly just a little bummed because we forgot his list he wanted to give Santa.  So he was a little shy and I had to help him ask Santa for the firetruck he wanted.  Once he got started though he was happy to give all the details about the lights and sounds the truck needed to make.

And though this has nothing to do with Christmas, it is a rather typical sight at our house.  Ben loves cutting.  I give him the real kid scissors too.  I'm not sure they are meant for kids that young but what are you going to do?  He will sit there on the floor cutting little pieces of the paper the whole time I'm fixing dinner.  And those are precious moments to have a child content.  So much more peaceful than the screaming an hungry whining that is often the case when Ben and Isaac try and play at that hour.  It's a rough time of day for kids.

Of course it also means I'm left with a lot of sweeping after dinner.  I'll take it.

This is how the boys sat to watch a Christmas show.  Isaac was convinced to put clothes on right before the show began but Ben was having none of it.  And he sat in the laundry basket.  Don't ask.  He's two.  Oh man is he two.  He does not love being dressed and screams and throws a fit all the time.  Thus, the nakedness.  I couldn't fight that battle that particular morning.  It's said that if you just give two year olds choices they are more cooperative.  Ben, not so much.  It goes like this. 

Me:  "Ben would you like this shirt or this shirt?" 

Ben:  "No! No clothes!"

Me:  "Ben, this shirt has a digger on it.  Isn't that so cool?!  Would you like the shirt with the digger or the stripes?"

Ben:  "NO!  NO CLOTHES!!!"

Me:  "I guess I'll choose."  

Screaming, weeping, wailing and tantrum ensues as I try to wrangle clothes on the child.  Too bad I have to run errands occasionally or I'd let him be in just his diaper all the time.  Ugh, independent little stinker.  Good thing he is super cute.

And then later that day we made spritz cookies for Santa.  Ben was finally convinced that wearing his turkey shirt would be awesome.

Again, this was total hit because of the sprinkles.  Oh, and the cookie eating too.

Cute Things

Oh man.  I love Christmas time with little kids.  Mine are especially fun this year.

The other night Isaac prayed that we would have a good Christmas, which I thought was cute.  And then he proceeded to ask Heavenly Father to help Santa come to our house.  Followed by "I'm Isaac, that's Ben and Mommy and Daddy.  Please tell Santa.  He's at the north pole."  Jacob and I were laughing pretty hard and then after Isaac closed the prayer he said "that was a good prayer huh?"  Yes, Isaac, yes it was.

Today after baths, the boys were playing a little bit with their towels.  Then Isaac said he wanted to be Mary as he put his towel over his head.  Ben said he would be Joseph.  Isaac mentioned needing a donkey.  We found a blanket to use as our donkey.  I told Ben he could ride the donkey and he said "No, Joseph.  Pull, donkey."  Of course his Joseph is far less clear than that but I can't quite remember how he said it and how to spell that to make you understand is even more out of the question.  But rest assured, it was adorable.  We proceeded to act things out with a stuffed elephant to act as a baby Jesus, Isaac agreed he'd rather be a Shepherd, I was Mary, and Jacob a wise man.  Then we had to scramble the roles and do it all again.  Fun boys.

We were delivering neighbor treats and one of our neighbors, also in our ward, was wearing a Santa hat as he just had gotten home from work.  He's an assistant principal at one of the elementary schools here and I'm sure he was dressed up for their last day of school before the break.  Ben stopped in his tracks and looked at Ryan and said "Santa."  Ryan and I both laughed because Ben was frozen in place with a look of awe about him.  Then Ryan and I began discussing what must be so convincing about his Santa outfit.  He suggested it was his belly, which is truly not nearly as big as Santa's.  I suggested it was the beard he is growing.  Ben just looked at us both and said "No. Hat."  Super funny,

Oh what fun!

December Happenings

We've stayed busy this December getting things ready to go for the Christmas festivities later this month.  We made some ornaments from pine cones we collected on our trip to Oregon this past summer.

We made easy fudge and did the rocky road variety.  Should be delicious.  Well, clearly the bowl licking was already delicious.

There was some fort building.  I was happy to lay in the fort and read to the boys as long as their attention would allow (Isaac indefinitely, Ben 2 minutes).

Isaac also pretended to be asleep for as long as he could keep his body still (30 seconds).

Of course we spent some time decorating the house and tree too.

We recently upgraded trees from the little one Jacob had when we were dating and then first married to this tree from Costco.  We put it up and couldn't get over how big it was.  Things look a lot smaller in the Costco warehouse!  But, we knew we wanted a big tree because we have such high ceilings.  I'm loving it.  What I'm not loving as much is trying to keep the boys from touching the tree.  But, so it goes.  I do want to look for some things post Christmas, like garland of some sort, that we will save for next year.  I'm just trying to decide what I might like.  I don't think I'm a huge fan of ribbon but it seems like there isn't a ton of options.  Maybe I'm not looking in the right places.  Any suggestions?

And I have more pictures of other fun preparations to come!

Totally Two

Happy Birthday Ben!  

I still can't believe this little babe is 2 years old.  Where did that go?  He sure does act like a two year old though.  Most notably, his talking has taken off.  He repeats everything especially if Isaac says it first.  He tries on every word possible and some of them are super funny.  He says granola, noyayaya, or something like that.  He repeated January so clearly when we were discussing when daddy's birthday was.  It was so funny to hear it so clearly.  He says "Santa" and "ho ho ho" and he called our Christmas stockings boots.  Adorable.  I was, however, a little sad to hear him say "Isaac" accurately.  He used to say "zozzie" and then one afternoon it was Isaac.  When I asked him what he just said he looked at me and said Isaac again like I was a moron.  I'm sure since he's heard it for two years saying it right doesn't seem that novel to him.

He has started getting more and more independent.  He has ideas of how he wants things and if they don't go that way then there is the typical two year old melt downs.  He was throwing a pretty good tantrum the night of his birthday because he didn't want to go to bed.  "No bed! No bed!"  I also hear the same thing at nap time "no nap, no nap."  

He's also still very sweet and snugly, when he wants to be.  He loves playing with Isaac and it's really fun to see them playing so imaginatively.  They can play together pretty well for short stretches of time.  It is really fun to see them getting along and growing together.

For Ben's birthday we celebrated the traditional Brunson way, with a birthday snake and special birthday plate and bowl.

We also tried to get some birthday boy photo.

But that's hard to do with an older brother who likes to be the center of attention, all the time.

And he must show off he is "two!"  Holding up just two fingers can be hard.

We made a "car cake" for Ben.  He loves cars and pretending he is driving.  He'll sit on anything he can and hold his hands out in front of him to steer his pretend wheel.  So cute.  He kept saying "car cake" over and over all day.  So excited about it.  

His car cake is complete with head lights, tail lights, wheels, and license plate with the number 2 of course.

There were also plenty of presents to open.

Isaac was especially excited for Ben to open his play kitchen because he helped me build and paint it during Ben's naps.  Well, some of it at least.  Most of it was done after both boys were in bed.  Much easier without a little helper by my side.

And then after dinner of "mac cheese" and green beans, the birthday boys request, we enjoyed cake and ice cream.  Ben can say few food items very clearly, bananas, fruit snacks, mac and cheese, and chicken nuggets.  About right for a 2 year old palate.

I didn't get the real blowing out the candle picture but Ben was happy to hold one and pretend he was blowing it out for me.  Love him!

Grandma and Grandpa Brunson gave Ben musical instruments.  The boys have both loved playing with them.  Not sure where Ben was but maybe running around the house as part of the marching band.  He especially loves playing the maracas and can say 'racas' pretty clearly.  

We certainly love our little Ben.  So happy he is part of our little family.