Christmas in Arroyo Grande

On December 26, we drove down to Arroyo Grande for another Christmas celebration.
The boys were excited about opening more gifts. Above is Connor bringing me a present. Below is Grandpa showing Ryan his wiggle car. It didn't work so well on the carpet, so they went outside to play.
Chris got the boys the Hungry Hungry Hippo game. It was a quick favorite and the four boys played it many times that weekend. Even Eli tried to get in on the fun.

On Sunday Tania, Matt, Anna and Jill came over. Eli was very gentle with Anna crawling around.

I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas like we did.

Christmas in Rohnert Park

Santa Claus found us in Rohnert Park. Below is a picture of the new bikes that Santa left for Connor and Ryan. It was cold and wet outside, so they rode their bikes inside on Christmas.

Below is a picture of Connor reading with Great Gramma.
Below are the three musketeers goofing around.

... and here is all four boys. Tyler is a year old and getting so big. He tries his hardest to keep up with the older boys.

Christmas Eve at PG&E

On Christmas Eve morning, we went to Ed's office in San Ramon for breakfast and to see Santa. It was very nice of Santa to stop by PG&E on Christmas Eve morning, since this is such a busy day for him.

Above is a picture of us by the large snowglobe while waiting for Santa to arrive.

Ryan was being shy, so I had to be in the picture as well. Santa gave all the kids coloring books and crayons.

Jingle Bells

Connor and Ryan have been singing Jingle Bells all day today, so I thought I would get a video of it to post here. I hope you enjoy!

NOTE: If you receive this post via email and cannot see the video, go to the blog at http://daneya.blogspot.com/ to view the video.

Train around the tree

I set up the ride-on-train to go around our Christmas tree today.

The boys have't stopped riding the train since I set it up after dinner tonight. When I set it up, I told them that it would go away as soon as they started fighted over it, so they have been sharing perfectly!
Here are two videos of Connor and Ryan with the train.

Gingerbread House

Yesterday Connor and Ryan made their gingerbread house.
They had so much fun decorating the house, and amazingly enough, they shared very well at decorating one house.

And, of course, they had to sneak a few of those candies to their mouth instead of the house. But, that is part of fun, isn't it.

And, here is the finished product.

Trimming the Tree

While the boys took their nap, we brought in all the Christmas decorations, put the tree in the stand, and strung the lights on the tree. When Connor and Ryan woke up, they got to start decorating. Below is Connor putting the Santa Claus atop the tree.
Connor and Ryan were very good helpers in putting ornaments on the trees. We have lots of ornaments on the bottom 3 feet of the tree.

Above is Ryan putting an ornament on the tree and below is Connor.

The boys had their "favorite" spots to hang ornaments, so there are a couple places on the tree that look like the glob below, with about 10 ornaments on the same branch. I think it just adds to the charm of our tree and Connor and Ryan can be proud that they decorated it themselves.

This is our third Christmas at our current house, and the Christmas tree has been in a different location each year.

The Thomas Train around the tree is a big hit with the boys.

And, below is our tree all lit up and sparkling. Connor can't wait for the presents to make it under the tree. His first comment when he woke up from his nap and saw the tree, was "where are the presents?"

Cutting down our Xmas Tree

Today we went up to the Santa Cruz Mountains to pick out and cut down our Christmas tree.

I think next year we might go to a Xmas tree farm that isn't soooo far up the mountain. The road we had to drive up to get to the tree farm was very steep, windy, and scary. The road was about the width of a single lane road, but there were cars going both directions, so you constantly had to pull over to the side to allow cars to pass, and had to be careful not to pull too far over because it was a long way down the side. I think a 4 wheel drive truck would have been the best option to go up that road. I definitely would not drive that road in bad weather!

Connor and Ryan were so excited to get a Christmas tree this year. They ran all over the tree farm to pick out the perfect tree. Above is the tree we chose and the boys helping Ed cut it down. When arriving at the tree farm, we were given instructions to leave some branches at the bottom of the tree when cutting. If you do that, the tree will re-grow without having to start from seed.

Here comes our Christmas tree and the very excited Connor and Ryan.

The tree fit inside the mini-van, but it went in between Connor and Ryan and all the way up to the front seat. The tree brought home was 8 1/2 feet tall, so we had to cut more off the bottom when we got home to fit it in our house. Below is a picture with Ryan making sure the tree gets home safely while eating his candy cane in the car.

The boys weren't too thrilled with the idea of a nap when we got home, but they went down quickly with the thought of waking up to decorate the tree.

Four Winds Christmas Tree Farm

Snoopy and Baking with Grandma

This weekend Daneya hosted a baby shower at our house, so Ed took Connor and Ryan to Grandma and Grandpa's house Friday night. On Friday night, they went to the Snoopy Tree Lighting Ceremony. Below is a picture of Snoopy during the event.

On Saturday, Connor and Ryan helped Grandma bake cookies.

SLO Children's Museum

The Friday after Thanksgiving, we went to the SLO Children's Museum with Matt, Tania and Anna. The red spinning chair was a big hit. The chair was tilted just right that once you start spinning it keeps going and going and going...

I even spun around in the chair with Connor, but I didn't fit as well as the little ones did.

Anna even enjoyed her spin on the chair until it started going to fast and she bumped her lip :(

Maxwel

Uncle Chris brought his new pet, Maxwel, with for Thanksgiving. Chris found a praying mantis in San Diego and brought it to Arroyo Grande to show to Connor and Ryan. The boys weren't as thrilled with the bug as Chris had hoped. They looked at Maxwel, but did not want to touch or hold it. Chris released Maxwell before he went back home to San Diego.

Brent & Megan's Wedding

On Friday, November 21, we went to Brent & Megan's wedding in Sacramento. This was Connor and Ryan's 3rd wedding.

Above is a picture of Connor and Cody all dressed up. Below is Ryan.

...and Tyler too. Aren't they cute all dressed up?

It would have been cute to get a picture of all four boys all dressed up, but what do you expect from kids who just want to run wild.

There were many kids at the wedding and they even had a special table of kid-friendly food like Mac-n-cheese, french fries and cheeseburgers. Connor and Ryan loved dancing and all the people at the party. They never realized they were tired because they just wouldn't stand still long enough to get tired. We didn't leave the wedding until about 11:30pm and didn't get to bed until about midnight. I think this night was probably the latest Connor and Ryan have ever stayed up. At least, they slept in until about 9:30 the following morning.

On our way home, we stopped at the Jelly Belly Factory. The kids loved the factory tour, especially the free bag of Jelly Bellies they got at the end of the tour. Below is a picture of us in front of the Jelly Belly factory by the Jelly Belly car. The store was all decked out for Christmas and they had a giant Christmas tree out front.

Costumes

Below are the pictures we got last weekend at Picture People.

Ryan is the dinosaur and Connor is Elmo.

In the below picture Ryan is a fireman and Connor is an aviator.

Trick-or-Treating

Happy Halloween Everyone! Connor and Ryan absolutely loved trick-or-treating.

Below is a picture of trick-or-treating at our next door neighbor's house.

And then there is the loot, lots and lots of loot. The boys enjoyed looking (and eating!) through all their goodies when the got home.

Below is Ryan with a sucker in his mouth and melted chocolate all over his face.

And Connor.... there is nothing like eating three suckers AT THE SAME TIME! He would lick one then switch to another. I am surprised they got to sleep with all the sugar they ate tonight.