Pitty Please....

This

Afternoon Cold
Hi 3°F

This Afternoon: Sunny and cold, with a high near 3. Wind chill values as low as -18. Southwest wind around 10 mph.
(that is the weather from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

So, I just wanted to let you know that today and yesterday, I am grateful for my working heater, working water heater, warm clothes, running cars, and my home. Yesterday the temps were even worse, reading -5 degrees, with a windchill of -37 below zero. This morning when I bravely left the house with my 3 boys, the temp in my car read -10 degrees.
So.. just a little pitty please... more for Dave because he had to plow in all that nasty weather! What a MAN!

CRAWLING?!?!?!?!

My little Mason thinks he's so cool and is trying his hand - and knee - at crawling! NO! I guess this means I have to start vaccuming!! Just kidding, I vaccum! He is already rolling all over the place, and the past couple of weeks, he has been getting that little booty up in the air and is now able to rock back and forth on his hands and knees! Oh man... 3 mobile children! AH!!! But it's just great and I'm sure he'll be off and going any day now!!!!

What? 5 boys?

So, Ian says there are now 5 boys and 1 girl in our family now... (no... I'm not pregnant) Ian got a fish the other day when he went to the pet store with his Grandma Beeler to get a fish for his fish tank they got him for Christmas. Ian was really excited and he ended up getting a Beta and calling him George Washington. (don't ask me how he came up with that name cause I don't have a clue!) Anyway, he has a feeding calendar on his wall and looks forward to seeing his fish every day!

Fun in Indianapolis!

On Monday and Tuesday, we took Ian and Luke down to Indianapolis and stayed overnight in a hotel that had a nice cold swimming pool and a fun playroom with a ball pit for the kids. Mason was lucky to have Grandma Beeler take him overnight! We wanted to do something fun with the boys before Ian and Dave started school again in a week or so, and this turned out to be a lot of fun. (not considering the few melt-downs the boys had!) tee hee!

In the hotel! Brrrrr... the pool was not warm at all!

At the Indianapolis Children's Museum.

Ian as Captain America, Luke as Batman, and Mommy as Wonder Woman! (Awesome!!!)

The boys FAVORITE part was the new Dinosaur Exhibit! They got to dig for bones, and touch an actual T-Rex bone, talk to a paleontologist (sp?), and hear thunderstorms and dinosaur noises! They really liked this one, and we went to that twice!

The Playscape was a fun part too! Giant Connect Four, treehouses, a carousel, and construction stuff! A boys dream!

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!