Preschool Christmas Party

It was the Hobby Horse Ranch Preschool Christmas Party on Thursday! They had cookies and a book exchange! You know how much the boys love reading their books-especially Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See! Aimee put all the books in a big Santa bag and went around the room and let each child pick a book out of the bag. Dillon picked The Snow Bear and Christmas Cats (Daddy's favorite Chirstmas book for sure-not!). And Brenen picked The Littlest Christmas Tree and The Penguin Who Wanted to be Different. The Monkeys also gave mommy and daddy ornaments that they made with their sweet little handprints on them-so precious! It was a fun and very busy day at preschool!

Snips And Snails And Puppy Dog Tails..That's What Little Boys Are Made Of

We were babysitting cousins Avery and Henry and had to take some pictures of all our precious boys! Henry is Hopper's bestest friend! He wouldn't leave Hopper's side the whole night. Hopper and his blankie, and Big Hen was content as can be! Avery, Uncle Jerm and I finished off the night with some root beer floats (or "float beers" as Avery calls them) and watched some Einstein movies before bed....the elephant AND sheep ones of course!

All of our boys are growing up so fast; it's good to catch little moments like these. We love them so much!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, Oh ....my gosh is that a zebra and camel!

Okay, now before I go any further I want you to notice the pictures of the zebra and camel. Yes, I did say zebra and camel...the camel's name is "Lover Boy"! Now, these cute critters were at a local tree lot here in Eagle, Idaho. Yes, that's correct, at the little tree lot where we got our beautiful Christmas tree! Only in Idaho can you find such a combination. And what a day to place into our many Christmas memories we hope to have together!

The boys are fascinated with the tree this year. They have broken pretty much every ornament on the tree, eaten some fake berries off the garland and continually pull on the many strings of lights! "No No!" seems to be heard quite a bit around here lately. The tree is, however, beautiful and makes us excited for the Christmas season and smells so good! Brenen and Dillon are deciding whether to be naughty or nice......but I bet Santa brings them presents anyway because they are so darn cute! Daddy and Kashmir will get a lump of coal!

Happy Holidays!

Give Thanks

It is that time of year again to give thanks for all we have! We are truly blessed to have such wonderul family and good friends in our lives! We hope you all had a good Thanksgiving holiday!

Trick or Treat

Welcome to the jungle........we have the cutest safari animals ever seen! It was a fun night of trick or treating! Brenen and Dillon weren't too excited to be in their costumes, but were very good sports about it anyway. It was so fun to see the boys and their cousins together as an elephant, zebra, lion and tiger.....what wild animals they all are!!! We love them all so much. Hopper lucked out this year. I didn't have time to put him in a costume. I was going to take one of the many sets of sheets he has so kindly ripped to shreds and cut two holes (or use two that he has torn already) in it and make him the Halloween doggie ghost, but like I said he is one lucky dog! Hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween!

Punkin' Carvin'

We continued with the Halloween celebrations by carving pumpkins over at the Downey house. It was a SPOOK-tacular evening filled with creativity (by natural born artists!) and good grub (thanks for the chili Aunt MeMe!). We put our punkin' carvin' skills to the test!

Happy Halloween Cupcakes

We have been busy getting ready for Halloween this year. Monday we made some Halloween cupcakes for all to share. Brenen and Dillon loved the batter as much as the actual cupcakes!

Visit with Gramma

Gramma flew into Boise this Wednesday for a visit. We "pooped" Gramma out! First on the agenda, the boys got their haircuts at MonkeyDooz after that they showed off and tested Gramma's running skills at the park. We had fun day of shopping at Old Navy and Bath and Body Works (at least Mommy and Gramma did; Dillon just had a stinky diaper!!). And even dared to go out to lunch. The boys suprised us with how well behaved they were in the restauarant. They colored on the kid's menus (and on the table!) and had chicken with fries finishing with a little Crayola crayon for dessert! Saturday we made a big trip to the Punkin' Patch! The boys weren't too sure of the whole adventure! We took a hayride out to the patch and the boys each got their own pumpkin to bring home. There were also barnyard animals to see! The turkeys, sheep, piggies and cows were happily eating breakfast when we arrived. Brenen didn't care much for the Turkeys though! It was such a fun visit and the monkeys have Gramma wrapped around their little fingers!

Brenen and Dillon turn 18 months

Our biggest boys turned 18 months on October 20th. The boys had their 18 month check up and Dr. Naya was so pleased with how healthy and happy they are! Dillon Thomas weighed 24 lbs. 10 oz. and is 32" in height. Brenen Steven is our heavy weight at 25 lbs. 7 0z. and is 32 3/4" in height. They were so brave when they got their flu shots! They only cried for a few minutes and then were immediately distracted by the bouncy balls our nurse had for them!
The monkeys have been busy getting into mischief all day, everyday! They say "Hi" to everyone they see. And are learning to color; they sing and try to snap their fingers; Brenen shakes his head "no" (I'm sure we will be seeing a lot of that!). And love bath time, listening to music (Lullaby Renditions of Metallica is their favorite, they told me so!) and reading stories!

Elliott Blog Slide Show

Hello Everyone! Hope you enjoy our new blog. Brenen and Dillon are busy growing and learning new stuff everyday! It has been so much fun watching them together-playing or fighting! They can say "hi", "dada", "mama" and "uh oh"! They adore their doggy,Hopper, and their kitty, Kashmir Toby (although I don't think the feeling is mutual with the cat!). Of course they still talk on their "phone" non-stop! They are adjusting to their preschool really well! And have been doing all kinds of fun projects and have lots of new friends their age to play with!