Christmas as Four (+ a dog)

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We were able to see almost all of the family. Although it was a bit of a whirl wind, we enjoyed every minute.

Christmas preparations. Not sure any of these cupcakes made it until Christmas. At least the decorations (or most of them) made it on top.

Can you guess which one is Drew's?

Looking cute and innocent, but he is not actually posing, he is making yet another attempt at climbing up the stairs.

Christmas Eve was at Andy's parents. We started the evening off by watching Drew's favorite holiday movie; Polar Express.

Christmas Morning:

Auntie Laura, Uncle JR, Grandma and Grandpa came over for Christmas dinner.

After our meal and a quick nap for the boys, we went to my aunts house for a gathering with my dad's side of the family.

The day after Christmas, we had my mom's parents (Great Grandma and Grandpa) along with Uncle Joe and Great Uncle John over for dinner and more gift exchange. I neglected to take out my camera. I guess I just wanted to fully enjoy the company.

New Year's Eve, we had our friends Mike, Michelle, Carolyn and Nate over for dinner. It was so nice to have some relaxing adult company. Eventhough our New Years celebration ended around 9:30 (the kids were there too), we had a very fun night!!

Harry walks!

It would be kinda strange to have this boy walking before he really has any teeth, but it looks like it might be that way.

Harry Walks from Andrew Logie on Vimeo.

Christmas in the "Folk"

I love our town, especially during Christmas. There are a lot of fun activities that go on for children and we try and participate in all of them. One of our favorite things is the Santa Parade. We have gone every year. See previous years here and here.

This year we also attended the Pajama Breakfast with Santa. "Big Joe" the storyteller was there and I was completely shocked and thrilled when Drew sat and listened and interacted. I have tried so many times to bring him to story hour and decided to stop punishing myself because all he would do was run around and I found myself tripping over dozens of kids trying to retrieve him. I am delighted that he is at the age now that he can enjoy it and I plan on giving the whole storyteller and sing-along thing another go. Another hit at the breakfast was the Munchkins. We lost count of how many he consumed. The one thing that was not such a hit was Santa. Yes, he sat on his lap, but he would not crack a smile.

The first big snowstorm. It took about 20 minutes to bundle up Harrison, for about 5 minutes out in the cold:

We are lucky the Bugaboo works well in the snow:
Harrison did NOT like the fire trucks!

At the Santa Breakfast they wore their special Christmas PJs

Drew, Logan and Ryan..they love to hug-it-out

I think this is actually more miserable than last years photo with Santa.

Big Joe:

I just love Christmas with my kids. It isn't only about the fun of buying them presents...yes that is pretty fun too, but it is about the fun of driving around at night looking at lights, making hot cocoa with mountains of marshmallows, shaking way too many sprinkles on the Christmas cookies, putting ornaments on the tree and talking about each one, the excitement each day when Drew gets to count down one more day on the Advent calendar, explaining the nativity and what Christmas really means. The list goes on and on, but I savor each moment.

Brotherly Love

We are so blessed that these two love each other to no end. Harrison gets so excited when he hears Drew calling for me through the monitor when he wakes up. I carry him upstairs and before I even open the bedroom door his arms and legs start flailing and a smile is spread from ear to ear. If Harrison happens to be still napping when Drew gets up, he rushes downstairs looking for him and seems disappointed when I tell him he is still sleeping. Drew loves when Harrison "chases" him around the house. Harrison loves when Drew sings to him. Drew almost never gets super angry with Harrison, even when he is destroying some train tracks or a line of cars that he created. He may get frustrated, but he usually says "no, no buddy". I think he gets more upset with us for not stopping him. Drew will get really excited when Harrison does something new and will give him tons of praise.

Seeing how happy Harrison gets when he watches Drew, and how sweet Drew is to Harrison always makes my day. It makes having 2 under 3 totally worth it, knowing that they are growing up to be the best of friends.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving was at Andy's parent's house this year. After having a wonderful dinner with Grannie, Poppy, Uncle Bill, Nick, Ian and Margaret, we all went outside to get some fresh air and let Drew work off some of his meal.



"follow me everyone!" Drew LOVES bossing people around and his older cousins happily obliged his requests to chase him.
Throwing himself on the ground is another one of Drew's favorite activities when playing with his cousins. I am not quite sure why he likes this so much, but he was soaked when we were done playing!

After coming home and taking a nap (all of us), we decided to make a surprise trip to Auntie Laura's house. She had her dinner at 5:00 (ours was at 12:00), so we got there just as the meal was finishing up and had some leftovers and dessert with them. It was nice to see all of the family for the holiday!

After wasting most of Friday away because it was rainy and miserable outside, we decided to head out early today and take the kids to the Museum of Science. On the way in we saw a billboard for a Harry Potter exhibit and thought it would be a complete disaster. Apparently Harry Potter fans don't get up as early as we do, so the crowds weren't too bad.



Drew's new favorite show is Dinosaur Train on PBS. He likes it even more than Thomas! As soon as we walked into the exhibit he said "thats Triceratops!" I am always asking him to repeat the names of the dinosaurs, at first I expected to hear a funny, mangled version of the words, but his pronunciation is amazing. He always says "wait for Dr. Scott the Paleontologist to talk before we turn it off."


I have always wanted to see the butterfly gardens, and it was nice but I was really expecting hundreds of butterflies that would come and land on my head when I walked in the door. It wasn't quite like that, but fun anyhow.

Drew seeing what it is like to live with the chipmunks

Tonight we went to Uncle Chris's 52nd birthday bowling party! Drew had TONS of fun. He did some bowling (they actually had shoes his size) and loved the arcade games.

The birthday boy

Cousin Jack

Great Aunt Mary helping Drew bowl

Time for a little Harrison update. Since I haven't been blogging much lately I feel like I am not documenting all of the important moments.

Harrison is at such a fun, yet difficult age. He is fully mobile. He crawls (pretty darn fast), pulls up on ANYTHING! If something is 2 inches off of the floor he will hoist himself on it and try to stand up. He cruises a little bit but he mostly just tries to let go and walk which he can't do yet so he just falls flat. He has learned how to climb stairs, so our gates are going back up really soon! Harrison does not want to play with any age appropriate toys, only Drew toys. Drew is usually pretty good about sharing, but he can get really upset when he wrecks one if his lines of cars or train tracks.

He has said Dada, Mama and Dew, but he seems to have put them back in the vault lately because he said them for a week or so and hasn't uttered them again in the last few weeks.

Harrison is finally getting some teeth. I was so surprised that he didn't get them early like Drew did, but they are finally coming and boy are they hurting him. It looks like he could have at least 4 coming it at once. That would be fantastic, because I don't want to go through this over and over until they finally all come.

We are having so much fun with our boys! As much as I don't want Harrison to grow up too fast, I still can't wait until the two of them can really play together. Harrison loves watching Drew's every move and Drew is so good to him. I know they are going to be best buds!

I caved on my dislike of teething biscuits and gave Harrison one today. He really enjoyed it...until a piece broke off and I took it right away.