Happy New Year and Winter Fun!

Still back tracking...but at least we're almost to January (and I'm writing about it in the month of April).
My mom left in late December to go to New Jersey to be with her brothers and sisters to celebrate New Year's Eve.  Since my dad had to go back to work, he decided to leave Massachusetts the following day.  We took the boys to see the movie "Walking With Dinosaurs".  I'd say it was a solid B-.  The plot wasn't that great and it had a little bit of violence for little kids.  However, it had the most important thing for the boys...dinosaurs, so they loved it. 
It was a lot of fun to have family over during the holidays. :)

Grandpa (my dad), giving Alex a piggy back
ride up the stairs because it was bath time.

William enjoyed playing around with Oscar's
neck-kerchief.

The boys, playing around.

Unfortunately, Joseph got home late on New Year's Eve.  Since I had no grand plans of celebration, the boys and I visited the local Party City store and got a few fun hats and noise makers to ring in the new year.  I even got the boys some sparkling cider so that they could have a little bubbly to celebrate.  :)
I found a fun kid's "New Year's Eve" countdown on YouTube, turned it on around 9 p.m. and we did our countdown together.  As soon as it got to "1," I taught the boys that they were supposed to scream, "Happy New Year!" and then you give your loved ones kisses.  They enjoyed it so much that we did the countdown three more times.
As soon as we were getting ready to go upstairs for bath, books, and bed; Joseph came home!!  Then, we did the countdown together once more and brought out the party poppers.  The boys had a lot of fun with that, but the neat freak in me immediately regretted that decision and swept up the mess right away.

William and Alex on New Year's Eve
with their fancy top hats that Alex picked out.
(William wouldn't sit still for a picture.)

The three of us wearing our fancy New Year's hats.
(If you look closely, William had quite a bit
 of glitter on his mouth from when he bit his hat.)

Our sweet little boys, holding hands.

Yay!!  Daddy came home just in time to
celebrate!!

I had to capture this rare moment.  Alex,
actually acknowledging Oscar.  Alex, for some
reason, isn't all that interested in Oscar.
He's just now starting to show interest and will
pet him, independently, once in a while.
However, on this particular morning, Alex
greeted Oscar with open arms and lots of pets.
It was very sweet.

And now...for some silliness.

Our boys really love to listen to music and to have dance parties.

Alex was very proud of the silly face that he made.
As soon as I took this picture, he wanted to see it
right away.

Our fuzzy-headed little panda :)
He still doesn't have a lot of hair on the top
of his head, but it's coming in longer in the back.

The boys love it when Joseph plays piano.

Here's Alex, giving William a "magic carpet ride."
(That's where William sits on a blanket and Alex
pulls him around the house.)  :)

While he's pulling William, he sings,
"A whole new world" from the movie Aladdin.

When the weather was warmer (above 20 degrees), I tried to take the boys and Oscar out as much as possible.  However, some people in our neighborhood didn't shovel their sidewalks completely.  Thus, I had a very difficult time pushing William in the stroller.  So what did I do to improvise?  I whipped out the sled and pulled both boys in the sled while I walked Oscar!  The boys loved the sled ride and Oscar loved getting out of the house.  WIN WIN!

William and Alex, getting ready for a sled ride.

Woo hoo!!

It was a nice day, so I took the boys, and Oscar to a local playground and took them sledding.  This was William's first time and both of the boys loved it!

Alex and William, getting ready to sled downhill.

Our cute little Boilermakers :)

Weeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

Oscar enjoyed romping through the snow as well :)

Joseph's parents visited shortly after my parents left.  It was so nice to have family with us!!  While they were here, we went to the New England Aquarium and music class that week.  We had a great time together, as always. 

William, checking out the sting rays in the touch tank.

He was mesmerized by them.

Here's some fun at their music class.

More dancing in music class :)

Here's Alex "reading" a book (he's memorized a few books
and likes to "read" them to us).  :)

Alex, holding up some green beans to his nose,
and saying, "Look mommy!  I've got a mustache
just like Nono and Grandpa!"  HA!  This kid cracks me up.

William, munching on a banana (more like
shoving the whole thing in his mouth), early
in the morning.

In the middle of throwing a tantrum, William
saw me getting ready to take a picture and said,
"Eeeeeee!"  (Which means "Cheese!")  Oy!
This kid is one cheeky little handful.

William, wearing his formal attire :)

He loves putting this little phone to his ear and
saying, "Allo!"  :)

:)

Since it was cold, and I was tired of going to the museums or the aquarium, I decided to take the boys to the indoor play space at the Natick Mall.  It was the perfect place to visit on a Tuesday morning (because no one was there) and the boys practically had the place to themselves!

William loved the slide!

Here's Alex in the miniature version of Boston Common.
They loved being able to run around.

Some more bath time fun

While William was taking a morning nap,
Alex was busy being silly.  He got syrup
all over his shirt, so I threw it in the washer
and lent him my "I love Med Students" shirt.
LOL!

Alex's first attempt at a selfie.  :)

Getting better :)

Still trying to figure it out ;-)

Our little guy :)

Here's the boys checking out an exhibit at the Museum of Science.

We went back a few weeks later with Joseph so Alex could show him the dinosaur exhibit (by far his favorite exhibit).

Joseph and the boys checking out a Triceratops.

Alex got a real kick out of looking at his HUGE head.

He thought it was hilarious.

Later that evening, we went to a phenomenal
new restaurant called "Kirkland Tap and Trotter."
It's the same chef/owner as one of our favorite
restaurants, and this new one is a little more kid-friendly.
The food was absolutely divine and the boys enjoyed it as well!
Here's Alex, waiting very patiently for his food. :)

Our little polar bear and Alex, hanging
out on the couch.

William was so stinking cute in his little polar bear
outfit.  Unfortunately, it was made out of fleece
and William sweats SO easily.  I even put it on him
on one of the coldest days this year and he STILL
sweated so much, that I had to wash it and give it
to my dear friend Kate.  Hopefully James could get some
good use out of it.  :)

Our sneaky little guy :)

He knows he's cute :)

Ok...seriously?  I can't get enough of this! :)

And now...a serious moment :)

Now that both boys are bigger and are able to color and do more crafts, we decided that we would get them a play table and chairs.  We found an awesome one on Amazon that wasn't crazy expensive, was plastic (Hello?!  Easy to clean, much?) and even had a lip around the perimeter of the table so that markers wouldn't fall off.  The boys LOVE their play table and chairs and have had so much fun with them!

I told Alex that he could color at the table.
So what does a very literal 3 year old do?
He took a marker and started coloring all over the table!!!
I about had a heart attack, but thankfully they were
washable markers and I was able to clean the marker
off of the table top right away.  :)

Play dough fun at the table! :)

Alex having a play date with one of the neighbor's
kids where they were painting a little wooden craft.
This table and chairs really came in handy!

William loves emptying the contents of this cabinet.

This is what he does while I'm cooking :)

The dreaded bout of diarrhea visited our home in late January and was absolutely horrific.  Thankfully, it only plagued William and no one else.  It was an entire week of non-stop poop.  Mid-way through the week, my hands were cracked and raw from washing my hands all of the time, and his little booty was raw as well.  Thus, I had to only rinse him off in the sink, instead of using wipes, and then sanitize the sink after each use.  It was not a fun week for anybody in our household.  OY!!  SO glad that's over.

The poops would wake this guy up super
early in the morning, so I brought him
downstairs so he wouldn't wake anyone else up.
I let him have a little naked booty time to air out a little bit.

He loved the naked booty time :)

Our boys love magic carpet rides :)

We were playing around, during diarrhea week,
and William suddenly said, "TIE OU" and sat himself
against the wall.  I immediately started cracking up
when I realized that he meant, "Time out," and decided
to put himself in time out!  HA!! 

He was very proud of himself for sitting on
Oscar's pad.  :)

Here's William, playing dress up, with the
doctor outfit.  He was SO pleased with himself
that he kept it on all morning :)

Our little pirate and doctor :)

Sorry for the complete randomness of this post, but there were just so many cute pictures that I wanted to include them all.  A belated happy new year to all, and to all a good night!  Until next time...


Love and kisses,
Nikki