Videos!

I got for this fabulous digital video camera for Christmas which brings me out of the dark ages of video technology and into the present day. Ive been a video making machine and have tons of videos of the kiddos to post. Prepare for video overload!!!

Happy New Year!!!

We ended the year with a wonderful day outdoors in our new neighborhood. The boys rode scooters, climbed trees and we had a giant family snowball fight. The perfect way to end a fabulous year. 2010 has been a year of great changes and growth for our family. Wishing everyone a safe and happy start to their new year!

SNOW!

Nathan in his snow gear, all bundled up and ready to go. He is such a GOOD baby. He didnt fuss once about all the layers of clothing and gear. He even managed to walk around in it with no complaint. He loved being outside in the snow. First child to actually CRY when I took them IN from outdoors. My other boys hated the cold/snow/outdoors at Nathan's age. Nathan went sledding and squealed in delight down the hill. He got pulled around the culdesac in his toddler sled and actually tried to climb back in for more! What a little snow bunny.

Waiting for daddy to shovel a path from the door to the yard. I love this picture because Nathan is right there with his big brothers, as excited as them, even though he has no idea why. What a cute little boy he is, and how much he loves his big brothers.

The boys in their snow gear. My mom reminded me after the fact that I do own brown snow pants for Evan, now I just have to FIND those snow pants. In the chaos that was our move, things did get jumbled a bit.

The big boys making their first snow angels in our new yard!!!

From the pictures you can tell: we got our first real accumulation of snow of the season this past week. It also is our first snow fall in the new house! The boys were SUPER excited our new house happens to have fabulous hills in the yard for sledding, both the front, side and back (which we have yet to even explore). I cant say enough how very fortunate we were to find this house and yard. It has been such a blessing for our family, offering hundreds of hours of outdoor opportunity for the boys and all their ENERGY.

Christmas Day

The big boys were extremely excited about Christmas this year. We did the Advent calendar AND book countdown so the boys were quite aware of when Christmas was!!! Evan, surprisingly, didnt remember alot from last year's Christmas, so it was fun to see it all from his fresh eyes this year.

Christmas morning the boys did a fabulous job of waiting until 7am to wake us up for presents. I have no idea what time they actually did wake up. But, precisely at 7 am we awoke to them yelling to go downstairs so we could open presents. The baby slept through most the chaos of opening presents, which was nice. The boys got some new board games, Wii games, Nerf shooters (we dont call them guns in our house), remote control cars, and books. We spent the morning playing with all their new toys. In the morning Laura came by with gifts and for a visit. We had Christmas dinner with my parents at our house. Afterwards we headed over to my Aunt and Uncle's house to spend some time with my mom's side of the family and all the cousins.

It was a wonderful day!!!

This Year And Last

2010

2009

Christmas Eve this year and last year. Amazing what a difference a year makes.

Christmas Eve-Part Two

Late Christmas Eve afternoon we headed over to my parent's house for dinner and presents. The boys were eager to open their gifts from Nana and Pa and would do ANYTHING to get the ripping of packages open started. We got some great well posed pictures of the boys. Awwww, bribery is so cute. Even a decent family shot!

Then the gift opening began. Nathan (G likes to call him Natalie because of his long hair that I refuse to cut because its so cute) was not quite sure what to make of all the excitement.

Evan opening presents.

Justin with his new Christmas present, a digital camera. He has taken some hilarious and cute pictures and videos that I will have to share.

Nathan with his new push/ride on car present. He REALLY liked it, can't wait for the Spring to give him rides around the culdesac in it!!!

The boys with their new scooters trying them out in the basement of my parent's house.

Lighting the antique German Carousel, I think its called a pyramid. This is a Christmas favorite of the boys. The heat from the candles rising causes the blades at the top of the carousel to spin and the whole scene spins inside. Its really quite cool and a special treat only to be lit and used at Christmas.

Every year since I was a little girl my dad has read Twas the Night Before Christmas before bedtime. That tradition has carried on to my boys now. Nathan was a little too young/tired for the story this year. Justin LOVED snuggling up to Pa and hearing it.

After the excitement of a very full day we headed home to put out cookies, milk and carrots for the reindeer. Did you know that Blitzen hates carrots? The tradition in our family is that Blitzen will take his carrot and spit it out in the driveway after his visit with Santa. Sure enough, a chewed up carrot found its way into our driveway on Christmas morning!!!

Christmas Eve - Part One

What a difference a year makes! Our big boy Nathan, five times larger than his 4 pound self at Christmas Eve last year. I love this picture of him, and those beautiful blue eyes. Christmas Eve morning we woke up and did some baking. Justin helped me make his favorite bread, Zucchini bread, a recipe my mom made when I was a little girl and I always loved as well. We spent time as a family and generally enjoyed the time with G off, which is rare occurance during the week. We ordered some Chinese food around lunch time and headed over to my cousin's house, who lives right down the road from us now and is fabulous, for our annual Chinese takeout buffet with all the cousins. We loaded Nathan up on Claritin because of their dog, and hoped for the best. He actually wound up doing really well. The Claritin made him a bit cranky and a little unsteady on his feet later in the evening, but, it worked out with no hives!!! Here is the buffet of Chinese food. YUM.

Nathan eating some broccoli. It looks like he is in his car seat, because he is. We used the car seat as an impromptu high chair because we forgot his feeding chair at home.

Nathan was much more excited about eating the spare rib than the broccoli, a boy after his father's own heart.

Six of the cousins enjoying time in Andrew's bedroom. From left to right: Justin at the desk, Nathan, Alison on the floor, Andrew, John sitting on the floor, Evan standing. The kids had a blast spending time together. Its so nice that they have cousins to hang with. I can only imagine what they will be like ten years from now!!!

Recorder Playing

Nathan was dying to get his hands on his big brother's recorder tonight. He caught on pretty quick how to work it. Here's a little video of his music.

The Weekend Roundup

The moment has finally arrived! This weekend the kids got to eat their gingerbread houses!!!! Much fun and candy consumed by both the big boys. Complete destruction has been achieved. YUM.

Nathan points at EVERYTHING now. He points and says, "that, that, that". Its quite cute and a great way for him to communicate to us his wants/needs. He kept pointing at the boys gingerbread houses while they were eating them. Sorry buddy, those contain a million ingredients you cant eat.

This weekend was full of projects. The boys painted their clay ornaments this weekend and also did some paper painting. The boys finished their three part wood working train project at our local hardware store this weekend. They also brought home a bonus ornament kit too.

Evan is out of school this week, so we have lots of fun activities planned! Justin has school until Christmas Eve this year. Have a great week!!!

Christmas Pjs

Every year I buy the boys matching or coordinating Christmas pjs to wear on Christmas Eve for opening presents Christmas morning. This year the boys have SOCK MONKEYS pjs. Justin was disappointed that Nathan's weren't blue, surprisingly the boys still mostly love dressing alike (although Im on borrowed time Im sure). Here is a picture of them in front of the fireplace in their pjs (because I know in the chaos and excitement of Christmas morning there will be no way to get a decent picture of them together, even this was a struggle: see the outtakes in the previous post).

Cookie!!!

Nathan saying cookie!!! Dont mind my ramblings in the background, I was unaware of the taping going on.

Christmas Pj Outtakes

No explaination necessary.

Its A Boy's World And Im Just Livin' In It

Boys are just born knowing what swords are and what they do. Nathan wields a sword. Nathan climbing to get to something on mommy's desk he isnt supposed to have.

The three boys in a pig pile wrestling.

I never grew up with brothers so I was never forewarned what exactly having a bunch of boys running around my house really meant. With Nathan added to the mix its even more wild, crazy, exciting and wonderful around here. Oh, and did I mention LOUD??? Nathan is growing into the typical boys boy. He loves to climb and otherwise put himself in harms way, he also thinks wrestling with his brothers is hilarious. Try as I might to remind him that he is ONE YEAR OLD and has plenty of time for those shenanigans, he doesn't listen. Enjoy the pictures of our chaos :)

December Fun!!!

Evan decorating.

Justin building a dog house outside his gingerbread house.

The boys with their finished creations.

Nathan the daredevil. As I was taking this picture I told G, "at least he is still holding on" and he promptly let go and stood up. Boys.

Nathan enjoying snuggle time and a bottle with G.

Nathan in his fleece snowsuit, its been quite cold lately.

This weekend was so much fun!!! The boys made their traditional ginger bread houses. I made one as well with a group of mom friends which was a great treat because usually Im just the grunt, not the deisgner. This year I lucked into preassembled gingerbread house kits. I say "luck" because I bought the kits without knowing the houses were preassembled and ready to decorate. What a time saver!!! The boys did phenomenal decorating this year, they needed very little assistance and had such creative ideas.

Enjoy the pictures!!!