Three years ago today we were all done with the fun stuff and hanging with the new kid on the block.  I had already gone to Joe's for my free lunch and let them know that in the future (i.e. today) that my family would be getting two free meals on this special day.

Adam is doing very well.  He had a great year, a big year for the guy.  Lots of learning, moving out of his crib to join Nick in the bunk bed, potty training and generally continuing to grow.

We had Adam's celebration, though he didn't look so happy in the video, today and will do a party early next year when his friends are around to do some bouncing.  Here is to a great year and another great year to come.

It has been a fun run up to Xmas this year.  For a long time neither of the boys was much interested in the holiday season.  As long as we can play we are good to go was the theme.  Last week Nick learned about hanukkah and wanted to celebrate that.  And yes for the obvious reason that they get 8 days of presents.

Adam really enjoyed the pretty lights but didn't really get the presents idea until recently.  The last couple of days before Xmas was a near constant barrage of "can we open the presents now" followed by the sad face after being rejected, unfair I am sure from his view.

Finally we got to open some presents from Grandma and Herb and Bev so there was much rejoicing.  Thanks to Grandma for the good day, everyone enjoyed it.

Upon arrival at home I showed Nick the NORAD website showing where Santa was and he got REALLY EXCITED!  He couldn't contain himself and was ready to go to sleep right away.  So off he went, but Adam was not quite so ready.  As I laid with Adam to get him to go to sleep, Adam was talking.  Nick took this none to kindly and was getting pretty frustrated with Adam due to the impending catastrophe of Santa skipping our house.  Luckily they both fell asleep and will get a visit from Santa.

They both only wanted 1 thing from Santa.  Socker Boppers (Nick believes they are soccer boppers) are the order of the day.  Nick was sweet, he said he didn't want more so that the elves could make toys for other kids to make sure they got what they wanted.

Merry Christmas Eve.

Ok, so I didn't do a great job of keeping up the blog (or so I have heard...).  November was a good month.  Adam was potty trained so now he is a big boy.  He is now ready to move to the next class at the beginning of the year.  He is ready and willing to go see his friends Bella and Colin.

Nick is having fun in school (except for homework) and enjoyed soccer.  His soccer ended this weekend so that is a nice break for coach.  He did great, scored a lot and loved to stop the other team on defense.  When he was on the field the team was lucky to get any goals and nothing more than 1 that I can remember.

There was a school festival at Nick's school.  We got the boys wristbands and they played for 4hrs solid until they shut the place down.  Even more impressive was the dust storm that occurred, we could barely keep our eyes open but they could keep playing.

I have plenty of pictures and videos I have to get ready.  Will get right on them, I promise.

So a double header good news.  Adam is potty trained! Yea team.  He has had a couple misses but overall he is doing great.  He started as a sitter for peeing but he is now standing up, hopefully he doesn't try to poop standing up.

And for Nick, he rode his bike without training wheels today.  It was in the grass and he fell of course but he learned that it didn't hurt so bad.  He had a lot of fun going down hill.

So a good day.  Soccer with Grandma watching, some quality time with Grandma and the circle pad thing, and finally some good bike time.  Jen made some apple sauce today, going to have some sauce and ice cream, yummm.

So the potty training continues.  Saturday was a bit of a wash as Adam didn't use the pot, but rather his shorts for pee storage.  This morning though was a big change, he woke up and asked straight away to go potty.  And he did go potty!  He has gone 3 times with once an accident.  The accident is important because he stopped himself mid pee to go in the toilet, a big point I think / hope.

Grandma and Herb and Bev visited us yesterday.  Everyone had a great time and the kids loved it.  An early night for our house, kids out by 8:15 and Dad by 10.

Mom is in NH visiting Emily and Sarah (and baby) for her birthday.  The boys hope she is having a good time and wish her a happy birthday.

So now we start with Adam and potty training.  We waited a while to hopefully make it easier to transition.  Nick was a star, we shall see how Adam does.

He did his #2 tonight (half diaper / half toilet) so that is 1 less cleanup I don't have to do.  No one said being a parent is not disgusting!

Cross our fingers.

Opps, so i guess the kids didn't do anything special last month...  I will have to step it up this month.

Last weekend Dad got to go do Denver for some beer fest activities, lots of fun was had and I grabbed 2 special beers I wanted so a successful trip.

Grandma got to watch Nick play soccer (he did great) and then she took both boys for a sleep over at her house.  When I came to pick them up, they both asked why I was there!  Guess they had fun, pretty worn out as well, both of them took a nap on the way home.  Thanks to Grandma for watching the kids.

Meanwhile, while the kids were away Mom and Dad got to go for a bike ride.  During the ride I encountered a snake, ran over him in fact.  Jen stopped in time and watched it slither away into the brush.  Glad I didn't have a pissed off snake chasing me or a dead snake wrapped up in my bike.

That is it for now, I will be putting up some pictures and videos soon.

Had a nice storm in Chandler tonight, Adam had fun for a short time but Nick and Dad enjoyed it more. Some nice sideways rain, rare site at my house.

The kids are getting so big, Nick is like a little man now and Adam is at a great age where he is almost always happy as he learns and explores the world.

Well Adam may need to learn a bit about Karma. Yesterday started well but later there were some bumps in the road. First he had some problems at circle time as school, then when Dad picked him up there were lots of No's and hitting of people. Karma didn't appreciate the antics and took it out on him during dinner.

Soccer season means orange slices and the boys are doing as they do best. At this game Nick was redonkulous. He scored about 15 goals and stopped all but a couple, the boy loves to play defense. He is quite a sweater though, just like his grandpa was.