Counting Down to Christmas - Part 1

We have been busy Counting Down to Christmas with a lot of fun activities!  But I have realized taking pictures and videos with two kids is harder than one - there is a lot more "refereeing and guidance" going on with two :).

We made a Gingerbread house....





Eric took Alex to a kid's building workshop at Home Depot....Alex LOVED it!

Alex had his Christmas Program at school, but we were so far away it is hard to see him on video so I will be borrowing a CD from a friend who was up close and will put that on here as soon as I get it.

We had Christmas at our house this morning since we will be visiting family for Christmas.  We wanted to give the boys time to enjoy their presents for a few days before we left.  Alex was SO THRILLED to walk downstairs and see all the presents under the tree!  Alex is very into soldiers this year and that was the theme of most of his gifts.

A soldier marching in the parade.  Alex told Brodie to be a fire truck and go "whoowhoowhoo" ;)

Happy Birthday Brodie!

Brodie turned two yesterday.  I can not believe my baby is two - time keeps going faster!  We just had a low key family celebration for his birthday.

Presents in the morning....Brodie kept giving us sweet grins.  He is old enough to get that something exciting is going on and it is about him, but not exactly sure why ;).  Alex on the other hand knew what it was all about and REALLY wanted to be a part of it all! ;).  Keeping him from doing everything for Brodie was a full time job so I didn't get as many videos as I would have liked.

 

 Cake in the afternoon...like the minute he woke up from nap as you can see from his hair.  Alex couldn't get the whole process started fast enough.  The cake was falling apart slightly by then too ;)

Brodie kept taking bites and looking up at Eric- like he was saying "are you really going to let me eat this stuff?" ;)

 Brodie goes to the doctor next week for his well visit.  I will do his 2 year old blog then!

Baby Jesus

I didn't grab the camera until the end of this - but you get to see a little bit of Alex telling Brodie the story of Jesus birth using the Nativity - so sweet!  I love that "Jofet" had the baby :)

Chattanooga

We did a little one night getaway to Chattanooga, TN over Thanksgiving weekend.  We left first thing on Friday morning and headed straight to the Tennessee Aquarium.  The boys LOVED it!

The petting tank....

The Butterfly House

 
 Of course the escalator was big fun....

 The penguins were probably Brodie's favorite part...

 Checking out all the amazing tanks....

 Alex's favorite part was getting to touch the snake...

 This is Brodie saying "ouch it bites"....

 Brodie loved the phone in the hotel, he would just sit and chat away...

 We walked the pedestrian bridge over the Tennessee River..

The only bummer was our hotel pool was freezing.  We did let the boys do some "swimming" in the hot tub instead.  Besides trying to get them to go to sleep at night all in the same room together at the hotel :), we had a really great little get away!