Ryan, Steph, and the Boys: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here! (Warning...really, really long post.)

Earlier this month, we visited a Christmas Tree Farm about 15 minutes from our house. In addition to lots and lots of trees, they had a barn full of animals to visit. Both boys loved it!

Austin thought Elvis the Donkey was great :)

Little video of Austin and Elvis

Sam LOVED the pigs! They were wrestling in their pen and Sam kept cracking up.

Finally, we picked out our tree. They have rows and rows of trees you can cut down yourself, but it was dark and cold so we just chose one that had been cut earlier that day.

Maybe next year we will be adventurous and cut our own :)

A few days later, we decorated our house! Sam is very much into Christmas this year. He loves the tree, loves the ornaments, and love our little nativities. I am on the hunt for a plastic nativity set that he and Austin can play with without giving me a heart attack.

Most of the ornaments are bunched at 3 yr old height.

Luckily, Austin has left the tree alone for the most part this year. Only occasionally will I find random ornaments pulled off the bottom of the tree.

This is our little kitchen tree! Remember this post? We finally got to pull out all those cute Kitchen Christmas decorations we got for our birthdays.

Sammy has been really into stories lately. Some of his favorites are Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, The Three Little Pigs, and The Gingerbread Man. Since it is the Christmas Season, I thought it would be fun to make some Gingerbread Boys. Sam was so excited. We had to watch the cookies closely to make sure they didn't run away :) Here is a little video from our cookie making:

Hands down, this has been the most fun "Santa" year for our family so far. Sam gets it completely. He was so excited to see Santa he was practically dancing around the cultural hall. He sat on Santa's lap and told him exactly what he wants for Christmas this year: A Dump Truck. Earlier this month, he told me he wanted Santa to bring him a dump truck and a "shooter". (Sam's word for guns or any toy he can pretend is a gun) I told him that Santa doesn't bring shooters. I'm a mean Mommy, I know. :)

Austin's first visit with Santa went pretty well. He stared at Santa and tried to take his glasses, but no tears! We even got a half-smile!

Finally, we took some pictures for our Christmas Cards. THANK YOU RACHEL for taking them! We managed to get some really cute shots despite the not-so-great weather. Here are some of my favorites.