My Belly

I have a sweet friend that told me the other day, "you are really getting huge." Thank goodness I know she means well. She said, "I don't remember you getting this big with your boys." I just laughed. I told Mike two weeks ago, "I don't remember getting this big." He said, "Oh, trust me, you get bigger." I just sighed because I already feel like I am running out of room. But, I wanted proof. So, I went surfing through our past pictures. Here they are. All 3 of my pregnant belly's. I guess I do have a ways to go folks. 

Daven's belly. I want to say this is 36 weeks, don't know for sure.

Logan's Belly...3 Days before he was born! Thank goodness he came 3 weeks early.

Baby Girl Bryner's Belly - 30 Weeks

Christmas Day 2008

My sister said she wanted lots of pictures of Christmas Day. So, here is what I've got. We woke up around 7 a.m. Daven slept in our room on the floor. He loves to have sleepovers like that. Mike said he was up at 6 a.m. but waited patiently for someone else to wake up. So sweet. We went and woke Logan up. He was grumpy from then on with little spurts of joy here and there. Oh, he cracks me up.

Santa left a few crumbs. Both boys wanted to take a bite.

Logan ate a cookie for breakfast and the chocolate bar in his stocking right away.

A Fire Engine!!

Police Headquarters Legos!

Amazing how a present brings such a smile to everyone's face.

Logan did NOT want to open presents. He just wanted to play. At one point I said, "can you help me open this present." He yelled, NO!! I will not help you open that!! Stinker. I guess he's only two.

Mike and Daven spent most of Christmas Day putting together the Legos. They worked so hard. But, wow! It turned out pretty cool. These legos amaze me. There are two jails that come with potty's in them! Their is a water dispenser in the office with hot and cold water faucets. They don't miss a detail.

Christmas was wonderful. We were glad Papa got to spend it with us. We enjoyed a ham dinner. It was so nice & refreshing to just play with the boys all day. I didn't get dressed at all. It was great!!

Christmas Eve 2008

Christmas Eve was so much fun. We started off the day by making sugar cookies for Santa. And, it is about a 3 hour process, but was worth every minute.

Papa drove into town that afternoon. The boys were so excited to see him. They quickly showed him that he would have a santa hat instead of a stocking like them.

I am so sad, I don't have a single picture of my dad with the boys or of Mike. I guess I need to be better at grabbing the camera away from Mike's neck next year.

We ate some yummy chicken noodle soup, then started the traditional family festivities.

The boys opened their new jammies from mom and dad. They were thrilled because they had cars and trucks on them. Thank goodness for baby gap. I had the hardest time finding pj's this year. I wanted something they would be excited about. So, I had to snatch these up when I found them. Never mind I paid full-price for one pair. Logan surprised us. He usually can't stand the long sleeves. But, he wanted to wear them. YAY!

We did a felt re-telling of Luke Chapter 2.

Then, it was ornament time. Logan is opening the ornament Grandma sent him....it is a LEGO car. What a huge hit. You can tell by his face how excited he is. He also got a Disneyland ornament from mom and dad.

You have to know Daven, it doesn't take much to get him excited. He LOVES everything. Here he is opening his mickey ornament from us. I think he liked it, don't you?

Next we sprinkled the reindeer food outside. We put out "chocolate milk" for Santa per Daven's persistance. I guess Mike says that Santa likes chocolate milk the best. We put out some cookies and carrots for the reindeer. Then, it was off to bed. Logan was out the minute he hit the pillow. Daven, not too long after.

Christmas really is magical with kids.

Getting Ready for the Big Day

I really wanted to do an Advent Calendar for the boys this year. I've wanted to do one for the last couple years, but just haven't been able to make it happen. I decided that it still seemed overwhelming to think about doing a big activity every day. So, I thought I would simplify my life.

We bought those "chocolate" advent calendars from Michael's. The one's where you open a door and find a chocolate ever day until Christmas. We used to love those as kids. My boys got so into them. The first thing they would say every morning is, "Can I have my chocolate?" They loved it when I would forget to eat mine one day, because then they got two. Yes, I bought me one of course!

I decided to try and do one big, fun activity every week with them. So here are our happenings.

Week 1: Making a Gingerbread House

They absolutely loved this. They were so proud of it. They had lots of fun sticking all the candy on and picking at it every day. Daven wanted to make it look just like the picture on the box. I gave it a good try but there is only a slight resemblance.

I was surprised by how much Logan knew what to do. As soon as I set out some candy for him, he went right to work putting it on. The gingerbread house was the first thing they showed everyone when they came over.

Week 2: We took the boys to see Santa & went to see the Temple lights at the Mesa Temple.

Week 3: Making Cookies for Santa.

The boys made a royal mess. I made my friend, Michelle's, sugar cookies on Christmas Eve. The boys favorite part was cutting out the shapes. I wish I had a picture of how they turned out. They were pretty cute.

The other favorite part was licking the beater. Logan got Daven's leftovers. But he didn't mind.

This was a bigger mess in real life. The boys were taking turns putting in the ingredients. I put 1 c of flour in. Daven turned on the mixer full blast. Flour was everywhere!!! I decided that I was going to give Elder Wirthlin's advice a try to LAUGH instead of show my frustration. It worked. Daven just smiled. I could tell he was surprised by my reaction. If only I could do this more every day.

I felt like I really got to enjoy the preparations this year. Maybe the simplifying worked for me. But if any of you have a cute advent calendar idea, let me know. I  just want something simple yet fun for the kids (and easy for me!).