1/5 - A visit from the Hoyts & Brad's LT CMDR promotion

Grandma and Grandpa Hoyt drove down from Iowa to join us for a couple of days. We forgot to bring a toy with us for Aiden so he got it when we got back to Jacksonville. It's a truck that he can take apart and put back together with an electric drill (made for kids) using different bits. He's already really good at it.

The boys got to open some presents that grandma and grandpa brought with them. Aiden said he looked "pretty" with bows on him from the presents.

Grandma and grandpa bought the boys an add-on set for the marble run and the boys love it. It goes really high and there are four towers to put marbles in.

Aiden had fun getting a little rough with grandpa and climbing all over him.

Eli had fun opening a magnet set and playing with all the magnet trucks.

You'd think this is Eli's toy by how he is holding it. Grandma and grandpa brought the bean bag down that Eli is sitting on.

Eli was pretty excited about this bank that Ms. Jen and Mr. Ryan gave him. Both of the boys got one and it is great because they are plastic. Our boys spend hours putting money in the banks and taking it back out.

Our neighbors also got Eli a Mr. Potatoe Head and got Aiden the Hi Ho Cherry-O game.

On Jan 5, we got to see Brad get promoted. He's always been on a ship or deployment when it was time for him to promote. He just went from LT to LT CMDR! Go Brad. Here he is taking his oath.

Here I am pinning his gold leaf onto his uniform.

His mom pinned him on the other side.

I am so happy and proud for Brad. He is an awesome man.

Here is Brad with his parents. They were so proud of him.

And finally, Brad had some support that showed up to surprise him. The Payne family and Randy (all from church) came to see this big moment. It was so nice of them to come and show support for Brad. We have such great friends.

Also, Brad had a flag flown over Afghanistan when he was on deployment last time and he presented it to his dad. Dad got a little teary-eyed and was very thankful.

By the time we got over to the cake table with the camera, some of the cake was gone. It was pretty yummy.

It was a great day. We are proud of Brad. Brad leaves in a couple days for a detachment for a month. We'll miss him but hopefully it will go fast and the boys will continue to play and behave better.

12/28 - End of Christmas at Nana's

Here is the rest of the udpate from Christmas in St. Pete and being at Nana's house for the last day. On our last day, we decided it was tie-dye t-shirt day. Both of the boys even have tie-dyed blankies that they love. Here is Nana and Eli and Bronco. Eli loves Bronco so much but Bronco hasn't spent too much time with him to he's a little unsure of Eli.

Eli and Aiden loved playing with Nana's Charlie Brown Christmas tree. There is a button to push that plays the music from the movie and they were playing freeze dance to it for quite a bit.

While Nana watched the boys on the day after Christmas, Brad and I went out to see if we could find some post-Christmas sales. I really wanted a spiral christmas tree but couldn't find any. We did happen to find something at Toys R Us and got the boys little fishing poles that they can use in the bath tub. They played with those for quite a while.

We decided to go down the street to a park by my mom's new place so the boys could ride bikes. Aiden rode his bike around for a bit and Nana played with Eli on the playground. After a bit, we sat and had some snack.

The park is right on the water so the boys loved looking at the birds and boats.

Here are just some fun pictures I took of the boys while they were playing around and eating snack. Eli wanted to play peek-a-boo under the table.

Aiden decided to join in too and let me take his picture under the table.  I love this second picture of Aiden because his eyelashes (and Eli's) are so incredibly long and gorgeous.

Both boys then rode their bikes over to an overlook. Eli stopped along the way to take a picture with Nana. Aiden didn't want to get off his bike.

It was a good view on the outlook but the boys wanted to get back on their bikes so that's what we did.

That night, we made a gingerbread house that Nana bought. Aiden was really excited to do it because he knew there was candy involved!

This was my first gingerbread house too. It was fun but I think I'll do better next year. Brad actually did a great job decorating with the icing.

Aiden got the game Cooties for Christmas. He enjoyed trying to put the cootie together but we didn't teach him how to really play yet.

Here is Eli trying to love on Bronco.

One of Eli's favorite things to do is roll around in the bed and play. Here is is rolling around with Nana and playing on his sleeping bag. Little Eli comes in to our room every morning at 7:01 (his bunny wakes up at 7:00am) and comes over to my side and wants up to roll around and cuddle. It's so cute. In fact, I don't even set an alarm anymore because Eli wakes me up at 7:00am if I'm not already awake. I'm curious as to what time he actually gets up because he must just stare at his bunny clock in the morning just waiting for it to wake-up.

Aiden loves his Nana.

We had a great time visiting with Nana. It's great that she has a bigger place so that we can stay with her when we visit St. Pete too. I need to catch up on one more final post to go in the blog book for the year.

12/24 & 25 - Christmas Eve & Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we went to go visit my sister's mom and her step-dad. It was great to see them and Pablo, her stepdad, always makes awesome food. Afterwards, we went to my Aunt Becky's house. The boys loved the Polar Express Train that my uncle Bill puts up. They were so good and didn't touch it. Here is my cousin Rachel sitting with the boys.

The boys also loved staring at the little village my aunt had set up. She got some snow out and let Aiden put some snow on the village.

I changed Eli from his regular clothes to his jammies because they are so cute. He had his jammies (red helicopter with Santa coming out) on from 7:00pm on Christmas Eve to about noon on Christmas day. They are just too cute!

Here is Eli with his hat on at Becky's house. He was so good watching the train and not touching it. It cracks me up how he rests his chin on his little tiny hands. So adorable.

Santa left a bag of presents outside the door of my aunt's house which was unexpected. We let the boys open a present that we had taken with us and ended up not needing because we didn't stay at my mom's house on Christmas Eve like we had planned. They wanted to plat with "toys" and we didn't bring any so we let them open a present. Well, soon after that, we found Santa had left a bag. The boys were so excited to see if their name was going to be called. After Aiden opened his new Hess truck, he gave me the present we just gave him and said, "here mom, you can have this" and took his new truck to go play.

We got home so late on Christmas Eve but the boys did so good. They were being good listeners so we let them stay and play. Needless to say, they didn't go to bed until about 9:30pm but were still up by 7am! Nana came over to papa's house at 7:00am so she could be there to see the boys open presents. Aiden and Eli both got a present from Santa on Christmas morning. Aiden got a bike and Eli got a huge carpet that has cars/buildings all over it. Aiden was so excited!!

They only opened 1 or 2 presents and then ate breakfast and then it was time to ride Aiden's new bike. Eli wasn't sure what to do. He actually opens a present and plays with it. Aiden wanted to open things and then decide what to play with. Actually, he just wanted to ride his bike at first.

We took them outside and Brad followed Aiden and I stayed with my mom and Eli. We brought Aiden's other bike (he and Eli normally fight over it) because I knew Eli would want to ride too.

Aiden is a fairly fast learner. He told Brad he could "crush things" on his new bike since it was so big. He was so excited and just wanted to ride everywhere.

I love this picture of Brad giving Aiden a little push up the driveway since it was steep.

Eli's feet don't reach the pedals on the other bike so he sits on the bar and walks his feet everywhere. Efficient no, effective yes.

He was having a great ride too. He didn't go as far as his brother but found a little bridge to go over still.

Right when we got in front of papa's house, I took picture of Eli and Nana. Too cute.

We went back inside and the boys opened up some more presents.

We opened up the rug Eli got from Santa and the boys played on that for a while.

We set up this marble run and the boys were completely fascinated and obsessed with it.

My sister came over with her 3 boys which is always fun. These cousins don't get to see each other too often but when they do, they get along well. Grayson, the oldest and sitting right in front of Aiden, is so good with my boys.

They had fun playing with new toys.

Much to my surprise, Aiden started wrestling with Graham and Grayson. He won't do that with his brother! He was having such a funt ime.

My brother also flew in to town for Christmas and it was great to see him. We got a shot of my dad, me my sister (Erin), and brother (Tommy).

We also got one with my grandma in it. It was great to see family and let the kids have some fun.

We tried to do a cousin picture but that is almost impossible with boys as young as they are. Grayson and Aiden were buddies so they sat down first.

Ray didn't want to get off the couch and Eli wouldn't stop crying. I finally offered Eli a M&M if he stopped crying to take a picture and the yelling stopped coming out but he still looked pathetic. It was actually quite comical.

We had a great couple days at my dad's house. On Christmas day, we left for my mom's house for 2 days. Another post will be coming soon.