Shoveling Snow, Second Santa, and Sunglasses

The week before Christmas was brutal with the snow around here. A lot of our friends who went home for Christmas experienced a lot of problems with their flights and those of us who stayed were pretty home bound. I did a lot of shoveling that week (although not nearly as much as Justin - he's my hero)! When I would shovel during the day I would take the boys out with me. At Clayton's school they have a bunch of little snow shovels that they let the kids 'play' with at recess (...hmmm, can we say 'child labor'?) Anyway, I think it's genius! Clayton was a really good about wanting to help me shovel. He had learned how to do it at school (have I mentioned that I LOVE his school) and was eager to help. He actually wasn't a bad helper! I was surprised!
My hard working man!
Poor Noah. He loves to be outside, but he has to be so bundled that he can't do much except just sit there. Understandably, he gets easily frustrated but he was a good sport and enjoyed watching me and Clayton work hard.
I also took the boys to the mall to see Santa again. Clayton was in Heaven! When we got there, we were (surprisingly) the only ones in line to see Santa. This actually worked out well for us because not only did we not have to wait in an annoyingly long line, but we got to spend an extra long time with Santa. As soon as we were let in to see him, Clayton jumped on his lap and started listing off what he wanted for Christmas. When it was finally time for us to go, he turned to Santa and said, "Remember Santa, I want a castle, a ship and a brand new McQueen". Santa and I were both laughing a little bit at this point. You gotta love that enthusiasm! You can't really tell by this picture, but Noah was also very excited to see Santa. I tried to get him to take his thumb out of his mouth, but oh well - it's cuter that way anyhow!
Finally, this is just a random picture that makes me smile. A friend of ours gave Noah these glasses a while back and he can't get enough of them. He begs to wear them everywhere. We have finally decided to just keep them in the car. I love it - he's such a cool dude!