Polar Express Party 2013

This year we had our Polar Express party again. The boys had been looking forward to it for months, they love that movie and of course having their friends over. 

I think I kept it as pretty low key and stress free as I could considering I had only had a baby less than a month before, though I'm sure Jason would disagree. He dislikes any and all party stuff and thinks I freak out too much but I while I do admit to getting everything together and doing the last minute cleaning done I am always happy I do it because I get to see my boys have so much fun with their friends and it is a fun thing for them to look forward to and help me plan. 

This year before we did the movie the boys and I decided to do Christmas bingo where they would make their own cards

Then we decorated 'Christmas trees' which they all got very into and very sticky.

Then it was movie time along with a table full of goodies and hot chocolate which they were free to eat as much as they wanted (then of course I send them all back to their parents =)

Davis was his awesome chill self and I only had to feed him once after the movie got started while my mom kept an eye on all those little hooligans.

I really wish we had a bigger place if just to invite more kids. They were all from Levi and Max's school and church classes and a couple other friends. We had a ton of others we wanted to invite but again we could only invite so many. Guess that just means we need to do a summer movie night this year in the backyard.

The boys were so happy and excited about the whole night (along with all their buddies) which is why I do it. And these boys love the Polar Express movie, they even watched it dozens of times during the summer.

Almost all the parents came at the same time for pick up and it went from tons of laughing sugar high kids to quiet mess. Ahh. This tradition is totally worth it.

 

Dimples and Snuggles

A month or so ago, I believe around when I had the baby, Levi's class had a section on bugs where they studied them for several weeks, Levi loved it and I would hear about all the new bugs all the time. These are a couple of pictures I got from his teachers from when they had some 'bug girls' come in who brought in real bugs. Lucky guys!

 

 Every year I love picking out gifts for my boys for Christmas because it is one of the few times of year we really buy much toys. That being said I always have to restrain myself because while there are usually probaly a dozen or so more toys and things I know they would love, I have to say no in trying to keep things simplier along with just keeping a handle on the number of toys we have becuase we always seem to be overflowing. 

I found these shoes that I thought the boys would LOVE. Lego shoes? Every boys dream but even though I really wanted to get them I had to say no. They both have a number of shoes and Jason just got them new ones for their next sizes. Is it horrible I'm writing about what I didn't get them? Maybe. But I am proud I said no even though I really really wanted to say yes. Maybe for their birthdays. 

I just got a new visiting teacher who puts on an annual Christmas brunch for all the people she visits. It was quite fancy I loved not having to make myself breakfast or lunch for the day. I could get used to this.
Both Max and Davis were amazing. Davis chilled in his car seat the whole time while we ate then afterwards I fed him and he was good to go. He's such a chill little guy. Also I got my first picture of that cute dimple of his.
Max explored the house with a new friend then he realized he forgot his workout
so he thought he would get a quick one in.


It was a few days before my gallbladder surgery so I wanted to stock up on groceries even though it had been a busy day running around picking up kids and going to doctors appointments. I ended up with just Davis while the other boys were off at wrestling practice so we had a nice feeding session in the parking lot at Winco. He is such a portable guy and didn't mind a bit.

Just before bedtime....one last plea to stay up. 

 This year we have been planning our polar express party. It's been a little tricky with the guest list because our house is only so big and the boys list of people they want to invite just get longer and longer. So this year we decided to take our party to our friends house where we watched the movie in our pjs, drank hot chocolate and had cookies. It was fun and very relaxing, just my kind of Friday.

Landon wanted to rock Davis who didn't mind it one bit.











Within minutes of leaving their house Max was out. Levi always loves to point out that it would be the perfect time to take a picture of his picture hating brother. So I did.

For weeks Levi has been asking about when he was going to do a Christmas craft in his class because Max had been bringing them home starting the first week in December. He finally got to do one!

Levi is still quite the snuggler. This happened when I went up to feed Mr. Davis.

All Together

Max does not like anyone to mess with his hair. Ever. Don't cut it, comb it, just stay away. Or he will quickly say 'No touchy', quoting the Emperor's New Groove, if anyone makes the attempt. Every once and a while he will give in and let someone do something but it takes a lot of work talking him into it and is usually with a fair amount of tears.

For our ward Christmas party he gave in and even had a special request for a mohawk so dad obliged.

Levi is much more traditional and actually refused the mohawk or spiky hair and went for the nice clean look.

And here is our first picture of all of us together. Now we just need to get one without the guy in the red suit.

The boys were pretty excited to meed the big guy and were a little tongue tied about what to say and ask for but they did let it slip that they wanted Legos of some sort. Good thing, cause that's what Santa got them.

Davis just wants milk for Christmas. And world peace. 

The rest of the party was great, I didn't really get any pictures but we had fun. Both boys are at the age where we can kind of let them run around with the pack of kids playing chase around the building. It took Max a bit to feel confident to go off but eventually he did and he had a blast chasing his buddies.

They did eventually come back for cake and ice cream though Jason tricked Max into eating sour cream (we had baked potatoes). It was in a bowl and he said I didn't eat all mine and so told Max could have it, so grabbed a spoon and started shoveling. A split second later he quickly realized it was not what he was expecting and he even throw up a little. Lucky it wasn't everything. Needless to say I  gave Jason a big scolding for that one. He thought it was hilarious.

Smiles

I love every single look this kid gives me.

Family Time and Goblets

A daily sight at the Goodrich's and I love it. They love Legos and I love that it helps them build and be creative. Also love the hair on both these boys.  This was a Monday I believe and I am really actually enjoying ours, we get to kind of ease into the week since Levi doesn't have school and Max doesn't until 12:30 so we take our time getting ready, have some play

Davis being cute and awesome. Again.  

Last Sunday we went over to Krista's house because her and her family got back from Germany and wanted to have a little get together where they had a slide show of everything they saw and they even made up some tasty German treats. They brought back these chocolate advent calendars for the boys who were excited because we were already 6 days or so into the month so they got to make up for lost time. Also at the very end of the slide show we all got some fun news that we are going to have another cousin (a boy) in the area soon!

I have these small ice cream bowls/cups whatever they are called that I like to use for fun some times, along with ice cream of course. But yogurt in an ice cream container makes it that much more fun and tasty right? Well Max recently decided he wanted to use them as 'goblets' so he uses it to drink milk, water or whatever else he fancies. I love that he calls it a goblet.

I can't get enough of these cute hands.

For FHE we have tried something different to make things easier on me mostly. Normally we would have one person do the activity, one the treat, one the lesson... and because I have yet to figure out a great method for keeping track of things I only had my amazing memorty to reliy on which resulted in fights of who was doing what. So we've just decided to make one person in charge of the whole night and it seems to work well. The boys of course get ideas and help from mom and pop but we've done well so far.

Last week it was Max's turn which he insisted on doing treat first (ice cream), he talked about what he learned at church and we tested out the new Wunderland right across the highway. We have gone to the one in Beaverton since Levi was a baby and were excited to see they set up shop so close.

Davis amazed me because he didn't fuss one bit. He was in his car seat then stroller and just kind of watched for a bit then fell asleep. Love that kid.


 We had a really fun time as usual, though there was a few moments of frustration with Max who wanted something that was more tickets than what we had but eventually he got what Levi did which included this balloon which you blow up and then it goes all the way around the house. He made me blow it up several times and scared the heck out of Davis more than once.