Christmas Eve + Christmas Day

We had a few friends over for Christmas eve, we had a yummy crab dinner! After dinner we went to see the Christmas lights one more time, then off to bed Santa was coming after all!

Santa got the gifts ready for Christmas morning

Lots of blurry photos from Christmas morning, Logan was so excited!

Then I opened a package from Andrew so excited! It was a new lens for my camera, the nifty 50. And my pictures got a whole lot better and I think I'm finally learning how to get off auto!

My parents came over for Christmas dinner, they entertained the boys while I cooked. For some reason the boys love to wear swim diapers over jammies and pretend to be super heros.

Wonderful Christmas this year!

Christmas Celebrations

We stayed local for Christmas this year, I don't think the boys got out of pajamas for 3 days straight! We started celebrating on Sunday with  a big family dinner at my parents house. 

The boys took a bath together which was all kinds of adorable. Cameron wasn't sure what to make of the crazy McLeod boys in the tub. 

We opened a few gifts to get us to Christmas, the boys had a blast! 

Cinnamon Rolls!

I made these Cinnamon rolls last year for the first time. I passed them out at Christmas eve for family to enjoy the next morning. Making the rolls ended up being a great gift people enjoyed, so I made them again this year! I added friends and the boys teachers to the list this year and baked them for days. I think I made somewhere around 20 pans of rolls and used so many sticks of butter!

Water boys

Logan often begs me to squirt him with the hose. Its winter kid! They both love the water, but lately its been cold for California standards. I gave in the other day when it wasn't that cold, and then the boys had a nice warm bath after.

Last Elf on the Shelf

Elf was fun, and the boys did love finding him. However it became a little hard to stay motivated every night and find cool places for Ducky to hide. A few last pictures that make me laugh.

Ducky was naughty and drew faces on our wedding photo

Andrew cracks me up, he was playing elf with the boys and "hiding" he has the creepy elf look down! 

Christmas Lights

We really enjoyed looking at Christmas lights this year. We went once during the week to Eucalyptus lane in San Carlos, and back on Christmas Eve. Dylan loved pointing at everything and asking what it was, Logan was in aw of all the lights!

loved this bug bus! 

They had snow on christmas eve and santa. 

Preschool Co-op

Both of the boys are enrolled in a preschool Co-op this year. Its quite a bit to commit to, but I don't work so what the heck right? Being in a coop means I have to commit to a maintenance day 1x per year for each school, 20 hours of work outside the class per school, working in the classroom weekly at each school, parent education night classes, and a bunch of other random things that come up. Even though it is a lot, I really do love it. Being a part of something turned out to be more important to me then I thought. I really did miss it for the year we lived in the east bay. Being a part of the boys school has been really amazing and rewarding. A few co-op highlights from the September-December:

Ball pit fun

I started making stick ponies for both the boys silent auctions coming up 

Christmas Play parents put on for the kids

My loot! Dylans school had a craft night and I got to make all this! 

Fun sensory tub, cornstarch and water

Elf on a Shelf

Oh yes we started Elf on a Shelf this year. I had been ignoring the incessant facebook posts in years passed, telling myself I did not need one more thing to do. But this year, I ordered the $40 book + Elf. I brought the Elf out with the book all excited to start this tradition with the boys. We read the story, and Logan said: "Mommy you bought that Elf at the store, he is not real" Awesome, he didn't see the box, and for the record I ordered it on Amazon. <br>
We still named him, (Ducky) and hide him every night. We don't say he reports back to Santa, or tell him the Elf is watching. Its more about him hiding every morning somewhere new, and that to Logan is magical. Andrew and I take turns hiding him, its becoming kinda a pain to think of new places! <br>

The best one yet, Logan said: Mommy we have a little problem , come quick! 

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We decorated outside and got our tree!

Christmas Crafting

The first weekend of December was very very rainy! I had my maintenance day at Dylans preschool, and left Salt Dough for the boys to get started on. While I was gone, they cut out all the shapes for the ornaments.

After baking them for forever, it was time to paint, and then decorate the ornaments. Thankfully this was a long process because it was a really wet weekend!

We also did a gingerbread house

Suitcase Super Star!

I love Logans preschool, just one of the amazing things they do: Suitcase Super Star. Every child in the class gets a chance to take the suitcase home during the school year. They fill it with five favorite things, bring the suitcase back to school and share it with the class. The teacher talks them through all the items in the suitcase, asks them questions about the special items, and uses is as a way to learn math. How many items are left? etc. After they are done sharing, the kids watching get to ask questions, its totally adorable and Logan was SO proud to share his items. <br>
1. Buzz Lightyear
2. Woody doll
3. Picture of himself running on the beach when we were in Avila
4. Picture of Logan, Daddy, and Dylan at Disneyland
5. His Lovey

Halloween Phone Pics

Too many halloween events!

Daddys work party, way to crazy

Little Hands Party

Logans School Party

Logans school party pinata

Finally Halloween! 

Sac Train Musem

I drove up to Sacramento to meet up with family at the Train Museum. The boys were pretty excited to see it all. When we arrived, Dylan was being two, and having a hard time understanding which trains he could touch/get on. I guess it was his turn to throw a big public tantrum! There are some serious train enthusiast at the museum. (Train geeks) We ate lunch in Old Sac, such a cute area!
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View from second floor where they keep the train tables

Mr Pouty after quite the tantrum

Those eyes