A Historic Event in the Life of Ian...

Well, it finally came out! Ian was eating lunch today, having corn dogs, crackers and cheese and applesauce and all of the sudden he starts crying and freaking out cause his tooth started wiggling a lot, and even started bleeding - Dave and I knew it was going to fall out soon - But Ian was crying cause he didn't want to come out, then he realized he was bleeding and really started crying. Dave and I told him to take a drink of cold water and maybe that would make it feel a little better (what do we know?!?) Then as he was drinking the water, he suddenly stopped and with eyes really wide said, 'I think my tooth just came out!' I was thinking the poor kid swallowed his first tooth, and Dave immediatly looked in the water bottle he was drinking out of and low and behold, his tooth was down at the bottom of the bottle! Yeah for Ian, he was so excited and Dave and I were so happy for him as well. It was obviously bleeding, and we knew if he saw that, he'd say that his tooth hurt, so Dave kept telling him, 'You can go look at it, but remember that it doesn't hurt, right buddy?' Ian was happy and giddy when he saw the hole in his mouth, and was really excited to put his tooth under his pillow tonight for the tooth fairy!

Christmas Pictures!

Ok.. I swear that I am not slacking with posting our Christmas pictures! We are having issues with our computer and I cannot get the video feed to load right for my pics. As of today, New Years Eve, my computer is getting worked on to make it all better. I'll get those fun pictures up soon, I promise! But in the meantime, here's the details of Christmas and Christmas Eve!

We had a fun Christmas! For Christmas Eve, we went to my Grandma Beeler's house and had a white elephant gift exchange, a little nativity story with the Fisher Price Little People, and a wonderful dinner and gift exchange between the families! It was nice, although there are so many of us, it's almost getting too tight! But we had fun and stuffed ourselves silly! Mason liked to eat the paper and play... it was a great time. For Christmas Day, we got up and the kids were excited to open their presents from Santa. This year, they 'gave' Santa a bag full of toys that they don't play with anymore and Santa came and picked them up to take to the children who don't have very many toys... the boys were very good about doing that, and were SUPER excited when Santa left them a note telling them how great it was that they did that! Ian's going to treasure that note forever! We stayed home all day and just played games and ate way too many sugar cookies! We love staying home and being together on Christmas Day!!!

Bouncing himself to sleep...

Mason had a long day yesterday, and about 8:45, we noticed that he wasn't making as much noise in the bouncer as normal, so we looked and he had fallen asleep playing! It was so cute, Dave said he saw his little head lay down but his legs were still slowly bouncing! I had to get a picture! Mason's so cute! I love him!

Gingy Bob

Saturday after Cookie Day, Dave's half brother and sister came up to see us again for Christmas! It was nice to see them. Angel and I made a gingerbread man and decorated it! And Dave enjoyed the icing - yummy! Ian and Luke helped for just a few minutes - eating it! They loved it too! We named our Gingy Bob. He was beautiful!

Annual Christmas Cookie Day!

Every year, my mom hold a Cookie Day at her house where all the grandkids come over and make, decorate and eat cookies for the holiday! This year was a great time with almost all the grandkids there - we miss you Robin and kids! Corey and Derek, the oldest of the grandkids even got to finish their sugar cube castle that they began 6 years ago! CRAZY! It took it's place beneath the Christmas tree in the village and train set underneath Grandpa and Grandma's tree! It was great! Each child was able to decorate a lid for a bucket to take some of the goodies to someone else to help them practice the 'giving' part of the season! It was great! The kids decorated not just cookies, they made chocolate dipped pretzels, marshmallow pops, sugar cookies, decorated ornaments, and even played an 'I Spy' game with Grandpa! We had a great time! Thanks Mom for making this such a special family tradition that I know my kids will always look forward to!

Mason is Six Months Old

Well, my little Mason is now 6 months old as of yesterday! My how the time is flying by. He is so active now rolling all over the place and really wanting to start crawling... but he can't quite get up on his hands AND knees at the same time yet. He likes his bouncer a lot, he loves lots of different baby food now (it seems like he's always hungry) and he loves playing with Ian and Luke. Mason loves his Grandma's, and all the attention he receives from the teenage girls at church! *wink wink* This week, Mason will get to, hopefully, be in his own room in the bigger crib. But he likes to be close to Mommy at night, so we'll see how that goes! Mason is such a joy, and is a very happy baby! I love him so much!

Merry Christmas from the Elves!

Well, I just HAD to waste my time this afternoon and make one of these funny Elf Dances! I saw that my friend, Michelle, did one on her blog and thought it was absolutely hilarious... So I spent way too much time doing one for our little family! We hope you enjoy, and it may take a minute to load. Also, push pause on my playlist, so you can hear the great Christmas Music on the video! Hope you are all having a STRESS-FREE Christmas Season! ;)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

All I want for Christmas is to LOSE A TOOTH!

Ian came home from school today and was SO excited to tell me that he finally has a loose tooth! He even wiggled it for me and it about made me cry! I don't know why.... but Ian seems to be growing up so fast these days! So... we'll keep you posted on the wiggly tooth! Maybe he'll finally get the benefits of the Tooth Fairy soon! How great!

A visit to Joliet!

 

 

This past weekend, we went to visit Dave's family in Joliet! We went to Granny's house and visited Dave's mom and Grandma and had a wonderful time there! Then we went to Dave's other Grandparent's house and had a nice visit as well! One thing I'll say is that everyone over there feeds us really well and it is GREAT food! We had a good time!

Techno-Baby

 

Mason LOVE anything shiny - obviously, he's a baby. But he really likes technology stuff... like computer screens, me typing, phones and now cell phones. I took this picture the other day, and it was just cute, so I thought I'd share! It's my texting Mason!

Ian turns 6 years old Nov. 27th!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Too many pictures to post, so you get a slideshow! Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Pictures

As Traditions Go...

One of Dave's favorite traditions of the Thanksgiving Holiday is his MAN TIME playing flag football on Thanksgiving morning with all the guys from church and friends. He looks forward to it every year, and has played now for, I think, 5 years in a row. (at least!) This tradition has taken place in the rain, snow, freezing cold, and good weather. Today is a blustery 36 degrees and he is having a great time. He's still out there as I post this! The 'guys' were a little unforgiving as I, a GIRL, showed up to take pictures! I hope Dave doesn't get razzed too much! Although, someone did want me on their team! haha - yeah right! Anyway, I'm glad that Dave has this tradition he looks forward to - and then 'FEELS' the next 3 days! (from the pain! *wink wink*)

Dave and the guys. (the ones who thought it was ok that I was there taking pictures of my hubby!!!)

His most excellent play!

What a HUNK!

Ian's 6th Birthday!

Happy Birthday to IAN!!! Today Ian is 6 years old! Because it is Thanksgiving and Ian is getting older, we have decided to have a birthday party for Ian off of Thanksgiving. He will have his party on Saturday, so more pictures are to come! But today, I made him a birthday breakfast so far which consisted of (don't laugh because I really tried) 'Death Star Pancakes'. As you can see, they don't REALLY look like the Star Wars Death Star, but hey, they are what YOU SAY they are! He liked them and thought it was neat to have a 'birthday breakfast'! He also got to open Great Grandma Jensen's birthday card today, which he was really excited about and is excited to go to Walmart to spend his birthday money! Happy Birthday Ian!

More Snow Pictures

Well, it hasn't snowed for a week, but I forgot these pictures were on my camera, so I thought I'd post them anyway! Luke had a great time 'sledding'!!! These were taken the second day of the snow last week!

Mason at Five Months

So my little guy turned the big 5 months old today! So sad... he's growing up! But he is a complete joy (other than the spontaneous spit-ups multiple times a day) - but he is awesome! He is rolling over, eats baby rice and oatmeal from a spoon very well, loves to eat his fists, smiles a LOT, sits up with support, and looks WAY cute in his little snowsuit! He's a little 'squealer' when he wants to chat with you and the boys love him so much! I love this little Radio Flyer outfit, and HAD to take his picture with it - yes, he's a big boy and is already in 6-9 month clothes. What a chuck-a-lug! But I love him so much!

Oh yes, and I have to credit this way cute collage to my blogging buddy, Janessa! I already had picassa, but she informed me how to do these cute collages using that tool! I love Picassa! Thanks Janessa!!!!!

The First Snow...

Last night it started snowing, and Ian was really excited about the 'flurries', but by the morning, there was 5-6 inches of that wonderful white stuff on the ground! Ian was so happy and kept saying that it was December now and Santa could come! haha... too bad he has to wait longer. Anyway, after school, Ian and Luke got to play in the snow. Luke really doesn't know what to do in it yet, and Ian just throws snowballs at Luke and makes him cry. I tried to get them to pull each other on the sled, but that didn't last too long. Maybe I was a little older, but I remember playing outside in the snow for hours with my little brother. We'd play GI Joes, make roads with the sleds, try to build igloo's, have snow ball fights, and make snow angels! I always had SO much fun in the snow. But as of now, Ian just runs back and forth in the yard, and plops down and eats the snow. Luke will just walk around and kick his feet in it. But they had fun today until one of Ian's giant snowballs landed right on Luke's face and went down the front of his coat. Needless to say, snow time was over.... *wink wink*

Smiley at Bedtime

One of the things I LOVE about Mason - and all my boys actually - is that they actually like going to bed. Rarely do I have problems getting them to go to bed! It's great - and I don't mean to rub that in to anyone who struggles with their children. I think that the Lord knows by the end of my day, the thing that would put me over the edge would be kids who didn't go to bed. SO, anyway, this picture was taken a few nights ago, and, really, NO LIE, as soon as I swaddle up Mason and lay him in his cradle, he gets the biggest grin, and seems to say to me with his eyes and grin, "oh thank you - I love my bed!" It's the cutest thing, and I hope it lasts forever!

Last night, Dave and I were at our wits end with trying to entertain the boys. And I feel really bad, because between Dave's school projects and my work things, it seemed as if we didn't spend any time with the kids yesterday. So, Dave had a brilliant idea and the boys absolutely loved it. Dave brought the tent into the house and set it up in the living room while the boys were taking their baths, and we 'went camping!' It was fun just to be all together in the tent and we let the boys play with the flashlights and we read stories and talked. It was awesome for me to imagine the upcoming years with a house full of boys and going on fun family camping trips! Ian fell asleep in the tent and Luke wouldn't settle down long enough to go to sleep, so he had to go to his bed. Dave even fell asleep in the tent for a few hours until he finally woke up with a sore back at 10:30! It was really fun, so I thought I'd share!

HALLOWEEN 2008 - TRICK OR TREATING!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

HALLOWEEN 2008 - KINDERGARTEN PARTY!

Ian and his Teacher, Miss Dulin

Ian's school does a Halloween Costume Parade every year and then their classes have treats and games at the end of the day for Halloween. I got to visit Ian's school (good thing my background check checked out!) and it was fun to see him in his school enviornment. The kids were all lined up to parade around to each grade level, and Ian was excited. There was another Iron Man in his class, and he thought that was neat! After the parade, they gathered in the cafeteria and had cupcakes and punch, then off to their classroom for games. Ian had a good time and was happy, I guess, to see me there to show my support!

HALLOWEEN 2008 - THE PUMPKINS

Luke and his 'Jack the Pumpkin King' Pumpkin.

Ian and his 'mad Jack the Pumpkin King' pumpkin.

Mason and his happy face pumpkin!

On Thursday evening, we got out our pumpkins and sharp knives and went to town with carving pumpkins! This, as a matter of fact, is one of MY favorite parts of Halloween! Probably cause we had so much fun doing it when I was growing up, I just love this part of Halloween. Ian and Luke have BOTH gotten into the movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and absolutely LOVE Jack Skellington. SOOOO they both wanted a Jack face on there pumpkin. Ian OF COURSE chose the mad one (he has a thing for bad guys) and Luke like the smiley one. Mason, probably got ripped off because his pumpkin was very hard to carve, so we did a standard face. But I'm sure he loved it! ;) Luke did NOT like the 'yucky stuff inside' and Ian finally got his hands dirty this year! It was a great time and I hope that my kids really enjoy these memories I'm so desperatly trying to create!

The Threat of the Blankie

Well, as a lot of you know, I have been racking my brain trying to understand why Luke stopped the whole potty training thing. He just was having issues with the whole poopy thing. Yuck.... I couldn't get him to be ok with going on the toilet, and frankly, I am at my wits end changing two sets of diapers! ugh! So, my friend and I were talking about what could I threaten to take away and I just didn't know at all, because Luke is not really attached to any of his toys at all... he could take them or leave them. So, one day, it was like a light bulb when off! THE BLANKIES!!!! Now, for those of you who know our little Luke a bit, you know that he has 2 flannel pillowcases that he's tattered up over the last 3 years that have become his 'blankies'. It didn't even dawn on me to use these as leverage in the whole potty training process, until one day last week, I was putting them in the laundry and he about had a cow because he didn't want me to wash them and he HAD to have them! DING! There was my leverage. Now, as you can tell from the picture, one of these pillowcases is toast. Therefore I didn't mind doing what I was going to do next. The threat: Luke, go poopy in the toilet, and you can keep your blankie. OR.... Luke, go poopy in your pants, and blankie goes in the garbage! I know... I'm such a cruel mommy! But really, I need this potty training business to be done for a few years. Ok, so Luke ACTUALLY got that message, and did GREAT the first day and pooped 2 times!!! YEAH! But the second day, he did it in his pull-up and - well, whoops... the tattered blankie bit the can! Luke was pretty devastated, but felt better knowing that he has a second blankie that he deperatly wants to hang on to... so needless to say, we haven't had an accident since Wednesday, even through preschool and nursery at the YMCA, and I am very proud of him! (I do give him suckers if he does go poopy, so that's a positive, right!?) Anyway, we're on our way to being diaper free - from one body that is! hahah ;)