yesterday

Just about the time I was ready to head in for hot chocolate, the boys suggested we make a fort (they may have overheard Erin say we had a great place to dig a tunnel).

1.5 HOURS LATER...

I found a cure

for the common "30 minutes before school stomach ache". HOME REMEDY

Put the sick child in his/her bed with a book and some homework. Explain that there will be zero playing with siblings/friends or video games of any kind for the entire day. He or she will be in school by 10:00 am.

Monday Night Fun

ringing in 2011

2nd Annual New Year's Eve Game Night at Grandma Cathy's.

11:45 pm: Eli- "It's almost midnight, and I'm not even tired"

12:03 am:

While we were enjoying beautiful weather in Iowa (there was no snow in Cathy's yard when we left) my brother and our neighbor were busy looking after our house during a blizzard. Thanks to them, our driveway was clear when we got home.

more Christmas

We spent Christmas night at my parents and left for Iowa the next morning.

Christmas

Christmas Eve: a quiet evening of church, dinner at Perkins, and tracking Santa.
Christmas Day: After opening Santa gifts and loading the car, we went to my parents for the day/evening.

looking for Rudolph

bedtime snack: fun dip and orange pop

weekend happenings

We spent the night at Krista and Brent's on Friday. My mom and I went to visit Krista in the hospital as she was recovering after having a defibrillator inserted. Saturday it was off to my Grandparents' for Truax Christmas. My Grandma made Vikings and Twins hat, mitten, and scarf sets for all the great-grandchildren. I'm not sure how she finds time after working and doing MANY other projects. She is an amazing woman. My mom has decided that must be where Krista gets it as she walked out of the hospital and came to the gathering. We are so thankful that her surgery went well.

Sunday was Katelynn's 6th birthday.

winter wonderland

If every winter day consisted of a little fluffy snow, 20 degrees, and no wind, maybe I wouldn't mind having it 6 months out of the year!

Happy Thanksgiving (a little late)

PUMPKIN PIEAPPLE PIE WITH COOL WHIP

TURTLE CHEESECAKE

Thank you Nephew!

It's time for someone else to have this song stuck in their head!!
I started singing Taio Cruz's "Dynamite" while I was making supper for the kids tonight.

"I throw my hands up in the air sometimes

saying ayo

gotta let go"

So the boys taught me cousin Matt's version.

"I throw my sandwich in the air sometimes

saying ayo

where's my mayo"

Which turned into all kinds of fun!!

"I throw my bathroom in the air sometimes

saying ayo

where'd my toilet go"



sink-soap

car-steering wheel

bowl-cereal

house-kids



and it went on and on and on
and it went on and on and on...

Eli finally lost a tooth

His two bottom ones with the teeth growing in behind are not very loose. However, he had a tooth on the top that was ready. Because Joel and I are both grossed out by loose teeth, we called in a professional. Less than 5 minutes after Aunt Jennifer (mom of 4) arrived today, the tooth was out.

Too much Harry Potter??

The Harry Potter movies were on TV last weekend, so Joel recorded them for the boys. They are now half way into the 3rd one and loving every minute of it. Yesterday I made split pea soup, and I gave a little to the boys for supper. Noah took one look at his bowl and said, "I'm not eating that potion".

this and that

Our cautious, careful first-born hit his head on a pole during recess last week.

Noah drew a family picture at preschool today: Dad, Noah, Eli, Mom, and the little person next to Mom is Ella. He scribbled out the first two Ella drawings because "she had too much hair".

The boys were playing "Batman" in the doll house today. They had to play "rock, paper, scissors" to see who got the blue crib and who had to use the pink one.

Halloween Fun

Jen threw a great party for the kids yesterday!!

We went back over there tonight for pumpkin shaped pizza and trick or treating.

(little) man vs food

In attempt to get Eli to try new foods, we've nagged, threatened, bribed, and force fed. None of this works. Constantly, I am going back to the place where you can find the answer to all of your problems... the internet. This is where I have learned that you should not do any of these aforementioned verbs. Instead, you should make sure that there is at least one thing on your child's plate that they like and act like you don't care if they eat or not. Here's the problem. My kids always think they need a "treat" after supper. I thought I was being really smart by telling them that all they had to do was TRY everything on their plate and they could have a small piece of candy. Unfortunately, Noah was eating his food very quickly in order to get to the treat part, and then he'd complain about being hungry at bed time. Eli was basically eating three bites of food. However, he was TRYING NEW FOODS, and I was happy. 3 nights ago, I only made 2 things. One was peas which he doesn't like and the other was alfredo potatoes with ham that he had never tried before. I was certain that he'd like it, but after one bite, he declared that he didn't. Then he took one bite of peas and was ready for his treat. That is when it stopped; no more treats after supper. Two nights ago, Eli tried something new, and he liked it (and he ate it all). Last night, he was willing to try my newest version of roasted broccoli. He ate 3 bites in addition to his other food. Maybe I'm not supposed to bribe my children, but I do believe Eli learned that it won't hurt to "take one bite". Hopefully, this continues, and we can actually laugh instead of cry during family meals.

MEA in Iowa

trick or treating with Grandmapumpkin patch with Jake and Chase

making our way through the corn maze

rootbeer floats and a sleepover with our buddies

How bored is he???

We had Eli's parent-teacher conference tonight. This was one of my favorite papers. You have to click and enlarge the picture to appreciate his creativeness (#'s 58, 59, 63, 69)!His teacher said that he is a great student. He is very bright but very shy. His parents are very proud!

mile run day

Last week, on a very rare non-windy 85 degree October day, Eli came home from school not feeling so great after running a mile for gym. Today, they got to do it again (last week was practice), and parents were invited to cheer them on. I'm not sure if it was the 25 fewer degrees or if it was the audience, but his time improved by 4 minutes!

ready for reading?

I've got Noah all set up for "naptime". A couple of books on CD and a fire truck tent on his bed should keep him in his room for a little while. He really likes books. He knows the letter sounds and a few sight words. Unfortunately, when I try to get him to sound out words he doesn't have any desire. I bribed him with a dollar last week, but he refused to do more than 2 words.

cousin weekend

Joel took the boys over to his sister's for the weekend. Aunt Jennifer took some cute pictures at the zoo and the pumpkin patch.