Christmas (And a New Year)

We almost forgot to blog Christmas!  Whoa... The boys had such a fun Christmas, even though they still didn't quite understand the whole thing.

We put our hand prints on baseballs for daddy again (this is the third Christmas we've done them).  (Mama was going to take a picture of the balls after daddy unwrapped them, but forgot... I'll get one up here soon).  The boys were SO excited to make a present for daddy.  And thought the paint was so funny.  After we got the balls put in their display boxes, mama turned some wrapping over and let us color the white side to wrap daddy's presents.  Then we put them under the tree.

They were so excited to give their daddy his presents that as soon as he got home from work they picked them up and brought them to him.  Nolan started attempting to unwrap it, but since this was his first experience with unwrapping since he cared, he was unsuccessful.  Luckily mama had gotten display cases for last years balls (because she only got the balls last year) and had put last years balls in them, so they gave those to daddy and were satisfied.

On Christmas Eve we let the boys open two presents each; one with jammies (Ninja Turtles), and the other with slippers (Mickey).  Daddy also opened a pair of Ninja Turtle pajama pants.  We went downstairs to watch a Christmas movie and had sparkling cider and popcorn.  Nolan was a big popcorn fan.

Then Santa came.

When we woke up in the morning, we sat the boys on the couch while we got things ready.  Daddy went to get Lady and take her potty, while mama got cinnamon rolls into the oven.  They sat so well.  Didn't touch anything.  Didn't fight, didn't try to get down, just sat there, in their turtle jammies and slippers.

We dumped their stockings out and they opened their first little stocking stuffer present.  Little tractors.  They were SO happy and so done.  They were ready to go play.  After a little convincing they continued opening their presents, though Mackay kept his favorite present opened present in his had while he attempted unwrapping the new one.  Every new toy they got was awesome and they just wanted to go play with it.  After every single thing he opened, Mackay said "gangk you, mommy gangk you!.  We are unsure if he was thanking mommy for the gift or for her assistance in opening it.  They had so much fun opening their presents.  They continued to ask for Christmas and presents for a few weeks before they finally started waking up saying "Christmas is over" ha ha. 

 After we played for a few minutes we got dressed and went to Grandma Julie's house.  We hung out and exchanged gifts with daddy's family.  It was such a good day.

On the 27th we headed to Moab to see mama's family.  The night before we left Nolan kept waking up and finally told mama that his ear hurt, and cried and cried and cried.  So we called the pediatrician and got an appointment so we could get him an antibiotic before we left.  Both of his ears were very infected.  We got him a prescription and were on our way, a little later than planned, but we were on the road.  We got to grandma's house and had dinner, then exchanged gifts.  We hung out and had a good time and came home in time for the new year.

New Years Eve, we had a few friends come over and watched Toy Story.  The boys went to bed at about 10, after everyone left and mommy and daddy watched a movie in bed until midnight, then went to sleep.  Pretty uneventful.  Next year we'll let the boys be more involved.

Our holidays were very busy but oh so fun.  We were not ready to get back to real life, but... we did.  2013 was good to us, but we are excited for the new year.  2014 will bring a few changes to the Sorensen home and we are excited... potty training is at the top of our list!

Each holiday has been more and more fun as the boys are getting older and have started to care about what was going on and enjoying themselves.  We are loving watching them learn about the holidays and we are loving starting our own traditions and are excited to start more in 2014.  One of our resolutions is to do better keeping up on the blog so our friends and family can watch our boys grow and learn what's going on in our little corner of the world.

Happy New Year!