SNOW!!!!

We were excited to learn there was snow up in Paradise on the day we happened to be heading up there anyway…it was Grammy’s birthday (1/1/11)!  We had cancelled a trip to the snow earlier in the week because the boys were too sick to spend the day in the cold air.  I was disappointed and sad for them that we didn’t get to go, so although we didn’t get to sled and there was only a few inches, it made everyone very happy!  We had a great snow ball fight and the snow was perfect for building a snowman! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ringing in the New Year! Happy 2011!

It was New Years Eve family style at our house this year!  We had some friends and their kids over for a fun evening.  We ate, we drank, we played poker and the kiddos enjoyed just getting to play and stay up as late as they wanted!  Everyone stayed awake to hoot and holler when 2011 arrived.  It was loud, crazy and fun!  

We are looking forward to 2011 and all it has to offer!

The kids enjoying their ice cream sundaes!

Brandy, me and Megan!

Ryan and MacKenzie celebrating the New Year!

Ready, Set, Party!

Looking forward to another year with this amazing man!

How much noise can I make…

Tired Ryan!  It was Justin who fell asleep first on the couch after the festivities ended.

Silly Jeff!

 

 

Christmas Festivities!

We had another wonderful Christmas this year filled with family, good food and of course, lots of presents!  We did our usual baking of Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve with the Grandmas so that Santa would have a nice plate full of treats!  I love the excitement the boys have as Christmas finally arrives.  “Can we open presents now?” was a frequent question for our Christmas Eve festivities.  Lots of fun with lots of happy faces! 

      

An unexpected gathering…

With my dad in the hospital for the second time in less than a week we all came together to be there for him.  By the time my brother and his family arrived, my dad was doing much better.  It was under unfortunate circumstances that brought us all together for a gathering, but it certainly was nice to have us all under one roof for the night, minus Papa who spent the night in the hospital.  It happened to be Emily’s birthday and she had a party planned bringing all the extended family together as well. 

All the kids(grandkids)!

Ryan and Kimmy

Cousins!

Happy 9th Birthday, Travis!

 

I can’t believe Travis is 9 years old!  I am pretty sure I say this every year, but the time just flies by! 

He celebrated this year with a sleepover at the house!  Although exhausting for Jeff and I, they all had a great time!  Lego building, video gaming, Nerf gun wars, pizza, cake, presents….what more could a 9 year old want? 

The boys enjoying a little Lego creation time!  

 

  

 

We gave all the kids Nerf guns and protective eye wear…let the fun begin!

Nerf wars!

Travis with his brothers on evening of his birthday!  He chose to stay in for dinner and eat Jeff’s famous lamb chops!

Travis with his new Nerf gun…his first…he was pretty excited!

Sometimes he is just like MacGyver

Jeff just amazes me sometimes!  He comes up with clever, creative ideas to solve problems that most people would have given up on!  In this case it was the Christmas lights on the outside of the house that were causing him trouble.

We got new lights this year that, in my eyes, needed precision hanging for them to look good!  I can not stand it when lights are hung haphazardly on the house.  They must be straight and all facing the same direction!  Well, getting up on our upper level proved difficult for him (that is a different story entirely!), so he devised a plan to get the lights hung straight on the upper eaves.  I came outside to find him with a stapler clamped onto a tree trimming pole!!  He had a second pole which was used as a device to deploy the stapler creating beautifully straight Christmas lights!  If only I had taken a picture of the outside of the house!  They looked great thanks to Jeff and his MacGyver style skills!

 

No more Binky’s!!!

Ryan decided on December 5th that he was all done with his binky’s!!  We have talked about getting rid of his binky’s for awhile now, but I was somewhat afraid to push it because he loved them and was such a good sleeper with them.  Honestly, I didn’t want to mess with that, but alas it was time.  He is 3 1/2 now, and older than either Justin or Travis when they got rid of theirs.  A recent trip to the dentist also helped plant the seed in his head.  So I guess he decided it was time. 

He came to me right before bed and told me that he wanted to throw them in the garbage.  He caught me a little off guard and I wasn’t sure I was ready yet, so I asked him if he was sure over and over making it clear that this was a permanent choice.  In the end he stuck with his decision.  I was far more worried about it than he was!!  We took our few pictures and it was off to the garbage.  He was proud of his decision and so was I!

Ryan with his binky’s for the last time!

His very loved binky’s!  The one in the front was his clear favorite!

In the garbage!

The first two nights were a little rough for him while trying to go to sleep, but once asleep he did fine without them.  We are now officially a house without a baby and now the last of our “baby gear” is gone…it is bitter sweet.

Getting the perfect picture….

Christmas Cards are stress for me every year as I try to get the “perfect” picture of the boys to send to our family and friends.  Fortunately, this year it went pretty smoothly, twice actually! 

I dressed them all up in their matching shirts sat them in front of the tree and took about 50 pictures.  When we were finished they wanted to see the pictures on the camera so I went to show them and discovered that their crazy mom forgot to put the memory card in the camera! They were disappointed when I made them do the pictures all over again, but they did a great job!  It seems as they are all getting older it is getting easier to get them all to cooperate at the same time! Yeah!

My cutie pies!

Trimming the tree!

Decorating the Christmas tree is one of my favorite activities of the holiday season!  The boys love getting involved and they love even more finding the special ornaments that have important meaning to all of us….their 1st Christmas ornaments, ornaments picked up on special vacations, photo ornaments showing their cute baby faces.  It is a good time for all of us!