goodbye december

We certainly enjoyed you!!


I have one last recipe to share this year. I had been looking for a new sugar cookie recipe that tasted like a sugar cookie that we made all the time growing up called "Mary's Sugar Cookies" but that held its shape better for cutouts. I think I finally found it on Tasty Kitchen of course:) You can find it here.
And her icing is dynamite too. Found here. (Thanks Amanda!)

a glimpse of Christmas

for those of you who could not be here with us due to the many miles that separate. This picture is after Santa had come, filled stockings, left gifts, eaten his cookies, chugged the milk, fed the reindeer and left glass fireplace doors open as a tell-tale sign he had visited our house:)



Xavier awoke at 2:00 and realized that it was Christmas morning after he rushed downstairs and saw that Santa had been here. He really wanted to see what was in his stocking and was less than thrilled when we told him he would have to wait until morning and that it was still the middle of the night! He woke up everyone in the house (except Dax...thankfully) by stomping up the stairs complaining loudly that this was the "worst Christmas ever!!" If that doesn't make you want to call up Santa and have him come back and take everything away, I don't know what does. Xavier did go back to sleep though and woke up all smiles....apparently it was no longer such a horrible experience after all.

Dax's face was so funny as he opened the gifts and exclaimed "It's just what I always wanted!!" to almost every gift.


Xavier enjoyed watching Dax open gifts almost as much as opening them himself.


Here's that face again!


Opening a special gift from Grandpa Lein. This one was a joint gift and they were so cute taking turns and each tearing a little part of the paper...


It's a recordable book! How cool.


Here they are opening "Grandma from MN" gifts.


It's a hit! They love their special quilts that Grandma made them. Batman for Xavier and Spiderman for Dax. The details on these are incredible!!


Time to spread them out so they can really see them.


And lay on them...


and eventually under them.


Since Steve was on call and we had plans with the rest of his family on the Sunday after Christmas, his parents came here to celebrate with us. They came Christmas Eve and stayed til after dinner on Christmas. It was so nice to have them here with us.

Thank you everyone! What a very blessed Christmas we had this year.

my big boy turns 5!!!

Xavier turning 5 was a big deal to both he AND I! For him, it means really being a big boy and closer to loosing his teeth (which he is pretty much obsessed with but has zero loose teeth). For me, it means that he is no longer my baby and that he is closer to growing into too big of a boy. The fact that I can still lift him and cuddle him are 2 things that I will sadly miss when they are gone!!! BUT that won't be for a very long time so I am not going to worry about that today:) Xavier is a joy and a blessing and I am so happy that he made me a MOM. It is and was the best Christmas gift I have ever been given.

We celebrated his b-day earlier in the month with some friends and family. For that he requested cupcakes AND cake. I made him choose between the two and he decide on this....



For his actual birthday he requested a Batman cake. Great, I thought. Frost the cake, stick an action figure in it and call it a day!! When I ran my idea by the b-day boy, it was not what he envisioned. "I thought you could draw a Batman on the cake Mom!" Sure ...why not??? Of course that is what you want. So I drew Batman for the 698th time this month on the cake. We did a sketch on a piece of paper beforehand; deciding what colors were going where. The spikes on his glove must be blue and so is the cape. Don't forget the yellow for his belt.... "Can I give him a smile?" I asked. No...just do a line for the mouth, I was told. Here he is!




Instead of cake, I made an eclair cake which has been in the Noe family for a long time.

ECLAIR CAKE

1 (1 lb.) box graham crackers
2 sm. pkg. instant French vanilla pudding
4 c. milk
1 (8 oz.) container Cool Whip

Butter bottom of 9 x 13 inch pan, line with graham crackers. Mix pudding with the milk. Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Blend in Cool Whip. Pour half the mixture over graham crackers, then place second layer of crackers over pudding. Pour remaining pudding mixture over, and cover with more crackers. Refrigerate for 2 hours, then frost.

FROSTING FOR ECLAIR CAKE:

2 1 oz. pkg. pre-melted unsweetened chocolate
2 T. white Karo corn syrup
2 tsp. vanilla
3 T. softened butter
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
3 T. milk

Beat all ingredients until smooth; spread over cake. Refrigerate 24 hours.We used chocolate pudding per Xavier's request:)

THANK YOU family for all of the wonderful gifts you sent for Xavier. Each was very much appreciated by the birthday boy. Here are some opening pics.



A funny comment when Xavier opened his card from MN Aunt Mary. "Oh!!!! Dollars!!! Will these spend at Wendy's????"

Legos from Grandpa and Grandma Lein


Cool space projector from Aunt Aimee


Scooter from "Grandma from MN"


We also carried on the tradition of letting the birthday person choose dinner. We made chicken nuggets and fries AND green beans.

Happy Birthday to Xavier!

first school program

Xavier had his first program at school on the 16th and he was so excited about it. We were all invited back to the classroom afterwards for donuts and milk. The class had been practicing for weeks and it showed! I managed to hold Dax on my lap, take pictures and some video too. I did them all, but none of them well! I got a little motion sickness watching the video but I am glad that I tried.

Here is a picture of the 3-4 year old and the 4-5 year old preschool classes. I blurred out the other kids for obvious reasons but can you see that Xavier is clearly the tallest one in all of the classes?? So funny! Technically, he is still 4 in this picture too.


Xavier has just finished his program and is heading back to the classroom.


My mom got the boys matching suits for Christmas but I didn't want to send X to school in his good suit for fear of ruining it so I whipped up a tie for him the night before. It certainly was a hit- people kept talking about it. Actually no one would have known but Xavier volunteered that I made it. I told Steve that the tie was a hit and that I couldn't believe the reaction when people found out I made it and Steve said "Um, normal people don't make ties Melanie." Yeah, I know but anyone who knows me already knows that I am not "normal" so no real surprise there!

Here is Xavier with his teachers, Mrs. Pridemore and Mrs. Jacob. He loves them both!


In addition to donuts and milk, each of them got a goodie bag to bring home with them. Here was our contribution to the goodie bag.



When we got home, I took a couple of pictures of the boys by the tree. When they were not wrestling with one another, they managed to sit still for a few seconds.





The songs they sang in the program were so cute. Xavier was singing this one in particular that starts "The virgin Mary had a baby boy...." Well of course Dax had to sing that one too. His version started like this..."The mergin Nary had a baby boy!" It is soo funny.

CHRISTmas nativity

To try to help make sense of the whole meaning of Christmas, we took the boys to a live nativity held at a Lutheran Church near our house.

We toured the city of Bethlehem


and had our own tour guide who was the local fishmonger.



We met the local baker...the boys tasted the unleavened bread.


Then we entered the stable after it was announced that baby Jesus had been born.




It was sooo very cold that night but they had plenty of fires to help keep us warm. Cookies and hot cocoa were at the inn too. When you entered Bethlehem you received a bag of "coins" that you could use to barter for fruit and trinkets in the market. It was unfortunate that it wasn't very crowded as you could tell that a lot of work went into putting this on. I would like to do this again next year.

Xavier said his favorite part was learning about King David. Dax thought the hot cocoa was his favorite part...pretty age appropriate answers I think:)

santa past and present...

Last week we went to see Santa as we have every year. The boys could not wait!

Watching the boys grow up with Santa. WOW!

2005


2006


2007- there was NO WAY Xavier was even getting close to Santa this year! Dax wasn't exactly overjoyed to see him either.


2008


2009


Xavier asked for a puzzle and Dax asked for batman "stuff". After the boys finished up with Santa and were walking away Dax said "He forgot to give me my present!". This year should be fun!!

christmas spirit...

We have had a lot of fun decorating this year. The boys want to help with everything!!! They had a ton of fun pulling out their ornaments from past years and trying to find the PERFECT spot for them on the tree. This year, Grandma Noe again found perfect ornaments for them- a Batman for Xavier and a Superman for Dax! They were so excited!!!

Here they are putting the new ornaments on the tree.






The mantle.




Did mention all the re-arranging of the ornaments??





At night.


The boys have been just giddy with excitement and love all the Christmas music. Xavier loves Little Drummer Boy and Dax loves Away in the Manger and Santa Baby. More Christmas posts coming!