Recent Happenings

Despite the reason my parents came for the extended weekend, we did have a great time. I spent it all on the couch while mom(and Brent) pampered me. It was nice to not have to change diapers, cook, and do laundry. We watched Fireproof, and I took a lot of naps. We also celebrated Callie's birthday a little early. She got an adorable doll stroller walker from Gma and Gpa and liked playing with it:
The boys liked it, too, b/c it was a good place to store their guns and swords:
We were sad to see them leave.

I sure wish that it would be at least above 0 so I could send the kids outside to play! They are really going stir crazy in here. Since it was -24 out this morning, I brought some snow IN for them:
They had fun playing in it.

Then they made up some sort of game with a golf ball and their sword. They ran around yelling, throwing it and tackling each other:

Callie got in on it and was being a great cheerleader:

Callie is still doing great with her sippy! She enjoys just lounging around on the couch with it:
I wish I was doing better with weaning. I'd forgotten how hard it is on me. I remember having an awful feeling like I can't catch my breath and feeling like my heart is beating really fast when I was weaning Tate, but I thought it'd be fine since I stopped nursing Tate so abruptly. It seems, however, that I'm having the same problems weaning now. I really don't like this feeling! I hope it goes away soon. I'm sure its just the hormone changes taking place, but I don't like it at all!!

I'm going to go have some extra chocolate, it couldn't hurt, right??

The weather outside is frightful

When the view from your window is this(it's been snowing steady all day):
The best thing to drink is this:
I enjoyed my hot chocolate today. Today has been a challenge. Hunter woke up crying this morning and said he'd had a bad dream. Well, I thought he was just being crabby(b/c some days he wakes up really crabby...I usually send him back to bed and tell him when he's more ready to be happy to come on out and it works every time) but today was different. He wanted me to make him Malto Meal but once I did refused to eat it, and wouldn't get off the couch, so I figured out it was more than just the bad dream. He's got a fever of 102 and has been sleeping all day. I'm not kidding ALL DAY. I wonder what this will do to bedtime??? I'm really hoping he feels better by tonight or tomorrow morning, I'd hate to miss out on all the fun Christmas things we have planned. While I was trying to coerce Hunter into eating something this morning I turned the corner to find Tate using HIS Malto Meal as finger paints on my walls. That was a mess that took a while to clean up. Then, after Hunter was in bed and Callie down for a morning nap(the first one in a week Praise God it was today!)I decided to whip up some banana bread with some bananas that were going bad. Tate wanted to help, and while I was measuring the second cup of flour out he turned on the mixer and banana bread batter went flying everywhere! It was another big mess, but the stove top is nice and clean now;) I've decided not to expect too much out of this day. Tate ate about half the loaf of bread for lunch. It felt like I just had two kids all morning. I got to spend some one on one time with Tate and I've never heard the kid be so chatty before! He talked the whole time. We built some towers with his blocks:

We are VERY excited to not have to drive to Iowa in this snow, we have over a foot, and when we went over Thanksgiving there was no snow at all. We are also excited to be able to be at our own house on Christmas morning this year. I love being able to see my family for Christmas, and I will miss seeing them, but it is SO nice to be able to have our first family morning Christmas EVER! I'm so happy the kids will get to open their presents on the actual day of Christmas. Tomorrow the kids and I are going to make my mom's homemade cinnamon roll recipe for us to have on Christmas morning.

Hunter was a shepherd in our church's Christmas program the other night. He had a hard time keeping his hat on and he tried to talk into the mic(even though he didn't have any lines). He looked pretty cute, though, and Brent was sure that he was wearing his old bath robe from when he was a kid.

Have a Merry Christmas!!

Never Forget

Some days the mornings go so nicely. I've been getting up a little bit before all the kids are awake and reading my Bible and making coffee. It's a great way to start the day. This morning Callie was particularly cuddly(which is a rarity, unfortunately) and I never want to forget the way my little baby smells, they way it feels to have her soft head under mine.
The feeling of how tiny she really is. This time is starting to fly by and I just know that soon I'll wake up and have another toddler on my hands! Then the boys woke up and came to sit by me(which they usually do). I don't want to forget the way they come out of their room half asleep still, and how cheerfully they tell me good morning. They actually fight over who gets to sit by me on the couch. They are usually happy when I tell them to sit on either side of me. They cuddle up next to me under the blanket for awhile and drink their milk. I totally cherish these times. I often picture how our lives would be like if I had to rush off to work in the morning and rush them off to daycare. I would be missing out on this!
I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be home with them and to make these memories. I know that soon enough I'll be having to send Hunter off to school, and then there will be the teenage years(which I'm pretty sure will end the whole cuddling thing!)

Playdough!

There's a couple things I've been puzzled about with my camera, so I got out the manual last night and figured them out. I had fun taking some pictures of the kids playing play dough this morning:(yes, Tate is wearing a leopard costume)







We were unable to go to ECFE this morning b/c the boys are both sick with a terrible cough and constantly running nose. I'm bummed we couldn't go b/c this was our last one for the year. I'm taking them to the doctor this afternoon to be sure its nothing serious b/c we are heading to Iowa next week. I am SO very ready for the snot to be over! Callie has been waking in the night numerous times, so the added no sleep thing is not fun either. Hopefully we will be over the worst of it soon!

Hunter wanted a toothpick while we were playing play dough b/c he got some play dough in one of his cars tires, but he asked if he could have a "toothpoke". I thought that was cute.

Pictures...

Well, its been a week since I've posted a picture! That's probably some sort of record. Here's some pics for you:

As I was giving the boys their haircuts this morning(Hunter went first), Tate came over and held his hand and kept saying, "Be brave". It was SO CUTE!!!! Tate is such a sweetheart! I had to stop and take a picture of it.

I let the boys have some chap stick a couple days ago, and they came into the kitchen this morning(luckily before bath time) with chap stick ALL OVER their faces. I don't know if you can see it or not, but its covering Hunter's face, even his eyebrows:(this made holding his face while cutting his hair REALLY DIFFICULT!)


Here's one of Tate with his crayon hat from ECFE. I think we were playing mosters or pirates or something:


This was of our first snow last Saturday. The boys wanted to go outside immediately and drug up all of their snow gear. Hunter said he wanted to brush all the snow off the porch and make it into a snowman. But...they settled for licking the steps instead.

And last but not least, here are some of Miss Smiley:

My little four-wheeler riders!

Smiles