Snowy Days!

The boys remember the snow from last year and have LOVED playing in it just as much this year:

Catching snowflakes:
(and making a funny face which has recently become John's favorite thing thing to do when having a picture taken!): Playing on the castle:
More snowflakes:

Building a snowman:

We are presently awaiting another snowfall (as there is no snow on the ground right now) so we can have more outside fun!!

Deep Fried Doughnuts

It came up in conversation that we could make doughnuts at home. The boys (and Mike and I) love doughnuts so they were very excited to try it out.

Here's the easy way we make them: Buy the tube of large dinner rolls and deep fat fry them for about 4 minutes, turning once. Then you can frost and/or stuff them with vanilla pudding. We chose to do both!

They sure were yummy:

They're Ready for the Holidays!

And a merry time is being had by all!!

(Note John's missing top front tooth. It came out, or rather he pulled it out, two days before Christmas):

Decorating the Christmas Trees

The boys got such a kick out having their own artificial tree in their bedroom! (You've got to love after Christmas sales when trees are 75% off!). And they loved discovering all the ornaments - especially the ones that make noise - in their ornament box.

(Not sure why this one is on here the wrong way - just turn your head

Hanging their flavored candy canes, blueberry and strawberry - yum!

First Hot Cider Day

After playing outside in the snow, we came inside and had our first cups of hot cider. The boys loved it, although I would venture a guess that it was the stirring action they liked the most!

Happiness Is . . .

Happiness is ...

looking in the back seat of my car and seeing two car seats.
getting hugs from Ryan every morning when he wakes up (and I mean every morning)!
seeing two little boys' personalities and senses of humor develop.
hearing about John's day at preschool.
watching you get SO excited about adding the ingredients to cup cakes (and licking the beaters afterwards).
building a snowman together as a family.
folding lots of little shirts and socks because of who wears them.
hearing lines repeated from favorite Disney and Pixar movies.
family game and movie nights.
seeing cars and dinosaur toys lined up on the floor.
being told when the phone is ringing.
taking turns bringing the stool outside every day to get the mail out of the mailbox.
hearing words being practiced over and over until they are said correctly.
hearing songs being sung as you are playing.
hearing the word "okay" the first time you are asked to do something.
watching you clean the playroom with out being told.
watching you clean the playroom when you are told.
reading the Bible each night at bedtime.
discussing what exciting adventures each day holds.
watching your imagination take flight.
watching you academic, language, and social skills grow.
hearing you laugh - everyday.
seeing you smile - everyday.
being loved so unconditionally and forgiven so easily by two little boys.
being called Mommy-a!!

First Thanksgiving

I spent the week before Thanksgiving talking about why we celebrate the holiday and doing some Thanksgiving projects. The boys colored and cut out small Mayflowers that rocked back and forth. And John kind of remembered it's name - the "Flowership" (not too bad, I think!). We also colored and cut out pictures of a Pilgrim boy and girl and Native American boy and girl and taped them to cups so they would stand up on our table as centerpieces.

The actual day of Thanksgiving we went to my aunt and uncle's house. Here the cousins are all smiles:

A family portrait:

The day after Thanksgiving (as we had our furnace replaced) we had our own Turkey Fest: turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and rolls and apple butter. I'm really the one who loves turkey in our house so that meant a lot of hot turkey sandwiches for me the following week!!

Fall Fun

The boys loved helping to rake leaves:

Ryan took a bit of an original approach:

And of course they loved jumping and sitting in the piles of leave!

Field trip to an Apple Orchard (these are actually from September but I didn't get them up on the blog that month!)

10/31/10 - Our First Halloween

Our Halloween pumpkins:Ryan loved sticking his hands in the pumpkin and pulling out the guts (just like Mommy) and John was happy to just use a spoon (kind of like Daddy who doesn't like any part of cleaning out the pumpkin!)

We got two of our pumpkins at Aldi and Gramma bought us two at our Stade's trip. The boys then were excited to point out big boxes of pumpkins when ever we were at different stores. They are the boxes with the Peanut characters on the side and since we watched the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown special, they worked hard to remember the characters names. (John pointed out that Charlie Brown looks like Uncle Don, my brother who shaves his head - ha! ha!) It was so much fun to explain the process and then actually carve pumpkins with the boys this year! They LOVED seeing the candles lit inside at night.

Coming home from visiting our friend Ms. Alison on Halloween, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw a little Will Smith in Hancock looking back at me!

Woody and Buzz getting ready to head out into our neighborhood:Aren't they too cute? I don't know who had more fun, Mike and I doing the costumes or the boys wearing them and getting candy!!

Trick or treating at Gramma and Bompa's and posing for a group picture with the cousins Samantha and Maddy Jo.