Ethan turned 1 two days before Christmas, so he was able to practice his present unwrapping skills. He went right to it.
But Will just couldn't take the suspense anymore.
Doesn't our tree look cool in this shot?
Since neither of the boys had been too interested in the presents beforehand, I wasn't sure how this would go, or if it would start a tidal wave of wanting to open everything. But they were very good and only opened the ones we gave them.
I was having a hard time deciding on Ethan's cake, but a week before his birthday, he was messing with my cookbooks and surprisingly only pulled out two, instead of all of them. One of them was a cake decorating book I'd forgotten about, and I found this cute bear idea. I think Ethan was trying to give me a hint.
And of course he loved eating it.
One of his best presents was a rocking horse from our friends Sheila and Tresanay. Both of the boys love it, although Ethan prefers mostly just to pat the horse for now. Once he's a little taller, I'm sure he'll be more excited about riding it.
For Christmas we started the tradition of everyone getting new pajamas to open and wear on Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning we watched the Church Christmas Devotional, made cinnamon rolls and homemade hot chocolate and finally got around to opening presents around noon.
Ethan was stealing cinnamon rolls off our plates.
We almost had to force the boys to open presents. Every time they would open a new toy, they wanted to play with it (of course). So unwrapping took quite awhile, which is why we didn't take many pictures. It was enough effort just to get them to sit down. We felt very blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who care about us so much. It was a wonderful Christmas.
That night we decided it was time to convert Will's crib into a toddler bed. He seemed to really like it--for the first week. Then he liked it too much because he realized that he could get out whenever he felt like it. After several days of no naps and staying up playing until 3 a.m., we went back to the crib and decided to wait a little longer. And he was okay with that. I think he just wasn't ready for so much freedom. He doesn't try to climb out of the crib at all, so we'll try again when he understands a little better.
Last weekend we were able to go downtown to the Ice Carving Competition. The Town Square is one big ice skating rink, and the ice carving was happening all around it. There's an even bigger one held in Fairbanks, but I liked that the drive was only 5 minutes instead of 9 hours. Maybe someday. It was neat to see what people could create out of a block of ice. Just one more cool thing to see in Anchorage that doesn't happen just anywhere.
For quite awhile, Will's favorite book has been "No, David" by David Shannon. A few days ago, I heard him "reading" it to himself, so I just had to get him to do it again for the camera. Either he has an excellent memory, or we read the book way too often. Either way, it was pretty amazing.
Everything else is great here. We're up to 6 and a half hours of daylight, but we're also wondering if the real cold is about to begin. So far we've been very lucky! Not a whole lot of snow (just a couple feet), and the weather's been bearable.
Anthony received "Airman of the Quarter" yesterday for his flight. We're going to have to set aside a whole room for all of his awards and accomplishments at this rate! He works hard at everything he does, and it truly shows. That reminds me that I also never did post the picture of him when he met Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. So, here it is.
At home, Ethan and Will are teaming up on me and getting into all kinds of mischief. Whether it's playing in the fish tank, coloring on the walls, playing in the fridge, putting lotion on our new TV, pouring all the black pepper into a pot, drinking salt out of the canister, throwing up that salt back into the canister, or climbing onto the counter to get the candy out of the cabinet, I know that I can't turn around for even a second without something happening behind my back. I think the next few years are going to be big trouble. Whenever I see a rerun of "Malcolm in the Middle," it makes me cringe a little more each time. Boys. But no complaints. Life is good!
