Catch-up Time!

February 18th the boys were both home from school. 

And when they're around all day they tend to drive me crazy...as well as each other.

SO, I took them to a happy-fun place called Fun Unleashed.

You pay $7 per kid for unlimited play on a huge jungle gym. I figured it would kill a couple of hours.

They had so much fun, in fact, that they lasted not 2, not 3...but SIX hours.

Elijah took a nap.

We ate pizza.

I explored the jungle with them.

And they played and played and played. It was AWESOME.

The weekend of March 2 we drove 4 hours down to D.C. We stayed in a nice hotel with a pool.

It was the nicest room we've ever stayed in. This is half of the room...

This is the other half where the boys slept on a hide-a-bed.

We shoved Elijah's port-a-crib in the kitchen area.

The main reason we went was to hit the D.C. temple. We went to a session together while our friends watched our kids. Then they went and we watched their three kids.

We took all six kids to a mall nearby so they could play on the equipment.

It worked out nicely.

Elijah and their little man posed for a pic.

Cheeeeeeeese. :D

On our way home we stopped at the Bass Pro Shop in Harrisburg.

We love the fish and playing on the big party boats and ATV's.

We may have spent a while in the hunting area...

ahem

We played the gun game for the first time. We were feeling spendy, I guess. :)

For some reason we never spent the $.50 a game before.

What cheapskates.

I can't get enough of that smile.

Needless to say they were BEAT on the drive home.

March 9 we wanted to hike with the boys, but don't know the area around here very well.

So we tried Spring Creek Park.

The area was small and ended up being a small jaunt than a hike.

So we drove to Tudek Park. We wandered around and found a huge field with two horses and a donkey.

 They walk right up to you and let you pet them.

The boys were nervous, but they got a kick out of it.

We finally got to use our baby backpack. :) Cute face.

March 19th was Alan's Birthday.

We bought him a shirt, cologne, 2 packs of Legos, and "The Hobbit".

He turned 31. My big boy. :D

I invited some friends from the neighborhood to eat cake with us.

Yes, those are Kit Kat's lining the outside of the cake. And there were Reese's Peanut Butter cups and pudding in between the chocolate cake layers. YUM.

It's been a good month, even with the incessant snow we've had.

Where is our Spring?

Hopefully it will come soon!

Valentine's Day and My Relationship with Snow

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

I woke up to this on Valentine's Day. A giant card with sweet nothings from my boys, balloons they had picked out, a miniature rose plant, and a "Queen Size" Reese's PB hearts. So sweet! I had lunch with Alan (Elijah came with us) and Alan made pancakes for din-din. :) I love that man.

So...now about snow...

Right after Alan and I were married we moved to Utah for school. Every winter I'd think, "Soon enough we'll be away from this BLASTED snow." I hated it.

It's wet.

It's cold.

It's muddy.

It's slippery.

It sticks to your shoes!

Yet 8 1/2 years later here we are...still living in snow. And you know what? It's kind of growing on me. I realized that, if it's going to be cold, might as well have snow to play in!

So...Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

It's been snowing one day and warm (40's) the next. It sure leaves a lot of MUD around. Miles and Christian played in it one day. HA! I still have to clean off those muddy shoes.

Our first attempt at a snowman. The snow was waaaaay too powdery I had to bring out bowls of water to make it stick together. :D Like the scary mandarine orange eyes. :D Muahahahahaha!

Christian made this snowman last night ALL BY himself. :) He even went inside and grabbed the hat and scarf. He's so creative!

Reminded me to put a hat and scarf on my snowman. :) (Putting the face on is HARD, btw, so apprec-i-ate!) The snow was perfect consistency this time. I used only stones and no carrots; there are too many critters around here. 

Speaking of critters...We've had a skunk hanging around the apartments (Alan saw one frolicking around in the snow at midnight a couple nights ago). Here are the tracks.

The hill outside our apartment has been PERFECT for sledding.

Considering we'll be in this snowy state of PA for another winter, it's a good thing I'm FINALLY growing to enjoy it.
Geesh.
Only took me 8 years. ;)

Holiday Fun

Here's hoping everyone had a fabulous Christmas and a very enjoyable New Year. Here are some happenings since my last post...

 December 19th was Miles' 4th Birthday. I made him a turtle cake that we shared with some friends in our apartment's Community Center (in a big, open room we can rent out any time).

The kids decorated their own drinking cups and wheeled around on rolling chairs and played pin-the-worm-on-the-apple, which Miles won. woohoo!

Happy Birthday, my big boy!

 Elijah was precious on his first Christmas...as always, he was full of smiles. :)

The boys opened most of their presents on the 22nd before flying out to Washington on the 24th. Love our little pre-lit 3-foot tree? :) We found it by a dumpster when we were first married and it has served us well over the past 9 years. Maybe next year we'll have a bigger one. ???

(My sister-in-law Laura doing nails.)
So the trip to WA was interesting. It started when our United Airlines flight to DC was cancelled due to mechanical difficulties. SO they "booked us a flight--1st class even--from Chicago to WA," with American Airlines. After throwing us on a plane to Chicago, we find out American doesn't actually have any seats reserved for us...and the flight is full. SO we're stranded in Chicago?
Well Alan finally worked it out and Alaska flew us to Seattle...7 HOURS later than planned. While we waited in Chicago we found a USO station (where military and their family can go to lounge in the sofas and eat the free food and use the free Internet, and since it was Christmas Eve they gave the boys some plush gingerbread man...s? Men?) and hung out. We were BUSHED by the time we took the 3 hour drive from Seattle to Wenatchee, but the whole time the boys were CHAMPS. :)

 The Sunday after we arrived we blessed Elijah (at 7 months!!) so we could do it with family. Alan's dad, brother and brother-in-law were in the blessing circle.

 Right after his blessing, I took Elijah to the Mother's Lounge to feed him and he EXPLODED right out of the brand new blessing outfit Mimi bought him. :D Look at that smile, he's so proud of himself. Good thing I brought a back up, young man.

We bought this stupid Samsung camera while we were out there and most of the pictures turned out horribly. Maybe my Nikon D5000 has spoiled me a bit, but come'on. This is ridiculous! Anyway, here we all are in our smear-faced glory (including Alan's friend and wife who drove 3 hours to be there). Yeah!

 This is how we party on New Year's Eve: blanket-making, Catan, sparkling cider and puzzles. Oh, and Papa watched a cheesy Jackie Chan movie. :) And Alan was asleep (we didn't know it at the time, but he had strep throat). Oh yah, we got it goin' on. 

 Alan's mom and Elijah at Kristina's (Alan's sister) birthday breakfast (he looks a lot like her, so cute!) on New Year's Day. Afterward us girls went to see Les Miserables in the theatre for more birthday fun. LOVED it. 

Happy Birthday, Kristina! She was so sweet. Her gift was $$ to buy all of our Les Mis tickets. Love her!

 After Wenatchee we drove 5 hours to Battle Ground (WA) to visit my brother and his family.

They have a cows and chickens and 4-wheelers and loads of fun for the kiddos. They helped feed the cows and collect eggs fresh from the hen's butt. Doesn't get better than that!

And we can't forget X-Box! My little video game junkies.

The kids had so much fun together that Christian and Miles said they wanted to stay forever. Well, I loved the area, and there is land for sale. We'll have to see... :)

 My awesome sister-in-law getting some Elijah-loves. She woke up with him at night if he cried (since he was sick, he whined a lot, though he usually sleeps through the night). It was so wonderful to have a little break. :) She's such a sweetie pie!

 My brother's heater was broken and their two gas fireplaces did a fabulous job heating the entire (ginormous) house. Impressive? Yes.
And I just love this hat Elijah got from Aunt Kristina for Christmas. :) 

 We came back to State College to find lots of snow. There wasn't ANY when we left. The boys have had fun playing in it with some of their Christmas toys.

We brought a lot back with us, some things we'll keep forever like the many fond memories, and others we won't (like the strep throat Alan got then passed on to me...Elijah's parvo...or Miles' double ear infections...). :D All in all it was super holiday fun. I'm so grateful for family!

Finding Happiness in Doing What You're Doing

So I have three little boys: 6 months, almost 4, and 6 years old. Although I have never been a "kid person," I love my children very much and wouldn't trade them for anything in the world.

Look at those impressionable young faces. :)

The other day I was with my 6 yr old doing SOMETHING--for the life of me I can't remember what it was, but it was one of those mundane Mommy things I don't really like to do. I remember sighing impatiently while I waited for him to accomplish his task and was about to pull out my iPod to "pass the time doing something constructive". That's when hit me just what I was doing. I had the "I'd rather be somewhere else, doing anything else" attitude. Let's face it. It's HARD to enjoy laundry, cleaning up bodily fluids, scrubbing dishes, cooking, shopping, chauffeuring,  scrubbing toilets and sinks and hairy showers...But still, I wondered how I could POSSIBLY think my iPod would offer more happiness than spending time with my precious son. I realized I'd been treating my Mommy duties as something to push through in order to get to better things. Like facebook and blogging and writing books...even things like cooking fabulous dinners. Connecting with family and friends, writing and making a nice dinner for my family aren't BAD things, but I was putting their importance over the emotional needs of my children. Once I put the iPod away and looked my 6 year old in the eye and helped with what he was doing, his whole countenance changed. He was happier and I was happier. Putting him first in deed AND in heart made a biggest difference in the world........even though I didn't particularly like doing it. :)

UPDATE Time!!

Time flies when you're having fun. And as is always true this time of year, there's been a lot of fun to be had. Here are 5 MILLION pictures to highlight some of the fun...

A friend of mine took our family pictures in October. I'm happy to have some pictures with the babelicious. :)

She edited these two pics. She sells Photoshop actions. Her website is http://www.prettylittleactions.com. Check it out!

Sometimes, just sometimes, we think we're pretty tough...

I love this with Elijah in the pumpkins--my cute little pumpkin--because we're all smiling for rizzle. (She edited this one, too.)

My three little men. :)

Me and my hooooooney--poo. Married 8 years, we have been (yes, said in Yoda voice).

We carved our pumpkins outside--it was such a beautiful day for late-October! The boys helped take out some seeds, but were too grossed out by the sliminess so I did most of it. Pansies! ;)

I'll show them how it's done. Nom-Nom-Nom!

Here's the boys all dressed up for Halloween. I think Miles mixed up his super heroes. :) The cuteness is almost too much! They got lots of candy through the drizzling rain and numb little fingers. Bless their little hearts. :D

Hurricane Sandy rolled through so we had our church's Trunk-Or-Treating activity 5 days after Halloween (the kids trick-or-treat from rows of cars lined up, trunks decorated, passing out candy). Our trunk was the scariest!

Christian and Elijah have a special connection that just warms my heart. :) C wants to spend every moment with his baby brother and E just lights up when his biggest brother enters the room.

Elijah swinging for the first time. Needless to say, he LOVED it! :)

Christian TRYING to swing with Elijah but my super-sized 6 yr old is just a little too long for the baby swing. :)

We went to my friend, Christina's house for Thanksgiving. She lives 4 hours from us in Wooster, OH. We all had a BLAST and plan to make another trip out there soon. (My boys still ask if we're going to, "hallow-hallow," as Miles calls Ohio.) :)

The food was sooooooooooo good. mmmm....

Shaylin quickly became Christian's "girlfriend". We were there 3 days and they spent every minute together. He said, "I'm going to marry her." Ah, young love. ;)

Now that Thanksgiving is over we're getting ready for Christmas...found this cute lil' reindeer when I pulled out the decorations.

My wonderful neighbor left goodies on my porch and the local critters decided to pull one out and have a taste. ha!!

Toooooootsies!! :) Love those tootsies.