Let it Snow!

We were so excited when it started snowing Saturday morning.

We eventually had enough to build a little mound and dig a tunnel through it.  Our neighbor friends came over and helped us build it and play in it.  They also helped us by throwing snowballs at us and all over our freshly shoveled driveway :)  My camera battery was pretty much drained when I decided to document their tunnel and them crawling through it.  It wouldn't focus or hardly take any pictures... so these are the "best" I got... boo!

The smaller kiddos fit through easier than our older neighbors, but after the smaller ones had gone through a few times the tunnel had been hollowed out enough for the bigger ones to fit through.  The tunnel is now decorated with our orange sprinkler marking flags... I guess they thought that was a good idea.

I couldn't resist taking a Christmas picture of the boys.  I promised them candy when we were done, so they actually participated really nicely.  The one below P is obviously done with my camera happiness. So we stopped and I delivered on the candy promise.

 Our stockings :)  I stole all of these ideas from Hable Construction stockings.  I'm not sure if they still sell them, but I loved them... they were about $100 each, so I made my own.

I am new to Pinterest.  This was my first idea I have made from it.  I decorated the fridge while the boys were at "school".  It was fun seeing S discover what I had done.  It was really hard not to lead him over to the fridge and show it to him, but I knew I wanted him to walk past it and stop and do a double take.  That's exactly what he did... so fun!

November 2011 happenings

Visitors!  Grandma and PawPaw came to visit.  The boys had a blast playing with them.

 Hungry Hungry Hippos

 Slapjack

D had a race in November also.  We stayed at a hotel that had a mini indoor water park.  S keeps asking me when we're going to go there again.  The slide he's going down is descending from a pirate ship :)

 P kept walking around in the water doing some squat action to keep more of his body in the warm water.  The water was warm; the air in the room was a little cool.

 Our friends that journeyed to the hotel with us b/c their dad was running in the race too!

Cinnamon Rolls

We saw the recipe for these cinnamon rolls and had to try them.  Oh wow!  Good thing they take so long to make, or I'd be tempted to make these every Saturday morning.  These were my first ever homemade cinnamon rolls to make.  I was scared at how they'd turn out, but they were fairly easy... just time consuming.

P is getting big enough to "play" the wii.  I tell him to swing and he does.  Though I don't think he really realizes what he's doing yet.  He gets pretty excited, and he does not want help.  He can "do it by myself."  S is actually getting quite good at games.  He and I play Mario during rest time sometimes, and he can make it to the end of level 1-1.  His newest accomplishment is holding down 1 while running and jumping so he can go faster and higher.  Looking forward to him hopefully playing with Uncle E at Christmas :)

Fall and Halloween

The boys have really started wanting to help me when I'm cooking. It's hard to have the patience to let them do this, but the morning pictured below I had a lot of time to make the muffins while D was playing tennis with a friend. So, here they are cutting up the strawberries for our muffins that morning. They did a pretty good job too!

Playing in the leaf piles. They love, love, love doing this. P was not happy about S throwing all the leaves on him, but I like the leaves in the air for the pictures!
Yee-Haw!
And S saying Yee-Haw... or maybe doing his air lasso...
P waiting patiently for his turn to glue something on our nature tree. We had a good time going on a nature walk collecting things to bring home for this project. Gluing the bark on the tree was frustrating though... it kept sliding off. They were proud of their creation.
And now for some fun :)

This is D and his big brother when they were little boys. My plan was to make similar costumes for our boys, so here's THEN:

and NOW:

Happy Fall everyone!

Other Summer Fun

Dressing Up.

pool time
floating...
throw me higher daddy!
the teepee I made for the boys.
painting
he called this one his "super vacuum"

Can't believe he's 4!

Here we are waiting for the fun to start! S wanted a Mr. The King... Dinoco Car from the movie Cars for his birthday cake. After wondering how it would turn out for 2 months, the day finally came to make the cake... and yea! it looks like a car! it's blue! there is a large spoiler! he LOVES it! This mom can relax!

Slip and slide time... I think he caught a little too much air on that one...
ouch!
This little friend was one of the last ones to stop playing with the slip and slide... she knows how to have a good time. Cold water, no problem!
P enjoyed it from a safe, dry distance.
Daddy grilling up food for our many, many guests.
Happy Birthday to you!
With one of his best buds. It's the little things that make it fun!
And the BIG things! Bouncy Houses are the Bomb!
Thanks for coming guys! You made S's 4th birthday a great one!

Staying Cool

It has been hot the last few weeks. Not as hot as my friends and fam down in Oklahoma, but still hot. Here are a few of the things we've been doing inside trying to stay cool in the A/C... note previous post, our A/C broke yesterday... I guess last week was just too much for it! Waiting for the repairman to come, so we're hanging out in the cool basement this morning, and that means me sitting here at the computer updating my blog.

play-dough, so messy, so fun... so yummy??? the boys have been eating it a little bit as I say, NO! don't eat the play-dough! and they want to know, why not? I ate play-dough when I was little, did you?
Racing the cars. Yes, P is in underwear... we're on attempt #2 of potty-training. Pretty sure he is still not ready, so I will raise the white flag and surrender. We'll try again in a few months.
We lost the marker for the aqua-doodle pad, so why not paint with water? This held his attention way longer than the marker!

Summer

Enjoying the hot by cooling off in the pool.

Making Splashes!
P's turn to splash.
One of the types of roses I have in my backyard. love it.
Passion Flower. so unique.
Our A/C stopped working yesterday. Fortunately the low last night was 68, so we were able to stay comfortable with the windows open. The high today is 82 and overcast, so we won't be miserable today while waiting for the A/C man to get here. They said they could make it here this morning, so that's good news! Hopefully, it's a small fix and we won't have to replace it.

Happy 4th

We spent the 4th down in Oklahoma. It was a blast. The boys got to shoot off their own fireworks this year... I mean we lit them and they watched from a few feet away. S really got into it. P wasn't so sure about all of it.

P did enjoy the wagon ride compliments of S.
Sparklers. Pretty much a box of endless entertainment.
P preferred his sparkler unlit... and uses it like a golf club.
Bubbles!
The boys with their Gana.
Displaying their patriotism.
And playing dress-up in some of daddy's clothes. They thought this was the best!