Jingle Bells

I’ve been delaying posting because I’ve been waiting for B to download a program that will convert some pictures into a postable format.  Still hasn’t happened.  Ugh!

Despite the very warm temps, a real Christmas tree that I can’t stand and outside lights that stopped working, I really am enjoying the season.  And it’s all because of these two precious little guys I get to hang out with each day.  To say that Ben is excited about Santa would be an understatement.  He loves everything Christmas.  Every night he asks how many more night nights until Santa comes.  And he LOVES Buddy our Elf.  Loves to talk to him and look for him each day. 

Buddy returned to the Mahrer house on December first and brought an early gift for the boys-The Little People Nativity set.  Briggs LOVES this!

Briggs wasn’t so sure, but didn’t cry.  Just kind of looked at him puzzled.  Ben’s reaction to Santa will forever be one of my favorite memories of him.  He LOVED it.  He talked with him forever and couldn’t believe Santa knew his name (and remembered it when we left-thank you Michelle for their adorable shirts with their names on them)!  It was a truly special morning for Ben.

and last year’s to compare

A friend made this for Briggs…

and Ben

I hate this tree, but B wanted a real one this year, but didn’t want to take the time to pick out the right one.  It’s way too short and I’m over the needles.  Briggs thought helping daddy with it was too much fun.

Best presents I’ll ever get!

This is where the pictures of the kids’ party at B’s president’s house would go.  But they’re not in a good format.  The boys had a great time and as always his company goes out of their way to spoil the kids.  Santa came with a present for each kid.  This time both boys gave Santa hugs.  SOOO sweet. 

Another mom in his class took this of Ben for part of his Christmas party gift.  I love this cute pic!!!

Mrs. Sorensen’s Class.  His best buddies are Colby (right behind him) and Logan (top row in the red sweater).  These kiddos are adorable!

GENIUS party idea-give each kid a roll of crape paper and have them unroll it in a race.  Genius I tell you!  B took the afternoon off to go to his Happy Birthday Jesus party and we brought baby bro along since he’s teething (damn molars) and a little fussy.  Ben went nuts when he saw Daddy.  Just whined when he saw Mommy.  Typical.  After the party was his very first performance ever.  Big deal to this momma!

love this sweet guy

Performance time.  Ben woke up crying that he didn’t want to do it, but he did well.  He sang at first, spent the next couple minutes bored and then finished with Jingle Bells (which he has been singing all.the.time lately).  We were so proud of him!

His teacher sent me the first picture, this one is from my crappy phone.

Making a snowman before the performance

my favorite shopping buddy lets me play dress up with him

 

The big guy comes in a few days!!!  Exciting!!!

Brothers...

Love them!

Operation Christmas Child

Our playgroup decided to fill boxes for Operation Christmas Child this year. The boxes were filled with everything from toothbrushes to crayons to candy and will be sent to children around the world who wouldn't get anything otherwise.
Ben is almost at the age where he can understand this concept, but it was still REALLY hard for him. He didn't know why he couldn't play with all the toys. We met at the park to organize all the boxes (to make it easy we each just bought 12 of whatever item(s) we chose. I didn't expect Ben to want to help, but he was really excited to decorate the boxes with stickers. And he signed his first Christmas card with his name :). I'm not going to lie- I was a happy momma watching him :)
Briggs helped by eating the cookies and muffins we had and playing with mommy :)

Trick or Treat, Smell my Feet

Halloween just gets better and better as the boys get older.  This year Ben totally ‘got’ it and loved every second of it.  He told us early on he wanted to be Captain America and LOVED wearing his costume all.the.time the weeks leading up.  So much so, that we bought him a second costume just for the big day because I was a little worried about the state of his first one.

The week before Halloween, we hit up the pumpkin patch at the Dallas Arboretum.  It was a ‘mommy and me Monday’ so it was a little crowded.  But, I’ve never seen so many pumpkins.  Between the crowds, the humidity and trying my hardest to get these two kiddos to sit together and smile, I was just about done.  But once we got out of pumpkin hell and hit the open spaces, it was much more enjoyable.  The boys ran around with their friends and had a blast.

Pumpkin Carving time!

B LOVES Halloween and couldn’t wait to teach Ben how to do intricate pumpkins.  Ben takes after his mommy and really didn’t care about the pumpkin guts.

But Briggs thought it was the greatest thing ever!

The little guy helped daddy get every last bit of the pumpkin guts out!

At school on Tuesday, they had a Fall Festival.  A friend watched Briggs so I could stop by for part of it.  They had an AMAZING petting zoo, which Ben LOVED.  I’m really so proud of how far he’s come with animals.  Just a month ago he was paranoid to touch any and he was all over these animals.  Except the llamas, they kind of freaked him out when they ate all his food

This picture cracks me up.

I also got to be there for the carnival games.  He was so cute going from station to station with his buddy, Logan.

Such a beautiful, fun day for him.

The morning of Halloween we had a costume party with our playgroup.  Someone convinced Cici’s pizza to open 30 minutes early just for us, which was so nice.  They went above and beyond for our group.

A little air hockey between two Captains.

My hulk and his strawberry sweetie, Emmie.

LOVE this little hulk (even if he refuses to keep his mask on)

B worked forever on an Iron Man costume.  Of course he can’t just go buy one so he had to spend forever making one.  Shockingly, it didn’t get finished so the day of he went to the store and bought an adult one.  Then it was too short so I was the typical mom altering it with the sewing machine at 5 pm the night of Halloween.  And he can’t just let it be, he had to add his own chest light for it by melting and molding plastic, but when he tried to attach it to the giant hole he cut out of the chest, it wouldn’t attach.  Oh well, maybe next year.

All ready to go “happy halloweening”!

I got a pic with the mask!

First stop!  Ben totally got it this year and loved every second of it. 

Then Briggs figured out how this thing worked.  He would end up just staring at them after they gave him candy and smiling that they’d give him more.  Then he’d blow them kisses as thank yous.  When it was time to walk away he’d take a few steps, turn around and say bye bye and repeat.  Took forever!

Such a fun night. Ben asked to go Trick or Treating again the next day.  Already excited for next year!!!

Rock the vote!

A little difficult to explain voting to Ben, but loved taking the littles to exercise their civic duty (well maybe Mommy's) :). Ben said he wants a jack-o-lantern for president :)

Take me out to the ballgame

I can't believe I forgot to blog about this! A few weeks ago we took the boys to the one playoff game the rangers were in. Sadly, they lost, but we still had a lot of fun. Ben was beside himself excited. And just the day before Ben and I both had the tummy flu and were very thankful we were good to go. The game didn't start until 7 which is when Briggs normally goes down, but he did the best he could. Ben ate his way through 5 1/2 innings the whole time calling out for cotton candy (it never appeared). B's 'amazing' parking spot is forever away from the ballpark, but as luck would have there was a pedicab right there for us to ride. Ben told the guy to race all the other bikes :). We almost made it to 6 innings, but had to leave because a little bug was just too tired and not too happy he couldn't walk around. Three weeks later, Ben is still talking about the game. Can't wait to take him to Wrigley one day! B is excited that he's at an age that he can sit through baseball games now. Briggs- not so much!

And yesterday after B got home, we took some balls to the field and played. We were blown away by how much better Ben has gotten at baseball. We can only compare him to last year, but the boy can pitch and hit! Signing him up for spring ball!!! Briggs enjoyed looking at the birds. Funny little kid for sure!