Good Lego Star Wars Dreams - Its Magic

For MONTHS, at bedtime, Brennan has required that I kiss him and say the following:

"Good Lego Star Wars
Luke Skywalker
Hans Solo
Princess Leia
Queen Amidala
R2D2
C3PO
Chewbacca
Ewok
Obi Wan Kenobi
Master Yoda
Qui-Gon Gin
Jar Jar Binks
Captain Banaca
dreams......its magic....."

The order always changed.....just because it was hard for me to remember all names, but he would ALWAYS call me out if I forgot someone! 

He's now gotten to be passionate about a game on my computer called Angry Birds Star Wars.....so my job has gotten substantially easier!  Its just "Good Angry Birds Star Wars dreams - its magic." 

Winter Fun at the Lodge–Part 2

 

Sunday, our last day at the cabin, we ventured into Helena to have ‘tea’ with Gabe and Maggie Brennan – good family friends and inspiration for our boys name.  They were dog sitting for their son & daughter-in-law and Brennan was completely in love with Helmut, the yorkie.  They were good with each other.  It didn’t take long at all for Helmut to take a liking to Brennan and it made Brennan very calm and proud too. 

Some Bey Blade fun on the Brennan’s Kitchen floor. 

Anyone who knows my ‘full of life’ boy will know that this is pretty amazing.  Helmut rested on his chest willingly, and Brennan just laid there and petted him. 

Of course, a few more rounds of Ned’s Head while we packed the car to go home. 

Winter Fun at the Lodge 2012–Part 1

 

We headed to the cabin outside of Helena the day after Christmas – with an overnight in Couer D’Alene.

Brennan is learning to read at school and for Christmas he got a whole series of Bob books to help him learn.  Here he is reading a Bob book to Nana (in Grandpa Roger’s chair – it should be noted). 

Here is Nana playing Ned’s Head with the kids.  I think she has probably played that game 100 times.  There are a bunch of gross things that go in Ned’s Head (dirty diaper, Ned’s Lost Lunch, rat, dirty Q-Tip, sticky sucker) and then you pick cards and have to reach into Ned’s Head to retrieve what is on your card.  Brennan thinks it is the funniest thing if Nana gets Ned’s Lost Lunch, the Dirty Diaper, or the bird poop.  They play over and over again…..its probably easier for Nana to do that than to do Jedi Battles…..

Watching some kid shows on the TV they  now have at the cabin.  Notice baby Stella is right by Caelan’s side. 

We love to go to the cabin in the winter to play in the snow.  Here is Caelan all decked out and ready to go…..

Here is Brennan in Grandpa’s snow plow.  They plowed the road all the way out to the highway to make sure it was passable for my friend Lori and her family driving down from Great Falls that morning. 

The sledding fun begins…..

My friend Lori and her husband Jason have three girls, and they all had a blast sledding.  This is a great action shot of them. 

Brennan loved sledding this year…..

The best part of sledding at the cabin is that you don’t have to walk back up to the top.  Between the snow mobiles and 4 wheelers you didn’t have to wait too long to hitch aride.  The driver is Helen, Sean’s cousin Dennis’ girlfriend. 

Caelan did not go sledding, instead, she rode like a Queen on her throne with either Grandpa or Papa. 

This is Brennan on the sled being pulled up the hill…..

After sledding we enjoy hotdogs and S’mores at a Bonfire.  This is Lori and her three girls…..I have known Lori since I was 2yrs old. 

Caelan got very cold, so she and Grandpa ditched the bonfire and headed inside.  This is where she was when I came in. 

The morning after…..my girl had some crazy, crazy hair…..

Christmas Day 2012

 

I was amazed – on Christmas morning I was the only one up at 7:30am!  In fact, we woke Brennan up at 8:30am and he was still sound asleep!  It didn’t take long to it to register with him what day it was…..

What was also funny is that Brennan ran straight for the tree and didn’t even notice his ‘santa presents’ that were unwrapped under his stocking.  He almost stomped right over them when he finally thought about his stockings. 

His santa list was:

1.  Helicopter

2.  Bey Blades – which are kind of like tops – there are different parts you piece together to try and craft the bey blade that wills pin the longest and ‘knock out’ competitors.  I really lucked out with these.  We were in my favorite consighment shop and a lady walked in with 6 bey blades in a carrying case and an ‘arena’ for them to battle in – I told the ladies in a hushed voice that I definitely wanted them – and I got them for $15 – vs retail price of ~$75. 

3.  Red Suitcase.  Brennan had seen this suitcase in Costco and just really wanted it….enough for him to put it on his Santa list.  Unfortunately, they were sold out here by the time we got around to getting presents.  Luckily, they were still in stock in Helena, so Nana played Santa for us.  On Christmas Day when we talked to Nana she mentioned to Brennan that Santa must have gotten confused and delivered a package to MT on accident.  He totally bought it and was over the moon excited to open it when we got to MT on the 27th. 

Caelan’s Santa gift was Baby Stella……she was very pleased. 

both kids were very excited to get new headphones.  Caelan wanted them opened right away….and this is where she sat for at least a 1/2 hour.  

I thought this scene was so funny.  Notice the boys very intent in the background and Caelan doing her thing with her iPod. 

We spent the rest of Christmas Day packing for our road trip to MT the next day.  After dinner we did go and look at Christmas lights in Issaquah and found some great gems. 

It was a great Christmas Day with just the four of us, but I did miss having more people to share in our holiday cheer(*hint, hint, to the grandparents, brothers, sisters, etc*)

Christmas Eve 2012

 

I was pretty bummed about being ‘alone’ this Christmas…..so it was so nice when my good friend Brooke, and her family invited us over for Christmas Eve dinner and church.  Brooke and Stephen are Godparents to both kids, so they are like family. 

But first, my funny story.  I was assigned dessert for Christmas eve, so I decided to make Grandma Rozella’s Sugar Cookies.  After we baked them I noticed that they were incredibly crumbly, almost falling apart.   After taste testing them, Sean asked if I was sure that I added all of the ingredients, because they just didn’t taste right?  Boy, was I mad at him for that…..later, however, I checked the recipe to find that I had, in fact, left out a pretty key ingredient…..WHITE SUGAR!  Yes, I made sugar cookies but forgot the sugar (they did have powdered sugar in them, though). 

In my defense, I mixed them up with ‘help’ from Caelan – which means I was always in defense mode to avoid too big of a mess and to avoid fingers, arms, and spatulas in the mixer.  I apologized to Sean later for being so mad at him and we had a good laugh. 

Brooke’s sister Megan and her husband Mike also live in Seattle. 

The kids table was in the living room next to the roaring fireplace….pretty nice, I’d say. 

Brooke, Megan and Brooke’s husband Stephen. 

Our after-dinner serenade…..this is Caelan and Cael…..no we really didn’t name Caelan after Cael……it just turned out that way.  Cael had the name first – I think he is about 5mo. older than Caelan. 

 

We went to church with everybody at their church in downtown Seattle at 7pm, came back to house for dessert, and then came home about 10pm.  And, we weren’t ready for Santa at all……so Brennan got right to work.   This message was all his idea. 

Yes, we did pawn off the sugarless sugar cookies on Santa.  He did also have a green holly wreath marshmallow treat, but the photographer ate that before this shot was taken.  <smile>