Connell Christmas Party and More

The Connells had a fun Christmas party at their house over the weekend (Thanks for inviting us!). Santa even came! Most of the kids were really to be Santa. Noah was even caught up in the excitement jumping up and down for the jolly man. Joshua on the other hand was hiding behind me hugging my leg. After watching the other kids sit in Santa's lap and some coaching he was excited to talk to Santa - but only if he could go before Noah. Actually while we were waiting our turn, Noah was so excited that every time a child left his lap, Noah would say "My turn, my turn" and run towards him. Also whenever Santa asked a boy/ girl if they'd been good, Noah would answer "I been good! Hey Santa! I've been good!" When Santa called on Joshua, here's how their little talk went:
Santa: And what would you like for Chrsitmas, Joshua?
Joshua: Star Wars Legos
Santa: Oh, Legos are fun.
Joshua: Not Legos. Star Wars Legos - it's different.

Waiting to talk with Santa

I forgot to mention it but one of the perks of going on the Polar Express at the start of the month was that our Elf on a Shelf, Zoopy, hitched a ride back from the North Pole on the train. The boys have had so much fun waking up to find Zoopy and see what kind of mischief he's gotten into. Noah's favorite Zoopy mischief has been the time he took a bubble bath in marshmallows. Joshua's favorite Zoopy appearance has been when he woke up to find Zoopy and Mr. Penguin playing chess, or "chest" as Joshua likes to call it. He's been asking Daddy to teach him to play "chest" ever since then.

Let me share a Noah story. His favorite stall tactic these days is to repeatedly say "I have a question." When I finally say "What Noah? What is your question?" he'll giggle and say, "Um, I don't know. Do you have a question?" Grumble, grumble. :)

In my last post I talked about Joshua's art work. This past week or so he has diverted his focus to drawing Star Wars characters and Superheroes. He made me smile when he showed me a picture of two superheroes he had made up: Whatever Man who can be whatever you want him to be and Toot Man who can make the bad guys fall down if he toots on them.

One last Christmas story, we have a couple decorative nutcrackers in the kitchen which Joshua keeps calling cracker-nuts!This has definitely made mommy and daddy laugh.

Noah and our Christmas Ham

Santa visit

It has been a fun Christmas season. We had a great time decorating the Christmas tree. Also Matt and I have enjoyed the perks of having family in town. We have had to opportunity to pawn the children off, err... I mean have the boys spend quality time with their grandparents while we unpack the house, decorate for Christmas, and go shopping. Joshua got an extra special surprise on Friday when my dad, J's "fishing buddy" picked him up from school early so they could go fishing. I think they had a great time. And Noah's too young to realize he missed out on anything (and took a long nap at day care) so it was win-win for all.

Both boys really like their new school. They are learning a lot and are happy. They get happy-grams frequently sent home from school telling us some of the good things they do, i.e. reminding their friends about the rules, helping their teacher, etc. Also we are often told how well they have adjusted to the transition. We had a bit of trouble when Noah was bitten twice in his class. Once on the forehead which looked vicious and once on the wrist. His teacher told me that rather than fight back,he teared up and waved his finger at them saying "No biting! No bite!" That's my sweet Noah!

Joshua's artwork has exploded recently. He loves drawing pictures and you can really tell what they are. He's becoming quite the artist. One of his favorite things to draw is his Daddy and himself playing soccer or Joshua and Grandpa fishing. He drew an awesome picture of his Daddy - he was all brown except for the bluest eyes and what appeared to be a blue tail. It turned out the "tail" was actually Daddy's badge from work. Feeling a little jealous I asked Joshua if he could draw a picture of me. He sighed and said "ok." The next day he came home from school and handed me a picture of what looked like 2 people playing soccer. When I asked him to tell me about his picture he said it was a picture of Mommy and Daddy and Joshua and Noah playing soccer. When I asked who everyone was pointed to one person and said "That's me." Then pointed to the other person in the foreground and said "That's you. Daddy and Noah are behind you but you can't see them behind your big head." OK, so no more asking for pictures of mommy. :)

So far Noah has no fear of Santa. Joshua likes talking about Santa but doesn't really want anything to do with him. Fortunately Noah was willing to sit with Santa so Joshua decided to as well. We went to the Galleria and while the Santa looked the part, we missed our photographer and Santa from Pensacola. All in all it was a good Santa visit. Merry Christmas!

The Polar Express

We finally were able to take the boys on the local version of the Polar Express called the North Pole Express at the Train Depot in Calera, AL. I say finally because I've tried for the last two years to get tickets and finally was successful (thank you Erin Coram!) by getting the tickets in July. We prepared the boys for their surprise trip by watching The Polar Express.  The downside of that was my safety conscious Joshua wasn't sure a ride on the Polar Express would be a good idea. In fact when we talked about it the conversation went like this:

Me: Joshua, would you want to ride on the Polar Express?
Joshua: No.
Me: Why not?
Joshua: It seems kinda dangerous.
Me: What did you not like?
Joshua: The part when the train was on the ice. That was not safe.
Me: What of the train didn't cross the ice?
Joshua: Hmmm, that might be ok.
 
My first hurdle was getting Joshua to wear pajamas to dinner. I asked him to try on some new pajamas when I got home from work. They were green and red and had Santa on them. Joshua was so excited he asked "Do you think Daddy will let me wear these to dinner?" I told him perhaps if he asked very nicely he would say yes.

My talented sister, known as Aunt Stoppie, made very authentic looking golden tickets so the boys could ride the train.We hid the tickets in the boys jackets. When we got to the train station we told Joshua to put on his jacket but he didn't want to because he said his new pajamas would keep him warm. And it's true, it wasn't that cold outside. Matt told him "Well why don't you just hold your jacket?" But Joshua threw it on the floor of the car insisting he didn't need a jacket. Then Matt said "Why don't we open our jackets to see if anything is inside them? I think I see something inside mine..." Finally  Joshua opened his jacket and saw the ticket and said "Wow! I have a ticket. It's Christmas magic."

Our very excited boys waited patiently to ride the train. Our group was big enough that we got one end of a train car together. There was music, singing, cookies, and chocolate milk. After a short ride to the North Pole, Santa and Mrs. Claus came aboard and took pictures with the kids. The windows had some condensation on them so the elves on the train gave us some paper towels to wipe them off. When Santa walked into our car most of the kids went crazy. I asked "Joshua, don't you want to say hi to Santa?" He replied "Um, I think I'd rather wash the windows." And proceeded to wipe them off. We did get him to pose with Santa. Noah is a good sport and doesn't seem to have any reservations about Santa the way his brother does. We are excited about a fun-filled Christmas this year.

Noah getting on the "good" list.

Our best picture of all the kiddos together.

Update

So much has happened since my last post. Joshua and Noah have turned 4 and 2, respectively, we moved from Milton to Birmingham, we went to Disney World, and celebrated Thanksgiving. I plan to go back and update these items but rather than remain months behind, I'm going to catch up now and fill in the past as time allows. For my faithful followers, the way you'll know I updated is that something will show up on the ticker to the right for months Aug - Nov. Now, I'll catch you up with our Christmas activities