Trip to Minnesota

We had such a fun trip to Minnesota. We took a lot of pictures, so I just chose a couple.

Mall of America-Underwater Adventure

Tony and the boys

Swimming at the hotel

Nickelodeon Universe

Supper with Sondra and Hailee

Happy 11th Anniversary

The March

March of Dimes is a nonprofit organization that is (from their website) dedicated to improving the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.  For the past couple of years we have joined our friends, the Tillberg's, in this walk in honor/support of their little boy Emery who was born premature.  While both of our boys were born at full term, there are still so many babies that are born too early. 

 

My cousin and Easter eggs

My cousin, Kimberly, has a blog which is always whitty and fun to read.  She's a terrific writer and always has new projects that she's working on around the house.  At Easter time, she came over to my parent's house for Easter lunch, then we dyed Easter eggs with the boys.  As we're dying eggs she's complimenting me on how great my eggs look and how creative they are...and I'm thinking, "You, who have redone your whole house and are continually adding creative ideas into your home, think my eggs are creative?"  It was a funny moment that we decided needed to be blogged about.  I guess it's always neat to see how God has given people different giftings and abilities-no matter how big or small.

Kim's are the two plain eggs in the back and the flower next to it.  My sister's eggs are the two on the right front, the red one behind it and the other flower one.  Mine are the rest.

For my sister

Some pictures for my sister...and the few other people who know about this blog.

Caleb's leprechaun trap (made with the help of Grandpa Steve & Grandma Pam)

Caleb & his friend Conner at Sparks-A-Rama (for Awana's)

Kindergarten Space Night

One of the high school teachers has been to NASA's space camp & had some cool pics.

My dad's birthday

My dad turned 54 this year. The boys and I went over to my parent's house for his birthday dinner. (Tony had a basketball game) I'm very blessed to have such a great dad.

My dad and me

Grandpa and the boys

Playing hide-n-seek

How sweet...until

I don't really like to cook, so when I make (or attempt to make) a good supper, I'm proud of myself.  The other night I made cheeseburgers, fried potatoes, corn, and salad.  Caleb was eating the cheeseburger and said, "Mom, this tastes like Burger King."  Wow! I thought.  How sweet...until- "Well, the mustard on the cheeseburger tastes like theirs."   

A few days earlier Caleb was asking how old I was.  I told him that I was 30.  He said, "You don't look very old for 30."   How sweet, I thought, until- "But then you're gonna get old and then you die."  Thanks for the reminder.

Joshua's first lost tooth

And a Happy New Year

Merry Christmas

Holiday traditions

My cousin, Kim, tagged me a few days ago about Christmas traditions.  We have several traditions that we do each year.  We start by decorating the Christmas tree and putting out a few decorations in the house.  We put on Christmas music and I try to get the boys to dance with me.  

We normally go to Tony's step-dad's side of the family the weekend before Christmas (this year it's the weekend after because of Tony's sister's graduation for college).  Christmas eve we go to Tony's aunt's house (his mom's side), and my parents normally join us there.  Christmas morning we have breakfast with Tony's mom's side of the family.  We get together with Tony's dad and step-mom some time on Christmas eve or Christmas (this year bright and early Christmas morning).  Since my sister has been married, we get together with my side of the family the week after Christmas when she's back to visit. Ok, so that might be a little confusing to read through...

One tradition that we started with the boys is to let them open one present from their stocking starting the week before Christmas.  We got a little excited and they've opened a couple from under the tree too.  Sometimes we just can't help ourselves.  Christmas morning we read the Christmas story and then the boys open the rest of their presents.

I think my favorite tradition is making "gingerbread (graham cracker) houses" with the boys.  

The church that we're at now has a Christmas eve service so we'll be doing that this year too.

I think that's about it.  So now I'll tag my sister, Sarah, Kim, and Jessica.  What are your Christmas traditions?

Chili anyone?

I'm not sure if you can read the tag on the ornament, but it says "3rd Place Winner, Bell's Chili Cook-Off 2008."  3rd place!  And no, it wasn't out of 3.  I know there were at least 11 crockpots...my distant cousin (that I see at the grade school I work at) said there were 14.  Anyway, each year my mom's aunt & uncle have a chili cook-off at their house.  Since I don't cook or bake or anything like that, I normally just go and try all the chili that other people make.  After you try all the chili, you vote for which one you like the best.  The first place winner gets their name on a plaque and the honor of wearing the chili pepper apron the next year.  Second and third place get a smaller prize and a chance to try again next year.  I don't know what came over me, but I decided that I would try to make some this year.  Of course I didn't expect to win anything, I just thought it would be fun to join in.  The chili cook-off takes place the same night as the downtown has their Christmas walk.  So Tony and I took the boys and walked with my cousins to see the "Christmas windows."  You would not believe how surprised I was when I got back and my mom said I got 3rd place and handed me the prize.  I ran back to my cousin, Kim , and we jumped up and down.  (If you scroll down a few posts on her blogspot, you can see a picture of me holding my prize box in front of a chili pepper tree.  You can also keep scrolling down because my cousin has some really cute/creative Christmas things up in her house that you should take a look at.)  Although she didn't win, Caleb ate 3 bowls!! of her chili.  My own son did not vote for me, but he went home with a very happy, full belly.  So that was my exciting news from the weekend.  Who knows, maybe I'll even have to try again next year.

What's my excuse...

We've had the internet at our house for a week now and I haven't updated my blog yet.  (Thanks Sarah for reminding me.)  My excuse...time management.  Well, we are still trying to unpack the little things from our move two weeks ago and I started working two more hours each morning at the school, so I'm still trying to figure out a schedule for myself.  Sounds like a good excuse to me. Right?  We did manage to get our Christmas tree up and put out some of our decorations while we were unpacking.  

At first the boys were putting all of the decorations in one place, so Tony reminded them that they could spread them out over the whole tree.

They did a pretty good job.

 

Highlights

Tony took our home computer to his office today so we could use the internet to update a few programs...so while the boys are at the Awana program tonight, I had time to download a few pictures.

At our friend Tim's wedding in Michigan

Tim and the boys

Prizes from Dave & Buster's

On the way home, we stopped in Indiana for a few hours to visit with some friends that went to North Central with Tony.  The kids played at the park -they hit it off right away-then Scott and Sheryl took us to The Panda Express for supper.  What a great treat!  We really appreciated that and had a fun visit.  These are two of their kids with the boys.

 

My parents' new motorcycle.  My dad took Caleb for a ride...Josh thought it was too loud and didn't want to try.

I just thought this was a cute picture of Josh playing in the leaves.

The boys carving pumpkins with Grandpa Jerry

The boys Halloween costumes...well, part of them anyway.  Caleb had a yellow ninja vest but didn't want to wear it and Josh had black to go under his ninja costume, but got to hot.  It was 75 degrees that day.  It was great!  They went trick-or-treating with some kids from the church (The Big, Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood) to a few of their neighbors houses

Caleb's birthday present from Grandpa Jerry & Grandma Tootie (she just had neck surgery)

Caleb's birthday present from mom & dad.  He's been saving up for an ipod, so we found one that was refurbished and got it for his birthday.  He listens to it everyday on the bus ride to school.

Tony picked out the Kung Fu Panda Cake-Caleb really liked that surprise

Friends at the birthday party

Emery at the birthday party 

Missing

Ever since we had to stop our internet service I feel like a little piece of me is missing...you.  So cheesey, but true.  I know that only a few people read this, but I really enjoy reading about what you guys are up to.  So much happens in a week and you don't realize it until you don't have the chance to download the latest pictures or check what's going on.  There may be good news on the horizon-we found a different house to rent...one that is cheaper rent each month and has cable accessibility.  The house that we rent right now is too far outside of town and they don't have cable that runs out that far.  So we'll be moving into the new house toward the end of next month and we may get our internet back.  I know it's not a necessity, but it will be so nice to update things, read the news, check the weather, etc.

In case you were wondering

My sister had a baby a few weeks ago and I went to visit her in Massachusetts.  My niece is adorable.  I'll have to write about that when I have time.  Anyway, we had to get rid of our internet while I was there because of a big, unexpected internet bill, so I have to go to Tony's office to use the computer.  So I have a lot to write about when I have more time...

Don't blink

People always say that kids grow up so fast.  I've heard people say, "Don't blink or you'll miss it."  There have been several times when I've thought that myself.  On Saturday, Tony's aunt and uncle had a BBQ at their house with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins.  The boys spent the night at Tony's dad's the night before, so we met them there.  After we said "hi" to everybody, we see Caleb with a huge grin on his face...riding up to us on a bike!  That might not seem like a big deal, but he didn't know how to ride a bike by himself the day before.  Caleb is a very cautious kid and was too nervous to ride a bike by himself when we've tried in the past.  His training wheels broke this past summer so we bought a balancing handle that the parent can walk behind the bike and hold for support.  Tony's been helping him bike around the driveway for a few weeks, but Caleb still liked having someone there in case he lost his balance.  So when we saw him ride up on his own at the BBQ, it was a big deal for us.  Plus, the grin on his face-you could tell he was proud-was priceless.  

Family Pic

We clean up pretty good 

I'm an aunt!

My sister and her husband had their first baby this morning at 2am.  Her name is Karis Marie.  She has brown hair.  She weighed 7 lbs. 2 ozs. and was 18 ins. long.  She's so precious.  

And they're off

I had a little more time to mentally/emotionally prepare for the boys' first bus ride this morning than I had for Joshua going to kindergarten (see previous post), so I did pretty good this morning.  Both of the boys have wanted to ride the bus, so they were very excited and climbed right in.   While the boys did run out of the door before they brushed their teeth, we were ready on time.