Christmas at the Tonagel House

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the past few days. We had a wonderful time here at home. The boys loved playing with all their new toys.

(This pic was taken at 1:30 am on Christmas morning.)

Charlie's biggest surprise was his "Big Boy" bed. He was sssoooo.... excited! It was adorable. When he saw it he yelled, "I got a bed! I got a big boy bed! I can sleep on it! I can jump on it!"



The boys also got sleds, a "GeoTrax" train set, books and new pajamas from us.


My big present was a new camera. I love cameras! Surprise, I know. :) On Christmas Eve, Charlie came running up to me and said in a whisper, "Shh... Don't tell Daddy you got a camera for Christmas." (Ben let him help with the wrapping. Thanks Ben!) The next morning as we opened presents Charlie would bring me a gift and say, "Here is your movie. It's "Dancing with the Stars!". "Here is a ring Daddy got for you." (I lost my toe ring that I had worn for 8 years straight. Ben got me a new one.)

Here are a few pics from my new camera...




We spent Christmas Eve day with ALL the Tonagels. The boys got lots of nice gifts from their Aunts and Uncles. This is the boys' youngest cousin Jace. As you can see they are very excited about him. :)


I made the other Tonagel women matching aprons for their presents. I also made 5 sets of "Bozo Buckets" for all of the boys' friends and cousins. I already told Ben not to let me do that again next year! I am making a promise to myself to just buy gifts like normal people!


Ben's parents got the boys their own table. Charlie loves eating his meals at it. Sawyer doesn't get the idea of sitting still yet. Don't they look like such big boys!



My parents got Charlie a baseball set for summer and Sawyer his own wooden school bus. My dad also hand carved each of the boys their own wooden train set!




Overall it was a wonderful holiday. We are all exhausted and still trying to recoup (I stayed up till 2:20 am on Christmas Eve getting everything ready.) but are enjoying having Ben home from school for a few weeks.

Hope you all enjoyed our Savior's birthday!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Tonagels!

Calvin Klein has nothing on Charlie! (Day 2 update)

Today is our first official, no turning back day of potting training. We decided that the pull-ups just weren't working and we were just going to try going straight to underwear. Charlie thought he wanted to be potty trained last spring and we were so excited but the excitement only lasted about 2 days. He just doesn't seem to care about going in his diaper/pull-up. This is our last ditch attempt! Charlie's friend Luke got him some underwear for Christmas last night. Luke's mom Jessica got him his own pack of gum for when he goes in the potty.

So far it is 10 am and he has gone about 7 times in the potty since 7:45 am. He has peed once in his underwear and then gaged and threw up on another pair. We are now on our third set of underwear. We only have 6 so I hope we make it through the day!

Let's hope I survive the next few days. I have heard from friends that it takes about 3 days of hard work but it is worth it in the end. Let me know if any of you have any suggestions for us!

Thanks!

a

ps. Isn't that the cutest bum you have ever seen?!?!?! :)

Potty Training Update: 9:51 pm Monday night...

Day one complete. Not very successful. We went through all 6 pairs of undies. I have concluded after a few of Charlie's comments that his strategy was to actually go in his underwear so that we would have to change them. He wanted to wear all the different colors! Ugh... He said, "Yea, now I get to wear the green ones!" Oh my... anyone have any suggestions for this????? Please!!!!

Day Two Update: Much better today! He still messed in two pairs but that is a big improvement on yesterday's stats. We made a few phone calls today when he did well. He wanted to call his Papa Hughie and Cousin Ly-ly (Lyla) to tell them when he went in the potty. He also informed me today that it is ok to "toot" in your big boy underpants. :)

Deck the Halls!

Last week the boys and I put up all of our Christmas decorations. I just love having the house decorated. Everything looks so beautiful and smells sooooo good! (cookies, real tree and Cranberry candles burning) Yum!

Our Nativity set was a wedding gift from a family friend. My mom then added on to it for us each year so we have a packed stable. (Side note... Today while looking at a picture of Mary holding Jesus, Charlie asked me, "Where's Joseph?" I started to respond and he cut in and said, "Oh yeah, he went to get Mary some food." I said, "Yeah, she was probably pretty hungry after all that work." He said, "Yeah, Joseph got her some pizza.") :)

Here are some of my favorite ornaments.

This Tinkerbell was mine from when I was little. I got her on a trip to Disney World.

If you went to LPHS you have to have a "Slicer" ornament!

This pretty dove and bridal couple were wedding gifts to us.

I gave Charlie my old classroom tree and he had a blast decorating it. It took him a few days because he just kept rearranging all of the ornaments. He is very proud of his finished product.

I call this my "Tacky Tinsel Christmas Tree". I love it, I love it, I love it! (old SNL skit) :) This tablecloth was my grandma's. Hideous I know, but it is so fun at the same time! It goes perfect in our retro 40's style kitchen. The tree was in my toy room growing up.

Hope you all enjoy decorating your houses. Put on a Bing Crosby cd, a pot of cinnamon and oranges on the stove and get decking! (Not sure if that is correct. Probably not. Being a former language teacher I should probably know that. Oh well!)

peace out,

a

"I do it myself!"

Both boys are in the stage of wanting to do things for themselves. Charlie likes to pick out his clothes and dress himself and Sawyer wants to feed himself. He throws a little tantrum if you don't let him have the whole bowl or plate of whatever he is eating.
Here is a little picture montage of the other morning while he was eating oatmeal.

This is what he looked like before breakfast. Look how handsome he is! :)

And here he is later... Why do I even bother trying?????

peace out, a

I Wanna Help!

Charlie is constantly saying, "What are you doing Mommy? I wanna help! Let me help!"

The other night, Ben was working on our kitchen faucet and both boys came running, "I wanna help!" Charlie supervised with his Elmo flashlight while Sawyer just sat on Ben and shouted orders.

Gobble, Gobble!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with our family.

We kicked off the festivities with dinner at our house on Wednesday afternoon. Ben and I really enjoy hosting parties and holidays here at our house so I worked hard for three days and had the house and all the food ready for when Ben walked in the door Wednesday after school. His family joined us for dinner that night. Ben's mom and Grandmas brought the rolls, stuffing and desserts. I made the turkey, potatoes and gravy, corn casserole, green bean casserole, cranberry relish and carrots. Yum! We just finished all the leftovers!

During dinner I forced everyone to wear some special attire. Charlie and I made pilgrim, Indian and Turkey leg hats. They were so funny! Even the Grandmas joined in the fun.

Here is a picture of Hugh and Ben sharing a peace pipe after dinner. I looked over at the table and everyone was gone except for these two. They were in deep converstation while still wearing their hats! Hah!

On Thursday we headed to LaPorte to spend the day with my side of the family. My sister and her family made the long trek from Texas for the weekend. We once again forced everyone to wear our funny hats.

Here is my sister being a real "turkey". She was trying to be all prim and proper while wearing her drumsticks.

On Friday we went to see Santa. The boys loved him!

On Saturday we went to cut down the Griswald, I mean Tonagel family Christmas tree. The boys enjoyed walking around outside, eating popcorn and looking at deer poop. :)

Sunday we spent the afternoon with our friends the Brickers. Both of our boys are in love with Joslyn. As of right now, she loves the attention from both of them but we will see who chooses in the end. I just hope it is one of them!

We hope everyone had a wonderful time with family and friends this past weekend. We are thankful for all the blessings God has given us.

Auntie Mal-Mal and Uncle Joely

The four of us drove to Indy Monday afternoon. Ben had a principal's conference there for 2 days so the boys and I took advantage of having some time away from the house. Ben's brother, Joel and his wife, Malorie live in downtown Indy. Our boys adore their Auntie Mal-Mal and Uncle Joely.

We had originally planned on having Charlie stay with us in the hotel and Sawyer stay with Joel and Mal. Charlie changed his mind once we walked into their apartment. He promptly said, "I'm going to MY room. I'm gonna sleep here with Joel." So... the boys spent both nights with their Aunt and Uncle. According to Mal and Joel the boys did ok during the night. Charlie kept kicking them in the face and Sawyer ended up sleeping with Mal on the couch one of the nights. Ben and I really appreciated the break from the boys.

While there Mal, Joel and I took the boys to the Children's Museum. They LOVED it! For those of you who haven't been before, it is well worth the trip! It is the largest children's museum in the world!

The boys and Joel were laying down on a bench to look at this beautiful ceiling of blown glass.

Here are the boys in an Indy Race car.

They enjoyed being superheros for awhile. Charlie is really into Batman. I have no clue how he even knows who he is since he hasn't ever seen the show.

I swear my boys would dig all day long if I let them. They could have stayed in this part of the museum for hours.

Sawyer's favorite part was watching the trains (Choo-Choos).
Mal has always claimed that Joel is a "Sawyer Hog". After looking at my pictures, I think she is right. :)

That night we went swimming at their apartment building. The water was freezing! Charlie thought it was funny though that he got to "push" Uncle Joel and Daddy into the pool. These pictures are of the boys "patiently" waiting for Mal and Joel. :) Look at Sawyer's little face!

The next day we went shopping and Auntie Mal-Mal bought the boys a stuffed turkey from Build-A-Bear.

We ended the trip on a high note. Charlie accidently locked himself in Joel and Mal's bedroom. So after a few minutes of us trying to coach him on how to unlock the door. Joel resorted to "doing it movie style". (This is what he actually said when Mal asked what he was doing!) He had Charlie jump up on the bed and he tried kicking the door in. Eventually he got the door open and Charlie was given a lesson on opening a lock.

We were all exhausted when we left but had a great time. We are so thankful that the boys have such wonderful God-parents. They love their Uncle Joely and Auntie Mal-Mal!