Christmas Spirit

How do I put into words how special this Christmas season was?  Cohen and Henry probably had the best month of their lives.  Every day was filled with Christmas excitement.

Christmas Eve was special because we were able to celebrate with Laura and Mike and all the grandparents.  The boys were little angels at the children's service at church.  They bowed their heads and clasped their hands when it was time to pray, and tried to sing all the words to the Christmas hymns.  Totally different than last year's service, when we left after a whopping 10 minutes, filled with candy cane bribes and Cohen yelling, "Where's baby Jesus?!"  After church, we headed to Nona and Granddad's for a delicious Christmas Eve dinner.

After dinner, we rushed home to prepare for Santa's impeding arrival at our house!  Cohen and Henry sprinkled Reindeer Food on our walkway outside...

and left cookies and milk for Santa!  As you can see from this picture, we were wound-up and bursting with excitement.

Cohen and Henry slept-in until almost 8 am Christmas morning - thank goodness!!   It was a long, but fun-filled day...lots of love and present opening with our entire family.

These boys must have been really good this year.  Santa brought lots of fun presents!

 

Henry is obsessed with his Mr. Potato Head, so you can only imagine how happy he was to see Mrs. Potato Head under the tree!

 Cohen and "Big Bear" 

Cohen is our very own Clark Griswold.  He loves Christmas so much.  He is already counting down the dark naps until next Christmas.  I'm not sure when we are going to be able to take down the trees and decorations.  It's going to break his heart.  Bobby is still at our house too.  Not sure when he'll go back to the North Pole.  It's sad to see this month pass, but we are looking forward to what 2013 has in store!

BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!!

Christmas Fun

Christmas is right around the corner, and we are counting down the days!  To say that Cohen and Henry are really into Christmas this year is an understatement.  Every day is full of joy and excitement. Bobby, our Elf on the Shelf, returned to our house.  Every morning, the boys race out of their beds to see where he has landed next.  Bobby ensures good behavior in our house.  The boys are constantly reminding each other that, "Bobby is watching you!!!!"  If only Bobby could stick around all year...

Last week, we drove to St. Augustine to visit the Winter Wonderland.  We had a blast walking through the elf village, riding the Christmas train, looking at lights, seeing Santa, jumping in the bounce house and making s'mores at the fire pit.  

Cohen and Henry in an elf house

To get to Santa, we had to walk up a long, dark walkway.  Cohen gently nudged his little brother in front of him.  Both boys were so excited to see Santa.  We were the only ones in line, so they were able to talk to the Big Guy for a while.    

After telling Santa what they wanted for Christmas, Cohen and Henry dropped off their letters in the mailbox.

 Riding the train

As we were getting ready to leave, the boys' friends, Colton and Austin, showed up.  We ended up staying an extra hour while the boys ran around together!

Right before we left, it snowed!  Cohen was thrilled.  He has been asking for snow all season.  It's hard explaining that there's no chance for snow in Florida.  Poor buddy.

We took Christmas card pictures on the beach this year.  I was shocked that the boys loved wearing the ties.  I tried to take them off after I took a few pictures, but they refused.

 Writing their names in the sand.  What a perfect canvas for practicing writing letters.

 We are blessed that this is our backyard.

My sweet buddy, Cohen, asked me to close my eyes because he had a surprise for me.  He is constantly picking flowers for me.  My sweet, sweet boy.

 Merry Christmas!

FOUR!

In the blink of an eye, our Stinka' Man has turned into a four-year-old on December 6.  Cohen is a little man now.  The past four years have been amazing, and it feels like just yesterday we had a newborn baby at home, getting ready for his first Christmas.  Cohen was so excited about his birthday this year, and he counted the days down starting about a month ago.  Instead of counting days, he counts down by how many "dark naps" he has left.  This birthday was big, and we celebrated in a big way!  Nona and Granddad stopped by for dinner and to give Cohen his gifts on the 4th.  On the 5th, GG and Papa surprised Cohen at school and took him to Toys R Us to pick out his birthday gifts.  On the 6th, we surprised Cohen with his big boy scooter in the morning and celebrated with dinner at Mellow Mushroom.  Nana and Pop came by in the evening with cupcakes and Cohen's new workbench.  On Saturday, we held Cohen's Angry Birds themed birthday party at Bull Park with a ton of friends.  We all had such a fun time!  We are so blessed to be able to celebrate our amazing boy with so many family and friends.

Cohen does not like to smile on command, and he often gets embarrassed when the camera comes out...especially when the attention is centered on him.

The party on Saturday was blast!  So many friends showed up to celebrate - Ace, Sam, Caroline, Carson, Nathan, Asher, Salem, Colton, Kai, Gage, Beckam, Dawson, Elle, Millie, Charlotte, Kailyn and Keegan.

Uncle Hank & "Cousin Meg"

Nathan & Cohen

 Henry & Sam

The bounce house deflated for about 15 minutes.  This was the reaction we got...Nathan, Cohen, Carson & Ace

 Shy Cohen

Cohen & Asher - Right after I snapped this picture, Cohen got mad because the icing was all over his new shirt, and he launched the cupcake.  Nice.

Henry hung right in there with the big kids.  

 Carson, Sam & Caroline

 Colton

 Gage

 Nathan, Ace, Cohen & Dawson

 Jessica & Keegan

 Elle

All the boys loved rough-housing with Papa!

 After a lot of jumping, we headed to the playground.

 Amanda & Kai

Sweet Caroline

We were all tired after a morning full of fun.  Saturday night, we were upstairs playing, and we noticed that Henry had disappeared.  We found him downstairs in the kitchen.  He opened the refrigerator and pulled out two leftover containers of cupcakes.  Icing was everywhere!  And you have to love his outfit - "Big Brother Cohen" shirt and the Jake & the Neverland Pirates bandana (part of one of Cohen's new gifts).

Happy birthday, Cohen!!