Winter Wonderland!

I couldn't believe all the snow we had last week! The whole day at Sunshine School all I kept saying was "I can't believe it's not stopping!". We were so happy to come home and finally get to play in it. I don't know how many of you read Frog and Toad stories but they're a favorite at our house. There is one story called Down Hill where Frog convinces Toad to go out in the snow. He makes him put on all the clothes (snow pants, hat, scarf, jacket, etc.) and sled down a big hill. By the end of the story Toad decides that while the snow may be beautiful, his bed is warm. Well, that sums up my feelings. I love to look at the snow from the comfort of a window. I got so tired of drying all our sweaters, mittens, and socks and hearing all the crying when their hands were hurting from being too cold. But we did have a few good snow ball fights. Here are some of my favorite pictures from our winter fun:



Elic would barely stop throwing snow balls at me to let me take pictures.

Now that is a great picture isn't it? Elic took that snowball right in the face and just laughed and laughed. We invoked the "no snow balls in the face rule" right after that shot.

Look how hard the snow was still coming down! And you can see that is was up to their knees, which was so fun to watch them try to run in.


Sliding down the fort was a favorite activity.




Maybe this was why they were getting so cold- laying down in the snow and getting soaking wet!

Yes, this is our poor snowman. He's just sad looking! We didn't even try to dress him up or anything.

Preston's favorite thing about the snowman- knocking him down!

Our neighbors built this cute guy- maybe they should come teach us how to make a real snowman! If you're wondering where Holden is during all this fun, well, he was on my hip while I took pictures, but really I didn't want to risk getting him sick and letting him truly experience the snow (I know, I'm protective of my baby). He did sit by the window in his exersaucer and watch his brothers and dad play, though. We'll end with this little clip of the boys- enjoy!

Mayonnaise, Mustard, Ketchup!

I just wanted to make sure that everyone saw all the posts I did yesterday in an attempt to catch up. Be sure to scroll down and view the "new addition" and "tents and towers". I'm hoping to post our snow fun and Crystal's shower later today. Enjoy!

Valentine baking

For the last week we have been getting ready not only for Valentine's Day but also for a kitchen shower for Darren's sister which was held on Saturday, February 13th. I'll post all the shower pics later, but wanted to show you how our kitchen looked like a Valentine explosion on Wednesday as we baked for two kids' classmates, plus my sweet class, three wonderful teachers, and our Sunshine school staff. Oh, did I mention it was also my night to bring snacks to small group? Why not- what's adding one more when you're already cooking all day!

Here's a mid-day look at the goodies.
These yummy treats were not only for small group but also the party favors for the shower. I don't think I'll be making any more of these anytime soon. It took us two full days to make them all! The boys were big helpers. I just gave them a pan and they lined up the pretzels and even unwrapped the Hugs. I did all the M&M placement since the pans were a little warm from being in the oven.

The boys also helped make these cookies for Elic's class and the Sunshine school staff. I thought they were extra tasty!
I bought a fun brownie pop tray that I wanted to try out. All the pops came out tilted, but I think they turned out great. Preston helped me dip them in the white chocolate and then added all the heart shaped sprinkles. We gave these to his class, my class and all the boys' teachers.

Even though it was a long week of baking, it was well worth it when Preston picked his brownie pop as the first Valentine treat to eat after the parties at school. Thank goodness there aren't any holidays for a few months- wait I have to get ready for Preston's 5th birthday party! So much for resting!

New Addition

We have closets- glorious closets in our game room! The only complaint we have with our house is that it has no storage. I wish I had some before pictures of this room but you can just imagine boxes stacked all the way to the ceiling and then covered with a sheet. Games stacked and covered with blankets- and then try to tell a 4 year old and a 2 year old to stay out of the games (my that didn't work). We found a contractor through Darren's work (the husband of one of his co-workers) and Mr. Todd and his son worked for three weeks to make our beautiful closets. Really, if you hadn't seen the room before you would never know that the closets didn't come with the original house plans. They look so nice! We had two closets built, one on either side of a window. The doors face the inside and it really has opened up the room.
Shelves were put in on one side for all the games.

And finally a closet for all of Darren's collectibles! The shelf along the top is for his signed basketballs and other memorabilia.

Yes, this is the closet now. Can you see how badly we needed it? Really this one is almost all baby stuff so if we can just stop having kiddos then we can empty most of this.

And here is the collectible closet with a few other things thrown in- wouldn't want to waste any space.

Doesn't it look nice (minus the vacuum cord).


Here is how the room looks now (nice and calm)

We finally put in the TV that Darren worked so hard to buy when he got to Walmart at 4:30am the day after Thanksgiving! The surround sound works great and the kids love to watch movies up there. They say that it echoes! We can certainly cross that home repair job off our list.

Tents and Towers

Elic is REALLY into making tents right now. And by tent I mean getting every pillow, blanket and chair that he can and making a "BIG BIG" pile and then loading a ton of toys under the pile. One day he made a "tent" and then moved it about ten times- it was so funny. That's all he did all day was move that tent around our house. Here are some of our favorites.
Only on special occasions do we try to get into the tents. Bubba actually got stuck in this one and needed help getting out.

Now you see us. . .

Now you don't!

Elic always shows me how he can get in the tent (even if it is a bit of a stretch).

Notice that this tent goes on both sides of the rocking chair. I loved picking that one up!

Next to making tents, block towers are another favorite in our house.

Look at that castle!

On Saturday I heard Elic in his room and since I know he loves to just dump toys out onto the floor I asked him if that was what he was doing. He told me no but I didn't go check on him for awhile and this is what I found. He didn't dump all the toys out, he placed them all over the room. The train tracks went all the way under the bed, out the door and down the hall. The Super Heroes were all lined up on the window sill and even going up the ladder of the bunk bed. Look at the video below for a full room view of his masterpiece.

After all this building fun I'm sure one of my boys will be an architect when they grow up.