An attempt to catch up...

The last couple weeks of December for busy ones....attempt #1.

Monday, December 16th.
We started off Brody's birthday week on Monday by inviting two of his classmates to join us for an early birthday celebration. We help transport these girls to Julia's on Monday's so lunch at TGI Friday's seemed like a good way to celebrate with a small crowd!! I let them drink lemonade...two trips to the bathroom later, we made it through lunch!  Lesson learned!

Wednesday, December 18th.
It took a large family effort, but we finally got started on our Christmas cards.  It takes immense concentration to apply to stamps.

The Christmas Star...I don't really remember when Kurt scaled the house to put it up, but it's massive and awesome!  You rock Kurt!!

Friday, December 20th.
Brody's 5th Birthday.
Also, the school's Christmas program.  We deemed the Christmas program a complete success because Brody's lips moved when he was supposed to be singing and Riley didn't cry!!  Ri also let me drop him off in the basement with his classmates and walked to the front of church without me by his side.  We are making progress!!!!

Saturday, December 21st.
Brody's birthday party...pictures somewhere in a different post.
Grandma Yakey's birthday party...pictures elsewhere as well.

Sunday, December 22nd.
The Bible Christmas.
Lunch & gifts at Granddad Bob's and Grandma Sandy's and then we went to Great-Great Grandma Helen's so she could gift the boys their gifts and so Santa could bring them something as well.  

As we were leaving Great-Great Grandma Helen's house, Brody told us he thought Santa really was Uncle Kye...sharp eye my friend!

Monday, December 23rd.
The boys and I spent quite a bit of time baking treats for our neighbors.  It was also pajama day!  The Ellis' were still hanging out in Stew so I know we spent time with them as well. I just don't remember what we did?  

92

Grandma was 92 the day after Brody.

Think that cake was slobber free??

Snow days

We left the house today!!  Woo-Hoo!!

We took a little drive through Stewardson to see the piles of snow taller than the truck and to go see Eli and Crewe for a change of pace.  We let the boys spend a few minutes out in the snow because the drifts are too impressive not to at least march across them!  The most impressive drifts are between our home and Aunt Helen's...they are easily taller than Brody's 45 inches and are quite solid, making traversing across them quite easy.   

We were fortunate to never lose power through the whole storm.  We did have a couple pipes freeze, but we caught them in time to thaw them out before they busted.  The back porch, which houses the laundry, was only 20 degrees this morning.  Not cool, my friends.  A couple heaters warmed it up in no time and now Kurt has a project...properly heat the laundry space!  Ten years in this beast of a house has never had us experiencing frozen pipes or an temperature drop on the porch

We emerge from this storm with a freshly organized first floor, a home that has been stripped of it's Christmas glory, drawers full of clean clothes and lots of art created by our in house artists.  We also taught Brody how to play UNO and dominoes.  Riley informed us our games were too boring for him!

Tomorrow marks the 3rd day of school being cancelled, but I think daycare will be open so back to reality.  Which means Brody is going to have to wear something besides pajamas and Riley will only get to get dressed once tomorrow!

Riley and his clothes

Ri and his clothes could very well do me in.  If he goes upstairs alone, you know he will come down dressed differently.  He is trained to put dirty clothes in his basket and that has backfired.  It took me a bit to catch on that his multiple changes in a day were making the laundry pile grow rapidly because you know once the clothes touched his body he thought they were dirty.  

Being at home the last few days has created some interesting outfits, like the one above.  If you look closely, he is wearing short bibs over his jeans.  After a trip to the bathroom he decided this outfit wouldn't do.

Something else to note, he changes underwear each time he changes clothes.  Good thing Santa brought him a few new pairs!  

Now that I have figured him out, we are slowing down the number of clothes we go through in a day and learning how to fold our own pants!

P.s. Brody is the exact opposite.  He dreads getting dressed in the morning.  The minute we get home, he changes into his pajamas and that is it!

A five year old!

It was a teenage mutant ninja turtle kind of birthday for this five year old.  He has been planning for his birthday since Riley's so hopefully it was everything he dreamed it would be!  

He has looked forward to getting the mail everyday.  As he  opened his cards, he placed a mark in his journal for each piece of money and then tucked the card in his journal.  He has a special metal box where he stashed his money away. It should be noted that he came up with this system all by himself.  The only problem I see with his plan is he thinks he gets to spend ALL his birthday money on toys!  I think it's time he plays an active role in depositing money at the bank!

Happy birthday Brody-odie!  

Meeting Santa

Dreams

So I don't forget...

Last week, Brody came zipping down the stairs one morning all bright eyed.  He had the best dream.  He was driving his monster truck in the dirt going fast.  

That evening as we were getting ready for bed, he told me he was going to bed early because he wanted to try and catch that dream again and hit record!  

Snow!

And now they are waiting for more snow!

Hey there!

Since my dad will soon complain about updates, I am going to make an effort to add a few posts just for him this week.  Wish me luck!

G-O Illini Go

A few weeks ago, we took the boys to their first Illini basketball game!  Oskee-wow-wow Illinois!!

Happy Halloween

Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Captain Hook and his first mate, Smee, wish you a Happy Halloween...a few days late!

Last night at bedtime...

Soccer

B played soccer this fall with the Park District.  The first game made me think it would be a long season, but as the season progressed, he participated more and even scored a goal and played goalie a few times.  He knew no one on the team nor the coach and I think that was good for him. He really liked having a big audience of his people to watch him and probably played his best the weekend he had his biggest crowd.  We all learned a little bit about soccer throughout the season and had lots of fun practicing at home.  Somehow our soccer practices turned into tackle soccer though, which led to tackle football.  And this mom is unsure how she feels about football...

Brody did tell me today that he was longer going to ride bulls for his hobby...we didn't know he ever wanted to, so I am relieved to hear we don't have to worry about sport.  And no worries about Riley riding bulls either because ALL animals are going to eat him, or at least that is what his three year old mind thinks!

Off to the combine

Harvest is here

 

It's harvest time and we are busy people right now.  

Cardinals

The boys LOVE to stay in hotels.  Up until our weekend in STL, their favorite was the Opryland Hotel in Nashville.  I believe our STL hotel might take the cake now though.  The view from our hotel really was quite exceptional.

We started out the game with everyone occupying their own seats, intently watching the game.  Check out those cushioned seats!!

Riley loved being the audience!

The view from our seats...not to shabby!

Then, in about the fifth inning this happened.  
Note: The couple sitting to my left were super friendly.  I heard their life story if you are ever interested.  

Cotton Candy saved the day though!!

My new friends insisted we needed a family photo..really glad she insisted too!

After the 7th inning, we decided to pack it up and head back because it was already after 9:00 pm and we were all slowly falling apart. We were safely tucked into our room to watch the 9th inning and the fireworks as the Cardinals won.  Actually we watched the fireworks twice...once live out the window and a few seconds later on TV!  

Riley woke us up the next morning with his chattering out the window to the trains, boats and vehicles.  

To cap off the weekend, FredBird seated us at breakfast.  Riley was attempting to melt into the floor with fear.

The only negative thing I have to say about the whole weekend is that we are now spoiled...I may never be able to go back to Busch Stadium unless I have a seat with a built in cushion and an exceptional view of home plate?  I swear our seats were a little wider than the standard seat too.