Christmas #1

Christmas is so much fun with two little ones.  And this weekend we headed up to Elmira to celebrate with Brian's side of the family.  Brian's aunts and uncles come to celebrate with us as we aren't able to be there on Christmas Eve during their usual celebration.  Here I tried to get some pics of Eric with Lily:

All three of our "kids" . . . just wish Evan could figure out this smiling thing :)

Finally a good one!  If you could see the effort this takes, it's quite comical:

Now to the good part - the presents!

This little boy loves his Hess trucks!

And Eric loves his Lightening McQueen:

Brian with his girl:

Eric sitting on his new Lightening McQueen blanket that Nana made for him

The present madness - so much fun!

Morgan trying to pick up some of the paper - what a cutie!

Eric playing on one of their presents:

 The lovely ugly sweater that Brian decided he should put on towards the end of the night, which his Aunt Shelley:

And why not eat dinner with no pants?

Later on in the night - all snuggled in to watch some tv:

And all three kids eating breakfast in the morning at the counter on their stools:

And what a scene.  I walked into the kitchen to find these two so seriously reading the newspaper.  Such cuties!

Aunt Shelley attempted some family pics on her camera which hopefully I will be able to post soon enough.  Until then, only 2 days left until Christmas!

Our Third Longwood Christmas

One of our favorite new traditions is to head to Longwood Gardens at Christmas to see the holiday displays.  This is our third year running and it did not disappoint.  The boys weren't super cooperative for photos and chasing them around with a stroller and a camera while they dodged in and out of people was a bit exhausting.  So these aren't the best pictures in the world but I'm happy we actually got any.  And, as usual, Eric was a bit more cooperative than his brother in front of the camera:

Evan agreed for just one picture . . . only if we gave him money to throw in the fountain.  Pretty soon we'll be dishing out $100 bills to get us to take his picture:

The center hall display.  Floating in that water making that design were apples.  It was pretty impressive:

 Christmas tree in pink:

One of the cuter pictures of the night.  We asked Eric to smell the roses, so he opened his mouth and took a bite.  Anyone who was looking got a good laugh out of it.  He won't eat much, but roses apparently are on the list:

A beautiful display:

Earlier in the day we had attempted to take the boys to get formal Christmas pictures taken at a studio.  It went so poorly that we walked out without any pictures to even look at.  I'm hopeful that one day they will cooperate but I'm afraid it's not going to be any time soon :(

Snow Play

First snow storm of the year was an unexpected one on Sunday.  We were supposed to get 1 inch in the evening and, by 3:00, we had 6 inches!  We decided to get the boys outside to play.  It started out pretty well - both were very happy:

 Playing together:

And Evan really pitched in with the shoveling . . . and actually really helped!  He was working hard:

Eric wanted to get in on the shoveling action too.  Notice, though, that he would not keep his mittens on . . . which became problematic later:

 All three boys shoveling:

And about 5 minutes without mittens, his fingers were bright red and in pain.  Eric and I were inside all of a few minutes later.

And another small storm hit today.  I was home with the boys all day and needed to go out and shovel.  Eric wanted nothing to do with going outside based on Sunday's experience.  So I left him inside while Evan came out to help me shovel.  Funny the things you'll let your second child do that you wouldn't dream of doing with your first.  I would NEVER have left Evan inside while I went out to shovel when he was Eric's age.  In any case, I've had enough snow for the short term.  I think we can take a little break for now!

Christmas in NYC

We headed to NYC this weekend to see the Christmas sights.  We had done this last year with Janet & Vinnie and planned to do it again wit them this year.  In addition, this year's plan was to have my mom and Eric join us.  Unfortunately, Janet & Vinnie got sick and couldn't make the trip.  And we decided it may just be easier to take only Evan and leave Eric home with Deedee & Pops.  And I'm sure it was nice for Evan to get our undivided attention for a day.  We started out visiting the different window displays:

In front of one of the Macy's windows:

Shoulder ride by the Empire State building:

The NYC Public Library has a beautiful tree in their lobby:

Next it was off to Rockefeller Center to see the tree and ice skaters:

A very cute family photo we were able to take ourselves.  We had two different strangers try to take the picture but Evan would turn his head every time.  So we had to do take it ourselves with the iPhone in order for him to smile (and bribe him with chocolate):

After visiting a very crowded FAO Schwartz and lunch at a local pizza place, we headed into Central Park for some rock climbing:

 

 

Evan had a blast on the rocks:

 

And one last really cute family photo in Central Park before heading back to the train:

We had a great time and will likely continue to make this an annual tradition.

Thanksgiving Weekend

This year's Thanksgiving had quite a few surprises.  First, a nasty storm made its way up the east coast so we had to delay our departure by a day.  Not a big deal and there was absolutely no traffic when we did get on the road at 7:00 AM on Thanksgiving day.

The boys had a blast, as usual, hanging out at Nana & Papa's house with their cousin Morgan.  

And even agreed for a few pictures:

Here Lily had settled herself in for a nap on Eric'a shoulder.  

We also got to take Evan and Morgan to see the new Disney movie, Frozen, which was really cute.  And Brian and I got to do some Christmas shopping each night while Nana & Papa took care of the boys.

And what would a holiday weekend be without an illness?   On Friday, Eric developed a fever.  On Saturday, he had sores on his hands, mouth & toes . . . the dreaded hand-foot-mouth.  Evan had this at Christmas 2 years ago for 7 solid days.  Eric is just as miserable as his brother was - he can't really eat much of anything, he is in constant pain and keeps asking us for medicine.  Just hoping it passes faster than 7 days!  Here he is this morning when getting his diaper changed.  On top of that, his four eye teeth are coming through at once. Poor little baby.  I'll be so happy when he's feeling better!

I'm hoping this will mean we have a healthy Christmas week . . . maybe??

Let the Writing Begin

A few weeks ago, prior to Halloween, Evan came home from school with this.  

I was in shock as we have never once tried writing with him.  I guess it's a good thing they teach him these things at school.

Fall Foliage Train Ride

There is no denying the beauty that is the fall season.  Though I'm not thrilled that the cold weather has now arrived for good, it wouldn't be the same without all four seasons.  The two trees in front of our house are spectacular for about one week's time . . . before the lawn is littered and it takes us 3 weekends to rake and bag all of the leaves.

This past weekend we headed out to the Wilmington Railroad, which we had attempted to do a few weeks ago but it was unexpectedly closed for the day.  It was the fall foliage tour and it did not disappoint.  Here we are waiting to pull out of the station:

 Eating a peanut butter sandwich on the train:

Evan running down the car after hitting up the bathroom:

A rainbow of colors:

The Felt boys:

 

Looks like a Bob Ross painting to me:

I never get bored of seeing covered bridges either:

More scenery from the train:

We got to stop about 30 minutes into the ride, get out and explore in the woods before heading back to the station.  

In another week or two, all of the leaves will be down and we'll be spending our weekends raking and bagging leaves.  It was fun to at least enjoy the scenery before the work begins.