Merry Christmas 2011

We had a very blessed and full morning of opening presents and putting together toys!! FUN FUN!! Thank you everyone for all of these wonderful gifts!!

Goodies for Santa & the Reindeer

Christmas Eve Present

The presents the boys opened tonight were action gliders from Mommy and Daddy!!

Iron Man

Another one of Andrew's drawings; again, so accurate from his memory!

Popcorn Garland

We made some popcorn garland today; it was so much fun it definitely needs to be a new Brockman tradition!! It is a little shorter than I had planned because a few monkeys sneaked some popcorn and the littlest monkey also crushed some of the pieces, but it works perfect for the top front of the tree!!

Early Opening...

While on the phone with Gramma she decided to let the boys open their 'together' gift early (a play grill!), then decided I could have mine early so I could use it on Christmas (a new camera!), and we couldn't leave Daddy out, so he got to open one as well (a gaming headset!)!!

Countdown Present #2

The boys opened their second countdown present from Gramma and Grampa, which was...MOVIES!!

Riley got Cars 2 and Andrew got The Smurfs!!

Cash Toys

The boys got to spend their Christmas card money from Gramma and Grampa today; Andrew chose an interchangeable Ben 10 figurine set to play with until Christmas, and Riley chose 2 little power tools that actually have working sounds!!

Countdown Present #1

Gramma and Grampa sent two countdown presents to open before Christmas. Because the boys always open up a present Christmas Eve they got to start the countdown presents today!!

Countdown Present #1 is.... COSTUMES!!

Spiderman for Andrew; Mario for Riley!

Music Cards

The boys also decided to open their cards from Gramma and Grampa... (hope that was okay...lol)

They were music cards with some cash inside; Andrew was so excited when he saw the surprise inside his mailbox!!

Storybooks

The boys listened to their recordable storybooks from Mimi & Papa tonight. They loved them and listened to them three times each!

Bedroom Furniture

Today we went to do a little shopping with our anniversary money from Mom and Pa and our Christmas money from Dad and Lucy. I was having quite the emergency in our bedroom with clothes falling out of our broken dresser and books stacked on the floor, so we used that money to buy a nice bookshelf and a nice dresser. Thank you guys so much; our room finally looks tidy and neat once again!!

Clever or Sneaky?

This is the second time Andrew has decided that a hot oven will not stop him from getting in the cupboard; so he uses oven mitts on his feet to protect them from getting burned...

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Now that everyone on our Christmas card list has received their cards (hopefully!) I can post it!!

Merry Christmas!
Buon Natale!

Squadron Kids' Holiday Party

This afternoon was Adam's squadron's kids' holiday party. The boys made some ornaments and then jumped in the bouncy castle for awhile. They were not interested in Santa, just thought it was funny when he left on a motorcycle!!

Wreath

When unpacking the boxes I came across my homemade wreath from Michael.

I love it, Micolla, it is absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much!

Now just to find a place to hang it!

Arrivals

The Christmas boxes started arriving today!!! The boys will be very excited to see them in the morning!!

Tree Lighting Ceremony

Santa was at the BX tonight for the tree lighting ceremony, so we stood in line to see him. Andrew of course avoided him completely, and Riley was so excited to see him while we were standing in line, but not so much when I sat him in his lap! They both liked seeing the big tree lit up though!!

Don't Break the Ice

This is the boys' favorite game!!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

The boys singing along to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star :)

Wrapping

For some reason I forgot I had pictures I hadn't posted yet, so to play a little catch up...

This is Andrew wrapping everyone's presents before we sent the boxes out. Too bad I made sure nothing was revealed, HAHA!!

ONLY...

...14 weeks until we come home to Maine (pending Adam's leave approval)!!

I thought you all might want a little countdown to look forward to; so I added this nifty countdown ticker on the blog in case you are wondering how many months, weeks, or days left all you have to do is head on over to the blog to see!! It is embedded into the blog above the posts for anytime you want to look, but here is a countdown to get you started:

Christmas Boxes

The Christmas DVD's were a little stubborn this year and it took me a little longer to make them, but they are done and the boxes are now ready to be sent!! Be on the lookout for my makeshift shipping boxes (the BX only sold small-medium ones; so I structured my own!) :)

Gag Reel

This year I even included a gag reel; some pretty funny stuff!!

Sneak Peek

The Christmas boxes will be on their way soon!! Here is the sneak peek for the annual video!!

Adam

I wanted to let everyone know Adam's knee surgery went fine; he is home resting peacefully now. He didn't seem to be in too much pain when we first picked him up, but we will see how he does once the anesthesia completely wears off. Thanks for your thoughts!!

Christmas Tree

Since Adam is going in for knee surgery on Wednesday and may not be up to climbing around in the closet to get out the Christmas stuff on Friday he let me decorate the tree a few days early!!

We had to get new lights (this year I will use a transformer so they won't burn out) and they do not sell garland here so it is my first year of decorating with ribbon; and of course I needed a new set of ornaments to match. It looks much prettier in real life; but here it is!!

Happy start to a Merry Christmas season!!!

Blast from the Past

The first one was taken in July 2005 when we were at the cabin Lucy had rented through LLBean for us all to spend some time together!!

The second one was taken at Dad and Lucy's Halloween party in October 2005.

Adam has changed so much!!!

Andrew displays these pictures in his room :)

From Lindi

Lindi still sends the boys holiday cards each year; here they are opening their Halloween cards from her. As you can tell Riley wasn't exactly interested in reading the inside, but he did like the picture on the front!!

Halloween Gifts

The boys spent their Halloween cash from Gramma and Grampa at the BX today! Andrew got his RescueBot Optimus Prime (he told me what he was going to buy from the minute he acquired the cash!) and Riley found a new train named Arthur we don't have yet!!

Rowdyruff Boys

Andrew is really becoming quite the artist! He draws even better than I do (considering I can only draw stick people). It seems like he may take after Daddy in this field!! This is his interpretation of the Rowdyruff boys (pictured below)