Not like us

It's not like us to be watching so many movies, but our satellite was kicked out due to a wind storm and they couldn't come fix it until this Thursday. Yes, that means we didn't have TV the whole time we were home over the holidays. I know, I wouldn't normally think not having TV would be such a big deal, but the thought of getting up and watching the Today show every morning was really sounding good. Not to mention all of the "year end" shows for the New Year. Oh well, we survived.

Luckily everything we DVR'd was still viewable and Ed had taped a lot of movies! The boys were still able to watch a lot of their favorite cartoons/movies and we got to catch up on a couple movies that weren't cartoons! Nevermind, that they came out in 2002 and 2005 :)

Sweet Home Alabama - very cute (and I mean the movie and leading guy :)



Into the Blue - loved seeing all of the scenery in the Bahamas . . .sharks everywhere in the water not so much

My baby

and I have started a bad habit . . . that has to end tomorrow. He wakes up at 7 am straight up and calls for me. I go into his room and tell him to scoot over and we sleep for at least an hour longer. He sleeps so deeply (and adorably) when I'm beside him, it's been quite fun and I hate for it to end. And he does too. . . .tonight before he went to bed he asked if I could sleep with him . . . and he asked so sweetly, I ALMOST said yes :)

I started . . .

doing a little sanding while the boys took baths tonight. One of (many) things on my mental "to do" list is sand/prime/paint the cabinets and woodwork in our upstairs bathroom. Why the upstairs bathroom? It might be my favorite room in the whole house (big, easy and fun to decorate) and the woodwork is the worst in there.

If all goes well, I'll do the cabinets throughout the house. Not something I think I will really enjoy doing, but I hope it improves the looks of the house. We have a lot of wood in our house, so I can't even really imagine the "after" but am excited to see it. Our woodwork has seen better days . . . . it was bad when we bought it and we had some people come in and do some cleaning/staining to the kitchen and bathrooms cabinets a couple years ago but they eventually went back to what they looked like before.

Here's what I sanded while the boys took baths - I've since taken one of the doors and hardware off so I can really get it done.

Brett did a little underwater sight-seeing while I sanded :) He was so proud he put these on by himself - he is INDEPENDENT. He will try to zip his coat up for 15 minutes before he lets me help him!

Friday Night Lights

We headed to Crown Center tonight to watch some of the ice-skaters, eat at Panera and walk through the stores. After watching the ice-skaters and eating at Panera, the boys loved walking through the "tunnels" to the stores - this picture was taken from there. The ice-rink was packed since it was such a nice night out, but I hope we can take the boys skating next year. . . .



Brady was wanting to buy something from a store, so when we saw this chocolate store we thought it would be a treat. A treat it was! I picked out 5 SMALL truffles for the boys to share and it was more than $7 - Ed and I just looked at each other and thought "this better be the best damn chocolate they've ever tasted" :)

Happy New Year!

After running around a lot, it was nice to just hang out and spend New Year's Eve at home. Ed grilled hamburgers, the kids played Hullabaloo (a new game the Braxmeyers gave them)



we made Smores



and the boys slept on the air mattress by the Christmas tree (last year was the start of this tradition).


Happy New Year! 2009!!

Mall Rats

After taking naps Tuesday afternoon, we met my parents and B5 (my brother's family) at Oak Park to use the Build-a-Bear gift cards my parents had gotten all of the younger kids. Brady picked out a koala bear (and named him Joey) and Brett picked a puppy dog (and named him Harry).

As a sidebar - Ed got his nails done before we made the animals. . . . . (and no, he hasn't shaven since we started holiday break on Dec. 23rd!)

And after we made the animals, we saw my dad had found a seat in the middle of the mall (no surprise there!).

We celebrated Becky's bday at Margarita's and then called it a night!

The next morning the kids and I headed back to the mall to meet Dedra and Susan and their 5 kids. Susan and her family (who live in Oregon) were back in KC visiting her family for the holidays. The kids played and we had lunch in the food court, before Dedra and I tried to make our way through some shops before realizing all the boys wanted to do is look up skirts and laugh at the mannequins. I've never heard so much "potty" talk - 4/5-year-old-boys think "butts" and "poop" are VERY funny!

Water Park

When we were unable to go to Branson in November due to the boys' hernia surgeries, we thought it would be fun to stay at a hotel and go swimming in KC over the holiday break. After we started looking into making reservations and seeing hotel rates about triple this week, we decided to try out the Ramada in St. Joe since it has a water park.





We swam 3 times and each time the boys got a little more comfortable in the water. By the time we left, Brett was swimming with his lifejacket on by himself! Brett went down the kid slides a couple times, but mostly they just enjoyed being pulled on the inner tube/swimming and going around the "loop" which was lazy river-style, but not very much current at all.



And there was a big slide that was all outside of the building. We were a little tentative to try it (or at least I was because I get so claustrophic in the tube slides!), but were glad we did. It was dark and then had lights halfway-through and then got dark again.

I was little early taking Ed's picture coming out of the slide - this is all I got!



We ate at Whiskey Creek, the restaurant attached to the hotel, Monday night. It was good and the boys loved that you could throw peanut shells on the floor!