Jordon's zoo field trip

Spring Break 2012

Pete ended up having to be at a conference in Orlando during the kids' spring break. So we hauled all of ourselves down for the conference & few extra days.

It was a lot of driving, but we had a great time!

Brandon snapped this shot for us.  We went to this cute beach one night to see the sunset.  Jordon & Gideon fell asleep before we got there, so we got to spend some special time with just Brandon that night.  He loved it!

I love Brandon and Jordon's opposite outfits.

This was at our first big stop on our trip.  The boys were quite antsy and when I got back from the bathroom they were all sitting on top of the van!  Brandon is holding a map.  He was showing where we were on the travel.

This picture cracks me up.  This is when we got out of the car in Orlando at our hotel.  They saw me get out my camera and started posing.  I told them to give me their best "we're here" pose.  This is what I got.  Hilarious.  Somehow everything comes back to muscle-men ninjas!  

(side note: I attempted updating from my phone again to see if I had any better luck this time.  The pictures are all oriented correctly, but they still have little squares all over them.  Not sure how to solve this problem.)

Gideon's 3rd birthday!

 Gideon asked for a "bad guy" birthday.  By that he pretty much any kind of character, including Spiderman, Batman, Yoda, The Hulk, etc.  It cracks me up to think that we had a music themed party for Brandon when he turned three.  I would've had a small breakdown if he would've asked for a Bad Guy party.  But by the time the third boy has his 3rd birthday, I thought a Bad Guy party was a great idea!!  I just put little bad guy figures all over his cake.  The cake was a rainbow cake of super hero colors.

My parents, my Aunt Lynn and Aunt Katie were able to join us for the night.  It was a pretty night!

 They seemed to enjoy it!

 We kinda went with a Star Wars theme as far as gifts go, because all the boys seem especially into that right now...or at least Brandon and Gideon.  My mom splurged and got them each one of these amazing masks.

 They put on quite a show for all of us with their blow up light sabers.  These were actually quite a bit more fun than the usual plastic ones because they could actually hit each other pretty hard with these.  Since they were inflatable plastic they made a pretty good sound when you hit someone, but they don't really hurt.

Hard to believe that our youngest is now three years old!

Winter recap

Here are a few photos to from Jan. and Feb.

 Jordon looking cute as ever.

 Gideon with his hilarious hairstyle and personality to match!

 Brandon got to play on a basketball team this winter.  He had a great time.  Of course, I'm pretty convinced that as much as he loved playing, he liked going to the snack bar afterwards even more!  He made one or two baskets throughout the whole season, but on the last game he found himself nearly alone by the basket twice.  Although it took some encouragement from the sidelines, "Shoot it!!" he made the basket..both times.  He was quite excited about that!

 Here is Brandon blocking someone.  He is good at getting his "hands up" as he is coached to do.  But he was so good at that, that he forgot to pay attention to the game.  Notice that his team has the ball!!

Dumb picture, but I made this shirt and I like it a lot.

A Snowy Day

So far this is my favorite picture of the year.  

I know it's only January, but I think it will be the best photo of 2012.

And there he goes.  Off to adventure with a friend...wearing shorts...in a snow storm.  Now for the record, he only walked about a block to his friends house; he wasn't really playing in the snow in shorts.  But still.

Mid January

Brandon got this little guitar for Christmas.  He is quite proud of it even though he can't play anything...yet.  Hopefully he can get some lessons and become the star I know he is inside!

And this is just one of the those classic personality shots.  Jordon carefully arranged all his gifts in a nice pile and wanted to get a picture of them.  It has been interesting to hear Jordon process and think through getting all these gifts.  He kept asking who picked out each of his gifts.  He wanted to know which ones I picked out and which ones Pete picked out.  It was so cute how important that was to him.  He still occasionally asks to be reminded who picked out what gift for him.  (Makes me glad that we didn't give Santa any credit for giving the gifts because I can see how important the giver is to him!!)

I've been in a wintery-weather mood ever since taking the Christmas decorations down (just two days after Christmas).  I've been considering crafting all sorts of cozy winter decorations to "warm" the house up a bit.  Although I have a long list of ideas to do, only one thing has actually been created.  This is the inspiration that I found online.  I love this winter scene.  It turns out the creator of this picture must have been inspired by the paper cups at Panera because I was recently there with a friend and saw pretty much the same scene on their cups.  I was very glad to see it because then I didn't feel so badly for completely copying off some one else.  There is inspiration and there is copying...this is clearly copying...with a few mistakes that we'll call purposeful changes.

So here is my "interpretation" of the piece. The worse part about it is the surrounding [lack of] decor, which I have since changed.  But besides all that, I like the painting and it adds a nice wintery feel to the room, which is exactly what I was hoping for.  Now if only I could get some extra time to make some of the other cozy pieces to go along with it; that will be great.  I still have at least another month to stick with my winter theme!  So maybe I'll get something else made.  If not, there is always next year!

We've been able to go to a couple different Butler games over the winter break.  It's been a lot of fun.  This was a particularly funny picture of Gids that I thought I'd share.  It also reminds me how much I love the shirts that I've made for all the boys and I need to make the next size bigger for little Gids.  This one is getting a bit tight. I also want to make one for myself.  I just can't decide on the design.  I thought this huge bulldog right on the belly was perfect for little kids, but now I'm thinking that might be what I want.  But then again, maybe that would look weird on me.  I guess it is better for little kids who are supposed to have round bellies!