Santa's Workshop

Friday night we went to Flagstaff to Santa's Workshop at the North Pole Experience.  Liam was pretty excited on the bus ride over.

So was this little guy :)

We traveled by bus, closed our eyes, said a chant (Jingle bells and magic spells; Deck the halls with boughs of holly; Pleeease magic portal open for our trolley), and went through a magical portal to arrive at the workshop.  Liam was able to help the elves make some toys.

Then he found a ball and enjoyed that for a little while.

We eventually made it to the cookie workshop and Liam and Colin sat at the table and enjoyed a cookie and some hot cocoa with the elves (more so Liam than Colin)

They had some really cool Christmas trees and they reminded me of trees straight out of a Dr. Seuss book.  This one wasn't nearly as neat but the only one I seem to have gotten a picture of.

After we went to Elf University and took a peak at Santa's sleigh, we finally got to meet Santa Claus!  He apparently was having a rough day and wasn't much for smiling.

The boys with the jolly old man.

We had been  talking to Liam all week about meeting Santa Claus so he was pretty excited when he finally got to meet him which was awesome!  Here is a little video of him talking to Santa

After we met Santa, the trip through the workshop was over and we waited for our bus back to Flagstaff.  Luckily, there was a fire pit to stay warm by, since it was very cold and there was a lot of snow on the ground.

Colin and momma staying warm.  Liam and Aunt Sadie were playing in the snow. Liam was actually scared to come too close to the fire.

Once we got back to our hotel the boys were tired. This guy was cute and decided it would be fun to eat his sock.

It was a great trip to the North Pole, next up the Polar Express experience!

Santa Babies

Wednesday the boys wore matching Santa shirts with their names on them from Grandma Casson.  I added some Santa hats and love this picture.

My little peanut

He's a cutie

Liam in front of the Christmas tree.  Love his big smile

We also went to story time at the library with Neely.

The kids got to make reindeer after the stories.   Liam ended up throwing a pretty large tantrum because I wouldn't let him have the scissors, so we made an exit a little early.

That night we went to G&G Casson's, Liam enjoyed the train around the Christmas tree.

Colin fell asleep like this...

Thursday we had a playdate with Cason and Neely.  I made a bunch of cupcakes for the kids to decorate.

Cason doing a good job decorating his cupcake.

Liam mainly enjoyed eating all the frosting and sprinkles in sight.  Later he ate at his cupcake too.

Neely putting frosting on her cupcake

The kiddos

It was fun having them come over but Brandi and I probably should have fed the kids lunch before busting out so many sweets.  Liam ended up sprinting back and forth down the hallway and was on a sugar high for a little bit.  I had to really convince him to eat some chicken nuggets! Ha!  They had fun though, so it was totally worth it.

Friday morning Jenna came and hung out with the kiddos and me.  It was so nice to spend time with her, as always.  Colin enjoyed his Auntie Jenna time too :)

Four Months Old!

Colin is officially four months old as of Monday.  He is the sweetest little guy.  He is the happiest baby and gives wonderful, loving smiles all day long until about 6-7PM.  He has been struggling some nights and will scream for about 40 minutes before falling asleep.  We can try everything from feeding, rocking, bouncing, holding, leaving alone, it just doesn't matter.  He really started right around the time we moved with this lovely night time ritual. It is really frustrating as parents but I did some googling and it sounds like it can be a pretty common thing around fpur months so we just have to get through this stage :) Colin wakes up every morning with lots of smiles and loves to play on his play mat and with his toys.  He has also become VERY vocal lately.  He will just lay on his mat and talk a ton, it's awesome.  He's still a chunky little guy I weighed him at 17.2lbs and  25.5 long.  Colin is suppose to have a four month appointment but apparently no pediatrician in town can get him in until he is five months which is super irritating for this momma.  I hate not having my baby on his scheduled time and I never had a problem getting my kids appointments in Alexandria.  

This little guy has also been drooling up a storm and loves to practically stick his whole hand in his mouth and the few fingers that are not in his mouth end up poking himself in the eye.  He is also known to gag himself.  He still hasn't figured out a good napping system but usually when I put Liam down at noon I can get Colin to sleep for about 2-4 hours but he may wake up frequently and need assistance (pacifier) going back to sleep. He also usually takes about a 20 minute catnap in the morning after that it is unpredictable :)  I haven't really attempted establishing consistency with his naps so I am not helping much either :/

Baby back side,  His hair still sports the little fluff in the back

He is still awesome at holding his head up but hasn't rolled over in awhile.  He did it there daily for about a week and then just decided he was content with staying on his tummy.

He's a precious guy

He is a super smiley baby but I really had a hard time taking his 4 month old photo shoot, he became to focused on the light of the camera.

He did smile at his brother jumping in his crib though

He enjoys watching his big bro run around. 

My cheeky little guy

Finally a smile! He is the sweetest guy and such a happy baby

 We love you, you big four-month-old boy!

Phoenix Weekend.

Sorry for the blogging delay but our internet was down :(

Saturday we went to Phoenix in hopes of enjoying some zoolights.  The weather was pretty cold/wet/snowy Friday and Saturday.  When we left Kingman the mountains were beautiful and snow covered.

We got to the Lewis household around 3PM and the boys immediately started playing.  

Liam and Gavin playing choo-choos

Liam was also focused on Cars (the movie) on the TV

We all decided to go eat and then head to zoolights.  Unfortunately the rain was still coming down but we were going to battle through it.  We arrived at the zoo, started unloading and then were informed by someone leaving that half the lights were out.  That's when we gave up and went and hung out at Geoff and Beth's house.

Andrew and Johanna held the babies

Colin and Norah (they are about three weeks apart)

Jenna and Shane holding the babes

Aren't they cute

Gavin and Liam had a great time running around with each other

They were cute together

Beth loved on Colin.  She is pretty excited to meet Miss Molly very soon!

We went to eat lunch at Pei Wei and Liam fell asleep in the car one minute before we arrived.  We tried to keep him up but he was completely WIPED out.  He stayed asleep in my arms for about 45 minutes.  I loved every minute of it but at the same time I thought my arm was going to fall off.

Colin stayed awake the whole time we ate and was very vocal.  We decided to change the boys before we left Pei Wei and discovered Colin was so happy  because he had a huge poop explosion! It was down his leg and up his side. He needed a complete wipe down and outfit change, it was a mess. I was in the bathroom of Pei Wei for about 10-15 minutes cleaning him up.  When we got home he won himself a bath.

The weekend wore us out and we stayed in our PJ's until about 3PM on Monday.  It was awesome!

Baking

A couple weeks back I had wrapped a bunch of Christmas presents and placed them under the tree.  I even wondered aloud if Liam would attempt to open them.  Well, when he woke up the next morning, Chris was getting ready for work and I was still in bed, Liam grabbed a gift and sneaked into his room and started opening a present. Ha!  Then when his dad caught him he looked up and said "big one" apparently he wanted to open the big present under the tree.  I know this is random but I kept forgetting to blog about it and definitely wanted it documented :)

This little guy has been very vocal lately, here's a little video

Yesterday Liam helped me bake some cookies for Cason.  The little guy broke his leg so we thought we'd cheer him up with sugar :)

Liam really enjoyed decorating the cookies with sprinkles.  He kept unscrewing the lid pouring some out, screw the lid back on and then do it all over again.

He was pretty proud of himself

Colin sat by and watched

Then Liam decided to eat his cookie like so...

basically he just licked the frosting and sprinkles off

Today I made some more cookies.  Colin helped out today.  He sat in his bumbo on the counter.

Getting our supplies ready

Eventually, his little head got tired and he started to lean so I moved him to the chair :)

Liam helped by emptying drawers

Colin relaxing after we finished mixing the dough.

Today was a wonderful day with my boys and I can't wait to have many, many more baking days with them. I definitely held them longer and tighter today and couldn't be more thankful to have them here safe and sound with me.