Ice skating

 I snapped a few pictures of the kiddos the other day after nap...they are exactly them!!

 Love them! They are always so happy and loving to each other:)

 Brilee with her cowgirl boots on...guess she has a few Montana roots in her!

The last day my dad was here, we took the kiddos ice skating.  Brennar was in heaven.  He literally did not take the giant smile off his face the whole time!  It was so cute to see.

 I wish this was centered a little better:(

 It was super lucky that they had these to help them skate, otherwise it may not have been as successful as it was.

 Brilee did pretty good, I obviously couldn't skate and I think she wanted me to be the one helping her and maybe she would have lasted a bit longer

 But she did think she was oh so cool in her skates

Such a blast - as soon as little man arrives, I think our first outing without him will be to take the kids back!

Brennar Matthew turns 4!

 My baby boy turned 4 on December 27th - I asked him all day long if he wanted to stay 3 for just one more day- no luck:(

I let him open one present in the morning - he got one of the Gups from Octonauts - he thought it was pretty cool, especially since I let him bring it in the car on our way to the aquarium.

 I thought since he had requested a shark birthday, the aquarium was the perfect place to go:)  The Stubbs were actually planning to go over break too, so we met them there.

 Brilee mined for gems, Brennar choose not to participate since it would involve getting his hands wet and dirty:)

 So he picked out a toy snake to keep him amused while she did that

 Trying to get a good view of the tigers on the bridge

 Brennar and a shark!!!

 This really surprised me - he wanted to feed the sting rays which involves sticking a dead fish in between your fingers and putting your arm in the water.  He did the first part, but would barely put his fingers all the way down, so he just dropped the fish for them

 Brilee tried it out too - she just dumped the entire carton of fish into the water - guess we will have to work on that:)

 He got inked too - a blue and green dragon to be specific

 That night we just had the grandparents over - he was just a tad spoiled by everyone!

 But thank goodness - his favorite present was from mommy and daddy!!!!

Brennar designed his cake himself - I showed him a few pictures on pinterest- mine doesn't quite look the same - but B loved it, he even helped put the sharks on the top.

I cannot believe that my handsome little man is already 4!! When they are 3 they still seem little, but 4 seems so big!! I could not ask for a more sweet, polite, sometimes a little whiny guy to be my first born.  He amazes me everyday with the things he knows, asks, pretends to be, pretty much everything he does.  He is one smart little dude and we couldn't be more proud of him.

A couple things about Brennar right now: When he finds something he is into - he is IN TO it all the way, whether it is sharks, planes, trains, ninja turtles, he doesn't half do anything. He still pretty much will only eat about 5 things, drives me crazy, but he is growing!  Speaking of, he weighs in at a wooping 33 lbs and is almost 44 " - he is still long and lean.  He has such great manners, he always says please and thank you, seriously, ALWAYS! He includes his baby sister in everything he does, sometimes she gets in the way, but give it a minute and they are back to being best buds.  I can't wait to see him with his new baby brother, he will be amazing!!! We all love you so much, Brennar!!!

Christmas

 What a perfect, perfect Christmas we had!!! This has by far been my favorite one - the kids are at such a great age to experience it all right now!

Our church did a Christmas Eve Eve service again this year.  It is so nice since Christmas Eve seems to be such a rush getting to and from church and getting over to Art and Debbi's and half the time Clint doesn't even get to come to church with us, so it worked out great.

 

 My beautiful kiddos all dressed up and ready to go.  I really wanted them to be able to sit with us this year during the service instead of having to go into the nursery and they both did great - with the exception of Brilee saying she had to go potty 3 separate times - and never actually going!

Clint had to work on Christmas Eve so that was really a bummer, but we spent most of the day lounging around anyway.  I was feeling a little "funny" that day so I didn't even know if we would make it over to The Stapp's, but baby stayed put and we had a great time eating dinner and opening gifts with all of Clint's family. Brennar and Drew got pretty much all the same gifts which was super nice, last year Brennar didn't understand why Drew got big boy stuff and he didn't, so that eliminated a lot of drama:)  Brilee pretty much hung out with me or Maddi all night and was perfectly content to just sit there

The next morning the kids actually slept until about 8 which was awesome and we woke up to find that Santa came!!! 

 A couple of our friends have this roller coaster and luckily Santa brought one just for them!!

 Brilee is already quite the dare devil on it - no hands and sometimes even backwards!

 Ninja Turtles have found their way into the Stapp household

 All 4 of them!!

 Brennar having Uncle Alex help him out with a new toy

And Kula and Lucy were reunited:)

Another great Christmas to put down in the books!!!

Weekend at the Broadmoor

 We went and spent the weekend before Christmas at the Broadmoor again this year.  This time my family came with us, and we all had a blast.

We took the kids bowling for the first time.  They both had the best time, it was so fun to watch.  I am so glad we did it!

Brennar and daddy getting his ball ready.

 The little missy waiting her turn - I can't believe how patient they both were while the rest of us (minus me) bowled.

 This is where Brennar stayed the entire hour we were there - just making sure all the balls came back like they were supposed to.

 Isn't he the most handsome little dude!! I just can't get enough of him!

 We also were able to ride the Santa Express this trip.  I waited too long last year to get tickets so we missed out, so I bought them back in August this year!! And it didn't disappoint!!

 Grama Honey and Daddy waiting to get to the North Pole

 Brennar and Grampa had to sit across from us - it was kind of a bummer but worked out ok in the end

 We finally arrived at the North Pole!!! And picked up Santa:)

After Santa came through, his Elves stayed in our car with us and read books, sang songs, played games and gave out cookies and hot cocoa.  It really was such a good time for all of us!

 My little water babies couldn't pass up a chance to swim - although Brennar seemed to do more blasting off Grampa's shoulders then actual swimming:)

 They don't get to use kick boards in swim lessons so they thought it was pretty cool that all they had to do was hang on and didn't have to really work at it

We also did the Christmas brunch - yummy yummy!!!! SO much fun!!!! Can't wait to go back next year! But maybe we will make an extra trip down there over the summer, just to make sure it's still fun:)