We had a wonderful Christmas week at home! On Monday the boys and I hung out at home and stayed in our PJs all day, watched Toy Story 3 and just had a super fun day! Dean joined us on Tuesday and again we had a fun day at home. We had Evan's 11 month photo shoot and had a fun time doing that. We re-enacted some shots from Graham's 11 month shoot and they are really favoring a lot at this stage. Even though their weight is about the same for this stage, Evan definitely is a little bit bigger and fills out his clothes more. The amount of hair they have is exactly the same. It is fun to compare them and even Graham gets a kick out of looking at the comparison pics!

Graham was super excited for Christmas Eve to arrive. We headed out early to Dean's parents house and spent most of the day there celebrating. Michelle, Al and Adam joined us and my parents and Jason, Kim and the girls also joined us for a bit. It was a lot of fun and we got lots of nice goodies. Graham is so fun to watch open his gifts, his reactions are so sweet and he is so expressive! One of his gifts was a sled and since there was a little snow on the ground, so we tried it out and he thought it was great fun! We left there and headed to church with two sleepy little boys! They woke up when we got to church, we had some snacks and then enjoyed a very nice church service.

We got home after a full day around 8pm, but it was time to start some fun traditions. First, we got changed in to our Christmas PJS and then headed to the tree. We sat out the milk and cookies and carrots on the Santa plate. Evan was so funny, he headed right for the cookies and started eating them, much to Graham's dismay. Then, Graham and Evan exchanged their present to each other, so that was really cute. Then, it was time to read Twas the Night Before Christmas and then finally two little boys went to bed and then we had to prepare all things Santa! Graham woke up before 8am and was raring to go! Evan was also waking up, so we got Dean up and headed to the tree. Graham was so excited to see what all Santa had left and Evan was somewhat interested. We dove in to our gifts next and it was so fun opening gifts with the kids. All the while it was lightly snowing outside, so we had a white Christmas! We ate some breakfast and then headed out to my parents house to finish out the day. We got there and exchanged gifts with them and then Kenneth, Danah and Lillian arrived. The kids were very cute opening all their gifts. Graham got a full snow suit complete with all the gear and we took his sled with us, so he went outside and did some more sledding. The snow started to pick up a good bit, so we cut things short and got back on the road. Again the boys konked out as soon as we pulled out and slept all the way home. There is definitely a theme there! We got back home and unloaded all the goodies and couldnt have been more happy with what a great Christmas we had.

The snow really came down the rest of the evening and during the night and we had about 4 inches by Sunday morning. So, we stayed home from church and just recuperated from all things Christmas. Graham is loving all his new goodies. Evan is somewhat interested in his new things, but he is much more interested in being on the move. He is standing all on his own a lot and taking three and four steps more and more. He looks like he could just take off any minute, but Graham was the same way and he was 13 months before he took off, so I am not getting to excited just yet. He is a busy little guy though and wants to be in to anything and everything. And, wow is he an eater! He will eat all his food and then eat what is left on Graham's plate! His milk intake has really dropped, I guess because of how much he is eating and he is pretty much off the bottle during the day and only has the bedtime bottle now. We have even put him to bed awake a couple times at night, so things are really changing for him. It is hard to believe that he will be one in a month! Now, that Christmas is behind us, we have to buckle down and get ready for his big number one party! We have set the date for Jan 22nd and decided on a Veggie Tales theme, so that should be a lot of fun. We have Lilian's party in two weeks for her 2nd bday, and then two weeks later, Evan's party. So, the bday party streak will continue!!!!!!

Well, in true form, I came down with Evan's pink eye this week! It took two calls, a trip to the doctor and two different kinds of drops, but it finally started to clear up! No clue why I end up with it every time the boys get it!!!! Evan's was all clear and he went back to school. The augmentin seemed to do the trick on his infections, but it was hard on his tummy and he had lots of blow out diapers, glad he finished it up over the weekend! He did pretty well taking it and didnt fight us, so that was great!!!!

Graham and I ventured back to Pump it Up on Tuesday evening after work for another princess birthday party. He has decided that Ariel is his favorite princess, ha ha! His class has 13 girls and 6 boys, so he is surrounded by lots of girly life, and he embraces it, ha! On Thursday, we had our first snow day of season, it was a pretty snow at first and then quickly turned to ice, so we didnt even venture out to play in it. Graham was content just watching it from the windows. We all stayed home and had a family day / work day at home. We delivered gifts to the boys' teachers this week and the directors and that was a lot of fun. Of course, Graham handed his to one of his teachers and told her what it is was, we will have to work on that before Christmas gets here, ha ha!

On Saturday, we spent the day doing some last minute Christmas prepping and house cleaning and cooking and got ready for what I call - Christmas ROUND ONE. Tammy and Mark, Mama and Daddy and Lillian were coming over for Christmas. We had a yummy dinner and then opened lots and lots of gifts and played with lots and lots of fun things! It was very crazy hectic and a bit of foreshadowing of what the rest of the week will be like! Evan, of course, can't open his and isnt even really that in to it. He has also decided to have some clingy mommy moments and wanted me to hold him all during gift opening, so that made things interesting! Of course, Graham and Lillian were most interested in Evan's baby toys, ha ha! Graham was also super excited that Lillian was going to spend the night with us and we totally played up the sleepover thing, so that maybe that will get him off that kick for awhile! At bedtime, Graham, Lillian, Mawmaw and Pawpaw all went to bed together, it was quite comical, but just the way the kids wanted it!

On Sunday morning, we headed out to the annual Christmas music program at church and Dean's parents joined us. Dean had a beautiful solo and Evan even joined in to accompany him on one part, ha ha! We all went to lunch after church, so that was nice. Then, we ran some errands and headed to our final bday party of 2010, a bowling party! We met up with the birthday gang that we see at all the parties and the kids had great fun bowling, of course, they used bumpers and slides, but they had a blast. This time, no princesses - all transformers, all the way! And, the mom said she knew we were probably all tired of pizza, so we had chicken!!!` That was pretty funny!

Evan is still cruising around things like a mad man! He can stand for longer and longer spurts and he is now taking a couple steps at a time between people. So, here we go! He isn't doing it much just on his own, mainly when we work with him and encourage him (which we try NOT to do, ha ha). Graham thinks it is all very exciting to watch! Evan's appetite continues to be fantastic and he is trying anything and everything. I still give him jars as we are finishing those up and he gobbles those right down too!!! He continues to hold steady just over 22 pounds, I guess his activity level is balancing his food intake, ha ha!

We had some fun playing at the tree in Christmas PJs over the weekend. Most people are shocked that the boys are not trying to open any of the packages. Evan just wants to rip the bows off and did chew on one box and Graham just plays watchdog making sure Evan doesn't mess things up too much, so that is a good balance, ha ha! We are very excited about all things Christmas this week! Me and the boys are home all week and Dean is off after Monday, so we have lots and lots of fun things planned for the week, ending the week with Christmas Eve at Dean's parents and Christmas day at my parents house!

I had a crazy trip to Minneapolis Monday through Wednesday (lots of travel drama) so I was very very glad to get home on Wednesday evening. Things went pretty good for the guys, Evan is still waking up every couple nights, but goes back to sleep pretty easily after being held or rocked. Not sure exactly what is up with that, he has had a good bit of cold and congestion that has been lingering for a bit now. Both boys had good weeks at school and are doing lots of holiday artwork, so that is fun. Evan is eating anything that is put in front of him and has the best little appetite! He is finally drinking his milk at daycare out of sippy cups instead of bottles, so he is just turning in to such a big boy!!!

On Friday afternoon, daycare called and when Evan woke up from his nap, his eye was crusty and draining, so I called and got him a sick appointment and we headed to the doc. Sure enough, his ears were still both infected, he had a sinus infection and the pink eye in the one eye. So, the amoxicilin that we finished up apparently didnt cut it, so she gave us 10 more days of augmentin this time! So, we headed to the pharmacy and headed home!!!! She said it would be about 48 hours before his eye started to clear up and then he would probably be fine to go back in on Monday, it took right at 48 hours, but sure enough by Sunday evening, it was finally starting to look some better! He is holding steady still right at 22 pounds. He kept eating and sleeping through the weekend and even managed to master climbing the stairs, much to Graham's encouragement and amusement!

Me and the boys stayed home from church on Sunday morning since Evan's eye was still a little swollen. Both boys slept in all the way until 8am, so that was super late for our house!!!! Graham and I ventured out on Sunday afternoon for a birthday party for another one of his classmates back at Pump It Up, which of course, he was thrilled about. A good number of his classmates were there, the same group we see at all the parties and a good time was had by all! We have two more parties to attend in the next week, it has been a busy fall for birthdays for Graham's classmates!!!! The tally for 2010 for bday appearances for Graham is going to top out at 11 parties! He has quite the social calendar, ha ha!

This week is super busy with all things holiday and then we are off the next week, so we are very happy for all things holiday to be here!

We started off the week at the doctor with Dean, he got the all clear from his hand surgeon, and was released. Everything is healing great and it will just take a little more time to see how long the fingernail will end up being, so all in all, a good end result after a crazy few weeks! Everyone seemed to be over their sickies so that was good. Evan's appetite is in full force, he is eating anything and everything from table foods and some meals when he eats a lot of table food, he doesn't even have to have any jars. He loves to snack on cheerios and puffs and rice crackers. He still isn't crazy about the sippy cups, he will take a few drinks of his formula from it and then wants his bottle. He is still just having the three bottles a day, around 16 ounces and that seems to be suiting him just fine.

Evan also remains super active, he just wants to go go go and get in to anything and everything! He wants to be held less and less and just wants to be down all the time exploring! He is still jibber jabbery up a storm and clapping his hands more and more, really really cute! His teeth and weight have both slowed down for right now, but we are just bracing for the next big spurt!!!!

Graham is very excited about the holiday season and loves seeing all the decorations on our way home at night after dark. He was very excited for the weekend to arrive so that we could pull out all of our decorations. I took Friday off and got the house all cleaned up and pulled out all the decorations and on Friday night after school, we started decorating!!! Graham was loving every minute of it! On Saturday morning, Dean and Graham went to swim lessons and I got all the ornaments out and ready for the tree. When they got home, Graham helped me hang all his and Evan's ornaments on the tree and he had a blast! He wanted to help me put all the presents around the tree as well. It started snowing while we were decorating so that was just the perfect touch for the day. After we got the decorations all done and took some pictures, then Graham and I went outside and explored a little in the snow. We ended the day in Christmas PJs!

I am heading to Minneapolis Monday through Wednesday, so the boys will be on their own for a couple days, hopefully it will go fast and smooth for all of us!!!