Graham made some good headway on his new form this week and Evan is advancing like crazy in his swim lessons. It is so great to see them both doing so well and enjoying things. So, that is keeping us busy busy leading up to Evan's big 2nd bday party on Saturday. He has been pretty Pooh crazy for awhile just like Graham was at two. So, we pulled out all of Graham's Pooh party supplies, added a few more goodies and Saturday was the big day.

We went to swim lessons that morning and then Evan got in a short nap and it was party time! It was a smallish party of family and a few friends but a very good time. Similar to Christmas, Evan didnt care much about opening gifts, he was much more interested in all the balloons and fun things! He got lots of goodies and seemed to have a really good time playing with all the other kids and generally being the center of attention! My parents stayed the night and Evan crashed hard at bedtime. We slept in Sunday morning and my parents played with the boys and we put the house back together and they headed out after lunch. Graham enjoyed playing with all Evan's new toys and Evan continued to be more interested in the balloons!

On Sunday evening, Graham and I headed back to choir practice. He is really enjoying it and seems to be doing very well. He has one more Sunday night practice and then they will perform the following Sunday, which he is most excited about! It will be really neat. We also went to a newcomer's reception at the priest's house this week and that went really well. We met a lot of nice people and got to talk to the priest a little bit and the kids had tons of kids to play with. We just really feel like this might be the church we can settle in, so that is exciting!

Next up, is Evan's actual birthday on Wednesday, I have leftover party stuff, goodie bags and will get cupcakes and take in. Graham is excited that he will get to leave his class and come and help me with Evan's class party!

We headed back to our first full week of work and school in a very long time! We had our usual activities and then regular work and meetings and we survived the week! Graham had his 6 week follow up at the ENT and his ear was all healed from getting the tube removed, so that was good! He also lost his 3rd tooth last week, he started saying it was bothering him about a week earlier and he just kept at it and kept wiggling it and it finally came out, he pulled it himself in front of the mirror. The tooth fair brought him "two one dollars" again! The next one is pretty loose as well, that will be all four on the bottom! The first two he lost are almost all the way in,so that is good.

On Saturday, we headed to swim lessons and then continued our bday weekend tradition and headed to Lillian's 2nd birthday party at her house. We had pizza and Kung Fu cake and lots of fun. Evan and Graham both helped her open her gifts and they made candy necklaces and raided their goody bags and just had an overall good time. We visited at my parents house for a little bit and then headed home and called it a full day!

We continue to really enjoy church and Graham and I headed back to Children's choir on Sunday night. We officially signed up and he is so excited. I listened in the hallway and could hear him playing the drums and learning the lines to the song they will perform in a few weeks. He is really excited about and we are very tickled as well!

Next up - Evan's bday celebrations, man, this has been a fast two years!!!!!

Dean headed back to work on Monday, his vacation was officially over after 10 days off with us. The boys and I had one more day, we had a fun day around the house and then headed out that afternoon for Taekwondo and swimming to get back in to the routine. Both had good classes and we headed home and to bed early to get ready for our first back in the new year! The boys settled back in to school and their routines just fine. We had kept Evan on his nap schedule pretty close, so he seemed to transition right back in so that was good. Graham seemed glad to be back to his school work too. They are doing reading circle now where they each take a turn reading out load and he is continuing with spanish and computer class too!

We hit a couple more Taekwondo classes and he is moving along on his green belt form, so that is good. Graham also had a new instructor for swimming on Saturday and he and his buddy Ashley were isolated with the new instructor and had the most intense lesson he has probably every had, it was amazing to watch, no down, they were hard at it for the whole 45 minutes. The "fun" things they got to do during the lesson as a reward for working so hard was learning to jump in doing cannonballs and "surfing" on the kickboards!!! They worked a ton on their strokes and breathing techniques. Evan is moving right along in his lessons as well, all smiles and he LOVES to jump in at the end of his lesson - not to his teacher - just in and totally under and then comes up swimming, so neat to watch. After four more months of this, they are both really gonna be fish at the lake this summer!!!!!!

Graham and I left swim lessons and headed to the YMCA for a bouncy bday party for another one of his classmates, so that was fun. We got home and when Evan woke up from his nap, we headed to a closeby park we discovered for some warm weather afternoon fun. There were two really neat sets of equipment and swings and the boys had a blast! Dean and Graham went for a bike ride on Sunday afternoon too and played out on the playset some too, so that was fun. We have spring fever for sure!!!!

After several months of church visiting, we think we are going to give St Johns Episcopal a try. We are going to go to a newcomers dinner in a couple weeks. Evan does really well in the nursery there and Graham really enjoys leaving to go to the children's church during service. On Sunday night, the children's choir resumed practiced for the spring session and since Graham enjoys singing and music so much, we decided to give it a try. So, Sunday night, we headed back to church! Graham really liked it and it was sooooo much more than just choir practice, it was truly like music class, complete with instruments and reading music. There were about 12 kids, from K - 2nd grade and Graham of course, didnt have any trouble jumping right in! We told him ahead of time it was up to him if we went back and before we even got down the hallway, he said I LOVE IT and that he wants to come back, so there you go! They practice every Sunday night and then they sing about 6 times through the spring. It should be a lot of fun and help us get to know a little more about the church!

We definitely had Christmas-fatigue on Monday and the house could show it!!!! So many toys!!!! We tried to clean up and put away a bit and just enjoy all the new goodies and also packed up for a mid week trip to Richmond! We headed out early on Tuesday morning and spent a fun filled three days with friends!!!! We stopped and had lunch with Christen first, at Dean's fave PF Changs and then got to Seung's house later that evening. The boys did really good for the 3.5 hour car trip, Evan napped for part of it and Graham worked on his new kindergarten workbook that he got for Christmas and we sang lots of songs!

Graham and Kierson had a fun sleepover in Kierson's room on a pallet on the floor and Evan and Hana went to sleep on their regular bedtimes! We headed out Wednesday morning for a fun meet-up with those guys and Kelly and her gang at a bowling alley and then a hamburger joint! The kids had a blast and we did as well. We can back to Seung's and took it easy and then just had more visiting and play time before bed. We had a lazy morning on Thursday and then ate an early lunch and hit the road right at nap time and it worked. Evan napped most of the trip and we were home in the early afternoon! We still had several more days off before we had to go to work so more play time with all the new goodies and time to undecorate the house! We enjoyed all the decorations so much, but it was time to put them away too!!!!!

On Saturday, Graham and I headed to our 17th birthday party of the year! A double party for Macy and Reese from school at a pottery shop. They got to pick out a piece to paint and Graham picked a reindeer and he and I painted it together and then we leave it behind and it gets glazed and then we had the normal gifts and cupcakes and headed back home. No big New Years Eve plans for us this year, both boys were in bed by 8pm and we watched a movie and the ball drop! We got up an headed to church on Sunday and then started the prep work to get back to our regular routine, all too soon!!!!!

Evan's vocabulary has just exploded during all this time and with 10 days off together, we really enjoyed seeing him be so expressive and talkative. He is also showing some tantrums and spells that look like he might be ready to ring in the terrible twos in a big way! It is hard to believe he will be 2 in just a couple weeks!!! He is very very into Pooh and the gang, so we decided to celebrate his birthday with a Pooh party and we even have some decorations left from Graham's 2 year party that we can use, so that will be great fun!

We had a short week to head in to the holiday, but a busy week! We headed back to Taekwondo on Monday night and Graham officially his green belt, started learning his new form and even earned his first stripe for some new kicks! He was very excited to move on to green and start a new form! We continue to be really tickled with how much he is enjoying it!

Evan continues to equally excel at swim lessons so that is great too! We both worked our last day on Thursday and headed in to 10 days of family time. I think this might be the longest we had both ever been off together! Graham was very exited to be going on Christmas break. Both boys had Christmas parties with thier classes and brought home lots of ornaments that they made for the tree and goodies from their teachers too, so that was fun!

On Friday, we did some last minute errand running and preparing for the big Christmas weekend. We headed out early on Christmas Eve to Dean's parents house. We went ahead and opened presents with them when we got there and then later Al, Michelle, Adam, Jason, Kim, the girls, my parents, Kenneth and the girls joined us. So, we had a full house! We opened more presents and had lots of yummy food and a very good time. Everyone headed out and Dean and his dad went to church and the boys and Dean's mom caught a nap and I packed up the car. We headed home that evening and got in our Christmas jammies and headed to the tree. We put out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer and Graham had also made some special reindeer food at school that we went out and sprinkled on the front yard. Graham and Evan exchanged their gift with each other, as is our tradition. Then, we read Twas the Night Before Christmas and both boys were fast asleep at 8pm!!!!!

We were up bright and early on Christmas morning and the boys were very excited to see what all Santa had left. Then, we opened the rest of our presents and had lots of fun. We got ready and headed out again, first to Kenenth's house to have Christmas with him, Danah and the girls, then we ended up at my parents house for lunch and one last round of presents! Needless to say, we all made out quite well and had a very big Christmas! The boys got so much fun and neat stuff! It was a big Christmas for sure and plenty hectic! Most of the time Evan wasn't much interested in opening presents. He liked to open one and then sit and look at it for a bit. Luckily, Graham was more than happy to help him out!!!!