Lollipop Lollipop

Noah found a lollipop in my purse while visiting Grandma W. last weekend and was just a little excited that we actually let him have it.  The part that is even sweeter than the lollipop is the fact that he decided he would share it with his little brother even though as Noah put it "Silas is not quite ready for lollipops yet but I will give him a couple licks"  SO CUTE!!!

I love the tongue out, like he is showing Silas what to do!

Serious treat for this kid!

Snack Time

The boys have found a new favorite snack table!  Silas is obsessed with playing in the dishwasher, he loves to drive his cars through the puddles and over the bumps on the door.  I usually have to wait until they are busy doing something or sleeping to open the dishwasher otherwise I really can't get anything done because they freak out when I try to load or empty it...

Christmas Vacation!!!

Noah had his last day of school yesterday (until after New Years) and as a special treat the kids all got to wear their pajamas for the day!!! Noah was a little hesitant at first but ended up getting pretty excited about it!  We have a super busy week ahead with lots of Christmas fun and the kids are literally bouncing off the walls with excitement!

Ready for pajama day!

Silas LOVES his Thomas shirt, he walks around all day pointing at
Thomas jabbering on about something we can't quite understand yet...

Enough pictures, can we just go now???

Noah's hand print Christmas Tree!

Watching The Polar Express in their "boat" this morning!
So cute!!!

Big Request

My friend Sara (aka The Wild Rumpus) found out last week that she has breast cancer.  I am asking everyone to please send lots of good thoughts and prayers her way.  This hits close to home as Sara and I are close to the same age and she has two sweet boys close in age to mine.  I can not even begin to imagine what she and her family are going through right now and my heart is breaking for them.
Sara is an amazing writer and has documented everything that has happened so far on her blog The Wild Rumpus.  Be sure to have a tissue or in my case 10 if you decide to check it out.  This is a huge reminder to all of us ladies to stay on top of our self exams, you can bet your patootie I was heading up to the shower for a date with my shampoo after reading Sara's post!
Again, please keep Sara and her family in your thoughts and prayers as they face the challenges ahead!

Go kick some breast cancer butt Sara!!!

Checking for last minute deals before Christmas...

Simo Family Christmas

We hosted the first round of Christmas gatherings at our house yesterday with lots of food, family and fun!

It's not a party without cupcakes in this house!

He seriously loves himself a cupcake or two!!!

Nonnie, Uncle Jordan, Kassie and Grandma, ready for lunch!
Maybe one of these days we will clean the toys out of our dining room
and turn it into someplace to have a nice family dinner instead of a Cozy
Coupe parking garage...

Nice one Uncle Mason...

Silas learning how to rip the paper.

Little Atreus, so cute!

Noah was in charge of handing out gifts, he did such a good job and
never complained once that he had to wait to open his gift until the end!
It looks like he is explaining something pretty serious to Grandma here...

Uncle Dustin & Erika ready to watch It's a Wonderful Life!
We always seem to end our holiday gatherings with a
Christmas movie or two!

Say Cheese

Silas seems to run or look away whenever the camera comes around these days, however, yesterday he decided to ham it up for me a little bit so I have to post these adorable pictures!!!

My Little Bakerman

Noah has been such a big helper in the kitchen lately.  We have made eight batches of holiday cookies and some serious cupcakes together over the past couple weeks.  He now knows how to crack eggs and can operate the mixer, even scraping down the sides like a pro!  He worked on his decorating techniques the other day and made some pretty awesome cookies for Santa!

Licking the batter is still his favorite part!

We ended up with only two containers of sprinkles spilled on the floor...

A little green frosting never hurt anybody :)

Noah's cookies for Santa!

The cupcake Christmas Tree we made for the
Simo Family Christmas this weekend!

Something just isn't working...

Yes, that is a muffin...

Visit to Santa

Ryan took the morning off so we could take the boys to see Santa today!  Hoping to beat the crowds we got to the mall 10 minutes before Santa was scheduled to arrive... No such luck there was already 10-15 people in line in front of us.  Oh well, I was prepared with lots of snacks and drinks to keep the boys entertained while waiting to see the big guy!  When our turn arrived Silas took off running around the Santa area like a mad man and Noah got really clingy saying he did not want to get up there.  Luckily Santa was prepared with an arsenal of candy canes and Noah was intrigued!  He climbed right up and we were able to plop Silas down for a quick picture while Noah told Santa that he wanted "toys" for Christmas, nothing specific just toys...

Gotta love the blank stares...
The elf behind the camera was getting a little
rambunctious with the bells and clappers!

Noah sucked on his candy cane for almost
an hour...

While Silas on the other hand chomped his down within
a few minutes...

So Happy!

#2 Gingerbread Lane

Tuesday was gingerbread house day at Noah's school, they have been learning about a different Christmas tradition each day in December.  Needless to say he was so excited to decorate and have frosting fun.  Miss Kimberly and Miss Abbey said they offered several times to help Noah get his house standing and he told them that he just wanted to keep it laying down :)  He was so proud of himself for using a spoon like a knife as they did not allow knives in the class room (probably a good idea) and also told me that he was very good and did not eat any of the frosting or candy!

Letters to Santa

The boys sat down after naps yesterday to write letters to Santa.  As usual, Silas just wanted to eat the markers and crayons but managed to get a little on his paper.  Noah was trying to write his name and then drew a picture of a "munkle schooty"  I have no idea what this is or where the words came from but that is what Noah wanted from Santa yesterday (it changes daily)!  He has been absolutely hilarious about the whole Santa thing.  Some days he will say he just wants toys or books, some days he wants slippers, and some days he just says nothin when we ask him what he wants for Christmas!

The red thing is a "mukle schooty" the green at the bottom is his name
and the green at the top is Santa!

#1 Gingerbread Lane

I bought the most awesome gingerbread house at Costco a few weeks ago, it comes completely assembled so all you have to do is frost and decorate it!  This is right up my alley as  the last thing I want to do is spend my afternoon getting mad at a gingerbread house that won't stand up and listening to a frustrated kiddo who just wants to decorate :)  If you want to decorate a gingerbread house I highly recommend the one at Costco (it also comes with all the candy and frosting)!!!

Putting Christmas lights on the house!
Noah was way more into eating the frosting than the candy, he had a
green mouth and face by the time he was done!

He was a big fan of the coconut snow...

The finished product!

Oh wait, it still needs a little bit more coconut...

Just a little drippy :)

So happy with his work!

Gym Class

Noah had his final gymnastics class for the term today and all of us parents got to come in and watch to see all the fun things the kids have learned over the past few months!  This class was a pretty big deal for Noah as it was the first class (outside of school)  that he went to without me there but he has been awesome and loves him some gym class!  The pictures are not too great, all of us parents were sequestered in a corner so it was hard to get good shots from across the room.  I felt like I was in a paparazzi line up!!!

Ready for class to start!

A little bear crawling!

Stretching - This is the mountain with a tree on top!
Noah loves doing the stretches, we have "gym class" at home
all the time and Noah leads me through all the stretches!

Noah just told me this is called a
monkey walk.

Getting his award from Teacher Alec (his favorite)!  He was not sure how
to react as all the parents and kids were clapping and cheering, so cute!

Love that smile!

Tree (part 3)

Oops, I forgot to put the finished picture up.
We decided to go with the big old school lights inside and outside this year, so much fun!  Maybe one of these days I will find a tree topper.  I have bought so many over the years and always end up taking them back, we are probably a little too picky but I know the perfect one is out there somewhere :)

Tree (part 2)

It is no secret that I LOVE Christmas and our house might have been decorated since the week before Thanksgiving...  However, it never really feels like Christmas until the tree is in the house!  It has been so fun this year because the boys are so excited about all of it, I love it!  

Sweet Silas, showing Freddy the tree!

Ready to decorate!

Ball???  These are for throwing right...

Checking out the ornament stash!

Noah loved seeing his ornaments, especially the ones with
his name on them!

An accident waiting to happen...

Noah's ornament line up, who knows how long they will stay on the tree...

Taking a break with Daddy!