Thursday, January 24, 2013

The odd goings on in our house...

So we are pretty used to the kids surprising us with new and different things but this takes it to a whole new level...  Actually, as you have probably guessed, I couldn't resist a little Photoshop fun!


Here is the full, un-cropped shot!


Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Christmas 2012

We had a wonderful and fun (and food) filled Christmas!  My mom and dad came out for the week and we had so much fun with them.  We started out Christmas by attending the Nutcracker Ballet.  Andrew wanted to come with us girls this year and he was such a good boy.  The kids loved it!  They often dance around the house to Tchaikovsky so they knew all of the music and characters before the show.  Elizabeth follows the story line very closely and sat on the edge of her seat the whole time.  Andrew liked "all the pretty girls" and the Chinese dragon.  Elizabeth loved everything.  Grandma got the kids little snow globes at the Nutcracker which they just love.







 And so the Nutcracker theme extended throughout all of Christmas, similar to last year.  Elizabeth painted her own Nutcracker with grandmom and was fascinated with cracking nuts.  She would still be cracking away if we were not all full of nuts!  While Elizabeth made a Nutcracker, Andrew constructed a clay gingerbread house.  His attention span is still fairly short but it came together good enough to declare "home" for Stink Bug.  And yes, Stink Bug is in capital letters as that is his official name.  As it is too cold outside to let him go, he has permanently taken residence in our house.  He has his own little cage and gets water and lettuce everyday.  I'll keep you posted on how long he lives this winter as now I'm really curious.









A favorite activity during the month of December was to watch the Christmas tree lights and the fire while drinking their milks warmed up.  It does not get any better than this!






The kids did their Christmas shopping at the dollar store using their allowances.  It was quite precious to participate in the purchases as there are many decisions to be made when picking out dollar store presents.  Daddy's gift was the funny face which turned out to be a big hit.  Everyone wanted to wear it!











And here's Andrew, showing us his favorite Christmas gifts.  His favorite toys right now (and basically since birth) include anything that make noise, has multiple buttons/switches or includes some sort of water feature (e.g. squirt bottle).  The howling dog guitar, play drill and portable music player all fit the bill. 


Jan outdid himself cooking this Christmas.  Let me say, we ate very well!


Merry Christmas family!  We look forward to our next reunion!



Andrew's 3rd Birthday

Our little buddy is 3!  Andrew was so excited about his birthday.  He decided that he wanted a yellow fish cake for his birthday so we had at it, thanks to a little help from Martha Stewart.  Andrew's cake didn't look at all like Martha's when it was all said and done.  With the help from Andrew and Elizabeth (and some proportionality issue help from Jan) it looked even better!




Andrew is such a wonderful and loving little boy.  He tries really hard to obey and be good; some days he is more successful than others.  I think a lot of that is competition with big sister.  We like to play with the kiddos one on one sometimes and when you get Andrew alone, he is very good.  He is such a happy and goofy little guy who is always making us laugh and smile.  As for his favorites  looking back on last year, they've changed quite a bit!   Favorite food - scrambled eggs, candy- lollypops,  game - building tents, hide and seek, movie - Veggie Tale's Little Drummer Boy, activity - playing drums and guitar and taunting sister in some way shape or form, book - Look and Find, stuffed animal - turtle and Nemo, song - changes weekly

British Isles!!! Mega Post!!!

June 21, 2019 Starting In Dublin, Clockwise Around:  (technically we did Dublin, then Glasgow, then Belfast and on to Inverness......