Thanksgiving wrap up

Thanksgiving is about family and being thankful for the blessings that God has given us and we thought that this year we should grace Flo's family with our fearsome four since it has been a tough few months for everyone.  We just thought that going to Fargo would be the best, so that we could spend some time with those that need family the most right now.

And then 20 hours in the car later...we were starting to doubt ourselves! But, when we knocked on Barb and Mark's door to surprise them I think they almost peed their pants when they saw us standing there! Such a great surprise.

 Cooper playing on Uncle Kenny's key board. That kid has rhythm.

 Happy Thanksgiving!

 Playing this funny game over and over again.  I could not beat the kids for the life of me!

 Kenny as the FSA mascot Snow Boy.

 Two old timers playing games - you should have seen them trying to read the catch phrase words!

 Riding the Ferris wheel at Scheels (my new favorite store!).

 This little piggy went to the market, this little piggy stayed home....

 Fargo force hockey game

We had a great visit and the kids did awesome in the car on the trip and were so excited to spend some more time with grandma and grandpa and uncle Kenny.  I will forever remember playing catch phrase and "Moby Dick" or "free willy" as Kenny called him!

Happy Birthday Cooper!

25 people, 8 pizzas, 6 orders of bread sticks, a huge bowl of Cesar salad, 3 1/2 gallons of ice cream and one monkey cake = one happy birthday party for Cooper who is two (although if you ask him, he will say five).

 He asked for a cake that looked like Ba his side kick monkey.

So many cousins that were ready and willing to help him blow out the candles...

Priceless face when he opened up his presents!

I still can't believe he's two!

It's beginning to look a lot like Thanksgiving?

I can't remember there ever being this much snow before thanksgiving, even in Denver.  We are going to just have to embrace it and settle in for a snow filled winter.  While I seem to see many others posting about how depressing it is and how they want to move away, I find myself actually really liking it (minus those brief 2 minutes from my front door to the car).  I love how warm and cozy the house fills (now that the furnace guy came today and turned our heat back on this afternoon) and inspired me to put up some Christmas decorations.  Call me crazy but I would take this any day over the rainy dreary winter we had last year!

 We all got bundled up and went outside to play in the freshly fallen now this morning.

 It wasn't exactly packing so, but perfect for a double sled pull up and down the street.  Exercise completed. I might loan out my hefty kids for men participating in a strong men contest.  It was wearing to say the least!

 I was impressed with how long the boys made it outside with it only being 20 degrees out.  We were out for over an hour and I had to take them in with promises that we would come out again later.

 If you are wondering, this hit me in the head when I covered the camera to save it.

 Powder not perfect for snowmen but great for rolling around and wrestling. 

Definitely looking forward to many more days of this, because not only did we have a blast but afterwards they each took 2 1/2hour nap!

"yet it no, yet it no, yet it no"

This morning I went into Jack's room excited to show him the morning surprise of freshly fallen snow. He ran straight to the slider door and then ran to wake up his brother to show him the snow.  A fire drill of who could get their clothes on faster ensued followed by them piling out the front door to run around our front yard and our neighbors (sorry Justin and Crystal I don't think you will ever have a pristine snow covered front yard this year thanks to the boys) while singing "yet it no,yet it no,yet it no."

All this happiness was quickly brought back down when they came home later in the day and there was no snow.  Jack proceeded to tell Cooper that they needed to pray to God to give them more snow.  That kid astounds me.  End of story, tonight before bed... both kids added, please let it snow again to their prayers.  Ask and yea shall receive? God willing.

I hope this is a sign of the fun to be had this coming winter.  Lots of snow ball fights, snow men, sledding and of course hot chocolate with mini mallows. :)

1 year ago

A couple of days ago David and Aubrey came over for a play date and the kids wanted me to take their picture  After I downloaded it, I went back to look at a picture from the beginning of last December when they spent the night at our house....

What a difference a year makes!

Where did our little babies go???

my fridge

At one point, not in the too distant past, about 4 short years ago I had one of those super pristine fridges.  Do you know the one I am talking about? Nothing on it, no distractions, no messy coupons, or pictures or tacky magnets... now I have this....

I was making dinner tonight and really looked at our evolved fridge for the first time and just burst out in the biggest smile.  It may not be perfect or super clean and pristine but I love it.  I am pretty sure there are expired coupons on it, a dinner plan from a month ago, art from the boys, pictures, reminders and a bunch of other things. Just a little reminder how much we love our little family every time I reach in it during the day. Clutter? What clutter? I see happy times.

Grandma Great

My Grandma Great passed away today at the age of 95.  It has put me in a somber and sad mood because now I have lost 5 dear family members in the past 5 years and because she was such an amazing sweet, kind and spirited lady.

When I went 3000+ miles away to college, we established a pen-pal type relationship, that helped me get through some very lonesome and tough times on my own.  She would write me religiously once a month always sending me news from Kansas, asking of my life in College and giving advice or just telling jokes.  After I graduated the letters came about once every two months but some of these (after I was engaged, or after I found out Jack was a boy) are the most touches as I read through them this past week. 

Among my favorites - a letter during my freshman year - "I wouldn't worry about the poor grade in English my dear. If I were you, I would take myself straight away to the library and find a nice quiet spot near one of the windows and put my back to it so that I could see all the cute eligible bachelors walking by and catch their eyes."

After I was engaged - "Your letter brought such happy tears to me today to imagine your happy union.  The world always needs a great love story."

And after finding out news that our little biscuit Jack was going to be a baby boy - "that is blessed news.  Imagine, getting to experience the mysteries of men from the very beginning.  You will have to keep me posted on your findings as you raise your little man among men."

Grandma Great, as we called her, really was great.

Hap - Hap - Happy Halloween!

We had a great weekend with friend's visiting for Flo's 30th Birthday and Halloween and then spent the last 2 days trying to recoup.  Seems to be the theme lately - me thinks we are getting old! Sorry for the late post but I was a little busy playing catch up in the great laundry war (I won the battle today) and voting - still watching TV and crossing my fingers that our nation is headed back in the right direction again (albeit a teeny tiny baby step).

 After the harvest fest at our church we went to my sister's for her 2nd annual chilli feed and trick-or-treat.  Trying to get all 9 cousins plus one friend to look and smile at the camera proved challenging...

 Coops and his buddy Aubrey (a.k.a minnie mouse) are two peas in a pod.

 It was Coops first time going door to door and he definitely took to the whole event yelling "yeah!" at the top of his lungs as he ran door to door.

 We went up to Greenbluff this weekend with friends and had a lot of fun drinking cidar, eating pumpkin spice doughnuts and watching the great pumpkin cannon.

 Family picture for Greenbluff (Notice coops is picking something? So appropriate!)

 The two little monsters in my life.  I love those little buggers so much! I have come to love the boyness about them! The always busy, always running, squirming, loud, giggling, messy boyness that never seems to stop from morning till night. 

 Our friend Riane and the boys (coops constant companion "Ba" the monkey is even along for the ride!)

 Playing games at the harvest fest.

 Sully the friendly monster from monster's inc.

 a brief 5 minute crash in the car due to no nap that day (dressing up on costumes and getting lots of candy was too much to take in AND nap!) but 5 minutes with the cousins and some treats at the chilli feed and he was ready to go again.

The boys with their Tow-mater buck teeth suckers.  After eating till their little hearts content, we took the extra candy to the dentist (who bought it back)  and brought home $5 and glow in the dark toothbrushes.  solved having to take the extra candy away, they got to put money in their banks and no cavities.  win win win. already looking forward to next year and seeing if we can make it around the block and then some in Aunt Bissy's neighborhood! Challenge accepted!

Fun Filled Weekend

Grandma and Grandpa flew the North Dakota Coop this weekend and came to visit for a jam packed 72 hours.  We had such a good time visiting but now I think we all feel like a truck hit us! We ate out 6 times, squeezed in one men's retreat, one pumpkin patch visit, numerous haircuts and lots and lots of hugs and tackles to both the very much missed grandparents.

 So what to do on a recovery day? Make home made creamy chicken and rice soup with biscuits.  I have to confess I made myself ill by eating so much, but it was soooo good!

 I love to see  how much the boys love Grandma and Big Grandpa and how excited they get when they are here...just too sad that it isn't all the time. I have learned not to tell the boys too much when they are coming though because it seems so much longer when they have to wait...the sudden visit has been working so much better!! I overheard Jack asking Maddie "do you have a dampa too? I do! I love my dampa"

Thank you for making the trip to see us and witness the boy's being dedicated in church on Sunday.  It was a really special moment to be able to share with the both of you.  We love you guys so much.

Field Trip

I had the pleasure of helping take Jack's pre-school class on their first field trip this last Thursday to Walter's Fruit Ranch at Green bluff.

 We went on a tractor ride, fed goats, picked apples, learned how the cider was made and most importantly picked pumpkins.

 It was really fun to go up there with the whole class all hyped up on natural cider sugar.  They were like a mini mob with lots of energy!

 This is Jack's buddy Cole whom he runs to hug every day.  They have a shared love of Thomas the Tank Trains, puzzles and snack time. 

 Notice how tall he is compared to the others? The two that come close just turned 5.

 Ahhhhhhhh....there it is, the 2010-2011 Calvary Christian Pre-school class.  Who knows if they have rocket scientists or future teachers in there but their little hearts are for God right now and and that's pretty cool to witness.

Jack made sure to pick out (a smaller) pumpkin for cooper to give him.  They are sitting on our front porch now and they kiss them when we go someplace and when its time for bed. 

Field Trip was a success.