Snow, snow, snow

We've gotten quite a bit of snow...I even heard we are nearing the record for January! And this year, both boys understand the joys that awaits them out there. Well, okay, its really Noah who understands and Breven wants to do whatever Noah is doing:)

Noah wanted to show you what he likes about the snow...

Hi, wanna come join me? Its really fun outside.

There are all kinds of things to do out here. We have the big mountain just outside and Miss Lori has a sled that we can ride on. Uncle Flip was great at pulling us around.

Look, even B is having fun!

Mama and Daddy come out with us too and we go walking in Antarctica. There are so many animals that live there that we get to see. Did you know we found a Snow leopards cave? It was really cool. And the penguins are really friendly.

Breven likes to help me shovel, but since he's still too little to push a shovel, he pretends his mower is a snow blower. Pretty clever, huh? (yeah, that was my idea)

Daddy and Uncle Flip built some jumps for us to go over in the sled and they were so much fun.

Mama showed me these pictures on Aunty Katy and Uncle Danny's blog about balanced rocks. I have no idea how they got them to stack, but once Miss Lori started stacking snow, I realized that S. Korea isn't the only place to have things that are balanced!

Anytime you want to come over and play in the snow with us, you can. We'll show you all there is to see of Antarctica , the big mountain we sled down and how Indiana likes to stack things.

I love you!

Noah

Silly boys, busy week

My, my, my this has been a busy week!

Well, okay, its really been busy for Aaron and Uncle Flip Flop, but the boys and I have been busy just trying to keep up with them.

Uncle Flip Flop flew in Tuesday night (although his luggage decided to stay in Minn.!) and Wednesday afternoon, just as the boys were headed out to Chicago for the game, the airport called saying his bag had finally arrived. Whew, just in the nick of time.

The boys had a great time at the game and were back Thursday afternoon, just in time for Aaron's special birthday dinner of verenika and birthday cake.

Friday morning, Uncle Flip Flop took a train into Chicago for work and Saturday afternoon, Aaron met him there to watch the Bulls play. Sunday afternoon, the boys returned to find us out in the snow. We finally got some quality time with Flip and Daddy Sunday and Monday and on Tuesday we headed off to the airport to say goodbye. When we got there, we found out the flight was overbooked and were asking for volunteers to wait for a later flight. So, we got to have Uncle Flip for an extra night, what fun! The boys love their uncle Flip Flop and we always have fun together and the extra night was icing on the cake!

Okay, enough jabbering, onto some pics...

Even though Breven couldn't go outside with Noah, he wanted to dress the part and wouldn't let us take the boots off until Noah came back in from playing outside:)

Celebrating Daddy with some delicious ice cream birthday cake

Uh oh. Looks like B may have inherited Aaron's vision problems after all.:)

For a boy who wouldn't sit still to listen to a story, this warms my heart

And who said you need room to spread out and play...

Uncle Flip Flop and Noah were working out the logistics of their construction business together

...and Breven is still talking about that birthday cake:)

Happy birthday, AARON!!

Happy 30th birthday, Aaron!!

I wanted to make his 30th birthday special, so I've been planning for months. His brother, Flip was able to come out from CO and he took a couple of friends to the Colorado Avalanche vs. Chicago Blackhawks hockey game. Hopefully it was a great time with them since he really needed it.

We love you Aaron. Thank you for being a great Daddy and wonderful Husband. Hope you have had a great birthday!

And Breven is counting the hours, minutes and seconds until we can get into Daddy's birthday cake. He was pretty disappointed when he realized he couldn't have it and had to wait a whole nother day.:)

Boys

Hi, Noah here. I have decided that boys have more fun with Poppi (and Papa). Can I show you some examples?

A Poppi is so much more fun to wrestle.

Poppi acts so much more surprised when we play peekaboo

And a Mommy definitely can't show me how to shave...and Daddy doesn't use that cool stuff called shaving cream

Poppi is so strong, he can hold 2 boys at once!

He's got such great concentration...good for building my legos

Daddy's pretty cool too...

He can show B-man just what to do with all our new construction equipment

Celebrating with Poppi over a job well done is so much fun!

Gingerbread house

It all started innocently enough when Miss Lori got us a gingerbread house kit to make with Lolli and Poppi...

...what kid wouldn't have all kinds of fun getting to touch, hold, smell and even eat candy while putting it all over a huge cookie?!

And to have undivided Lolli and Poppi attention...could it get any better?!?!

There's just something about being able to squish a big bag of frosting.

I'll let these smiles speak for themselves

They had so much fun putting it together.

And the finished product was quite cute...definitely not what this perfectionist mother would have chosen, but there is something so wonderful about letting your child be creative.

Unfortunately, as I joked later, we were unaware that we had purchased the "California" edition of this particular Gingerbread house. It didn't stay up for long. And then there was a complete renovation before half the roof slid to rest of the sleigh. I think it was all those gum drops I added to the mix that weren't included in the kit. Poor Poppi spent quite a while trying to get it to stay in place:)

My favorite parts of Christmas

This Christmas was so much fun! Both boys are old enough to enjoy the fun of it all and spending time with such special family only makes it sweeter. Here are some of my favorite moments of the day...

Reading our count down books with Lolli and Poppi!

And more reading. I love seeing these heads so close together, wrapped up in a story.

Getting dressed up to go celebrate Christ's birth with other believers.

A silly, joyful little boy

Brand new matching Christmas Thomas pajamas that make both boys look older!

Watching the adults enjoy the kids toys as much as the kids:)

Taking time to play games, one of my favorite things to do.

Growth in independent play. And knowing we found something he would love.

But my all time favorite Christmas memory this year was these next two pictures...

He discovered a box after Daddy opened his first present and decided it would make the perfect place to rip the wrapping paper. He stayed in the box until all the presents were opened.

And of course, I LOVE this smile:)

Happy New Years

Happy NEW YEAR!

We hope that your year is filled with silliness,

a little excitement, adventure and creativity

and a lot of joy.