The "Finnster, et al."

This year for New Years Eve we went to James and Chelsea's new house for a party. Since we were all home, we decided to try our best to get a family picture.  The boys had a great time.  Finn played Uncle James' video game.  Between superheros and video games, Finn and Uncle James are going to be good buddies.  I spent most of my time hanging out with the girls:  Maddie (Chelsea's sister), Me, Chelsea, Sharon and Carissa.  Chelsea's Family Uncle Charlie and Aunt Donna The boys actually rang in the new year with at midnight.  They were pretty tired, but excited to be a part of the party. 

Michael and I are not fan of McDonalds.  Other than the coffee, there isn't one thing that we like to eat at McDonalds.  I imagine most adults feel the same way.  However, for a child - specifically my child, a McDonald's hamburger is the most delicious meal ever created. One day last week I took the boys to get a haircut.  Off topic, Sam got the worst haircut imaginable. It looks like this. . . . The appointment was scheduled for right around lunch time so I stopped at McDonalds because it was literally right next door, and ordered two (2) McDonald's cheese burgers for the boys to eat while getting their hair cut.  Finn was immediately hooked and exclaimed to all who would listen at Gigggles (the haircut place) that this hamburger was THE BEST HAMBURGER HE HAD EVER TASTED!  The burger must have been really good, because both children failed to notice that in addition to burger, they were eating a good deal of their own hair (because as it was being ...

On December 26th we went over to Gran and Pa's house for the Begley Christmas.  This was our last Christmas of the 2014 holiday season. Finn helped to hand out all of the presents.  After all the presents were handed out, Finn sat with me and opened his presents.  Sam sat with Michael and opened.  The big Buzz Light Year was the gift of the day for Sam.  The adults all draw names - this year David drew my name.  Inspired by my Christmas Tree post, David got me the prettiest Christmas ornaments you have ever seen.  I am really excited about putting the tree up next year! Finn's favorite present of the day was his Bat Mobile and his Bat Boat.  After we opened the presents, we all ate breakfast together.  Finn and Sam were especially found of the ham.  Every few minutes one of the two was begging for more ham.  At one point Finn said, "Gran, can we please have ham every Christmas."  I was so ...

Christmas morning was awesome! The boys woke up around 7:00 and played in the playroom until around  8:00 when it was time to open presents.  Since Finn doesn't believe in Santa we wrapped everything.  Gran and Pa arrived at the house at 8:00 to watch the boys open their gifts. We let them open one at a time so that they could see all the presents.  Many of the gifts were for the boys to share. Their favorite present was the Bat Cave and the Gotham City Jail. Michael and I exchanged gifts too.  Michael got me a gift card to Ann Taylor, but forgot to actually wrap it.  Instead, he wrapped a $10.00 off coupon.  It wasn't until after I opened the coupon that he realized that the gift card had fallen out of the envelope.  Luckily it was still in his car.  It was pretty funny though. Gran and Pa also gave me one of my presents - maid service for a year! After we opened presents, Gran and Pa went home and I cooked Christmas breakfast.  T...

The boys' favorite place to sit. Sam and Hank really hit it off.   Around 4:00 on December 23rd we arrived at Nana and Papa's house for Christmas.  We were greeted with soup, cookies, caramel popcorn, rice crispy treats, and white chocolate covered pretzels - to name a few.  That evening Zac and Emily left to go to Erlanger in Chattanooga to visit Zac's grandmother.  So Nana, Papa, Michael and I wrangled the five (5) boys.  Everything went pretty smoothly except for poor Cooper who had the flu.  Mom and I waited too long to give him Tylenol so he was as miserable as I have ever seen anyone in my life.  He was so sweet though. The next morning, Christmas Eve, we woke up and had Christmas breakfast.  Then it was time for the boys to open their presents.  This year we decided to try letting the boys go one at a time.  It actually worked out really well.  They were all interested in what the other was opening. Finn's prese...