Tagged on Facebook

I was tagged on Facebook to write 25 random things about myself. It was very difficult, so I thought that I would share it here too - twice the bang for my buck. I actually liked the idea, so I am also going to do one for Brayden here, and have told Kyle to do one also - we will see how that goes...

1. I take a nap whenever I get a chance
2. I eat when I am stressed
3. I get stressed very easily
4. I actually like my job - most days
5. I really want to get my degree, but have absolutely no desire to go back to school
6. I love shopping, especially if I get a bargain
7. I chew my nails when I am bored
8. I hate wearing shoes
9. I like reality television, but not if it includes "falling in love"
10. I easily get addicted to computer games, but only if they are easy
11. I like really hot baths and showers - to the point of scalding myself
12. I love laughing at stupid things
13. I find myself very entertaining most of the time.
14. I am very easily bored
15. I refuse to eat in public by myself
16. I love gummy candies - to an obsession lately
17.My favorite movie of all time is Grease
18. I secretly miss waitressing
19. I very often have very weird and bizarre dreams
20. I talk to my mom on the phone almost every day
21. I miss my husband if I don't at least talk to him during the day
22. I love being able to make Brayden laugh
23. I only like cheap wine
24. I sing very loudly in the car
25. This is harder than I thought it would be!

Of course, after I was done, I thought of a ton of other things that I could have included, but I guess you are going to have to wait until the next time before you get to know even more about my twisted inner thoughts!

Anatomy Lessons by Brayden

A couple of weeks ago, Brayden and I were in the shower getting ready for church. As he was washing himself, this is the conversation that took place...

B: Where is your pee pee?
M: Mommies don't have pee pees.
B: But where is it, at the store?
M: No, only boys have pee pees. Mommies don't have one.
B: Oh, Daddy and Brayden have pee pees and mommy, you have nothing.
M: Yup, pretty much.

That is right, Mom's are worthless, they have nothin!

Christmas Continued, Finally

Christmas Day:

After our little family Christmas, we went to Mimi and Papa's for dinner and of course more presents.

The Saturday after Christmas, we went to Aunt Sue and Uncle Tim's house for Christmas with the Heckman side of the family (Grandma Kim's family). This is always our biggest, most chaotic family gathering of the year, but always tons of fun. The kids all draw a name to exchange a gift and the adults play a gift exchange game.

This is Brayden opening his gifts from Ben. He got some new cars, which he loves and a puzzle that mom loves :)

And here is Brayden playing with Sophie.

Christmas Continued

We started out our family Christmas festivities with the Holst family. We all gathered the weekend before Christmas so the kids could open gifts. Then the adults did a white elephant exchange (with Mike taking the cake on that one) and games. We had a great time and it was really nice to get together with everyone there and no one rushing to get someone else. Of course, I rock and forgot my camera but here are a few pictures that Jenny was so nice to share!

Here is Jack opening his gift from Brayden.

And Trin with the sweater that we got here. Isn't it as beautiful and sparkly as her!

And Brayden with his builder outfit that he got from Grandpa and Grandma! He loves all of his tools and it still "fixing" everything there could possibly be to fix. Even though I don't have a picture of her, Tiyler was also there and had just as much fun as the other kids did with their gifts.

Since Christmas Eve brought on yet another day of crappy weather and Kyle and I were both not feeling well, we opted to sit home instead of going to church. I decided to let Kyle and Brayden open a joint gift that I had gotten for them - a large collection of Lincoln Logs!

Daddy had a lot of fun building houses, and condos and towers with the Lincoln Logs...

... and Brayden had a blast knocking them over - sometimes before Daddy was ready for them to be knocked down.

700 Lincoln Logs make for some very tall towers - some even taller than our big boy!

Christmas Eve brought Santa - of course. Brayden decided this year that he did not want Santa in our house while he was sleeping, so Mommy talked to Santa and asked him to leave Brayden's presents at Daddy's truck. Then Daddy went outside and brought them in to put under the tree...

It took Daddy quite a few trips to bring all of these presents inside to put under the tree ;) I am not sure that he was a good enough boy last year to deserve all of these presents, but Santa must have thought differently.

Christmas morning was very exciting at the Holst house. Two and a half is the perfect age to see how magical and joyous Christmas can be. Brayden was so very excited with every present that was opened. He was very methodical, which was very entertaining to us. With every present, he would take off the bow and start unwrapping. As soon as he could see something, he would look up and squeal with excitement "Look Mommy/Daddy - I got THIS!!!" And then he would continue unwrapping it until he found out what "this" was. He was just as excited about the clothes and sneakers he got as he was about the toys and videos.

And this is what one spoiled boy, plus uncountable hours of shopping and wrapping look like when all is said and done.

Apologies and Christmas Activites - Part 1

I first have to start out by saying that I am so sorry about the lack of updates. I have no idea where December went, but needless to say it is gone and the month obviously did not include any blog updates. I especially need to say to Heather that I am sorry for all the times that I made fun of you for not updating your blog, because I seem to suck just as much as you do with this kind of stuff! :)


Anyways, December was of course a very busy month for us, as it was for all I am sure. Here are some pictures to help sum up the month.

This is Brayden helping Daddy put the tree together.

And helping Mommy put ornaments on the tree. He was such a big help decorating the tree this year.

Here is Brayden trying to sit under the tree. If you look at the branches right around him, you will notice that they are the branches that he decorated. There are at least 3 ornaments on each branch - he really liked those branches.

And our boy with the finished product.

December brought a lot of opportunities to clean up the snowfall. Here Daddy and Brayden are shoveling the deck! He really does enjoy it - I promise!

He so desperately wants to be a big boy so he can do what Daddy does!

We went to Lowell's Christmas Parade, which was held at night this year. We had a great time, even though it was FREEZING that night.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope that you all had as great of a day as we did. We have so much to be thankful for.

We started out our day just hanging out, watching the Macy's parade, eating a big breakfast and being lazy. Later in the afternoon we went to my Grandma's house to visit for a little while before we headed to Kyle's mom's house for dinner.

It was a great day to just spend together, eating.

And this is how our day ended -

Fun around the house

Brayden being a marker monster!


Showing his Johnston blood - helping mom make the pudding pie for Thanksgiving.



Making hand Turkeys - except that they didn't really look like turkeys...
And he wasn't very interested in looking at the camera.