Christmas Fun!

The boys had such a good time with their cousins and Mimi and Grandpa at Christmas! It was two days of non-stop play! :) The cousins were getting ready to leave to go back home in this pic - that's why the boys are still in their pj's and their cousins were dressed and ready to go! We miss them already!

Almost 30...

I usually post about the boys, but today I have been pondering the fact that I will soon be 30 years old. Several of my friends have given me a hard time about it, but I've definitely decided to embrace this next chapter in my life. Questions flood my mind...Am I where I want to be in life? What goals do I have for the next few years of life? There are too many to write about...but I am excited about the future. One thing I can definitely do is be thankful. I am thankful for my husband, for my boys, for my parents, my husband's parents, for our siblings and their families, good friends, and the list goes on! What are the most important things in life? The people that we are surrounded by, whether they are family, friends, or someone we have yet to meet...besides God and our relationship with him, the people in our lives are by far the most important!

Here is a pic of my guys on Christmas Eve...watching Sesame street and eating special snacks...for their Grammy and Mom!! Micah can pack away the popcorn! Both boys were so cute to watch. :) Enjoy!

Dancing and Hot Chocolate!

On Christmas Eve, we always watch "Christmas Eve on Sesame Street" and eat finger foods. The boys really enjoyed it this year! Joshua was able to enjoy hot chocolate in his new special mug from his Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jeff (it has a snowman face on it, but he had it turned the wrong way!). Micah even got into it and really enjoyed snacking on popcorn from his own little bowl! What a cutie!
The next morning, they woke up early and tore into their stockings and then their presents. Neil gave me a Toby Mac CD, so we were rocking...Micah was dancing as well, as you can see in the picture above! What a fun Christmas it has been!

Reindeer Snacks and Christmas Trees

The other day, Joshua and I made Reindeer snacks. He really liked the idea of it, but when it came down to it, wasn't so fond of the actual snack. He separately likes peanut butter, bread, raisins, cranberries, and pretzels, but combined he wasn't so thrilled. I think it's because there was no jelly with the peanut butter! Maybe next time we'll give the reindeer some spots (of jelly)!
One of Micah's favorite things to do right now is to go downstairs and poke at the Christmas tree and ornaments. He's been doing a fairly good job of not trying to rip ornaments off, and I often will hand him a soft ornament to hold while he "explores" the tree! He loves the lights, especially. If we're out driving past dark and he spies Christmas lights, then he gets SO excited!

More Box Play

We aquired another box the other day, and Micah really enjoyed playing in it. But, it was not as sturdy as the last one and only made it a couple of days! Oh well!

New Videos!

I finally had a chance to upload some videos! A couple of the were taken at the aquarium. The other two were from last Sunday when we walked up to the park. You can always view older videos on my youtube account: kcutsinger.
Enjoy! :)

It's Christmas at our house...

...and you can tell because we've been making cookies and paper snowflakes! The cookies in the top picture were for Neil's customers. I had only iced a few of the trees at this point. Just to give you an idea of how many I baked, this is only half of them! I'm sure that by now most of the cookies have already been consumed...so much for all of that hard work! :) Just joking! If they weren't being eaten, then I didn't do a good job! The boys have been able to share in decorating and, more importantly, the eating!

Today, Joshua and I made paper snowflakes together! Much fun! I think he likes making them just because he gets to use his scissors! :)

Cabin Fever Days...

It has been cold here (we may have gotten over 20 today-that's cold to me), so the boys and I haven't gotten out much the past couple of days. I think we have a bit of cabin fever going on. I've been busy baking goodies for Neil's customers and the boys are going crazy. Fun times! :) Actually, the boys have been great, all things considered. And I scaled down my baking this year, so that it wouldn't be stressful. On the menu are sugar cookies with frosting (of course), chocolate peanut butter fudge with peanut butter glaze, and a new recipe, Cranberry-Almond Bark. They've all turned out well, and I have one more batch (times 3) of cookies to make and I'll be done for the moment! Yeah!

For those looking for pics/videos of the boys...hang in there. I have several to download, but have not had the chance! So, check back soon! Have a great evening!

All Gone

We visited some friends last week, and the boys were each given a container of M&M's. The boys loved these, of course, and what made it more fun for Micah was opening and closing the container. Here is Micah looking down into his empty container, wishing that there were more M&M's to eat. He has continued to play with it, putting things in and then pouring them out. Behind him, you can kind-of see our Christmas tree. I haven't taken an official tree picture yet...maybe today! :)

Cute Feet!

Little baby toes and feet are so hard to resist! These are Micah's, taken while reading a book with his Daddy! The boy loves to have books read to him, and he is always wiggling his cute, little toes! :)

Quote of the Day!

Joshua was watching a short video about scuba diving and such this morning while I was getting ready. He looked up at me after awhile and said, "Next time I go boating, I'm going to have to bring my snorkel gear!" I have a son that is so much like his father (and papa)!

On a side note, I took the boys shopping with me today, which I hardly ever do. And they did a great job! What troopers! I even had one lady comment about how brave I was to take two boys shopping. How funny!

What blessings we have been given!

The weekend after thanksgiving, Neil and I had gotten home from the store, put the groceries away and were preparing lunch. We noticed how much fresh fruit we had and were amazed at the freshness and variety! This picture doesn't even show all of the fruit that we came home with that day. What an amazing place we live in today, that we can have wonderful fresh fruit year round. I am so thankful for the simple blessing of having a bowl overflowing with fresh produce!

Catching up...

I didn't realize that it had been so long since I had downloaded pictures from my camera. I meant to post these pics two weeks ago. It's been a bit crazy around here and I have been distracted. Well, better late than never.

The first pic is our "thankful turkey" that we did at Thanksgiving. Joshua and I asked everyone what they were thankful for and then wrote it down on a turkey "feather". Joshua even wrote out some of the words himself, with a bit of help, of course!

The other pic is of the boys thanksgiving artwork. We went outside and gathered leaves, then drew around their hand, colored a bit, and then glued (is that spelled right?) on the leaves. Joshua insisted on using ALL of the leaves he had collected, so his was weighted down and quite thick! :) It is quite obvious which turkey was done by a meticulous mother (helping a 1 year old) and which was done by a 3 year old! We had bunches of fun!

The reason we celebrate!

Tonight, as I was getting Joshua ready for bed, we talked about Jesus and how He is the reason that we celebrate Christmas. I can't tell you what started the conversation, but I can tell you that Joshua was very interested in what we were talking about. We do advent readings together most mornings, and then we have a corresponding ornament that represents the story that we read about that goes on a little christmas tree. Every story, even though we are working through the old testament, obviously leads right back to Jesus. It is so exciting to be sharing this with Joshua and to observe him beginning to understand that there is so much more to this man called Jesus than just a few songs and prayers.

Orange Juice!

The boys and I were sitting at breakfast this morning, the boys drinking their juice and me drinking my coffee (of course)! Neil was sitting in the big chair close by. I turned to hand Micah his juice, and as plain as day, he said "orange juice"! It took all of us by surprise, even Joshua. As we congratulated Micah on his new word, orange, he just sat there feeling very proud of himself. What a fun little moment! And one of the best parts about the whole thing for me was that Joshua enjoyed it and was excited for his brother. :)

This and That

We've had a crazy week, and I haven't been in the picture taking mood. So, here are some pics from a week or so ago. The frog artwork is a Joshua original. I helped him cut the frog picture out of a magazine and then he did the rest. He also spelled his name all by himself, and I helped him spell out the word frog (but he did the writing)!! I don't know if you can see the writing, as it barely shows up on the picture, but he did a great job! The picture is currently hanging in his room. The other picture is of Micah during bathtime. He loves his time to splash and explore in the tub! :) Have a great weekend!

You won't believe this...

My older son just got a CREDIT CARD offer in the mail today. It was addressed to him. I am a bit shocked and disgusted at the thought of it. Enough said.

Joshua at Thanksgiving!

Like I promised, here are a couple of pictures of Joshua on Thanksgiving! Again, what a blessed time we had with our family! I am so thankful to have such a wonderful family!

Before I forget...

Micah ate his first whole apple, skin and all. It was small, and it was a softer apple than some. And I was supervising him the entire time, for those of you worried about him choking. :) He gestured that he wanted a whole apple, so I gave it to him to see what would happen. He obviously has watched his brother and daddy, because he knew exactly what to do! It was so funny to watch!

We've been getting into the holiday spirit and have been listening to all of our christmas music. Yesterday, Neil and I heard Joshua upstairs singing "Baby it's cold outside..." He was getting the notes right and everything. It was so fun to hear him singing on his own! I have to say, our boys love music!