Ah yes, with two second pregnancies, three toddlers, a newborn, and the fact that we are old (ha!) our New Year's Eve was indeed rockin' (see Eashan in the picture on the right), running, screaming, and laughing. What a blast! The Abrahams, Guptas, and Unnis came over to celebrate with us.
It was a riot watching the boys interact. Brady and Avi (who are one year apart) played really well together and it was absolutely hilarious to watch them. They had "conversations" with each other...even though their responses were completely independent of whatever the other said. For example, Brady was downstairs and he sees Avi upstairs and yells, "I have jammies on Avi!" To which Avi responds, "I can help you Brady!"
Here's video that captures a bit of the cuteness that was going on here tonight:
Another time we were all laughing because Avi kept calling Brady, but Brady didn't want to come. So it was two toddlers screaming: "BRADY!" "NO!" "BRADY!" "NO!" "BRADY!" "NO!"
When the three boys were eating dinner together, I took a picture. Upon taking notice that they were being photographed, Brady pointed and instructed his older friend, "Avi! Say Cheese Avi!"
And here's the result:
This was the scene in the man cave this evening:
Hysterical indeed...we should've given the little boys their sippy cups and milk so that they would be like the big boys with their beverages. What was it that captivated this male audience? None other than the Baby Einstein Counting DVD of course!
The Unnis arrived just before the boys were to get ready for bed. It was our first time meeting 2 month old Aidrek. He was totally stylin' and got here just in time to pose with his boyz for a Gen 2 photo:
Random pictures of our goober today- He was hamming it up at IHOP this morning. We think he was flirting with the teenage girls behind us. When they giggled, he'd turn around, smile at them, and say, "hahaha!"
Tonight Brady went exploring in the couch table. I guess I had Sandy's old VT collar and some envelopes in there. He was quite pleased with his new head band. I think it's funny how he's grabbing his shirt in the first picture, as if offering an explanation for his silliness. "Dude, I'm a preschooler!" Then he went around singing the "We just got a letter" song from Blue's Clues and moving the envelopes like Steve and Joe do. You crack us up, Goofball!
We were trying to take family pictures of the 3.5 of us Luhrings to put in the nursery today. It was mildly successful with an opinionated 2 year old.
Afterward, we had the little man posing with his grandparents. It was moderately successful. ;p Apparently Romey's feeling a little left out these days (well, that and he does love to cuddle with the grandparents too) but he planted himself in almost every picture!
Look at that devilish grin! Devilish grin turned "Cheeese!" face (and an insistence that his animals and truck be in the picture)
The Papa-razzi thought this picture on the right was cute- because everyone is busy doing something. :) In reality, I really did not have much to do at all this with this delicious Christmas dinner. Grandma and Mimi did it all- from prep, to cooking, to clean-up! They work really well in the kitchen together and I was most grateful for the time to get Brady and I out of our jammies (finally), play, and visit with Papa.
This year my "big gift" to Brett was our 2007/2008 blog book. As our historian, The Luhring Life blog is my year-round gift to our family. It takes time to blog but it's important to me to record these memories. It took even more time for my perfectionist self to make the blog a hard copy book. (I used Blurb, in case you're wondering.) But it is SO worth it! And as time-consuming as it was, it was really fun to look back and remember each of those times as I created the 300+ posts/235-page book. This time around, I combined 2007 and 2008 because 2007 was a short blogging year for us. Moving forward, I'll just do each year- and our little family will be getting our memories from the previous year as a Christmas present annually. Our gift is each other and our precious memories! :)
I was very excited for Christmas this year because Brady is starting to understand the holiday. The Littlest Luhring woke me up earlier than everyone else (sleeping is pretty uncomfortable these days). Brady slept in until almost 8 AM. (Brett says that's probably the last time we'll have that happen on Christmas!) He was interested in the lit tree and the presents and knew that Santa had been to our house because Brett had been telling him about it for a while now. Here's one of his first glimpses downstairs.
While we waited for Daddy, Grandma, and Papa to get up, Mimi and I just let Brady do whatever he wanted. Interestingly, the gift bags were more fascinating to him than wrapped presents were. He enjoyed pulling the tissue paper out of the bags and sitting among the packages so that they "made a house."
He re-purposed the gift tags- pulling them off the presents and putting them on doorknobs (like some of the decorations we have). haha!
The presents were also re-purposed and made for some awesome blocks for building towers.
The fireplace provided some entertainment for our observant toddler this morning. We usually have the gas turned off and never use it. But Papa likes the fireplace, so I turned it on this morning. Fascinating to the two-year-old. :)
Brady and I stayed in our jammies until after nap. ;p I had intended to get a picture of all three of us in front of the tree, but didn't. Doh!
After he opened the portable tool chest from Mimi, he used the saw that was included to open up other presents. Pretty smart! :)
Since Brady's been learning his letters these past few months, I made big letters for each of us and put them in front of the gifts to assist our little elf in figuring out who it belonged to. We'd ask him what letter and then who that letter was for. He'd say, "B for Brady! P for Papa!" It was fun...while it lasted (which was not throughout the extended gift opening session we had).
Papa gets us puzzle boxes every year and we have to figure out how to open them to get the gifts inside. They can be frustrating...(see left picture) haha! But this year, they weren't too bad. This is only the second time in eight years that I've been able to open mine before Brett- and that worked out well! Inside my box it said, "We'll buy three trees for your yard this year." Inside Brett's it said, "We'll plant the trees for you." lol! Totally awesome and just what we both want!
The boy does Love him his stuffed animals pals! Grandma and Papa got him the animals that go along with his favorite books- the mouse, moose, and pig from the "If you give a..." books. Later on, we were testing Papa's new laptop with the webcam. So moose (who was in the kitchen) got to Skype with mouse and pig (who were in the office). That made for some giggles. :)
I found this cute mini leather jacket at a consignment sale earlier this year and then an equally cute hat to go with it. What a handsome little man!
