miscelaneous holiday moments

The boys are busy and growing. We have had such a fun Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's with them. Here are some miscellaneous shots of what they've been up to:

 Back in the beginning of November, we stayed in a hotel for stake conference, since Dave had all day scout training on Saturday. We drove down Friday night and stayed two nights in the hotel, much to the boys' glee. We swam several times in the pool shaped like Michigan, ate at the hotel's restaurant, the boys were good sports and went shopping with me on Saturday morning, and Dave took them to a movie on Saturday night while I attended the adult session of Stake conference. The pool was definitely their favorite part!

 Hank is my little pal. I love having him home with me. He loves to help out, snuggle, read, and run errands with me.

 I am toying around with potty training Hank. He is interested in earning candy and stickers, but doesn't seem to realize when he's peeing yet. So, as much as I adore seeing this bare bum wandering around the house, I think we will wait until February or March and give it another go. We had such success with Jed because he was totally ready, and I want the same for Hank.

 The boys like to help out with chores. Jed was bored waiting to go to our friends' house for Thanksgiving, so I asked him to clean the bathroom. He and Hank really got into it...

 ...and even took off their shirts so they wouldn't get wet. The bathroom received an extra-good scrubbing that day!

 We made turkey shirts for Thanksgiving and wore them to the feast. Both Jed and Hank love their turkey shirts and were eager to show them off.

 I am so crazy about Hank's adorable faces. Jed has always been rather ambivalent about having his picture taken, but Hank hams it up.

 At the beginning of December, Jed's friend Alex invited him to ride on the Lion's club float in the Christmas parade, since Alex's dad is the president of the Lion's club. Jed wasn't sure if he would be happy on the float, since he really doesn't care for noisy parades. In fact, he told me the day before "I hate parades like the Grinch hates Christmas!!" But, after we got him some ear plugs, he seemed eager to ride with Alex and their friend Elizabeth. He boarded the sleigh like a champ.

 Apparently there were some technical difficulties, because by the time the float reached us, Santa's sleigh had gone dark, but that didn't stop the kids from having a great time. When I asked Jed afterwards if he still hated parades, he told me "not as long as I have my earplugs."

 We celebrated the successful parade by having dinner with Alex's family at a local restaurant that goes ALL OUT for Christmas. Their food is so-so but the decorations are amazing. The boys loved looking at this train set up in the corner, and ran back and forth to it through out the meal. If you think this is impressive, multiply it by about 50 to imagine the entire restaurant decorated the same way.

 For my birthday, I wanted to decorate gingerbread houses. We baked the gingerbread pieces (graham crackers, actually) on Thursday, assembled them Friday, and decorated Saturday afternoon. The boys had a FABULOUS time, and so did I. Watching them really get into Christmas was the best birthday present of all.

 Here are our finished houses. From left to right, the creators were Hank, Dave, Jed, and me.

 Christmas Eve day, Jed and Hank helped me make gingerbread cookies to leave for Santa. Jed was very into the whole process and even insisted on helping put the cookie sheets in the oven. I loved how he grabbed some hot pads even though the pans were stone cold when we put them in. He is turning into an amazing baker. Hank loved pressing the red-hots into the gingerbread men and we had several cookies that were more red-hots than cookie, but they all tasted delicious.

 Enjoying our Christmas Eve chicken enchilada feast, as per Scherbel tradition. It was so fun to check in with the rest of the family via Facebook and realize that although we're spread all over the country, we were all having enchiladas for dinner. The boys especially adored drinking out of their fancy cups.

And, best of all, here are the boys snuggled in Jed's bed on Christmas Eve. They love to sleep together and we let them do it when it's not a school night. They enjoyed two blissful weeks of snuggling in Jed's bed. Christmas Eve I went to check on them and found them like this. Hank even had a smile on his face. Although they may argue and tease each other, they truly love each other and get along pretty well, and this is the best Christmas present I could ever ask for!