For Posterity's Sake

Easter 2006

Easter 2005

Easter 2013

I love it when I can find clothes that match in toddler and boy sizes. This is probably my last chance to dress all my kids in matching outfits, so I went for it.

Skyler appears to be up to something and Jonah and Oliver look skeptical

We also did our park easter egg hunt. I wasn't going to, but then Jonah said "aren't we going to have an Easter egg hunt at the park?" so we did. Jonah also requested that we color eggs this year (which we haven't done for several years), so we did. I guess Jonah was calling the shots this year? The boys all got hexbugs in their baskets. One is already out of batteries and another is missing. They love them, though!

Another Week

OLIVER and I went to the aquarium. I asked him if he would like to go to the aquarium and see the fish and he looked at me all funny and said, "fish? huh?". I took Skyler to the zoo or gardens or aquarium on nearly a weekly basis when he was Oliver's age. And, once Skyler was in school, I took Jonah (and baby Oliver) fairly frequently too. But, clearly, it has been so long for Oliver that he had no idea what I was talking about. On our way out, he sat down in the photo booth and insisted we get our pictures taken.

JONAH went to a birthday party for a little girl in his class. At the last minute, he didn't want to go (but still fully intended on going to get her a gift, because he's sweet like that) because he said he didn't like girls. He changed his mind, and had a very fun time (though I heard complaints from him that there were too many girls there). From talking to the birthday girl's mom, I gathered that Jonah is quite popular with the kindergarten ladies.

SKYLER got a start on his pinewood derby car. He is making it to look like Grem from Cars 2.

I decorated and un-decorated for Valentine's Day. Now the spot where my decor was looks a little bare. Which is odd because the spot remained empty from the time I took down the Christmas decor the week after Christmas and early this week when I put up my garland of hearts.

JORDAN got his hair cut and told me I did the best job I have ever done cutting his hair. Okay, he didn't really say that, but I do think I did a darn good job this go 'round.

New Year's Trip to Durango

We wanted to get out of town for New Years (to take advantage of the fact that Jordan had several days off) and at the last minute decided to go up to Durango, CO. We weren't the only ones with this plan as it was very hard to find a place to stay! We lucked out and ended up with a great price at a great bed and breakfast.

While there we played in the snow, ate in a "fancy" restaurant (not really, just more fancy than anything my kids have ever eaten at!), visited Mesa Verde National Monument and rode a train up into the mountain.

A view from the train.

On the train

The train stopped for a little lunch break after about an hour and half. 

In front of the train

I quite enjoy the look of sheer terror on Jordan's face

The view from our suite at the Bed and Breakfast. That gate marks the end of our little backyard that was perfect for snow angels and snowball fights.

This Week

OLIVER was quiet one day, so I went to find him. He told me he was pretending to be a baby koala. Fair enough, carry on then. He has also been telling me quite a bit that I am his favorite mommy. He also says that he only likes me when I tell him to put on pajamas. He doesn't like me when I ask him to pick things up, go to church, or put on clothes.

JONAH has been asking for awhile to go to the magic shop and buy a magic trick. He had earned enough money and we had enough time on Saturday, so Jordan took him. But, the store was closed and will not re-open until next month when it opens under new ownership. He was a sad little boy, but got a frozen yogurt date with daddy as a consolation prize (a date I imagine he would have had either way, but don't tell him that).

SKYLER found a cricket inside our house and was upset when Jordan made him put it outside. The next day, he found the cricket again (it had a missing back leg, it didn't really go far), brought it inside and made a home for it out of a shoebox. He now claims he has a pet cricket. He looked up information about crickets and learned that its lifespan is only about a month, so I hope that will ease the pain when the cricket inevitably dies.

I had an ultrasound this week, because we are expecting another baby and all. Baby looks good and we (I?) are happy to report that its gender is still unknown. I also organized the junk drawer.

JORDAN gives it three days before the junk drawer starts to become a huge mess again. On Monday, he spent about an extra 12 hours at airports after his 6 am flight home from Dayton, OH was cancelled. He was in the Cincinnati area for a board meeting of the American Watchmakers and Clockmakers Institute.

The Spirit of Giving

Once the older two started sneaking around and making and wrapping Christmas gifts for the rest of the family, Oliver wanted to join in too. Oliver's idea of gift giving was finding anything he could and wrapping it up for someone. This drove me crazy to no end (he ended up wrapping a lot of stuff), but how I was I supposed to tell him no? Everyone really got a kick out of this on Christmas morning and when it was time to open presents from Oliver, it was fun to see which DVD or book he decided to wrap up. I was especially happy to see one DVD case that he had wrapped while the actual DVD was still in the DVD player - I had been looking for that case for quite a long time! Jonah was not happy, however, to see that Oliver had wrapped up a little plastic snowman that he got on the last day of school. Apparently, he had been looking for that too!

On Christmas Eve, Skyler was sad that he hadn't bought gifts for his brothers. I told him that maybe if he had brought this up several days ago, we could have done something about it. :) He had great gifts for his brothers though - a coupon saying that he would clean their room, $1, and a ring toss game that he had made in cub scouts. He and Jonah also worked together to make a board game for Oliver. It's nice to know my kids can be nice to each other sometimes!

Christmas Morning

This year we did a time lapse video for Christmas morning. I love it because it really tells the story of the morning in just three minutes!



And here's a picture of each kid with their Santa gift:

Ollie and his Doggos (with my new bike in the background)

Jonah and his Spiderman mega web blaster and boots

Skyler and his Domino Rally

A Visit to the Tree Lot

The other post was already a bit picture heavy, so I decided this topic gets its own.
The pumpkin patch that we love to visit transforms itself into a fun tree lot after the pumpkins all go away. We didn't buy a tree, but we still had a lot of fun playing!

Writing a letter to Santa. I don't know what #1 is supposed to be, but #2 (and #3, I guess) is Doggo (stuffed animal dogs). He would ask Santa for that every time with full confidence that Santa would know exactly what a Doggo is.

#5 says "Dad wants a bunny" and while we normally spell Oliver's nickname "Ollie", we take what we can get when he is doing the writing and spelling all by himself!

Skyler decided to sneak in the window. Bad timing, because look who was watching!

Santa peeks in to make sure everyone (ahem, Skyler) is behaving.

Preparing for Christmas

Last year I did a photo a day thing for December showcasing all of our fabulously fun Christmas activities (or lack of, which was more frequently the case). It was a great little project and I was looking forward to doing it again, and started off with a bang, but ultimately I just wasn't feeling it.

Here are some pictures that would have been part of that series, though.

The first thing one must do to prepare for Christmas is attend a football game (just go with me on this one). We took the boys to watch Jordan's alma mater play in the high school state semi-final game. A high school game makes a perfect first football game! It took the boys a while to really get into it (like, half the game), but once I took them up to the very front of the bleachers and they got to see things up close, they thought it was really cool (kind of strange actually, considering it's a bit harder to see what's going on when you aren't up a bit in the bleachers). We had to leave just a bit early and they were sad to go. Skyler and Jordan returned the next weekend to watch the state final (it was Jordan's high school versus the high school that the kids will go to if we stick around in this neighborhood, kind of funny!).

And then we have to decorate the tree. I was so excited to finally get a nice picture of the lighted tree - though I realized it really wasn't that hard! The kids (Skyler especially) weren't too keen on decorating the tree in the dark, so this was what I got.

We have never had a tree topper for our tree. I don't really know why, I guess we have just never found one we liked enough. I want a star and Jordan wants an angel so that tends to complicate things. Stars must be easier to build from legos, because the boys and Jordan set out one Sunday morning to create this for our tree.

This is a book I got for Christmas from my dad when I was about Skyler's age. It is full of Christmas stories, songs, crafts, and recipes. There's an advent story in it that is meant to be read one chapter each night in December. I think this year was the first year I have ever read it as it was intended! It is kind of a lame story, but it was fun to read a part each night nonetheless.

The kids were very into listening to Christmas songs this year. One night they turned off all the lights and danced around with glow sticks, and I took some cool pictures.

Oliver and I visited Jonah's class when they decorated gingerbread houses. I thought it was pretty neat that Jonah's teacher had some extra supplies on hand so that Oliver could do one too! And I thought it was even neater that Oliver could do this and not even care that he couldn't eat any of the candy! He even would ask me to wipe off his fingers anytime he got frosting on them.

This year on the Sunday before Christmas I decided to torture my boys with suit coats! For weeks, I talked it up like getting to wear a suit coat and tie to church was the coolest thing ever and they must have bought it because I faced very little opposition when it was time to get dressed for church!

Giving Thanks

Before we move on to Christmas, let's deal with Thanksgiving, shall we?

The kids' school has a Thanksgiving lunch, so Oliver and I ate lunch at school with Jonah and Skyler and spent some time on the playground with eack of them.

We spent Thanksgiving with Jordan's parents and his sister's family. The day after Thanksgiving, we visited White Sands, which (for the uninitiated) is just what it sounds like - dunes of white very fine sand as far as the eye can see. It is perfect for sledding down.

Jonah is five and a half

Jonah has been begging me to come and eat lunch with him at school, so I told him and Skyler that on their half birthdays I would come to eat lunch with them and bring them anything they wanted. Jonah chose a bean burrito from home and chicken nuggets from McDonald's. I tried to tell him that he could only pick from one place, but he and Skyler both reminded me that I did say "anything" and Jordan told me that I should be flattered that when he could chose anything his little heart desired one of the things he chose was a burrito made by me. So, I whipped up a bean burrito and then drove through McDonald's. He was telling all the kids that I was there with McDonald's because it was his half birthday and that was met with a bunch of birthday greetings for him. We never got around to a cake for him this year (shhhh... don't tell him) because that night was our church Christmas party and by the next night, he had forgotten.

Jonah:
loves Spiderman
loves to draw and do mazes (and make them, too)
really doesn't care for meat, but will happily eat salad and carrot sticks (and sometimes broccoli)
likes to invent games with Oliver
likes to play computer games
runs around in circles while talking to me
likes to build with legos
loves to be silly and tell jokes
likes to bake (but mostly eat) treats, he has a big sweet tooth
doesn't like girls because they chase him

Oliver is Three and a Half

We celebrated Oliver's half-birthday with half-birthday cookies and a special half-birthday song ("half a birthday to you, half a birthday to you...). It's fun that something so simple can make the kids so excited.

Oliver loves:

• pajamas
• ketchup
• dogs (especially of the toy variety)
• pretending to be a dog
• being with his brothers (he gets very shy when we are out places without them, not so much when he is with them)
• being without his brothers (he very much enjoys the time while they are at school)
• playing computer games
• watching Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood

We Celebrated Fall

Now that it's December, I thought it would be a great time to write all about some of the other (non-balloon related) things that I like about October.

The botanic gardens hosts a harvest festival each year. There's a hayride, crafts, demonstration booths, and most importantly - fresh apple cider. The apple cider is why we go, but it has turned into a fun fall tradition.

Superhero cornhusk dolls duking it out

Watching the apple cider being made

Another fun October activity is a small local pumpkin "patch". We've done this for several years and it just keeps getting bigger and more fun.

Feeding the goats - it goes in the bucket and then you maneuver the bucket up to the goats, or dump it into a feed container, but normally the goats intercept the bucket.