Waterpark...

Earlier this week, we stayed 2 nights in a hotel that has an indoor waterpark. We went for a night before Thanksgiving last year and absolutely loved it, so we went back during Adam's winter break from preschool. Both the boys (and Dan and I) have so much fun in the waterpark. They have 2 huge waterslides, a lazy river, a toddler pool, and an area where water is dumping everywhere.

I would have loved to take pictures of the boys, but it requires too much supervision of the boys for me to go to the room get my camera and then for me to take pictures for a short period and then walk the camera back to the room all while Dan watches both boys. I thought it was more important that neither of them drowned :-). They rarely wanted to do the same thing at the same time, so Dan and I split up and "played" with each of the boys by themselves. I did, however, go into the waterpark for a few minutes by myself during some down time and took some pictures without the boys, just so we could remember the hotel. It is so neat...it has an elf theme, and there is such attention to details...from the 2 story tree in the lobby, to the mushrooms and elves around the lazy river.

It's funny, the last time we were at the hotel, all Adam could talk about was this huge bucket that would fill up with water and then dump all over. A bell would ring when it was about to dump, and Adam would run as far away as possible...yet it was his favorite thing to talk about afterwards. This time...he got more adventureous and started joining the kids (and adults) who would run to get dumped on when the bell was ringing. He also indulged Dan and I many times by going down the big slides with us. Andrew also grew more adventureous this time...he wanted to go down the slides, too. We didn't take him on the big ones, but there were some slides he could go on by himself and some he could go on with us...he LOVED them!!

Hopefully, sometime, I can take pictures to get the expressions on the boys faces (actually, I met someone the last day...when all our money was packed in the car...who had bought a wateproof disposable camera from the hotel, so I'll try that next time). It's so much fun to see how much fun the boys are having...and Dan and I have fun too! The added bonus was that we had the boys to bed at 7:15 the second night...which is not that much earlier than their normal bedtime...but it was at a hotel! All that playing wore them out!

Brrr...it's cold!

Well, it's been freezing outside the last couple of days...so the boys and I have not ventured outside for awhile...ok, some of that may be due to the fact that I had a stomach virus yesterday and barely made it out of bed the whole day! Anyway, Adam didn't have preschool today and I didn't have anything going, so we've stayed in today.

I wanted to share a couple of pictures that I've taken over the last couple of days. It seems like every year I take so many pictures for Christmas that I get tired of taking pictures and then have almost no pictures during January (good thing neither of the boys were born in January!). Anyway, I finally pulled out my camera the other day and thought I better get into it again. Adam got an internet connection to the computer in his room for Christmas. It only allows him to go to the websites that he has "keys" for...such as Sesame Street, Thomas the Train, etc. So, he loves to get on the computer and play games. Andrew also loves to get in the chair behind Adam and watch what he's doing on the computer (and when the computer's free, he likes to try to do his own thing...that's the great thing about this internet connection...they can't mess up the computer!). Well, I took some pictures of Andrew on the back of the chair, and he actually was posing and hamming it up for the camera! Then, today, Adam and I were hanging out while Andrew was sleeping, and I thought...he is so cute (an unbiased mother speaking)...I'm going to take some pictures. Of course, since we're having a lazy day, his hair is sticking up everywhere...but that's Adam!

Well, I didn't think had anything to talk about...and I've written a book. Enjoy the pictures!

Sledding Video

I got an Expresscard with a Firewire port for my laptop on my birthday, so I can now load video onto the computer. Here's some video from a month ago when the kids were sledding on my in-laws hill next to the house. I will load some birthday pictures later.

Prayer and a Cabinet

Tonight, Adam was praying before bed. Usually, he likes to give us a laundry list of things to pray for (like Busy Bees and Lovable Lions...his classes at preschool....and the Thomas table that's in one of his classes). Well, tonight, I urged him to talk to Jesus himself and thank him for those things. Anyway, he said he wanted to be a Superhero to keep people safe...like Brooke in Schoolhouse friends. Brooke is a girl that he seems to have taken a fancy to at the Thanksgiving program. He was sitting next to her while we were eating refreshments afterwards. For awhile after that, we would have to stand at the end of the hall when we were leaving preschool waiting for Brooke and her mom to walk by...where Adam would proceed to run off or make noises :-). I think it's cute!

Also, just so I have a picture in this post...I'm going to include one of Andrew at his gramma's house. There is a cabinet in the kitchen that he loves to get into. Adam has always loved it since it has plastic pitchers and a wooden serving tray. He'd like to serve us "pizza". Well, gramma has since learned to empty almost everything out, and Andrew likes to get into the cabinet, say "ByeBye" and close himself in. It's really cute, so I'm glad I got a picture.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year! We went to Dan's parent's house again for the long weekend and celebrated with his parents and sister and her family. We had treats on New Year's Eve (sausage balls, chili con queso with chips, and chips and french onion dip) and most of us stayed up to watch the ball drop at midnight (my 2 kids were the only ones that missed it). During the evening and night, it snowed...so we woke up to a winter fairyland. It was a beautiful, wet snow that stuck to the trees. The kids went out sledding on the hill before New Year's dinner, and I got some great pictures. Adam was out for about an hour and a half, and he cried when he had to come inside. Only Kelsey, grampa, and dad were able to stay outside as long as him. Here are some pictures from sledding. I also have video, but I may not have time to add it.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day at Dan's parent's house is always crazy (in a fun way). All the family came over around 10 "ish" for cinnamon rolls where we read the Christmas story from the Bible. Then we went downstairs for a couple of hours to open gifts...there are 9 kids and 7 adults, so it takes awhile since we take turns. The kids are always asking if it's their turn yet, since us adults get talking and forget to open presents quickly when it's our turn :-). Andrew was awake for Christmas this time, and he "enjoyed" opening gifts. He did actually play with one of the toys...a basketball hoop. After gifts, we all gathered upstairs again for Chistmas dinner (ham, cheesy potatoes...yum!). Then, the kids played with all the toys for awhile before it was time to sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and blow out candles. We watched a couple of Christmas movies (Scrooge and the Christmas Card) while the kids played with their toys some more.

The biggest toy hits of the day were Tammy's kitchen (which took Tyler and I a couple of hours to put together) and Adam's Geotrax that he got on Christmas Eve. The kids all had a great time playing together with minimal fighting.

We always try to get pictures of all the kids in front of the Christmas tree...and we got a great picture this year. I am also including a picture of Andrew in his favorite chair at gramma's house as well as a picture of the kids waiting while all the gifts were being passed out (at the beginning).

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve day, we went over to Julie's house and made sugar cookies with the kids. They had a great time cutting the shapes out and then decorating the cookies. I've included a picture of Adam with some of the final results, since I forgot to take my camera over.

Then, in the evening, we went to the Christmas Eve service at church...which we didn't get to spend too much time in...due to our rambunctious boys. After church, we planned to open our gifts to each other, as well as the gifts from my parents and sister's family. Adam had a great time...but Andrew was very tired. He only opened a couple of presents and then he was so cranky, we just put him to bed...poor boy. Well, that didn't slow Adam down. He LOVED opening presents this year. He'd open something and want us to set it up, and then he'd start playing with it. But, as soon as we brought out a new round of gifts, he was more than willing to stop to open another present :-). He had so much fun, that we was up until 11 pm.

I'm including some pictures of the boys both before and after the church service. The picture of Andrew in the cream shoes is of him trying on gramma's heels before church :-). Adam got a new Geotrax set, which he loves. He was enjoying himself so much playing with it, that Dan and I actually haven't given him his other big gift from us. I think we're going to do that tomorrow with Andrew's big gift from his grandparents and great-gramma (he got a climbing toy that was too big to bring with us). All of Adam's cousins enjoyed playing with the Geotrax on Christmas day (even the 13 year old).