It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We've been busy around here this month!  The shopping, parties, crafts, baking, wrapping, cards... you know, all the normal "December" stuff :)  We're all so excited for Christmas in just a few days!  Alex is so fun this year!  I love celebrating the holidays with kids!!  

 He told me that all of the animals were lined up to see baby Jesus!  He knows Christmas is "Jesus' Birthday" and can tell you the Christmas story... but, he is of course excited about the presents and Santa too ;)

 Nathan got a hairline fracture in his lower left leg 2 weeks ago when he slipped on a tomato that he had just spat out in the kitchen.  That, of course, has made this a much busier month!  They did not have to put his leg in a cast due to his age and the way the break was.  They gave us this removable brace instead, which I am so thankful for!  The first couple of days he was in a lot of pain, and the doctors appointments and x-rays were traumatic (for us both!)  He didn't walk on it all for a solid 2 weeks and was extra fussy due to the painful leg, frustration over not being able to get around normally, and the onset of some kind of stomach/diarrhea virus at the same time!  He adapted to his leg by crawling and walking on his knees though (it's amazing how quickly kids adapt!).  Yesterday (at two weeks and one day) he finally started walking on it a little bit again!  We went for a follow-up appointment and it is healing nicely.  It may be another 2-4 weeks before he is back to normal, but he is much happier being able to get around more normally and without so much pain now! 

We used this picture for our Christmas card this year!  :)  I finally got them sent out on Monday, which isn't too bad, right?  ;)

 Alex LOVED seeing Santa!  He had no fear this year, he just went right up and sat on his lap!  He told Santa all about the pirate ship he wants for Christmas.  He's been talking about the Imaginext Pirate Ship for over a month now.  We already had a "Santa Gift" that the boys were going to get from Santa (since we do one big gift and stockings from santa - and everything else is from us) but then Alex wouldn't stop talking about the pirate ship!  So, we weren't left with much choice - Santa is giving Alex the pirate ship for Christmas!  Alex has been counting down the days with his Christmas chain and our other countdown calendar and can't wait for Christmas day! 

 This little guy doesn't really get it, but follows his brother's excitement!  He'll repeat Christmas words and has been trying to sing "Jingle Bells"!  He loves the Christmas tree (and taking ornaments off) and has happily done all of the Christmas crafts with Alex and I!  We got a family shot with Santa (which I'll have to upload later using the scanner), so he did ok with that (no tears!).  He wants "Spiderman" for Christmas!  He is strangely obessed with Spiderman - I'm sure having a big brother has something to do with that ;) 

 Christmas will be so much fun with these two this year!!!  I think I'm probably as excited as they are :) 

 Love this sweet boy!!!

 We went to the Zoo Lights downtown this past weekend!  They had a nice train display that the boys absolutely LOVED.  I think they could have stood here all night ;)  We watched for at least 15 minutes, then had to convince them to leave!

It's so fun being downtown at night!  We drove around DC some to look at the monuments and capital building all lit up!  I hadn't seen them at night from close up and it was really beautiful!  The zoo lights were a lot of fun too, Alex especially liked them!