Christmas 2012

I better download all my Christmas pics and a few words before baby comes!  I'm running out of time, and I wouldn't want to skip over the fun we had during the holidays!

 
We had Christmas Eve and Christmas with David's family.  We switch off holidays for our families every year.  Normally, we'd go up to Dallas afterward for a belated Christmas, but since I was so pregnant, my family came down and spent time with us.  Christmas morning, we woke up and did Christmas at our house and then drove over to David's family.

 We did a fun little advent things this year I saw from Pinterest...or maybe a friend...I can't remember.

But we wrapped a bunch of Christmas books and opened one each night counting down until Christmas.  The boys loved it.

Oh, and one funny story: 
We haven't ever planned on "doing Santa" with our kids.  We just figured we'd read some Santa books, and they'd see him on TV, or hear about him, and kind of just think of him as a Christmas character like Charlie Brown.  But we weren't going to do the whole "naughty and nice" and "Santa's coming to deliver presents tonight!" thing.  Partly because we'd rather make the focus about Jesus's birthday, and partly because we could never really think the whole thing through as to how far we would go with it (I mean, some people really get into it) or how we would stop doing Santa.  So it just seemed easier this way.

But apparently we didn't communicate that to David's family.  So when we visited them on Christmas Eve, Aunt Sarah asked the boys if they had cookies to put out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  And Caleb runs up to me and says frantically, "Mom, we don't have cookies and carrots to put out for Santa!"  Doh!  So of course we're not going to be the horrible parents that crush a 3-year-old's heart and say, "Sorry, kid, that's just all made up."  Plus it'd be confusing and we'd have to explain how some people believe it in and some don't.  So we drove home that night with cookies and carrots, and figured we'd just do that this year and not make a big deal out of it, and then forget about it next year.  The boys were sleeping when we got home, so we put the cookies out and took a picture just in case they asked about them in the morning.  But, they didn't ask.  :)  So we just went on with our normal Christmas.

 Christmas morning at our house.

Could they be any cuter??!!

They did really well at opening up shared presents together.

Bugs in the stockings were a big hit.

Our sweet neighbors gave the boys some fold-out chairs.  Yay!  Looking forward to adding that to our camping gear.  :)

We found that little grocery store/cash register in our attic from the previous owners.  It was like new, so we decided to give it to them for Christmas.  We're weird.  But they love it.

Building Lincoln Logs with Dad.

The Domine Christmas

They got lots of games.

And a fun alphabet/spelling game from Aunt Sarah.  I'm surprised how much they've learned from it already.  Caleb can spell a lot of the words, and Nathan can find all of the letters.

They love their new basketball hoop.

We took naps together on Christmas.  I decided to nap with them because I knew if I wasn't there, they wouldn't sleep at all.  It took like 30 minutes or more of telling them to lay down and not play to get them to sleep.  I kept getting faces in my face telling me they loved me...or stuffed animals in my face saying hi...or kicks and giggles...or blankies on me to keep me warm. 

 Eventually they fell asleep...

 and I got squeezed out of my space.

They finally got to wear their Christmas jammies the next night after Christmas when it got colder.

I totally forgot to take pictures of the boys opening presents with my family when they came to visit.  They just tore into them, so there wasn't much time.  :)

But we got my dad a really fun gift - an afternoon at Top Golf with the family.  Top Golf is a new three-story golfing range near our house.  So we took everyone.  It was so fun!  None of us even know how to hardly swing except for my dad.  You get a bay all to yourself, and you can order food from the restaurant.  The boys got clubs their size too.  We were on the third deck.  Those circle are spots to aim for when playing games.  It kind of feels like you're bowling.

 

 Even preggo mama gave it a shot.  I have no skill.

While my family was here, Grandpa slept on the couch (because my grandmother was here too and we ran out of bed space), and the boys enjoyed jumping on him every morning to wake him up.

Every year my family makes Christmas cookies...buttery shortbread cookies and sugar sprinkles...yum.  We do a cookie press to make different shapes.  The boys LOVED decorating them with sprinkles, and taste-testing.

 

Grandpa reading new books to the boys.  They'll rope anyone they can into reading to them.  And once you start, you can't stop.  They'll keep bringing more.

They got an art board from Nana and Grandpa.  They've had fun with it so far...with Mommy's supervision.  I don't trust markers (even washable dry-erase ones) without me watching.  Nathan is the marker Nazi.  He holds them all and bestows them upon Caleb as he requests...taking great pleasure in his power...sometimes taking his time handing them over, or suggesting a different color, or pretending he doesn't know what color Caleb is asking for.

We had a wonderful Christmas!  Even baby Matthew got a few gifts!  We're so blessed with a wonderful family.  We love making memories with everyone. 

Crazy dreams, a turkey, and wrestling

Oh, poor Caleb inherited my brain with an active imagination and crazy dreams.  We've always known him to dwell on things and over-think things.  Sometimes he'll bring up something that happened days ago, and you can tell he's still thinking about it.  Well, he's started to tell us about some dreams he's had lately.  One time he told us a dinosaur was trying to eat his hand.  He woke up crying really early one morning, and David went up to help him.  When I talked to him about it later, he said, "Yeah, but it wasn't real, " kind of trying to convince himself of that too.  And then another day when I was reading a Cars book to him, he said he had a dream that someone was cutting Luigi in half with a saw.  :(  Poor guy.  He said, "I didn't like it."  I'm a crazy, vivid dream person, so I guess he's inherited that from me.

Crashed out.  Thankful he's back into regular naps more often than not these days.

Trying to be Mommy? :)

Another thing I want to remember...I put out a little stuffed animal Turkey on our bookshelf around Thanksgiving time, and now that is Nathan's favorite animal (along with his lion) to sleep with.  It's really cute.  Can you see the turkey there next to his head?  He told me he was tired and wanted to take a nap on the stairs.  :)

And here is a funny video of the boys wrestling.  David calls them our little bearcubs.  I love that they have each other to play with.  They have their fighting times, but David said it right the other day - there are a lot more laughs than cries.  They bring us so much joy and smiles.

Rockin' around the Christmas Tree!

Here is a side of Caleb many people haven't seen.  Most people see just his quiet side, but I promise he has a crazy, goofy side too.  I think he saves it just for us though.

Our neighbors have musical Christmas trees by their front door that are motion/sound activated.  So the boys love to set them off whenever we go on walks to look at the lights around the neighborhood.  Caleb was definitely rocking out!  (You might have to turn the volume up a bit to hear.)  I love Nathan just swaying so cool in the back.

Updates

Just some updates from what's been going on here lately:

- We picked a name for our 3rd boy!  Matthew James Domine.  The boys are so excited to meet him.  They talk about him all the time and ask if he's kicking, or laughing, or cold, or anything.  :)  They pat my belly and give him kisses.  Caleb says when Matthew is born he'll be zero, and then he'll get bigger like him.  He said he's going to get him a baby pillow, read him a baby book, and get him some clothes because when he's born he'll be a nudie.  :)  Nathan talks about him a lot too, which is funny because I'm pretty sure when I was pregnant with Nathan, Caleb hardly realized anything was different.

- This third pregnancy is kicking my booty.  I had more 1st trimester sickness with this one - which is why a lot of people thought it was a girl.  But I'm also having way more 3rd trimester exhaustion.  It's just harder to take it easy and take care of yourself with 2 active boys around.  I've hit the point where I'm not sure how I'm going to make it another month and a half!  I'm having lots of Braxton Hicks contractions.  After making dinner, I feel like I've run a marathon.  I'm not able to eat much because there isn't much room in my stomach.  It's so hard to get comfortable.  If I lean back, I can't breathe, and if I lean forward I can't breathe.  I'm constantly re-adusting when I'm sitting on the couch.  I don't want to sound whiny, but that's just how it is now.  THANKFULLY, I'm sleeping well still.  :)  And I haven't had an horrible groin/joint/ligament pain like I did with the last two.  I can't tell you how happy those two things make me.

- I love my boys.  I can't believe how much I love them.  They are the sweetest things.  David sometimes takes them to the park in the evening while I cook dinner and rest a bit.  Today they were so excited that I was coming along because they wanted to show me a new playground they found.  Caleb held my hand and said, "Mommy, I'll hold your hand so you don't get lost."  And "Mommy, there is a chair over there for you to sit in so you don't get tired."  They're used to hearing me say I can't do things because of my big belly or because I'm tired.  And one of my favorite things is when they're doing something on the playground or kicking the ball, and they glace over to see if I'm watching.  And when they see that I am, you can see the happiness on their faces.  I love giving them that reassurance and confidence that I'm there and I'm proud of them.  I love being a part of those little moments.

- We're learning more about Nathan's personality.  I can't believe we once thought he was going to be our serious child.  He's so silly.  He loves to make us laugh.  And this kid is crazy smart...in my motherly assessment.  :)  The doctor asked at his two-year appointment if he was starting to string phrases together.  Uh...I feel like I've been having full conversations with this kid for months.  Tonight he was showing me the moon.  Then he said, "It rises in the east.  Sets in the west."  Um, ok, crazy memory child.  He absorbs everything.  Because he's so verbal, it makes it really fun to listen to the boys have conversations together.  They love to playfully argue.  So we'll be driving, and Caleb will say, "I saw a mail truck!"  And Nathan will say, "No, I saw a mail truck!"  C: "No, you didn't!"  N: "Yes, I didn't!"  Nathan just loves to say the opposite of whatever you say.

- And I'm very thankful for mild Texas winters.  While the summers are crazy hot, I'm glad to be able to go outside and play with the boys, so we're not cooped up inside the house all day.  We've been to the park a lot this week.  It's already a bummer that it's dark at 5:30 now.  I can't imagine how people do it up north with all the snow and bitter cold!  Well, I can because I grew up in it.  I'm just glad we can get out and run around without having to layer on clothes, only to last outside for 20 minutes.  :)

First camping trip

David was very adventurous last weekend - he took the boys on a camping trip!  The "first annual guys camping trip."  Some guys from his office organized it.  It was his first time camping, and dragging along a 2-year-old and 3-1/2-year-old seemed challenging to me.  But he did it!  And they had a great time.  It was a pretty easy first camping trip to get their feet wet.  It was just an overnight trip, only 30 minutes away from home.

When I told Caleb he was going camping, he didn't really understand the concept.  I told him he'd sleep in a tent, and it was kind of the The Bernstein Bears Go to Camp.  He said, "I don't want to.  That's too scary."  When I told him he'd get to sleep in the tent with Daddy and have flashlights, he was super excited!

Everyone excited to head out in the Jeep!

Playing in the tent.

Tent all set up.  It's pretty big - sleeps 6.

Coloring.

Peeing on the site.  :)

Ready for a nap.  But really they just played the whole time.

Nathan making his lion sing Jesus Loves me while "napping."

 

Standing on a stump.

David brought our wagon along, and giving wagon rides proved to be one of the favorite activities of the trip.

 

The group of tents.

The boys slept well at night.  David said it got a little chilly, but they all cuddled up with the blankets.

But I guess they didn't sleep that great because they fell asleep within minutes of driving home the next morning.  I guess part of it could have been the time change too.  That was the nice part for me!  I actually got to sleep in while they were gone.   Can you imagine there being 3 boys in the back in a couple years??!!  More fun camping trips to come!