Christmas Party

 This morning we had a Noah, Adah, and Nathan over for a little Christmas fun.  Colin was so excited for his Christmas party that he didn't want to go to bed last night.  I can't imagine what Christmas Eve will be like.  The kids exchanged gifts they thoughtfully picked out at the Dollar Store for each other.  Colin took forever picking just the right gifts and Noah and Adah were super excited to give Colin his gift. It was so cute to watch them give their presents.  

Then after playing for a while they all made Gingerbread houses.

 Nathan knew the bigger kids were getting the better end of the deal here.

There is a function on my camera that automatically takes a picture if it detects a smile. 

 The kids all tried it out and it worked. 

 I want to try this function and try to get a family picture. Maybe Colin will  want to take a picture finally

 The finished results after the kids all gorged themselves of candy and frosting. I feel like a professional photographer with these artsy food pictures :)

 Noahs

 Adahs

 Colins - somehow he only got 1 or 2 pieces of candy on his house.  I'm sure the rest ended up in his mouth. Little does he know he can eat the houses later. 

Joels.  Surprisingly after all the candy Joel ate he is sleeping and taking a rather long nap (or at least long for him) 

A really fun morning.  With all the colds and sickness we've both had our families haven't seen each other for a few weeks.  Which is way too long to go without playing.  (at least for me!)

Santa Came Early

This weekend we are celebrating Christmas early with Brents dad - aka Pops.  And as you can see from the pictures Santa came early.  I'm still trying to figure out how to use the camera and will need to learn more about it but for now its very exciting.  Colin got a Leapster Explorer and we haven't heard a word from him since :)  He loves it. 

 Joel also loves it.  Basically whatever Bubba has must be better and he'll do anything to get at it.  It might be interesting Christmas morning :) 

O Christmas Tree

Dear Christmas Tree,

For years we have wanted a real tree.  It just didn't seem like Christmas with a fake one.  Last year when all the lights burnt out on the fake one we were excited about getting a real one.  And we think you are a beautiful tree. And to see Joel get so excited and yell "WOW" every time we turn the lights on is priceless. BUT YOU ARE MAKING US SICK!!!! All of us but Brent. We both grew up having real Christmas trees and it bothered me a little but not like this. I have never been more blocked up in my life. So much that the boys and I can't play in the room with you more than 5 minutes and our noses start to run and we can't breath.  Sad to say this is the last year we are going to have a real Christmas tree in our house.  Enjoy it now because the day after Christmas you are coming down.  I am going to enjoy my fake one and wont even notice that it doesn't smell like a "real" tree because right now I can't smell anything.

The one good thing you have going for you is the amount of needles you drop every day. Pretty soon you wont have any more needles left.  But my Colin gets excited to see the needles on the ground because he thinks it means the elves have been swinging from your branches at night.

So enjoy our house now Christmas tree and please stop emitting your mold spores which according to Google are making us sick.  

weekend away

We just got back from a weekend away from the kids.   The kids were excited to spend the weekend with my parents but unfortunately Joel got really sick.  so my parents were reminded of what it was like to be up all night with a sick baby. Poor thing.  I felt awful for my parents.  But Colin had a blast. He didn't want to leave and has since kept asking when he can go back to grandpa and Ma-ma-maas house without mommy and daddy.  According to Colin they did really fun things this weekend: build an army tent, play with Uncle Opies really cool legos, make monkey bread, etc.  He keeps telling me all they did. But according to him he had FOUR jobs in the monkey bread making and Ma-Ma-Maa only had 3 jobs...

But the reason we left town was to go to our friend Troy's wedding. Brent was in the wedding and it was a great weekend hanging out with friends.  Brent has an incredible group of friends who have been friends for a really long time. It was really fun to all get together. It was fun for me to meet Melissa - Troys wife.  I always tried to picture who he would marry and she is just perfect for him.

Thats the only picture I got all weekend.  Still hoping Santa comes through with the camera. I should have asked for an early delivery :) But i did get this video at the rehearsal.  I think i was trying to get a picture but I'm glad i got the video.  I love Pete and Ashleigh's voices. 

Brent and I had a great time together. It was great to be able to finish conversations and have so much quality time together. Great for our marriage so thanks Mom and Dad for taking care of the boys.  Next time we'll do it not during cold/flu season! 

And so I don't forget.  We came home last night and before bath time Joel said "ga pee" and i held him up and he peed on the potty!  What a big boy.  My mom said he was also saying "read books" very clearly all weekend.  And Joel definitely has a ton more hair.  Even my mom thought so.  Go away for a few days and your baby is all grown up. 

I DO!

Isn't my little boy so cute?  Joel has finally come up with a name for Colin - Bubba.  Colin loves having a name now.  We're not sure it will stay but we think he's trying to say brother but it comes out bubba.  Its so cute.  He will sometimes go through our family and say momma, dadda, bubba, baby.  Not sure if he's calling himself baby but when he sees pictures of himself he always points and says baby. 

Another thing he does now that is so cute and fun for us is when you ask a question he will raise his hand and say "I DO!" but it sounds like "I DUUUUE" For example "who wants lunch?" "Who wants a fruit snack?" (his favorite by the way) "who wants to go outside?"  Pretty  much any question.  Its gotten so Colin or I can say "who wants to eat poop?" and Joel will excitedly raise his hand and say "I DUUUUE" Colin thinks its great.  And it is pretty cute and funny.  Poor guy - the abuse he gets :)

Snow and Christmas Trees

 Another weekend has come and gone.  But we finally finished our floors!  On Saturday night we went with some friends to watch the Chesapeake Christmas Parade.  During the parade it started snowing - just a few flurries but the kids were really excited.  Early Sunday morning I got woken up by Colin saying "mommy come look - there is like 1000 snowflakes on the ground!!!!!"  We got a light dusting of snow.  The kids wanted to go outside and play right away so I bundled them up and we went to play in the snow before church.  Colin got outside, knelt down on the ground and started praying "thank you Jesus for the snow.  You answered my prayer!"  I guess on the way home from the parade he was disapointed it wasn't still snowing and prayed that it would snow more.  

It wasn't much but enough for Colin to scrape the snow into a few snowballs to throw at his poor mom. 

Later in the afternoon we went and picked out our Christmas tree.  Colin was so excited and of course got there and found the biggest 20+foot tree.  We didn't have the money for that tree or the room in our house.  But he was determined and camped out near the tree until we picked him up and took him home :) 

He then came home and shut himself in his room and said he wasn't coming out until after Christmas because he didn't want daddy's tree - he wanted his huge tree.  I got him to come join in the fun when I got our all his Christmas ornaments and we went through the box and I told him who gave him each one. He still says his tree is much better but I think he's starting to come around.

Joel loved it all and has had fun playing with the ornaments.  All the non breakable ones are at the bottom so now we're teaching him how to touch without pulling the whole tree down.  We only lost 1 angel and 1 hokie candy canes so I'm hoping thats all we lose this season. 

Family Devotions

We started this a few months ago and I think thats when these pictures were taken. But we started calling bedtime "family devotions" and reading the kids bedtime stories/bible together as a family.  The kids LOVE it.  All you have to say is that its time for Family Devotions and they both run to Joel's room.  And fight over Colin's picture bible.... Joel loves to story of Jesus telling the disciples to throw out their nets and they caught all the fish.  Colin just likes to choose a new story every night.

And then we'll read more stories and watch the kids dance to some music.  Every night.  We always have to then say "whoever wants to pray raise their hand" and Colin always has to get his hand up first.  Joel now will raise his hand with the rest of us.  Then we sing our goodnight song to everyone: "Good night Joel. Good night Joel.  Good night Joel. Its time to go to sleep."  And we sing it to each person.   And sometimes we sing goodnight to poop and pee (to the great amusement of the boys)  Colin and I sneak out where he gets another bedtimes story while Brent puts Joel to bed.  Its getting so fun we are starting right after dinner so we dont have to rush it. The kids are in bed and asleep so fast and easy without complaining about bedtime.  A fun family tradition we all love.

Santa

We just got back from a long weekend at the farm.  The kids had a blast and should be tired out with all the walks to the creek, bear hunts, and playing they did.  I know I am tired. I'm going to have to wait on my sisters and uncle jeff's pictures from thanksgiving but I just love this one my sister took of the boys.

While the rest of the family went to Blacksburg to watch the Hokies win their football game I took the boys to see Santa.  The Southern States Santa. The REAL Santa. Colin was really excited this year and somehow we managed to be the first ones there.  And this Santa doesnt want you to wait for a long time in line so he came right out and spent a long time with Colin.

Colin told Santa he wanted Legos and Soldier stuff for christmas. I told Santa I wanted a new camera. 

Joel watched Colin love on Santa but when it came to his turn he made sure the WHOLE store heard what he thought about sitting on Santa's lap.

 Poor Santa tried everything.  He told us to wait a few minutes and then do it again.  He didn't want any kid to be afraid of Santa.  But Joel wasn't changing his mind. 

Then Santa took his little buddy and went outside to greet the kids coming in.  Colin thought it was great being Santa's helper. 

This is the 3rd year we've been to see this Santa and it just gets better every year.I never believed in Santa growing up but there is just something about this Santa that makes you want to believe.

Soccer

This weekend we had our last soccer game.Colin scored 4 goals. He made sure I was counting.  And he won again.  I never kept score  just told him he was always winning and in fact he has won each and every game. The coach kept track :) and has in fact never lost a soccer game in all the years she's been coaching. 

Colin and Noah with their medals.  I'm so glad they did medals. If he got a trophy for every season in soccer we would have to figure out where to put them all.  Medals are much better. Plus he likes to wear his all the time. 

Colin and Coach Karen.  Somehow she got a smile out of him!  We really liked her.  I think she only coaches the 3 &4s so maybe we'll get a season out of her if Joel wants to play soccer.   Colin had a lot of fun and it was fun to go watch each week.  We're so proud of our soccer star!

Imagination

This little guy is getting bigger and bigger every day.  I think Joel says around 30 things if you count all the animal noises he loves to make.  He is starting to say short pharases "dadda hat,"  "dadda work," (well work sounds like whosh but we know what he's saying)  or "momma shoes" when he brings me my shoes.  He still thinks he should do everything his big brother does.  He is also into everything - you turn you back on him for a minute and he's found a crayon or marker (that we do put up) and marked all over the walls.  He gives the best hugs and kiss and LOVES to snuggle with you.  He also melts down pretty quick over almost anything. I'm still hoping he'll outgrow that one soon.  One of my favorite things Joel does now is pretend to be animals. The other day he was on all fours being a horse and then he was a lion.  He also had the butterfly net out and was playing with it and all of a sudden he brought it to me and said "butt-a"  with his hand inside the net.  I asked him if he had caught a butterfly and he proudly nodded yes.  Then took his hand out of the net and said bye bye to his hand as it fluttered away.  So cute.  Colin rarely calls him Baby Joel anymore.  Guess my baby is growing up. 

Brothers

Race

This past weekend my sister ran a half marathon.  I'm pretty proud of her since I tried to run 4 miles the other day and was glad to see my driveway at the end. She had a great time too so its going to make it really hard to beat her in the 10K we are running in April.  My mom and I drove up early to watch it and met some of sarah's friends there to cheer her on. We saw her around 6 miles maybe and then drove to see her at the finish line. It was fun to see all those runners.  Sarah did great and made it look effortless. I have been inspired to get out and run more since watching all those runners.  I really do love it - just wish I had more time.  Colin was very impressed and keeps telling me Ant Ant won her race.  We're all proud of Ant Ant.