Such A Nice Brother

For some reason she would not eat the soup if I offered it to her.... But from Freddie she opened wide. :) He was so proud to feed her the whole bowl. Beaming.

Freddie's Coffee Bean

Not a fan. Not at all.

Christmas Time

This was, in my opinion, my favorite Christmas as a family.

The boys were so fun.

We started off the celebrations with Steve and Carla coming up for the Christmas recital. Everyone played well.

We drove down to Utah and on Monday we drove to SLC to see Jordan's friend Solis and his wife Priscilla. Solis insisted the boys call him "uncle solis" and they do! We had dinner at an Indian restaurant and it was wonderful! We loved the food and now we're hoping we can find something as good in Boise. After dinner we went to Temple Square. It was freezing. The wind was really cold but we got to see the tabernacle and the conference center. The boys thought the organs were awesome. After, we had hot chocolate and visited until Eloise did a number in her diaper and made it clear she was ready to sleep.

She fell asleep on the way to the hotel and it was just long enough to give her a nice boost until after 11. She sat up laughing and coo-ing, trying to entice the boys to respond to her. Jordan and Solis stayed up in the lobby until after 3. He paid for it all week long-but he was happy to debate and get a rise out of Solis. They were both such lovely people and we had so much fun with them.

On Tuesday morning we saw Adrienne, Connor and Lily for breakfast. She found a diner that served vegetarian and vegan sausage. Yum! The kids acted as if no time had passed and we ate pancakes, eggs, sausage and hashbrowns. Adrienne gave me jam for Christmas. We have already loved almost the whole jar of the blackberry vanilla.

We stopped at Bruge's and got Belgian waffles to eat on the ride home.

We spent the next few days in a blur of food and family and games. It snowed on Christmas and was beautiful. Cedrik got a guitar-huge hit. He was convinced he was playing Angels We Have Heard on High all day and he continues to make up songs about sheep and hay-I'm not sure why. Freddie got a wooden airplane and helicopter set, pilots hat and book about airplanes. They each got new white shirts and ties-all are way too big.

Bingo was a blast as always. Christmas dinner was fantastic. And we ate way too many cookies.

Saturday before leaving we were able to see Stuart, Janae, their kids and his parents. They are some of the funniest people alive. Tina brought back loads of candy from Britain (she is British) and gave us some chocolate that is already eaten.

We made it back to Boise before the storm hit and Jordan had a great first Sunday at the organ.

Christmas Baking.

Worker Bees

We officially have a money chart in our home. Finally. We've needed one. The boys have needed incentives to behave/earn some things of their own to hopefully help them learn to take some pride of ownership.

Each morning, they have to clean their room. They earn some money for this and if they don't, or leave some items on the ground, those toys are taken away for a week. So far, they've only needed one day of not remembering to put toys away to learn the lesson.

They also earn other money for different jobs around the house and earn extra if they think to do a job without being asked. I think some people would say this is like bribing them to work. But, as an adult, we work for an outcome (money, nice things, pride of ownership, etc) and we first need to build the habit in them. How will they gain the habit of taking care of things/earning things if we only give them things they want and there is no work involved. They have played more with their horses they bought themselves in the past week than any toys they've been given this year! (Maybe that's a slight exaggeration... But it has made a difference!)

They wanted to help Jordan cut the tree (and didn't even ask if they would get paid). He ended up compensating them and they were thrilled. Today Freddie earned 85¢ and he was asking to help all day. And he did help almost all day!

Eloise was happy to be out of the house while the tree cutting was happening. Anytime the garage door is left slightly open she's outside looking for her dad. It's so cute.

Camas de Bunk

They are a hit.

Gingerbread House Art

I considered this activity art. The boys love creating art with food and I should definitely try harder to remember that.

They emptied an entire container of sprinkles-fancy sprinkles that I always used sparingly.  They ate who knows how much candy. Before the sugar rush set in, I sent them outside to play while i mopped the floor, then we went for a much needed walk.

Cedrik's candy crash hit after nap time and he had a major meltdown/needed an attitude adjustment for about 20 minutes.

But... The houses turned out great. AND Cedrik told Freddie his house was fancier after they were all decorated. It was a proud mom moment. 

(Eloise posed for the picture, no joke) she stood at my side getting little tastes of frosting.