Sledding Fun

Somehow we have managed to live here for 4 winters now and haven't taken the boys out for proper sledding. Since we've gotten so much snow lately, I figured it would be fun to try it with them! It took me 3 stores to find one that still had sleds in stock and our options were pretty much limited to saucers. 

These two were pretty excited about sledding no matter what the shape was! I went ahead and bought two and they both claimed a color before we headed out. Priorities... ;)

We took them to a nearby elementary school that we had seen a group of people sledding at the other day. The hill had a few different slope angles on it and we started them off on one of the more gentle sides. 

Unsurprisngly, they were pretty into the sledding from the get-go!

But I mean, doesn't it just look like fun?? I was having to alternate between catching kids and taking photos, but they were clearly having a blast! 

We decided to take them down the steeper side of the hill, but figured it would be safer (and more fun!) to ride down with them. Honestly, at this point I am not sure who was having more fun on the sleds. Thomas got snow in his face on this particular run and he was pretty upset about it. Really should have brought his face mask!

But after a brief upset, they were back at it! Henry made it about half way up the hill each time before calling for a "boost, please mommy!". Thomas was able to make it up all on his own. One part of me is happy he's such an independent little guy, but the other part is crying about how big my baby is. Motherhood is hard. ;)

Henry was ready to tackle the big hill all on his own! He couldn't quite figure out how to sit up while going down the hill, but he was probably safer with a lower center of gravity anyhow. 

Safely down on another run! They were pretty insistent on using "their" sled at the beginning, but they weren't paying attention at the end. Also, check out Henry's new snow boots! As of this morning, he decided his old ones no longer fit. So we had a last minute run to buy him boots since his rain boots were also too small. I guess my youngest is going through a growth spurt! 

There's the happy guy again! Definitely a successful first attempt at sledding. Can't wait to do it again soon! :)

Happy Birthday to Matt!

Poor Matt had the misfortune of having his birthday fall on a Monday. Lucky for him, it was a federal holiday, so he got to hang out with his two little guys. By the time I got home, I had to rush to make dinner and a cake, so I didn't really get any photos.

That's not all I didn't get... I totally forgot to get him candles for his cake! I managed to scrounge up a 4 from a previous birthday and I substituted in an "i" for the 1. Thomas was not impressed by my efforts...

To top it off, the 4 didn't even have a wick and I couldn't light it.

Sigh.

But Matt didn't care because I bought him an amazing present! He's been hem-hawing about buying himself a pumper carb* for his bike for literally years. Looks pretty much like the happiest guy ever, right? 

I may have failed on photos and candles, but I win on the present! :)

*I literally have no idea what a pumper carb is, but Sam assured me I made a great choice when I told him what I bought. Whew!

Snow Art

When we were out shoveling snow the other day, Thomas told me that I should buy him a face mask. Apparently several of his friends at school have them and he felt that he would be much more comfortable with his face protected. It was a very fair point and I felt awful that other moms had thought of it while I clearly never had. Mom fail!

The next week, I went with Matt on a lunch shop trip to find warmer boots for his hunting trip and I got bored and started wandering around the store. I happened to find the kid face mask section and was super excited that they were exciting patterns. The Yeti pattern seemed super fitting for Henry (he loves it, btw!). 

I didn't get a close up of Thomas', but it is a Lego print - how appropriate! In the midst of a cleaning frenzy this weekend, I ran across the snow "markers" we had bought late in the season last year. The boys were super excited to use them, but they were a little hard for the to squeeze with their mittens on. So I borrowed them to write the boy's names in the snow - they love seeing their names written pretty much anywhere!

Except I suddenly had two little art critics on my hands! They were much more interested in destroying my art than thanking me for it. Whatever - I'm used to my efforts being under-appreciated. ;)

I drew them a few shapes just so they could destroy them, but when I went to take photos of them, tragedy struck!

*I* dropped *my* camera!

And not a gentle drop either. I keep my camera on a sling style strap and it hangs right next to my hip. When I am done shooting, I just let go and it hangs there. Except this time when I let go, it was followed by a loud bang. I cannot confirm or deny that any bad words were said, Matt would have to clarify. I just know my heart dropped and I was in a bit of a panic. 

Based on my test self-portrait, it looks like the camera is ok. The filter took the brunt of the fall and the extent of the damage to the camera might be some messed up threads on the front of my super favorite 20mm lens. I can't actually get the busted filter off, but I'm quite sure my McGyver husband can help me out there!

Happy Birthday to Me!

But first... The new season of soccer happens to coincide with my birthday. Which is perfectly fine with me since my birthday plans generally include spending all day with my boys anyhow. :)

Since it is the dead of winter, soccer is played indoors in The Dome. It's the biggest inflatable indoor stadium in the state (not that there is much competition...). Thomas has played here once before and apart from the lighting not being great for photos, it's an awesome venue.  

Even though it's been a few months since he's played, he got right back into it after just a few minutes. He's starting to look like a real soccer player too! This is the third club we've played with here and they are pretty big on teaching them specific ball handling skills, which is great! Also, his uniform is so fun - the coach convinced them that the team name should be Candy Canes - which I love because I had already declared he was an adorable looking candy cane. Ha!

But why did we try another soccer club?

Because...

Their kiddie soccer goes down young enough that Henry can play too! Sure, there groups are scheduled in such a way that we have a down hour between them, but that's pretty minor. Look at how excited my little guy is!!

He's wanted to play soccer every time he watches his big brother play and now it's his turn to play too. Kiddie soccer is really just about getting them comfortable with the ball and learning to listen to the coaches. And he did great for his first practice - he didn't quite get all of what was going on, but he got the gist of kicking the ball toward the goal and that's the start! :)

On to birthday time! Heather made the cake and Nonni decorated it for me. Henry clearly wasn't helping here, he just wanted to see the cake! 

Mom did a pretty good job on it. I may have insisted on the giant candles because I thought they were awesome. I figure we can re-use them in a few years when Matt turns 43. ;)

Even the girls were ready for a party! Ok, ready might be a strong word - Eliza was tolerant of the idea of a party. And didn't shake the hat off immediately when I put my birthday hat on her. Even Eliza is a good sport on her momma's birthday! :)

Bless her heart, Natalie tried. But she has the same blinking problem as I do apparently. I got a few photos, but none of them were any better. Love you anyways, sweet girl!

A Well Earned Break!

I finally got a break with work and took the vacation days that I had to burn before the end of the year. I had all of these thoughts for what I could get done, but I pretty much decided to hang out with the small people I live with and my family while they were still in town!

I had to go to work for a little bit this week and my dad built this awesome car garage to go with the boy's new Lego sets. As destructive as they are with Lego sets, this garage lasted for much longer than I expected. They clearly appreciated the hard word from their Grandpa!

I even dug out the play doh to play with. I bought these brown silicone mats for them to use with their play doh and they worked great! We only had one before and the other kid got shafted - unequal no more!

Also, you can see a "Matt" & "Jen" tally in the background on the door. It's our scoreboard for Klask and I am currently ahead. Woo! This is a recent thing, we have probably played well over 100 games by now. :)

Matt convinced us to make english muffin pizzas in his fancy new oven. Henry generally refuses to each pizza even though he claims to like it. They make this kind of pizza for them at daycare and I figured he would eat a similar pizza - especially if he made it!

He was a little messy with the sauce, but he absolutely made the pizza all by himself. 

And ate about two bites before not touching it again. Sigh... At least he likes pizza rolls or I would really wonder if he was switched at birth.

It's been snowing quite a bit this month and we have both been so busy that we have been driving over the snow in the driveway and compacted down to gross, hard snow. Thomas kept me company the other day when I cleared part of the driveway, so all of us headed out to *finish the job today. Of course, we had to play a little bit before getting down to work...

Henry really wanted to use the big shovel, but he couldn't quite manage with his mittens on...

I went in the garage and found him a Henry sized shovel and he was much happier! He didn't contribute *that* much help, but at least we were all hanging out in the great outdoors together! :)

Thomas was so amazed at the big pieces of snow I was busting up. He kept picking them up to show me how big they were. I couldn't quite convince him to throw them into the pile of snow on the side of the driveway, he was much more into throwing them down to break them into smaller pieces. And then I had more snow to clear. Sigh... ;)

*Ok, so we finished the right side of the driveway. Breaking up compacted snow is hard work!

I realized I hadn't posted a photo of my new oven. Isn't it pretty?!? It goes nicely with the new tiny oven on the counter next to it. And I have to admit, I use the tiny oven way more than I thought I would. You can preheat and cook pigs in a blanket before the big oven finishes heating up. Or cook cornbread in the tiny oven while using the big oven for dinner. I love both of the ovens!

And look at this evenly cooked blueberry pie. I had a game night for some friends and the only photo I really cared about was the pie. Sorry guys - I love you, but look at how nicely cooked this pie is! You understand, right?? 

Christmas Day

Just like the last 4 years, we got matching Christmas pjs! We went back to a traditional Christmas look this year instead of the Star Wars ones we did last year. And since there was still a giant oven next to the Christmas tree, we switched to the fireplace for photos this year!

The boys and I took a few practice photos before we even managed to get Matt out of bed. Eliza also joined in the photo trial run. Clearly everyone but one was taking this seriously. Henry, what are you doing?

We tried to get one of all six of us looking at the camera, but no dice this year. A for effort?

This was my favorite one though, the boys actually look happy to be taking photos once they were sitting in our laps. Guess we can't do this when they are 18, so might as well take advantage of it now! Also, Eliza looks super disappointed that she isn't in my lap. Sorry, sweetie!

In the most random of coincidences, I actually bought Matt an oven for Christmas as well. A tiny, countertop one! He's always talking about getting a toaster oven and I think they are silly, but they have come a long way from just being able to make toast. In fact, these awesome cinnamon rolls were made in the "Smart" oven.

Santa may have gone a little overboard this year on stocking stuffers, but Santa forgot what "he" had bought already and kept buying more stuff. But my personal favorite had to be these adorable gorilla slippers! They keep stealing my tiger slippers, so I bought them their own.

I mean Santa did...

And as in tradition, I bought Matt a quadcopter. But since he wrecked his the next day last year, Santa brought him an entire crash kit with multiple of everything. Wreck away, sweetie. (He did manage to get it stuck on the roof this morning, but was a master retriever!)

Lego building time! They pretty much spent most of the day building all of their Lego kits. Matt and I spent a good bulk of the day playing that game on the right - Klask. I bought it for Matt kinda on a whim and we love it so much! Everyone should just take my word for it and buy it. (Heather already did after playing it!)

Henry putting together his first Lego kit. He needed a little bit of help from his dada, but he did pretty awesome for a 2 year old with a 4-6 year old kit. 

They got several new dress up sets, but Henry would not let me take a photo of him in the super adorable astronaut costume. I managed to get a photo under the train table of him hiding from me, but trust me, the full view was cuter! Either way, adorables! Love these kids. :)

Christmas Eve

It may not have been obvious from my post yesterday, but I love the little dinosaur almost as much as the boys do:

And I put him to work helping me make a gingerbread cake for my parents who would be arriving later today! He wasn't quite as helpful as the boys, but he also didn't make a mess... ;)

Another holiday and unfortunately I was back having to sit at the computer periodically. Luckily, I had plenty of help this time to make a proper Christmas Eve fondue dinner! The nice part of a big kitchen is that you can fit plenty of helpers in there!

The gingerbread cake Rexy & I made. Unfortunately, my crap-tastic oven decided to burn the top of it and I may have said some very nasty things about how useless it is. It has really been a pain lately. It will burn the top of something and the middle is still raw. I am not a bad baker, this is clearly an equipment issue...!

This little guy pretty much just asked for Legos. For awhile, he told me all he wanted for Christmas was me (after listening to the All I Want for Christmas is You song), but later amended it to be: Me, Matt, Henry and Legos. He really had his heart set on this space shuttle kit and it was discontinued not long after he told Nonni about it. Luckily Nonni and I were able to track one down for not too much more than it would have originally cost. Worth it for that smile!

Henry got a wider assortment of gifts since he was less vocal about what he wanted. But apart from the DVD, Lincoln Logs, etc - he also got a bunch of Legos. We are apparently a Lego family now... (Can I amend the "No Shoes in the House" rule??).

Heather went to Bali this year and bought most of us gifts from there. Mom was pretty excited about this hand carved elephant piece. I didn't get a picture of it, but Heather bought Matt a Digeridoo from Bali as well. Side note - he absolutely loves it, but I had no idea she hated me. ;)

But we had to save the biggest for last. Matt had to have Eric come help him to even get this present in the house and it took several rolls of wrapping paper to cover it. I had no clue what it was and it was driving Matt crazy that I wouldn't even guess. Dad was giving Matt a hard time about how they managed to fit a motorcycle in a box of that size. Ha!

When the time finally came to open the giant box, I had two helpers to get it open. 

And what was this awesomely large present...?!?

A new oven!!!! Aaaaaahhhhhh!!! I was so excited when I realized what it was! Matt has told me several times how it would be hard to find a replacement because it's a microwave / oven unit. But he found one and it is beautiful and I am sooooo excited to get this thing installed and put it to work! No more burned gingerbread cakes in this house!

Early Christmas Skype!

Because we moved *so* far from home, sometimes we aren't around family for the holidays. But that doesn't mean we can't utilize technology to spend the holidays together digitally! Plus, the Dallas family had to do Christmas on Friday, so we got to enjoy Christmas for a full long weekend. Woo! 

The kids are doing better at actually staying in front of the camera, but it's still a bit of run away-run back. Unsurprisingly, they did much better once there were presents being opened.

Aunt Jo bought them a book about a Mustache Baby and a set of fake mustaches to go along with it. Henry wouldn't keep them on long enough for me to get a photo, but Thomas was more than happy to ham it up for the camera. 

But the best present she sent was not the fake mustaches...

It was this inflatable T-Rex! It took us a little bit of effort, but we got him blown up so that the boys could show Aunt Jo how excited they were!

But, she didn't stop there - she sent two inflatable dinosaurs. And she figured the 4' dino wouldn't be *that* much bigger than the 3' dinosaur. But he was much, much bigger - we finally got light headed trying to blow him up and switched to using the air compressor to finish him off. Of course, Giant Red T-Rex was promptly turned into a horsey ride. 

Unlike his smaller brethern though, he fought back! There were dinosaurs and kids flying all around the living room. It certainly did a better job keeping them in front of the camera - though it probably looked like pure chaos on the other end. 

We got other fun presents from everyone, but they were clearly overshadowed by the giant dinosaurs. I'm so thankfully for the technology that lets us feel together even when 4,000 miles apart. Merry Christmas to all of our Dallas family! :)

Baking Break!

I actually had a weekend with nothing to do (and no working from home!), so I conned the boys into helping me make some treats. Obviously, I love baking and I am trying to instill a love of it in my boys. At least enough that they will hang out with me while I am doing it - and maybe make me birthday cakes in the future?

Clearly, the two of them were having lots of fun helping me today. They weren't really sure what I was doing with the different blue and white batters, but they were happily narrating my choices to eat other. "Momma's using the dark blue! Oh Henry, look she put it right on top of the white one!" 

Much more entertaining than baking alone...!

I was making cupcakes and a cake to celebrate different things at work. I was making the cupcakes for one of the drillers and the only help I got from coworkers was that he liked jerky - which is pretty hard to incorporate into a cake. But if you like jerky, the odds are pretty high you would also like bacon. So I decided to make cupcakes topped with candied bacon!

I have to be honest, these might have been one of the simplest, but amazing cupcakes I have made in a while. Candied bacon makes everything better! On a totally related note, both of the boys may now be a little obessed with candied bacon...

Once the boys were distracted, I got to work on decorating the cake. They are super helpful with baking, but not so much on decorating (yet!). This was a shark themed cake, so I had looked up several idea cakes on Pinterest and combined them. One of my favorite part was "waves" on the side of the cake that were created from strips of fondant and a circle cutter - so easy!

A little less easy was the painting...! I love the painting in theory (and looks), but man it was taking forever to dry. In the end, I kinda gave up on waiting for it to dry and decided to wing it on wrapping the cake. I managed to get them up without too much smearing and only needed to yell for Matt to come help me once. ;) 

And the finished cake! So ocean-y!

My favorite part is the shark on top though. I didn't quite follow the pattern of the one I saw online (I was getting tired, honestly), but he still turned out pretty adorable! And the little "waves" he's jumping out of just made him look even better. Not bad for a relaxing day of cake making. :)

Also, I love that my velcro dog is never far away from me. Though she's not crazy - she is laying on the padded mat that is closest to me instead of right next to me on the tile. :)

Holiday Train

It's finally time for one of my favorite holiday traditions - our 4th annual Holiday Train ride! And the fact that we barely made it in time to get on the train because we were running super late was not going to cloud the day for me. We were on board and ready for some fun!

Especially these guys! They love Christmas and they love the train - could there be a better combination?!?

Ok well, Henry was pretty obsessed with the lights for the first few minutes and couldn't be convinced to stop hitting the switches. Oh to be amused by such little things again... 

Every year we do the train, it seems to get better and more organized. (Or maybe our kids are getting older and easier to hang out with?). Either way, they handed out the coloring packets and ornament craft right away to get the kids busy. You can also see that we have learned from the crayon deficiency of previous years and packed our own tin of crayons for this year. :)

I helped Thomas tie the pipe cleaners together for the ornament and he was stringing the beads on in no time. A few minutes later I realized that Matt was still trying to figure out what he was supposed to be doing to get started. I could have told him, but it was more fun to take a photo and tease him. Married life is the best! :)

But don't worry, Matt figured it out and Henry finally got to work on his ornament. He did a pretty good job putting it together - his dexterity is definitely improving!

Every year when Santa has come by, Thomas has hid or refused to look at him. But apparently that is in the past, he was all smiles when Santa stopped by our table. He even happily smiled for the camera.  

Henry was not at all interested, but we tried to get him in a photo anyhow. You can see he's way more interested in the jingle bell ball than Mr & Mrs. Claus. Well that and the candy canes... 

Speaking of which, I don't know what it is with these boys and the candy cane balloons. I think they are the lamest balloons that are offered, but this year both of them wanted it! Of course, they didn't stay bent for long at all and ended up becoming swords. Believe it or not, I call that an improvement... 

Also notice the extra candy cane hiding in his pocket that Henry charmed from Mrs. Claus. Candy cane obsessed, I tell you!

Then the carolers came through! Henry loved them (or his hot chocolate...), but Matt not so much. In fact, it reminded me quite strongly of the expression Thomas had on his face two years ago. I guess they are related! :)

This year, the boys were excited enough about the magician to be front and center. I couldn't exactly tell what was going on because we were a few rows away, but it looked like Thomas even helped on a magic trick! Also, look at the adorable penguin balloon... So much cuter than candy canes!

But the best part was when Thomas guessed the number of candies in this bucket and got the whole bucket! We waited pretty late to go write a guess down, so we only had a few number slots left to chose, but apparently it was the right one. Look how proud his is of himself! I managed to win one of the trivia games too, so we kept up our streak of winning big (aka: coffee cups) for the past several years!

We convinced some friends to join us with their two boys this year, so we even managed to get a family photo! All around a great outing with the kids and I am sure their sugar high will wear off eventually. :)