Snowman

With cabin fever closing in, we headed outside to get some fresh air and make a snowman. Sadly, the snow is still too crunchy and dry to roll but I did manage to pat together this mini-snowman. The boys also had a lot of fun making snow angels and sliding down the slide in the backyard. Yay winter!

Snow Storm!

It snowed all day today and after naps we headed to our driveway for a little simple sledding. Honestly, the boys are always just as happy there as when we troop them over to the big hill at Cool Creek so why bother?! The fun was short-lived--it took us 15 minutes to get everyone dressed and ready and then we were only out for about 10 minutes but they had fun. I love Andrew's face buried in his coat in this picture!

Happy 2010!

We took the kids to the Indiana State Museum for their family New Years Celebration, where they have a balloon drop at 8:00. They had all sorts of fun stuff to do before the big countdown, too, including hula hoops...

...train rides on the Santaland Express (recreated from the old LS Ayres train that used to run at the downtown department store)...

...a live band to dance to--this is Andrew break dancing, sort of!

and here's some video of my dancing fools. Alex, in particular was in rare form that night!

Here are Nick and Alex waiting for the big drop!

Sneaking an early New Years kiss from one my best guys!

A quick video clip of the balloon drop--I was trying to capture all the action at once which was not easy!!!

Alex right as the balloons were dropping--the kids thought this was just fantastic!

Even after they fell, Andrew was still looking for more balloon manna from the ceiling!

Each of the boys got a balloon to take home and it was a great night! Happy New Year everyone!!!

Christmas 2009

Our Christmas season started in early December with a visit to Granny and Gramps down on the farm. Since Uncle Caley and Astrid were visiting, too, we got to stay in the French Lick Springs Hotel, which is beautiful at Christmas. We took these pictures by on the many trees they have at the resort.
















As the season progressed we got our more of our Christmas decor but one of the first things to get unwrapped was our Little People nativity. The kids genuinely enjoyed playing with it! One day I noticed this Christmas scene that they had constructed: Notice how the three wise men are all in a nice orderly line to visit the baby Jesus...and at the end of the line is Darth Vadar. I don't remember that part of the manger scene...hmmmm....

















We spent Christmas Eve at Nana and Grandpa Bob's house. Santa had visited there a little early and left some really fun stocking gifts...















Andrew got this Super Why dress up costume which ended up being his favorite thing of the entire Christmas season. I still can't get that dang mask off him! I personally think he looks like a Mexican wrestler but that's another story...

After church on Christmas Eve it was time to leave the cookies, milk and carrots for Santa and his reindeer...

Here are the boys by the cookie plate, very excited that in just a few short hours Santa would be partaking!

Finally Christmas morning arrived and the craziness ensued! Here is Andrew with a Super Why doll...



















...and Alex with some Galactic Heroes (more Star Wars stuff, oh joy!)




















Here is Andrew opening his Shake-n-Go Raceway, which was also a huge hit with both the boys!














And the coup de gras of Alex's morning--the Nintendo DS. He had been wanting this forever now and it was finally his--sort of his Red Rider BB gun, for "Christmas Story" fans! He was too cute with his excitement!

Jolly Days!

We took the boys to the Children's Museum Jolly Days on Friday and had, well, a Jolly good time! First we headed to the ice castle for some sliding fun...















These are my sad little attempts to get good pictures of both boys. Seriously, it is very hard to be so into scrapbooking and have such un-photogenic children!!! :)















Then it was onto Mrs. Claus's kitchen for some pretend baking. Here are the Lents Brothers at work in the oven...














Andrew took great care to scoop out the "brownies" and "cupcakes"...














We visited some other parts of the musuem and then our visit culminated in a ride on the Yule Slide. I raced with Andrew...
















And Nick raced with Alex. (Kinda hard to get a good shot since they come down so fast!)