Black eye (and face)

Ben has not had a good couple of days. Yesterday he came home from Robin’s with a small cut near his eye. Then tonight, Mike was playing with him, running around the house and laughing like a loon. I got out the Flip to tape it and two seconds later Ben was crying. He had run into the wall and scraped his eye/face. The same one that was already a mess. So now it is a double mess.

And his love for his pacifier (and my inability to take it away from him) has left him with a near permanent rash around his mouth from the slobber. I think he is cutting all four eye teeth, but none of them have actually shown up yet.

Merry Christmas 2012

Christmas day started bright (or not-so-bright) and early for us. I heard Nick in his bedroom at 4:58 “Zander, it’s almost 5. Then we can get up. You go get Mom. I will get Dad.” We have recently told them they can’t get out of bed until there is a 5 on the clock because Zander had been in the habit of waking up at 4:30 and going into the playroom. Not cool. But, on Christmas morning 5 a.m. isn’t so bad. Well, it is, but seeing this excitement makes it better.

Don’t mind the horrible picture. My camera settings got messed up but I love the looks on their faces as they came running down the hall. The blur makes it look like Mike is going to bull rush them so he can get there first.

Let the fun begin. Zander was in Power Ranger heaven.

Ben didn’t want to open his presents so Nick was being an awesome big brother and trying to help.

Look at that box. He couldn’t wait to bust into it and just started tearing pieces of cardboard off.

Nick has wanted this mine set for ages. Santa finally made his wishes come true.

Love that face.

My attempt at a family photo. It’s not perfect, but it’s us.

After the chaos at our house we went to my parents’ house for more fun. We started with the gift for our parents so that Kelsie could go to bed. Mom was very confused about the carpet squares in the box. She was very happy/mad/touched by the card and money at the bottom of the box.

The boys made handprint towels for Mema and Papa and their aunts (except Jamie, she got a funky headband).

And amazingly enough the boys waited patiently through all of that to open their presents. Nick was the only one excited enough to try on his new shoes.

Nick had fun listening to Jamie’s new Beats and coloring with Mema. He loves the one-on-one attention.

And Ashley’s new puppy. If I didn’t dislike animal hair so much we would get this little guy a dog. He is enamored with this dog and my Mema’s dog, a little Chihuahua he can also hold and cuddle.

Benny liked the dog, too.

And Zander gave everyone a Power Rangers lesson.

What Christmas would be complete without a nap. Benny started it this year and dad and Jay were happy to keep him company.

Cookie cutie

He loves this cookie. I love him. 'Nuf said.

Look at those chubby feet. And he stands like this all the time. Cute.

Art projects galore

We’ve known what we are doing for my parents for awhile, but I had no clue what the boys should do for them. A quick search of Pinterest turned up several ideas and we tried a couple. Hopefully they like them!

Merton got into a little trouble last night while trying to play on the light fixture. Naughty elf!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the Christmas tree canvas I made for them. It was hard enough getting their little feet painted and planted. Photos were not an option during the process. And then I just kind of forgot afterward. Oops.

Déjà vu?

This seems to be a common occurrence whenever I leave. I come home to a photograph of Ben sleeping in some odd place. Today, I went shopping with a college friend and then came home to a coughing Zander. While Zander and I went to the Convenient Care Clinic (and then Target for a prescription for his non-existent croup) Ben fell asleep on the kitchen floor.



Thankfully, Zander ended up only having a nasty cold. I have no clue why he was so bad last night, but I'm just happy it's nothing more than a cough today.

My sick samurai

After all the fun at our first Christmas of the season Zander woke up in the middle of the night unable to catch his breath. I thought he was puking in his bed and jumped up to get him to the bathroom. Once I realized it wasn’t a stomach issue I got  him in the living room to cuddle, but he just couldn’t settle down. Then he coughed. It was the dreaded seal cough. Ugh. So I gave him some ibuprofen and tried to get him to relax enough to catch his breath. I was *thisclose* to taking him to the emergency room. Instead we just kept cuddling. At one point I was rubbing his back and he says “There is something wrong with me. Is it because I played with my samurai too much?”  Broke my heart. Then I told him I loved him, but that wasn’t enough. In his pathetic little sick voice he said “There’s more.” Zander can’t just say “I love you.” It is always “I love you to the moon and back, so much, forever.” I guess when he is sick he really needs to hear it and I was happy to oblige.

Christmas with the Christensens

We got to spend most of the day with Mike’s parents and as always we were all spoiled rotten.

Ben’s favorite gift was a Stitch stuffed animal. Linda bought each of the boys a stuffed animal from Disney this summer. Ben spent some quality time with Stitch while Zander was napping and Nick was on one of many roller coasters. Thankfully he didn’t do this to the real one.

And I really hope this isn’t foreshadowing of his future (unless he’s going to be a lumberjack).