Willy Wonka would be jealous

The boys and I picked up a gingerbread house kit tonight. I remember the "olden" days of using graham crackers in the day before kits. Jack was very into decorating the house this year. Theo, meanwhile, was VERY into eating the decorations ;) Our little gingerbread house turned out pretty well, all things considered. Fun little projects like this are neat but also stressful! I give all you teachers out there super props. Jack kept saying how he wanted to eat our gingerbread house and was pretty disappointed when I told him that it was just for decoration. We decided to let Santa eat it when he comes. Lucky him. :)

A boy and his pet

Jack loves playing with Elliott. He's so tender with him and it's so sweet to watch. Dave caught these moments through the screened windows of Jack and Elliott playing outside. Dave said they just chased and ran outside for over an hour. So sweet.

Matchy-Matchy

Here are the boys official Christmas pjs for this year. I couldn't help myself when I saw them in a boutique. I told Dave that I should have gotten a pair for him as well since the boys look so cute ;)

Train at Santa's Village

I kept Jack home from school today to take a trip across the lake to ride the train in Santa's Village. Several friends from my Mom's group met up with us as well as Aunt Dianne and cousin Elise. Dianne watches Elise on Fridays so it was perfect timing for our outing :) Jack and Theo rode the train 5 times each and just loved looking at the miniature train set going by the big train. Elise was great until the train started up, but at least I got these cute pictures before the tears ensued. Thanks for meeting us out Aunt Dianne!

LSU sweater

Gigi's former neighbor, Ms. Nell, knitted this LSU sweater for her grandkids several years ago. They grew up and no one needed the LSU sweater anymore. She kindly gave it to us when Jack was little and we've been saving it for Theo. Now it's cold out and Theo is big enough to wear the sweater. Isn't fun to take a trip down memory lane and see Jack when he was under 2?

Here is a picture of our tree, all decorated with ornaments!!

Eli is back

We have an Elf on the Shelf (that we tell Jack we adopted) named Eli that shows up every year the night that we put up our Christmas tree. He brings the boys new Christmas pjs to wear the first night that he's at our house! Eli flies home to the North Pole to see Santa every night and reports about Jack and Theo's behavior for that day. Eli has really helped the boys have better "listening ears" and helps convince them to take that extra bite of vegetables so they can stay on the "good" list! Genius! The hardest part of Eli's month-long visit to our house is remembering to move him each night :)

Bundled up

It's been pouring rain here for 2 days and it's gotten COLD (40's). The boys have had to bust out their heavy coats and they sure do look cute! Here's Theo showing off his dimples in his puffy jacket.