MERRY CHRISTMAS

Joel left for Iowa on the 13th. After a long week of lots of snow and being a single mom, the boys and I were supposed to head down on Friday the 19th. They ended up with freezing rain and snow in Iowa Thursday-Friday, so we only went as far as Krista and Brent's. With all of the snow here, we didn't end up leaving until Mon. morning. The kids played very well and Krista, Brent and I got in a solid 10 hours of CLUE playing over the weekend!!! We finally got to Ankeny around 5:30 Monday night. We had a little b-day celebration for Joel (check out his new Superman pj bottoms from the boys), and then went to play with Jake and Chase.

We didn't get to spent nearly enough time with the Kinney cousins since our trip was cut short, and they went to their other Grandparents' Tues-Wed. They got back just as we were heading to 4:00 church, and we had a great dinner after that! Oh and of course there were tons of presents involved!

Why do you suppose the boys have no problem on a 7 hour car trip, but they can't handle a 1 hour church service??????

gingerbread house

Eli's class made these. They turned out so cute!!

Preschool Program

Eli was a donkey for his preschool Christmas program today. He actually sang (most of the time) and did some actions. His teacher told me that when she moved him to the back and stopped looking at him, he started participating during practice . That's my Eli!!!!

I am not an artist!!

This was my attempt at making a cute Santa breakfast for the kids this morning. Ella said it was a monkey. I think she's right. Jack and Ella wouldn't touch them (don't worry Erin; they did eat plain pancakes). Eli ate whipped cream and m&m's for breakfast. Luckily I have Noah who ate his whole thing and all of the leftover strawberries.

10.1 inches

THANKS BROTHER!! I don't think this is what Craig signed up for when we moved here, but I sure do appreciate it!!!! Can you believe Joel missed out on the "storm of the century"? Good thing he bought his snowblower at least!

Seriously!

I think I remember saying something about never wanting a north facing house again... Technically I guess we are kind of NE. I made it through the thigh-high snow drift that used to be our driveway to get my paper. No paper. Check out how high the snow is on our neighbor's mailbox. Their house does face straight north. Here's our south-facing backyard. You can still see grass.

Note To Self

Do not take two and four year olds to Walmart to pick out their own presents....at least not at the same time and not on one of the coldest and busiest shopping days of the year. Luckily, the boys were really good!
Eli picked out two transformers... we need daddy's help. Noah picked out a Venom action figure (I guess Santa will have to take his back). He also picked out PART of a Diego railway. Yep, we'll have to spend $50 to get the rest of it. Pretty sure two year olds shouldn't be picking things out, but how do you say "no"??

early Christmas presents

The boys are having fun with the airplanes that Jack and Eli discovered in the back of the van the other day. Grandpa Jim gave each of the boys Christmas money today too. We're going to buy some toys this afternoon so they have something to do over the next few days while we're stranded in our house during a blizzard with -40 wind chills!!! (Yes, I am aware that it is +40 degrees in Ankeny!)

Happy Birthday Ben!

Wish we could be there! Thanks for the fun stuff Grandma!

Eli's short hand

This is the letter Eli wrote to Grandma Cathy tonight with his yellow IHOP crayon.

The first line: G (randma) I W(as) T(he) C(lass) L(eader)

2nd line: (using most of the letters from the first line) G(randma) I W(ant) T(ransformers) B(irthday) W(hen) I M F(ive)

underwear and life jackets

These are the outfits my children wore as we decorated the tree this year.

Dear Santa,

I would like a new camera!!! We met my parents in P.R. tonight for a little parade. I sure wish I would've gotten a picture of Noah's sad little face as he was walking back from not getting any of the first round of candy. Luckily, there was more right away. When the parade was done, we walked around for a little bit, and the boys got cookies from the bank and hardware store. Then we finished with the best hot chocolate, cider, and spiced wine drinks. Thanks Mom and Dad; we had fun.

Thanksgiving day at our house

We were missing Joel's family yesterday!! My family all gathered at our house for Thanksgiving. It's always a crazy day when the cousins get together, but they have a lot of fun! We had to take a little trip to the park after dessert!!!

Thanksgiving Feast

Joel and I were the parent helpers for Eli's preschool Thanksgiving feast today. His teacher asked me if he likes to do music and stuff. I guess they're working on things for the Christmas program, and Mr. part-shy, mostly stubborn isn't doing much. Will this be a repeat of the Bible School program where he held his hands in front of his face the whole time???
Thanks Uncle Craig for watching the crazy one! Eli thought that was pretty cool that we were both there!

choosing my battles

Noah has been wearing these same Spiderman undies for the past two days (over his diaper). Yesterday he wore his Spiderman shirt with the underwear, but he wouldn't keep any clothes on today.

Craft Day

Eli and I went with Jen and Katelynn to their church for the "Advent Fun Shop" today. The kids each did four "projects". Eli was VERY proud of his Hawkeye snowman!

sleepover

After a long week of work, Jen asked Craig to find them something fun to do on Friday night. His idea??? Pizza, beer and cards at our house. We put kids to bed and let the boys win two games of cards before we let them each win a game of Clue. I'm not sure sleeping at our house is what Jen had in mind, but I think she ended up having fun. The kids slept well, so that was a bonus!!

It looks like someone could've taken Noah's bed. He slept on his floor all night.

HAPPY FRIDAY

FASHION STATEMENT OF THE WEEK

Cute kids

I love, love, love, listening to kids "read". Ella- (reading a Bob the Builder book) "Can we build it?.... No, we can't".
Noah- (reading Green Eggs and Ham) "No (turn page), I don't like it (turn page), No..."
Katelynn was sticking pretty close to her Dora story line.

KLEPTO

This dinosaur "magically appeared" (that's his story, and he's sticking to it) at our house. It belongs to Eli's preschool. I spent a lot of time trying to get him to understand why it is not okay for it to be at our house. I must not be doing a very good job. He is now VERY scared of the police, but he's pretty sure that he's keeping the dinosaur.

12:03 am

I went in Eli's room to check on him as I always do before I go to bed. I stepped on something.


Eli: Mom??
Me: what honey?
Eli: (in a very sleepy voice) Does s-e-e-p spell sheep?
Me: No, its s-H-e-e-p.
Eli: Oh, okay. I'm going back to sleep now.

breakfast with my boy

What could be better than my daily bagel-ful and coffee (hot chocolate for the little one) date with my youngest????

girls vs. boys

This is probably the closest I will ever get to having a girl. And then there are the boys!!! Eli was at preschool or he'd probably be in the middle. Just kidding. He might be, but more than likely he'd be reading with Ella.


Mommy Ella did join in after a while. She is just so darn cute, and she can hold her own against these big boys (as long as they don't sit on her).

burning energy

Noah had his first gymnastics class tonight. He was shy for about 1 minute, and then he was off.

This is how he waited for his turn. I know he really should've been sitting, but I thought it was pretty good that he actually stayed in one spot (we'll work on the sitting thing next time).

bookworm

Eli got the first 4 books of The Magic Treehouse series from Grandma Cathy in the mail today. I let him take one to bed at naptime. He read the entire thing in a little over an hour, took a little nap, and was so excited when he woke up. He said, "that was the best book ever!". Thanks Cathy; we'll have fun reading those with him.

Happy Monday!

Ella says this is Joel.

This kid cracks me up

Me: "Noah, please stop drawing on your hand."

Noah: "It's a bracelet"

Trick or Treat

Last night, we went over to Craig and Jen's for a pumpkin shaped pizza, lots of goodies from Jen's family, and trick or treating. Eli was the designated door bell ringer, but then he would hurry and run behind Katelynn before the door was opened. Eli and Katelynn were ready to be done after one trip down the block. Noah went to the last house by himself.

This was my mom's idea!!

Is it Halloween or Christmas??

A big box of goodies showed up on our doorstep. Thanks Uncle Fred and Aunt Jensine!!!

Big boy!

Noah got his first issue of the Animal Baby magazine in the mail yesterday. He thought it was pretty cool that he could read magazines just like his big brother. Thanks Grandma Cathy!

On another big boy note... TMI, I know, but he pooped on the toilet for the first time yesterday. Joel thought we needed a picture, and not just of him sitting on the toilet (thanks honey!).

"Yay, woohoo one hundred dollars!"

This was Noah's response to the $10 dollar bill in his Halloween card from Grandpa Jim. Joel and I took the boys to Walmart to spend their money tonight. Can you guess who bought the fire truck and who bought the books?

Yep, out of all the toys in Walmart, Eli decided on books. Thanks Grandpa!

Too much Spiderman???

The other day Noah was running around with a little bat on his forehead saying, "I'm the rhino". Today he was working on an alphabet puzzle. As he was putting the letter "O" on the octopus picture, he said, "O is for Dr. Octopus". Pretty soon he'll be like his big cousin, Zach who ran around outside looking for a spider to bite him so he could turn into Spiderman.

It's 1:25pm (naptime)

What is Noah doing?He is putting on pajamas which is fitting since he put on jeans and a sweatshirt right before falling asleep last night.

What am I doing??

I'm trying to decide which reading material to start with after my trip to the library last night.

Preschool Cowboy Day

Thanks Grace and Grandma Cathy for supplying part of the outfit!! (He's holding the Spiderman bucket because he's been carrying all of his favorite things in there since the party on Saturday.)

Noah update

We have realized that Noah will not stay in his bed, and putting the crib back up isn't the answer. Eli has always laid on his bed and talked and played forever before going to sleep. Noah does the same thing; he just uses his whole room. We put a gate in his doorway, leave his door wide open, and sit in the living room where he can't see us. He throws his blankets and bears over the gate, does gymnastics, sings songs, changes his pj's, and eventually goes to sleep in his bed. I'm okay with it. Now.....if we could just get him to sleep through the night again.....

party

On Saturday afternoon we went to Jack and Ella's for a Halloween party. The boys were so excited and had a great time! Thanks for the fun Erin and Joe!!!Eli told me that his favorite part of the party was tossing the hula-hoop around the pumpkin. When we first tried to get him to play, he refused. Then later when nobody was around, I caught him doing it by himself.

Noah- showing off his bat tatoo.

yep, we're still dealing with the bedtime battle

Noah lost his boxspring and bed stand last night. I though maybe he would have less fun at bedtime if he couldn't jump off the bed. He still found things to do for 2 hours before finally giving in to sleep. We're giving the "supernanny method" 5 days, and if there is no improvement, he'll have a crib (with a crib tent) in his room by Sunday!!!

MY child

Me: Noah, get down please

Noah: But, I love the sun!!