Fun in the Tub

This is what you call trouble -



2-year-olds hiding from me. . .

On the Farm

We were really excited it was nice outside the day after Christmas and took a walk around my grandparent's farm with the 4 dogs. BT, Becky and Bro came along with us and our boys - all of the boys had a great time checking out the trees, tall grass and finding sticks to make into walking sticks or guns.

And I love this picture. . . . if only the dog was theirs. We had to laugh - everytime we tried to take a picture, Mandy (my parent's black lab), was always in the middle of things. Oh well, she's a good dog!

A few of my favorite things

Ed's always good about getting me the stuff I "mention" on my Christmas list, but he's also good about picking out things that I would never think of, but really like.

I think these were supposed to be slippers, but pretty much haven't taken them off since I got them. So comfy (and cute I think!). They have a furry inside. . . .



And I love that he adopted April (his picture below) from the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Florida. Since I've always had a thing for turtles, we stopped at the hospital on our way to Key West in 2005 and were amazed at what they are able to do for turtles that have been hit by boats or developed a fungus that so many of them get and can cause blindness.

April is a permanent resident that was rescued in 1990. He is blind in the right eye and only sees shadows in his left eye. We got a picture of him along with an adoption certificate.

Santa Claus came

I wasn't sure if he would, but Santa made it to our house! The boys got some really cool wooden toys - a stall with 12 horses and a corral for Brady and a toolkit for Brett. He also brought a lot of crayola bath stuff and Power Ranger swords/masks. I don't remember all of it, but they were happy little boys (and our living room was a tornado when we left for Lebo).

After opening presents Christmas morning, we headed to Lebo to celebrate with my family. My dad was able to bring my Grandma Rowley over for a little bit which was really nice. However, I was really upset when I realized all of the Christmas presents we had bought and wrapped for everyone were still in a bag in front of my dresser in Kansas City!! Luckily, the VanArsdales were going to Gardner Christmas night and agreed to pick them up for us (they must have been feeling very nice since they were leaving on a cruise to Mexico Saturday morning!).

A snapshot of the Christmas chaos :)



The boys got a lot of dress-up costumes and Brynna was more than willing to play and be a blue Power Ranger!



And Ed got a nice pack of baby wipes from my brother (for wiping off at work after his bike rides!)



After all the presents were opened and everyone couldn't eat anymore, the Wii came out.



Dad even got in some bowling.

Christmas Eve

Ed's dad/Jacki and Uncle Tim/Aunt Debi came down to celebrate with us on Christmas Eve. The boys love to play with Grandpa Stockwell - who wrestles and gives them piggyback rides around the house.

Watching the Polar Express -

And of course, they got lots of great gifts - even popguns! Ed and I had to laugh. Brady was playing with one of these at Cabela's the weekend before and we both came very close to thinking we should get one, but didn't. I guess Grandma Jacki couldn't pass them up and she even made camo cases to keep them in - very cool.

Just before Christmas

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Now that it has come and gone, I'll try capturing some of our activities.

The weekend before Christmas we celebrated with the Ed's mom/Randy, his grandparents and his brother's family. The kids had a great time playing!

I also spent some time making some Peppermint bath balls (Oh, Martha makes it look so easy! :) I made these and put them in a cool container.

(You can see the red ones ended up being half pink and half red which looked pretty cool.)

Marley and Me

Thanks to my parents, Ed and I were able to go watch "Marley and Me" this afternoon. I read the book a couple years ago and Ed has listened to it several times via audiobook so we were both excited to see it. I knew the story so I really didn't think I would cry. I still couldn't believe I was crying (as I was crying through the last 20 minutes of the movie), and then I remembered where I was when I actually finished the book. . . . . 9 months pregnant with Brett in the waiting room of the doctor's office . . . just bawling my eyes out as I finished the last pages. I had to laugh when I got home. People had to have thought I was the most emotional pregnant lady they had ever seen!

It was a good movie. As always, the book was far better (the movie left out some really good parts), but we enjoyed it and were glad to get out to a movie!

Busy, Busy

Crunch time is here - I ran around at lunch wrapping up some last-minute gifts and then we hit the grocery store tonight. I hope we have everything!

I took this picture at a stoplight during lunch - it's a fountain that obviously has frozen up, but is still spraying water. Pretty cool looking. . . .



The boys have been busy too - last night they colored and Brady made a paper "blanket" for his big bear (inspired by his cousin Alexis last weekend).

Where they are today

I was surprised and happy to see the cover story on this Sports Illustrated.



I wanted to make sure everyone had the link to the incredible story about Michael Vick's dogs and how they have saved almost all of them - what an inspiring story!

All-time favorite

You might think after seeing these guys at least 20 times in concert - we wouldn't be as excited, but we just found out Sawyer Brown is going to be in St. Joe at the end of February and it TOTALLY made my day!

We had awesome tickets when they were in St. Joe in 2004, but we were unable to go because Brady was like 3 days old and I couldn't bear to leave his side (don't worry, we've seen them many times since then:). I think I was so emotional I was crying at the thought of leaving my baby AND because I was going to miss Mark Miller up close!

Teacher gifts

It feels good to get some gifts ready and delivered. Tonight I made "Candy cane bath salts" and delivered some to our neighbors and got 3 teachers gifts ready. Ms. Lori, one of Brady's teachers, will be leaving at the end of the month to go to a new job so we are sad. But we wish her the best and are sure she's thankful she will be working closer to home.

I got the snowman rocks at the Hillsboro craft fair in September - the booth had a whole wagon of them and I thought they were super cute.

Sweet Dreams

I checked on Brady around 10:30 last night and this is what I found -
it's not unusual for him to get out of bed and make sure the Christmas tree lights in the bathroom beside his room are on and then pile all of his stuffed animals in bed with him, but the Santa hat was a surprise that totally made me laugh!





He wore the hat to school today too - they were making Christmas crafts this morning and eating pizza for lunch. Fun!

Just a couple more days and then we get to spend 12 days at home with the boys - CAN'T WAIT!!

Peppermint Bark

Seriously, one of the easiest and tastiest (if you're in the mood for chocolate :) recipes ever.
Of course Ed says "they're so rich" - anything that has a hint of sugar/chocolate in it gets this comment from him!

-Line 9X13 pan with foil and spray with cooking spray
-Pour 12 oz. bag of chocolate chips into the bottom of pan and put into 250 degree oven for 5 minutes
-Take out of oven and smooth chips with spatula, put into fridge for 20 minutes to cool



-Microwave peppermint hershey kisses (aren't they pretty?) for 3 minutes, or until melted, and stir, let cool slightly
- Pour over chilled chocolate chips, smooth and chill in fridge



Each year our office supports local children by hanging ornaments and buying toys the kids have asked for. Those are due tomorrow and we are also having an ornament exchange for our floor in the afternoon and eating treats. Should be fun!

Da Boyz

Da "boyz" were in heaven last night -

Horsin' Around

Many of the recent pics I've taken are just the kids being silly - here's a few of my favorites. . .

Brady found some toy glasses in Grandma & Papa Rowley's basement -



The boys get fired up almost every night and try and get Ed to chase them around the house - when they're caught I'm called on to "save them" -





And I finished two rolls of wrapping paper and they have been a favorite play item ever since - this is the pose Brady requested . . . see how he's putting his arm around Brett? He thought this was very funny.



Good times!

Christmas Party

We spent Friday night at Ed's office's holiday party while the boys spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa Jones. The party was at The Hobb's Building, a cool industrial-looking place in the West Bottoms, and they gave everyone a $5,000 casino chip to play games with for the night. Even better, they had hourly raffles and Ed won a new digital camcorder! We needed a new one so we are super excited.

Here's a look at the "complete" ensemble :) A special thanks to our neighbor, Jennifer, coming over on a moment's notice to take our picture!

We met the boys and grandma this morning at the mall in St. Joseph - breakfast with Santa!

Amazing Race

What are we going to talk about at work? What are we going to watch on Sunday nights? It's always such a let down when my favorite show ends a season. Congrats to Nick & Starr for winning the Amazing Race - I'll miss you Phil!

And for anyone who watched last night's finale and wants to read a hilarious recap. . . . .

Progress

After getting the material cut, the amount of each fabric I had cut wasn't working out with the outer design so I had a slight delay. . . . .but tonight I finished it and now just need to add the outer border which is a light brown fabric with cowboys on it (used throughout the quilt also).

It's quite bright, isn't it?

What's fun?

It's true the boys HAVE started to play with toys they haven't play with for months (maybe years) - Aquadoodle, lego-type table, parrot, jungle - but most of the time Brady and Brett's idea of fun doesn't involve toys.

A recent favorite past-time is "closet shopping." They go into their closets and shift the clothes on their hangers from one side to the other and call it "shopping", which is pretty funny because I rarely shop for clothes so I'm not sure where they got this idea. But this involves REPEATED back and forth, back and forth and they love it. Whatever works!

Okay, I won't interrupt anymore . . . .

And this was Brady's idea - and he got a kick out of it all day long. I had a bag of cotton filling under the computer desk in our bedroom and they started pulling a little bit out of it and making pillows while I was doing laundry this afternoon. Well "a little" turned into more and more and pretty soon they were putting it throughout the room and having Ed come in and act like he was crying because they had put cotton in his stuff. Brady thought it was hilarious.