snow day fun

I'm just going to go ahead and say it... I'm totally over the snow days.  Don't get me wrong... I LOVE being home with my boys.  We have a blast, but enough is enough.  Come on spring... please hurry.  I don't want my sweeties going to school in June.  But alas, today was yet another snow day, so here's some of our fun.


A family game of Mario on WiiU.  Joshua thinks he's playing too.  Little does he know he only has a fake remote.  Poor little guy.  Usually we have to keep him out of the room when they play Wii U because he just wants the cords.  But today, I found a trick.  Let him think he's playing too.  :-)  It worked like a charm.  For all of about 14 seconds.  HA!

Thanks to Pinterest, I created a couple of racetracks with electrical tape in the living room.  We had a tribute to the Olympics - Stover style.  It was so funny!  The big boys loved it.  We quickly learned that using crazy straws to "push" the fuzz balls was just too hard.  So we did different races with different body parts.  Their favorite??? Pushing it only with the booty.  It was hilarious!  I was laughing so hard I forgot to take pictures of that part.  Guess what little man was doing during our Olympics?  He was happy as a little bee - throwing little fuzz balls all.over.the.living.room. 

15 months

Fifteen things for Fifteen months...


1.  You are transitioning to one nap a day.  I thought I'd like it... I do not!  You do fine until about 6 pm - then you are super clingy and more sensitive than usual.  (dinner cooking time + clingy baby = bad news bears...especially when daddy works late.) Then for some crazy reason, you perk up at about 7 again and are your normal happy, playful self. 

2.  You lost (gasp) your lovey yesterday at church.  A very special green blankie went to church, but did not return.  I sure hope someone brings it back next week.  I'm sure it got put in the wrong bag by mistake. 

3.  You have an old cell phone that you LOVE.  It's so cute how you put it up to your ear and say, "Lo." - and you bring it to us and say, "bo bo" - which means open. 

4.  You love to play hide and seek with us.  Your smile is so cute. 

5.  Your favorite book is "Brown Bear Brown Bear."   - you say "ba ba bo"  when you are looking for it.  You love to look at the pages but you don't really like to be read to... you wiggle out of my lap after about 3 pages.  (maybe it's the red bird that looks like a cardinal that scares you away... HA!)

6.  You got your first hair cut.  I was sad and didn't want to do it, but your hair really was out of control.  So many people called you a girl and you finally started walking into stuff because you couldn't see.  Hee hee.  You did great!  You sat in that red race car like a champ.  Perhaps it was the sucker that helped. 

 

7.  Sometimes when you are hungry, you go into the laundry room/pantry and bring out random food like crackers, noodles, potatoes...  funny boy.  And sometimes if I'm busy or not looking you might dump the contents of whatever you grab from the pantry in.the.floor. 

8.  You are still a pretty good eater, but would rather eat in our laps off our plates than in your chair and your plate.  Daddy lets you.  I do not.  :-) 

9.  Daddy may be becoming your favorite.  I'm not sure how I feel about that. 

10.  You throw everything you see.  Balls are cool, baby boy.  Picture frames are not.  Just sayin.'

11.  You adore your big brothers and like to get in their beds.  You say "ba ba" and point to their beds.  I think it's because of their sippy cups.  You think you are HOT STUFF if we do let you up in the top bunk.  (no worries - totally supervised!)

12.  You are still obsessed with the toilet.  uggh!

13.  You love your little slide you got for Christmas.  You also love your ball pit/tent!!!  It entertains you for hours!

 

You are a happy little dude and love to play with just about anything. 

14.  You are awesome at the grocery store.  My little shopping companion.  You play peek-a-boo with people behind us in line and laugh at the people at the deli counter.  You steal the show. 

15.  To entertain you at restaurants (and at home while we eat dinner), sometimes we give you the ketchup bottle.  You are slightly obsessed with opening it and closing it... sometime with your teeth.   I know - totally gross and germie, but hey, a peaceful dinner is worth it I suppose.  Don't judge. 



Oh sweet boy - you bring us so much joy and happiness.  I pray for patience during the next very busy years with you!  We love you sooooooo much!

Jesus + magic + Santa + presents... must be Christmas!

Wow - what an amazing Christmas we had.  Must be the ages and a lot of God's great grace, but really, I think this Christmas was my most favorite ever.  We try so hard to keep Jesus at the Center of our holiday celebrations, but I know we fall short.  But we try.  And we always will.  Despite some fevers and lots of snot, we had a great Christmas!

This year, we added a new tradition - for the 12 days leading up to the big day, we attempted to complete 12 days of service.  Each day, we did a little project for others - some of the highlights were paying for a stranger's coffee when we went to get hot chocolate, making brownies for one of our ministers, making rainbow loom bracelets for the principal and asst. principal at the boys' school and choosing 3 toys to donate.  Admittedly, a few days slipped by and I didn't get it done.  But guilt can't get me down...  (well, maybe!)  Anyway, hopefully we can make this work each year.  It was fun to get the boys involved. 

One of my other favorite memories from this Christmas was the Santa Shop experience... let me explain for all my mommy friends who haven't experienced elementary school yet.  Santa Shop is this wonderful little production supported by our PTO.  Kiddos are given the opportunity to bring money and "Shop" for others.  As a confession, I have to say that when I got the notice in the back packs about Santa Shop, my first impression was, "seriously?  They want money for something else now???"  (sorry - but it really does seem like there's something a couple times a week in the backpacks asking for money or something for sale all.the.time.)  So, we gave them Santa Shop money - I mean who could say no to that???  Each of them had 5-7 bucks.  When they got home that afternoon, the excitement on their little faces was PRICELESS!!!!  They had carefully picked out something for each other and their baby brother.  And mommy.  :-)  Bless Jonathan's heart, he said, "There was a tie I wanted for daddy but it was too many dollars.  If I got it, I couldn't get Joshua anything."  They both wanted help wrapping their treasures and of course, then they just couldn't wait to give them to each other.  Y'all - this in my opinion is one of my favorite memories.  Giving.  They had totally unselfish and giving hearts.  What a lesson. 

Anyway - here's a few shots of our celebration... 

 

Before we do ANYTHING on Christmas morning, we spend a little time reading the Christmas story from the Bible.  The boys were anxious to get  downstairs, but were also great about waiting.  I know one day they'll hate me for the bed-head pictures.  hee hee

 



This little cutie pie loved his Dispicable Me goggles - thanks Aunt Carol and Uncle Chris!

 

Baby Joshua LOVED his little Batmobile.  So much fun.  He was excited about ribbons and bows and boxes too.  Presents were kind of an after thought for him.  :-)

 

 

We surprised Jacob by getting his last two play posters framed.  He was super excited. 

 

And this (even in our jammies/sweats) is my life.  Thank you Jesus for this crew that I get to call my family.   And yes, as long as possible, my kiddos will wear matching jammies every Christmas Eve and all day Christmas day.  I got no shame.  :-)

 

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!