Day 3

The Christmas Season - Part 1

We found the greatest little tree farm about an hour away from our house, so we decided to cut down our own tree this year. This is another one of those outings that gets me all excited...you know "the perfect family day"! Well, it was raining and Ethan was in a foul mood. So instead of combing the farm for the perfect tree while the kiddies play at our side, we threw Ethan over our shoulder and said "that one 'il do". No, it was not that horrible. Luke had a great time. The farm had donkeys and horses to pet, hot chocolate, and even a candy cane hunt (which Ethan even loved)! We did find a great tree and had a great time!

Home to dec the halls

Christmas Morning

Grandpa and Grandma Smith came on Christmas Eve and were able to stay all through the next week! We all had a great time. The boys loved having grandpa to wrestle with and I loved having grandma to do my laundry!!

Ethan opening his "Adam Raccoon" books by Glen Keene. Side note: these are GREAT books!!We got one in a pile of books someone had given us and we LOVED it. They teach biblical truths like salvation and following Jesus in parable form. They are all out of print, but you can still find them on line. You just have to have them shipped from different places.

Bowling in the hallway!

New Tricycles!!

Snuggles with grandma!

Day 2

Ethan turns 3!!
January 13th was Ethan's 3rd birthday. I no longer have 3 children under 3!

We decorated the house after bedtime, so when morning came, Ethan said, "It's my birthday?"

After church, we headed for good ol' Chuck E. Cheese.

Ethan had 2 requests for his birthday: Balloons and Batman Cake!




Luke really enjoyed Ethan's birthday too! Notice the bare chest? Luke's method to eating - "dive in". We were trying to save his shirt! You would not believe how bad the frosting stains... especially BLACK! (Note to all you cake decorators - I got the Wilson concentrated gel stuff to tint the frosting. It was so much better than food coloring. The colors were so vibrant and I did not have to use that much!!)

BLOGGING WEEK BEGINS!

I have been neglecting our blog for too long! Now I have much to catch up on, so I have deemed this week, "The Week of the Blog". I am hoping to post every day this week and catch you up, grandma (and the rest of you readers) on what our busy family has been up to the last month. We have had major events and fun, everyday, bloggable moments...so tune in. I will start with the most recent... Snow in Virginia!

Getting dressed! Luke was soooo ticked when I put this snow suit on him. He could not move and the more I laughed, the more angry he got. Finally, Ben threw him here on the bed and this is where he layed (still) until Ben was dressed and ready to go out. Ha! He reminded me of that kid on "The Christmas Story"!!

He was MUCH happier when he finally got outside. Next time I will be sure to dress him LAST!!

Building a snowman to greet all who pass by our house!

The last touches! Carrot nose, chocolate chip smile, and apricot eyes and buttons...YUM!

Moving on to the back yard...

Look! It's daddy, mommy, Ethan, Luke, and baby Kate!

2 days later... a face-less snowman adorning the green grass!

MILESTONES

I'm happy and mommy is happy because I slept from 8pm to 7am last night!! I'm such a good girl...and cute too!

Thanksgiving

Andy and Davina brought their family to us this year to celebrate Thanksgiving. We had a great 3 full days together. The boys had a great time too, although Ethan and Luke were VERY under the weather and VERY crabby which made things a little frustrating at times. Someday we will get together and everyone will be healthy, and even better,...happy!

This is our smoked Turkey that Davina brought. I must say this was the yummiest turkey I have ever eaten...sorry mom! We went out and bought another one to stick in my freezer. It sure was pretty too!!

Our feast! I love Thanksgiving!

Trouble!!

A little crowded??

Our family picture

This was our first official photo shoot for our Christmas card this year. Every year we have another child in the picture and it becomes increasingly more difficult to get a picture worthy to send out to the world. It usually takes a good 3-4 attempts and panic because the holiday season is going so fast. This year I am determined to get our cards out before the week of Christmas, so we asked Andy to be our first photographer. They turned out very well for our first attempt! Thank you Andy! We got a few different shots, but this was the favorite - Kate crying and Luke looking very cute, but confused. I did a little adjusting to the picture and got an even better shot!

A little "warm up"

shot #1 - pretty good

#2 - Even better! Hee-Hee!!

Family Life

These are the best things ever. They are little foam figures that keep Ethan occupied for a VERY long time. I found this holiday pack at the dollar store and he has already peeled off the backs and stuck every one of them on different pieces of construction paper. As Martha says: "It's a Good Thing!"



DISTURBING FOOD PICTURES - BUT WORTHY OF A BLOG POST!

You know how some people see the Virgin Mary in their toast? Well Ethan sees... DaDaDaDaDaDaDaDa...Batman!

These pictures I have Andy to thank for. He ate the big turkey leg on Thanksgiving and Davina took a picture of it. The other night I grilled some chicken legs and Ethan said "mommy, take a camera." Then he went on to pose just like Andy did. Ethan said "that's what Andy do!" Again, thank you Andy!

One last and totally random picture, but I could not leave out the little princess! This looks so uncomfortable!

WELCOME DECEMBER Is there not a more perfect way to welcome the Christmas season than to make the very first batch of holiday cookies?? I had the most wonderful plan for the boys and I this morning. Gingerbread men!! But as you can see I don't have a gingerbread man cookie cutter. I really thought I did, but my collection of cookie cutters came up dry this morning. That's ok, right? My plan of the perfect, warm, cozy morning with my little boys was still possible. I turned on Christmas music and began. I have a thing about Christmas cookies: they have to be BEAUTIFUL! I was so excited to find a few tips in my newest cook book, "America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook". I followed the tried, tested, and true recipe and method knowing that our cookies would indeed be beautiful...not so much! The dough was WAY too sticky and we could not get them up without our snowmen becoming headless or looking a little like that scary "Scream" mask. I also was having trouble with my boys gouging the perfectly rolled out dough with their fat little fingers trying to eat it. After all, they really did not care what the cookies looked like. All they knew was that we were making cookies and that means dough...as much as they can and as quickly as they can - shove it into their mouths before mommy stops them. As soon as I would get a "nearly" perfect cookie, Luke would grab the closest cookie cutter and chop off my angel's wing or head. I soon realized that my warm and cozy feeling was getting a little chilly. After a couple of deep breaths, I sat back and watched them, knowing that THEY were enjoying our morning. I smooched all the cookies together, kneaded in a BUNCH of flour, and put our dough balls back into the fridge determined to start afresh. How did it all turn out??? Perfect. Crooked trees, headless angles, and frightening snowmen...we had a wonderful morning together, and I did manage to get a few "perfect" cookies out of it.

Cute, Cute, Cute!! My little Luke has been making me giggle lately. I thought I would share these moments!

He was playing the other day and just got down on the floor and went to sleep!!

Posing for a quick picture... you can see Ethan in the background being difficult. "I don't want to get my picture taken!"

Getting ready for Thanksgiving!!

Bath Time!!

3 kids, under 3, through the airport, on an airplane, and off to Colorado!

Fun on the airplane! About a month ago, my sister called me to tell me my mom was severely sad about not being able to meet Kate (she could not get any time off from her job). I really felt sad as well, but I certainly could not go to Colorado. I have 3 kiddies now and Ben could not go, so I guess we will all just have to be sad...

3 days later I clicked on "purchase tickets" and then had an anxiety attack.

The adventure began at 4:45 am when we left for the airport. When we got to the ticket counter, we encountered some "ticket problems" which made us VERY late. The plane was actually boarding and we still did not have our tickets!! We got that problem resolved and moved on the the next part of our adventure. Thankfully, Ben was able to get a pass to take us through security, but because he did not have a boarding pass, he had to be patted down, etc. Not only him, but they actually checked Ethan and Luke!!! They did chemical tests on our shoes, and had to check ALL our bags, meanwhile the plane is all boarded!!! We made it just in time and Ben was able to come aboard and buckle in the car seats. So much for early boarding for those with children! The flight was 3 1/2 hours and the boys did pretty well. Luke had 1 good meltdown, but after about 4 dum dum suckers, he calmed down and the plane finally landed. I had no help on the other side, so I rigged up the car seats to go over the top of the stroller and chugged away to baggage where my sister was supposed to pick me up... but she was not there. I wandered around for a while trying to find her... with no success. I finally had to pull off our luggage from baggage claim because another plane was coming in, but now I was stuck because I certainly could not pull around 2 suitcases and another car seat along with everything else. Ethan now has to go potty and Luke has wedged himself in the basket below his seat in the stroller and had a RANK diaper. Thankfully, Kate is still asleep! I hear my name paged over the loud speaker and I have to find a "white courtesy phone" only to get a phone number that did not work and confusing information about my sister's whereabouts. I finally found a pay phone and called Ben, who had actually talked to her, and discovered she had been given wrong directions and was not even at the airport yet. After about an hour my sister shows up, we hit the potty and head to the car to drive 4 more hours to Grand Junction. We, thankfully had an uneventful trip to my parent's house. The entire day's adventure was totally worth it when we surprised my mom!

Airplane adventure part 2 - Getting our boarding passes, through security, and onto the plane was much less eventful this time around, although they would not let my mom onto the plane this time to hold the boys while I got the car seats in. That was a little hairy. I was a little frustrated because they let Ben, so I just assumed they would let my mom. They, seriously threw a big fit about us even asking. They called an airport man to help me. The boys actually liked him and let him take them without a fight (I think he was an angel unaware :) The flight was just 3 hours this time and both boys did GREAT! No meltdowns or anything. We landed and they opened the doors. While the plane emptied, I gathered all our belongings and picked up all the animal crackers that the boys entertained themselves with during the flight. Ben pops onto the plane! I was soooo relieved to see him, but surprised too after the big fiasco about letting my mom onto the plane. He gets the boys and the stewardas asks "how did you get down here?!" After they ask him to leave the plane, they call a SECURITY BREECH!! The entire line of passengers is stopped from exiting the plane and we just have to sit there and wait. Finally, 2 security guys come down and question Ben as to why he was on the plane. So silly!! I guess I can understand why, but they let him on before... so he just assumed and was trying to help me in my hour of need!! Well, now I'm sure Ben is on their data base and we will probably be under surveillance by the FBI or something!! Hee-Hee!! Well, a very eventful trip, but WELL worth it. The kids and I enjoyed our time at grandma and grandpa's house, but I won't say we'll be doing it again any time real soon.