new year's eve

We are spending the last night of 2014 at the Taylors with our friends Jess, Sue, Shay, Brian and two Robs.

Bennett and Nolan are allowed to stay up later tonight because of the holiday.  They are keeping themselves entertained by "playing" with Nolan's trains.  They got into a few fights over who gets to have which train.

Bennett made it to 10 PM before we put him down because he was having constant meltdowns. Nolan made it to about 11:15 PM.  We entertained ourselves by playing jackbox.  It's a new game (to me anyway) which we play through the PS4 using our cell phones.  We played a game closely related to Pictionary.  It's really fun!  Sue and Evan did really well.

We were enjoying ourselves so much that we had about a minute to get the champagne and the cider ready at midnight.  Happy New Year!

We had some fun after the toast with the fact that Nick is almost as tall as Jess on his knees.

It was a fun evening filled with friends, food, drink and laughter.  I hope the new year is just as cheerful.

Group shot outtake.

boxes make the best toys...

We have been unpacking all week from our trip to New York.  There was one box of toys to unpack left.  Bennett loves to play with boxes but he loves to play in boxes with toys even more.

  

His favorite thing to do with boxes full of toys is to dump them out onto the floor.  This happens to be my least favorite.

my house exploded

Bennett is feeling a lot better than last week.  I would say he is fully recovered from his cold.  I can tell because all the toy bins have exploded all over the house.

bennett's new slippers

I love Bennett's taste in shoes.  It looks just like a pair I have.  Oh wait...

winter crafts

Bennett brought his winter crafts home from daycare today.

I wonder what happened to the Snowman's eye.

I absolutely adore the hand print and foot print crafts.  Way too cute!

more presents

We are home!  We left Grandma and Grandpa's last night around 7 PM and drove home.  It's much easier to drive home at night while Bennett sleeps.  Plus, we get to beat all of the holiday traffic.  Bennett was in a great mood this morning.  He loves coming home.  We do as well.  He sleeps so much better in his own crib.  We had a few gifts leftover from Christmas from the Seymours.  We didn't bring them with us because we didn't want to drive them back and forth.  Bennett got to open them today.

He fell in love with his John Deere tractor right away.  He was dragging it all over the house.  

While he played, we opened a gift from Bennett.  He made it for us in daycare.  It's a very nice keepsake.  Thank you Bennett!

Finally, Bennett was ready to open his next gift.  And, boy was he excited!

Once Daddy set the tent up, he was going in and out of it laughing hysterically. 

He also enjoyed tipping it over while he was inside.  

Thanks for the amazing gifts to the Seymours!

fun with klush

Bennett loves cats and dogs.  He loves to pet them and play with them.  He is not very gentle.  He is used to our cat, Max, whom let's Bennett get away with almost anything.  Bennett's favorite is to lay on top of Max.  He was "playing" with Klush, Grandma and Grandpa's cat, in the same way.

Bennett was babbling something the entire time as well.  Klush is such a good sport.

Although, something tells me Klush was extra happy when lunch for Bennett was ready.  It's our favorite pepperoni soup!

christmas day

We all slept in today.  I was surprised that we were not all up really early.  Bennett usually gets us up before seven.  I don't mind a late start though.  The first thing we did was check if Santa made it to our house.  And, someone definitely sampled the cookies which can only mean one thing.  Santa was here last night!

Bennett was not very interested in opening presents right away.  He was having too much fun rolling around in the gift pile drinking his milk.

I am not sure he is awake yet.

Finally, ten minutes later we got him to open his first gift with daddy's help.  

He loved his new book.  He was reading it to Grandma and Daddy for a while.  I think he would have been satisfied with this one gift for the rest of the day.

But, there was more to open...  He was really excited about his next present once he unwrapped it.

A new Minion car!  He couldn't wait to open the box.

He helped Daddy open the box very aggressively.

And, was all smiles once he got to hold his Minion car.

I am not sure if he will play with any of his other gifts today.  He is so in awe with the Minion car.  It makes noises, sounds and moves in all kinds of directions with a remote controller.  He was really good at figuring out how to use the remote controller too.

Nick and I finished opening Bennett's gifts for him.  He was too distracted.  He got a brand new kitchen and a trampoline from Grandma and Grandpa.  Also, a bubble maker for the bathtub from Santa.  Bennett made out this Christmas for sure.  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

The rest of the day we spent lounging in our pajamas.  It was nice to sit back and relax for once especially after such a long trip.  For dinner we saw our cousins in Nichols, NY.  It was nice catching up with them as well.  Bennett enjoyed climbing in and out of their dryer.  

Merry Christmas to all!  I hope Santa treated everyone well this year.