Waiting for Santa

We stayed busy in the week before Christmas. The boys were getting very excited for Santa's arrival. Caden and Cole made a gingerbread house with Mommy's help on the main construction. Most of the candy made it onto the house, but both boys were caught sneaking gumdrops. I think Caden is in mid-chew in this picture.
Here are Caden, Mommy, and Cole with the finished product.
Uncle Jason stopped by for a visit. He brought presents, so Caden and Cole were thrilled to open them before Christmas. It had been a year since our last visit, so it was great to spend some time with him. Here are the guys trying to get through the plastic, so the boys can play with the Incredible Hulk and Star Wars characters. Uncle Jason also brought Caden a V Smile Pocket, which is a huge hit.
On Christmas Eve morning, a delicious package arrived at our door. Here is Caden enjoying one of the snowman cookies sent by Kelly's Uncle Brad, Aunt Brenda, Brandon, & Brittany in Maryland. Yum!
We enjoyed our Christmas Eve traditions again this year despite Cole's first ever ear infection. In the late afternoon, we attended our church's Children's Christmas Eve service. Just two years ago, Cole, Curt, and Kelly played Baby Jesus, Joseph, and Mary during the interactive service. Where has the time gone?! After church, we opened our Christmas ornament presents and watched a Christmas show. We were ready for Santa!

Here is Caden with his treats for Santa (red velvet cookies and chocolate milk with a candy cane) and his reindeer (a carrot and oatmeal with sprinkles). Cole is not in the picture because he was in the middle of a meltdown. He was afraid that Santa would eat all of the cookies. FYI, the beer was not left for Santa. He was driving after all. :)
One last check of NORAD's Santa Tracker before heading to bed--If I remember right, Santa was in Canada. Amazingly, the boys fell asleep quickly. They were so excited!

Early Christmas with Grammy & Grandpa

On Friday, we went to Benton to celebrate an early Christmas with Grammy and Grandpa (Curt's parents). It was a quick, one-night visit because of Curt's call schedule, but we had a great time. Aunt Mariah and Uncle Jason were not home for the holidays yet, but we hope to see them in the next couple weeks.

Here is Cole enjoying his first of Grammy's Christmas sugar cookies. Yum!
Shortly after finishing the first cookie, he enjoyed a second cookie. Caden was much too busy asking about the presents under the tree to eat cookies.
Grammy and Grandpa let the boys open up one present on Friday night. They added more Star Wars characters to their growing collection.
On Saturday morning, we all enjoyed opening presents--so many wonderful gifts! We are very thankful! When it comes to opening presents, Caden and Cole are very different. Caden dashes from one present to the next, while Cole likes to check out each gift for a bit.
Caden playing Santa with Grammy and Grandpa in an attempt to slow down the present opening
Here are the boys opening the Hot Wheels volcano set from Aunt Mariah. Caden is thrilled! He played with it most of the evening. The toy combines cars with competition--perfect for Caden.
If you look closely, you can see how excited Caden is to get a Star Wars Tie Fighter. It is definitely going to be a Star Wars Christmas. Their new Star Wars sheets (almost identical to their daddy's childhood sheets) are in the dryer now, so they will be ready for tomorrow night.
Here is Cole playing with some of his new Star Wars characters. He couldn't be happier. At 2 1/2 years, he knows more Star Wars characters than his mommy will ever know. She is learning though.
Grammy, Grandpa, and the boys

Caden's Holiday Program

On Wednesday, Caden's preschool put on a holiday sing for the parents. The kids performed eight songs/finger plays. It was a cute program. The kids worked hard. We couldn't believe that Caden kept the songs a secret. After the parents left, the kids enjoyed a lot of holiday fun, including a visit from Santa. Caden asked for the Millennium Falcon and Mr. Freeze.

Here are most of the kids getting ready to perform.
Caden is showing his sweet smile in the back row with the striped shirt.
Here is Caden performing one of the finger plays. Caden's good friend, Olivia is in the front row with the cream dress. Ava is in pink next to Olivia. If you ask Caden about Ava, he will blush. Ava has asked Caden to marry her. He is not quite sure what to think about that.

Fun in the snow

We got a little bit of snow, so the boys bundled up to play.

The gate was iced shut, so we were trapped in the front and side yards.
Cole making his first snow angel--He was not a big fan of the snow last year, so his trips outside were pretty quick. He enjoyed it this time.
Caden catching snowflakes on his tongue
We hope it snows more because they had a great time.
I celebrated my birthday last weekend. Here are the boys helping me blow out my candles. Curt made me a yummy caramel cake. I wasn't planning on posting a picture of the event, but I was afraid a different picture would get posted if I didn't do it. Since the boys wanted me to open presents first thing in the morning, the rest of the pictures are not too pretty.

Getting ready for Christmas

The Settlemoir family is getting ready for Christmas. Caden and Cole are super excited, and so is Kelly as this is her favorite time of year. Our house is completely decorated and ready for the big day. We have a lot of fun Christmas activities planned for the next few weeks.

First, we celebrated Thanksgiving with Grandpa, Grammy, and Mariah (Curt's parents and sister) at our house. We had a fun day and lots of yummy food. We didn't take many pictures though. The girls were busy in the kitchen, and the boys were busy playing and watching football. Here the boys and Grammy are getting in the Christmas spirit by reading a Christmas book.


Caden and Cole enjoyed decorating the Christmas tree. This year, we broke tradition and put up our tree before Thanksgiving.



Caden put on the finishing touch with Daddy's help.

Our handsome boys

We celebrated Curt's birthday on the 3rd. The boys helped Curt open his presents.

Caden helped Mommy bake a snickerdoodle cake. Cole helped with the decorations.

Happy birthday, Curt!

Cole celebrated the holidays at Funshop. Here he is sitting with "Santa" and Blue.

Cole and Mommy at Funshop Christmas

Our church hosts Breakfast with Santa. It is a fun event, which includes pancakes, cookie decorating, stories, music, and Santa. Here are the boys greeting Santa with their lists in hand.

Cole surprised us by sitting on Santa's lap. After all of the Disney character experiences, he didn't have a problem posing with Santa. Caden is asking for too many toys and games to list. His main requests are Star Wars toys, Transformers, and games. Cole would like Star Wars toys and a Spiderman paint book.

After chatting with Santa, the boys enjoyed story and music time. Then we decorated sugar cookies. Cole wanted to eat the decorations straight off the spoon. Caden made a sugar mountain on top of his cookie, and he enjoyed every bite.

Here we are in front of our church's beautiful Christmas tree.

Papa, Nana, and the boys in front of the tree

Halloween & More Fall Fun

We are enjoying fall and keeping busy post-Disney. Here are some of our fun fall activities:

Cole and Mommy on the Funshop bus trip through downtown Springfield.

Caden claiming a pumpkin at the patch near our home. We have been going to this great pumpkin patch for a few years now. Caden was very involved in choosing pumpkins and gourds this year. His only request was to leave with at least one white pumpkin.

The boys with some of our finds

The Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular at Washington Park is one of our favorite fall events. An area of the park is filled with over 2,000 carved and lit jack-o-lanterns. It is an amazing sight! In this picture, Caden (Bumblebee the Transformer) was showing off one of his favorite jack-o-lanterns.

We ran into two of Caden's good friends, Olivia as Belle and Kellan the knight.

Daddy, Mommy, Bumblebee, and Batman

Caden was very helpful with our jack-o-lantern. He had fun scooping out the guts. Cole wasn't so sure about the slime.

After some encouragement from big brother, Cole gave scooping a try.

Caden helped design the jack-o-lantern. He requested a surprised face with oval eyes and eyebrows. Daddy worked hard and succeeded! The boys were very happy with the finished product.

Caden's preschool put on a Halloween show with six songs for the parents. It was really cute! I still catch Caden singing the songs. Caden is Bumblebee the Transformer (in yellow). His good buddy, Ryan, is next to him in the "White Jungle Fury Power Ranger" (apparently all of those words are absolutely necessary!) costume.

After the show, the kids paraded around the preschool building.

Finally, Halloween arrived! The boys got a lot of use out of their costumes this year. Here are Bumblebee and Batman getting ready to go trick-or-treating with Mommy.

Caden, Cole, and Mommy trick-or-treated at 23 houses around our block. The boys had a great time! Here are the boys with their candy load. Cole was happy with all of the suckers. Caden tried several pieces of candy that night, but he cut himself off before we needed to intervene.