Battle of Yorktown

My parents gave Colin a whole soldier set of the battle of Yorktown for Christmas. Since then Colin has been asking who were the good guys and who were the bad guys and wanting to know more about the battle.  So we went today to teach my son all about history.  Colin was so excited in the car the whole way there.  My parents and Uncle Jeff joined us and we walked the battlefields and went to the Visitors Center. Then had lunch with my grandparents. Colin walked a long ways and at one point Jeff took a picture of Colin waist deep in the snow.  Colin told Brent at dinner that he learned all about the "Brudish soldiers" - not British. He is somehow convinced they were the Brudish soldiers. Either way the were the ones who lost the war. Colin said his favorite part was going to see the cannons and skippers with Grandpa and Uncle Jeff. 

Joel had fun too. He kept calling the canons "Boom." But his favorite part of the day was finding a big mud patch.

Sneaky boy - just look at that face. 

 Good thing mommy doesn't mind a little mud and remembered to bring a change of clothes this time.  He had a blast stomping in the mud.

This was Joel well past his naptime. He was asleep in the car before we even backed out of the driveway.

Blizzard of 2010

We came home Christmas night to a few snow flakes (it had been snowing off and on all day in Newport News)  And then woke up Sunday to about 8 inches with more snow falling all day.  I've heard we've gotten anywhere from 12-15 inches.  Its up to Joels waist and well over Colin's knees in our yard. 

The kids aren't as excited as I thought with all the snow.  Colin needs snow pants and no matter how much we layer him up he keeps getting soaked through and wet.  And Joel likes it for a few minutes but has spent most of the time outside crying or saying "mommy up!"  (he started calling me mommy this week)

I was taking some pictures of Colin and turned and heard Joel crying and holding onto the wall.  He couldnt move in all the snow.  Poor thing.

Brent and Colin built a snow fort and have had a few snowball fights. Brent vs. Mommy and Colin.  Basically I just make the snowballs for Colin as fast as I can. But at least i'm not getting pelted with them.  My kind of job. 

 At first Joel was a little upset we brought him back out in the snow this morning. I think he was hoping it was all gone by now. 

 But for a minute it wasn't so bad

 Feeding mommy snow was pretty fun for Joel.

 And then decided he was really ready to go back inside.

We are still using our makeshift sled from last year and it works great.  The kids had fun in it and this morning we went out sledding for a little bit. 

 Colin, Brent and I built a snow man while Joel was napping.  Colin was disappointed we didn't have a black top hat to put on Frosty since in the movie that's what made Frosty come to life.  He wasn't to thrilled about the snow man after that. 

 

Then he got serious and went to work making snowballs to pelt daddy with.  After a while he was aiming pretty well. Its fun to be snowed in.  Our road is a solid sheet of ice - great for sledding.  But by tomorrow it'll all start to melt away and Brent will most likely get to work Wednesday.  But for now we're enjoying having Brent home and playing in the snow.  I'm sure Joel will be thrilled tomorrow when we go back out in it.  haha.

Christmas Day

 Merry Christmas!  We had a wonderful Christmas and are now enjoying watching the snow come down.

 We had a wonderful Christmas.  We opened presents at our house in the morning and then went over the my parents house in the afternoon. 

 The boys got some legos in their stockings which was great for them to play with while we got dressed and made breakfast.

Joel got his very own big boy lego man.  And a little helicopter.  Now when he tries to grab all of Colin's we can give him his own. And he'll still try to get Colin's but it'll buy Colin some time to get his put up - in theory :)

Joel doesnt seem very excited about his present but he does love playing with it.

 After all the presents were opened we spent some time creating with Legos.  At one point in the morning Colin leaned over to Joel, gave him a hug and kiss and whispered "thank you for my soldier planes you gave me"  So sweet and hopefully the whole giving part of Christmas will be what they remember instead of all the getting. 

 My pretty sisters

 Mary and her baby

 Mom and sisters

 Colin and I went to three different stores to find the perfect present to give to Ant Ant.  He was very specific and was so excited to give them to her.

 A very excited boy

 Mary's classic face

 My baby sister

 This family loves books

 Joel fell asleep on the way there and then woke up from his nap a little unsure of the whole thing for a while.

 James and Angela sent everyone bags of candy/snacks from Japan. This might have been the cheese kit-kat. They sent some really neat stuff. Colin woke up this morning and wanted to use his chopsticks to eat his cereal.  So he tried. 

Joel trying one of the kit-kats too.

 My grandpa saw me taking a picture and said here take a picture of me.  haha I love my grandpa

 My parents

 Colin and Ooo-eee reading one of his books

 Joel was fascinated by a snow globe

 See we all really love to read

 Colin reading his soldier books

 Mary

Merry Christmas Everyone.  Thanks for all our gifts and a great day.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Love, Colin and Joel

Isn't my big boy so handsome?  Love my new camera.  And I love this boy.  He is growing up so fast. His favorite channel on tv right now is the History Military Channel.  He'll tell you all about World War II and was very excited the other day when they advertised "world war II in COLOR!"  haha we do make sure its not graphic but he loves learning about the battle plans and I think gave Ant Ant a whole lesson in U-boats one day.  So the other day when Rod Burley stopped by with some presents dressed in NAVY CAMO my sweet boy almost passed out from excitement. And not so much over the gifts.  A real live soldier was in his house.  I'm not sure if he even talked the whole time Rod was here but after wards that's all he would talk about.  Still talks about. We did open the presents the other night since the kids were going crazy and Colin loves to tell you who gave him what so we thought this way he would remember.  Thank you Burley family for the wonderful gifts.  We now own our own Lizzy to go with AJ - Colin has claimed Lizzy and takes her everywhere.  Interesting which kid picked which dog :) And the kids are loving their bibles.  Now there is no more fighting over the bible during our family devotions.  It always felt wrong to have the kids fighting over the bible while we were trying to read it. :)  Thanks so much for loving on our family.   And now I am off to finish wrapping gifts and hoping Joel wont unwrap every gift I do wrap.  He seems to have figured out the unwrapping thing pretty quick. 

belly button

Who needs toys when you have your bellybutton

Ask Joel where it is and he will be entertained for a while.  Especially outside when he likes to fill it with dirt. 

 Joel is also a great help in the kitchen.

 It always takes longer to clean him up and the kitchen than to make an actual meal

But he loves it and this smile is worth all the mess.