Christmas week 2015

We spent the majority of the week at Jack and Cherry's this Christmas, while John drove back and forth to work for about 8 trips total! Here are some highlights: Playing in the snow and building a snowman...and placing grandma's bulb lights in a pattern in the snow.

They also rode bikes a bunch the first day before the snow came...which was very exciting because Jay got a new bike and Andy got a new helmet for christmas.

The next night was the Block Christmas party, which was a lot of fun:

We had family Christmas the next night:

The boys got to go sledding with grandpa and grandma a few times:

We went back up for Christmas eve service where we played and sang and Jay was a shepherd and Andy was an angel:

On Christmas morning we opened a present that Kristie wrapped for us with an ornament with either pink or blue glitter in it. I will do another post on that with pictures, and our Photo shoot that morning. There were a lot of games of Jenga...

Some "throw the animals over the balcony, much wrestling, and of course bedtime stories of goldilocks...

Even though it was cold, they played a few rounds of football outside:

Good times!

Mid Decembers snow and more

The boys have been having a good time lately: We had a snow day and they thoroughly enjoyed it even though it was cold:

We didn't do much for Christmas decorations, but the boys put together some legos as a wreath.

The boys have spent a good amount of time playing star wars characters (because the movie came out last week):





















VIDEO HERE when I get it to work.

Our church friends hosted a "black tie-ish" get together for Christmas this year and it was awesome.

Andy got a much needed haircut.
Before:






































After:

Andy looked sharp at church this week, and so did Charlotte:

Andy-isms and the random things my kids say...

I always here about the classic..."Where do babies come from?", but this past week Andy (3 1/2), and Jay have come up with an onset of random questions and statements.

 It all started with..."Mom, we don't have a chimney do we?" - Jay.

I anticipated all the santa questions afterwords...but then I told him we would be going to grandpa and grandma's house for Christmas and he knows they have a fireplace.

 After that we were in the middle of watching Rudolf the red nosed reindeer...(before we were to the scary part with the abominable snow monster)

So then...in the middle of the movie Jay asked..."When you die...how do you get up to heaven?" I responded with my classic..."What do you think?"

 Later in the week, we were standing in line at Target and Andy was with me, just waiting...when he made an observation: "Mom, why do all the black guys talk Spanish?" I was a little baffled, but I responded with "That's what their mom and dad taught them when they were little":) He was satisfied and his little brain rambled on with some other thought about candy.

 The boys have been wresting a lot more since it is snowy and cold outside. I yell at them to stop a lot, but secretly feel bad that I don't have the energy to organize activities for them. Knowing that family pictures were coming up later this week, and that Jay already had a bruise on his face from yesterday's wrestling session, I half yelled "ANDY, stop wrestling, you are going to get hurt...have you seen Jay's face?" He looked over at Jay's face and said "It looks nice!" and proceeded to tackle his brother.

 In the car, we have been talking about "baby Jellybean a lot more". I talked about how "daddy and mommy decided to have one more baby" and Jay said..."but..how does the baby get in your belly?" Again I said, "What do you think...which proceeded into how the baby grows in the belly and then the conversation turned to Chick-fil-a".

 At suppertime Andy has been in charge of "prayer time" and "happy sappy" time. Yesterday we went around the table saying prayers 3-4 times before we had to cut it off because it was getting excessive. Andy's happy is typically: I get to hug daddy and we are eating supper all together. His sappy is usually that "his friend who steals his toys" was at school that day.

It's December already!

We went to Iowa for ThanksChristmas this year. Since I didn't have the week off, we left Tuesday around 1 and stayed at a hotel in Kearney. The pool was empty (and a little cold), but the boys had a blast. They also loved hanging out with everyone at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Andy enjoyed peeling apples with Grandma (and eating them). John loved his present...and they kids enjoyed plenty of cookies.

Jay has been learning so much at school. The other day he told me that the darker the color carrot, the better it was for you. He also has been loving his helmets that he got for Christmas. He uses my old phone to open the NFL app and line up the helmets according to the matchups for the week. He also gets super excited about the NFL games and can describe them in detail (especially the exciting finished).

I'm not sure how much decorating I will get done this year, so I found a bunch of window clings that I got for 75% off last year. The boys have loved decorating with them (and stuffed animals). It keeps them busy for a LONG time working together (super nice for me so I can just sit). I asked Andy to sit "criss cross apple sauce" and he immediately put bubbles in his mouth and his hands in "the bowl" (his lap). He must be learning something in school.

We went to the local free chili supper/santa/crafts/short lights parade. I sat inside during the parade. It was fun, but not amazing. The previous 2 years had great Santa's, but this one looked a little different. I still had to "convince" andy to sit on his lap, but he did because I let him wear his Darth Vader hoodie. Jay was a little tongue tied and couldn't remember what he wanted for Christmas...but to speed the line along, we told him we would write him a letter.

Halloween 2015 and more

This year Halloween was a blur, but it was still super fun. Jay has known he was going to be a SWAT guy since this summer, but when he walked into school with his costume on and showed his teacher he was beaming from ear to ear (seriously, one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen). Andy was going to be Superman, then a ninja turtle costume from Cody, but it was too big, so finally I did what I have never done before...I bought a costume on amazon! He loved it. John go the idea when he started growing out his beard...then when he told me I said...oh, I have a Luigi hat in the basement that you can wear. He did have to get some overalls, but has been wearing them a lot since halloween too.

We had a party and Noah wore the doggie costume from when Jay was little. Here are some friends:

The morning of Halloween, the boys were (semi) helpful by decorating and getting candy ready. They knew they couldn't eat any..so they smelled it. Very funny.

I found some winter clothes in the basement for Jay and he got very exited about the shirt that matched John. He put it on and they went upstairs and took a picture.

Andy got invited to a birthday party at a FUN place with cosmic bowling, laser tag, pizza and cake. He had a blast!

Jay is still missing his nap time...and about one day a week he falls asleep on the way home.

We tried to go out to eat the other day. Andy is always so excited about it. I lasted about 40 min. and then I headed home. More basketball pictures and videos to come, but they are on John's phone, so I need to get them off.