Typical Happenings

I took all the boys to Hobby Lobby (mistake) to look for some fabric for project I want to work on. I promised that if they let me look at my fun stuff then I'd let them look at their fun stuff. Well, they found these foam swords. They had a blast with them; it was quite funny to watch.

Brandon got the idea from his friend Carter to start making and selling some art. And so now Brandon has created a portfolio and draws/colors pictures of various scenes. His plan is to sell them to people in order "to make money for the family, the people and the states". These were his first two (and so far, only) pieces that have sold. I really liked them and hated to see them go, so I snapped a picture first. The top one is a circus (big tent) and there are some giraffes coming out of one of the train cars on left. The bottom picture is a picture of a house and farm. This is my favorite. I love the sun and the chimneys with smoke. He colors all the way to edge of the page on most of his drawings which I think is one thing that makes them so nice. I will take some photos of his portfolio and post them later.

Here's a little onesie that I made for a friend. I just think it's fun and cute and thought I'd post it. The eyes are tiny little buttons. I sewed the owl on and then I printed "night owl" on iron-on transfer paper.

Now, I know this looks like a mess to most of you, but let me just say that I'm quite proud of this little project. Over Christmas break Pete and I worked pretty hard on redoing some areas of the house. Mostly parts where nobody will notice, but it has helped us out in organization quite a bit. One of these areas of change has been in the craft room. The only reason why I'm really posting this is show what great gifts I got for Christmas!

On the desk you will see (left of tissues) a large notepad. This is from Elly and is so great. It's daily notepad that has fun facts on it, but also allows me plenty of space for my t0-dos (which are many), to the left of that you will see a little coaster. Brandon made this along with Nini. He is soooo proud of this thing that he's made and he loves to see it sitting on the desk. To the left of that is a little table-top caddy that Pete got me. With changing things around in this room we switched the desk that I was using for this other one that we had. It is great, but it lacked some hidden storage that I was hoping for. This caddy helps that problem! And at the very top to the left of the plant you will see a card-holder with various papers hanging off of it. In that, there is a gift card from Betsy. Thanks to all of you. Now, I will say that I didn't plan all of these things to be in this one picture, but it sure turned out great that so many of them did. Thanks for your thoughtfulness.

Brandon lost his third tooth! And his other front one is loose too.

Jordon built this super tall tower one morning. He was pretty proud of it. I suggested that I take his picture and he wasn't so sure. He's seen me take pictures of Brandon's proud creations, but he wasn't sure he wanted to be in that category. But it turns out, he really was excited about this tower. After all, it was taller than him and had a propeller on the side (that's what he's looking at).

Christmastime

As it turns out, I didn't take any pictures on Christmas Day. We did take some video this year, which was a lot of fun. But we can't post it on our blog, which stinks. My dad got some good shots on Christmas Morning, but the quality of his pictures is also too much for the blog to handle. So if I get around it, I'll try to find some highlights and save them in a smaller size and post them. But until then, this is all I have to share with you.

We had Christmas Eve in our basement. Our concrete walls seemed a bit bleak for such a festive celebration so we covered them various types of Christmas wrapping paper.

My cousin Julie (sweater) and Kim (red) are talking to Rob, who got to be in Indy for about 10 days. It was a great to have him for here for so long.

Jordon is absolutely cracking up at my cousin Stephen. He remains a favorite of all three boys!

Pete needed a fire on Christmas Day. Since we don't have a fireplace inside, he went to the next logical place-our outdoor fireplace. It was a great fire. I wish more of us could've enjoyed it, but we preferred the warmth of inside instead. We did get a fresh snowfall on Christmas Eve. It was so beautiful.

This little magnet doodle pad was really Jordon's gift from Uncle Keith, but Brandon drew this nativity picture that was too good to not capture. You can see a wise man on a camel and a shepherd with a sheep. That bird-ish thing in the sky is really a star.

This was taken well-past bedtime. Who looks more tired? Gideon loves it when we "let him out" late at night. He often sings/talks in his bed for at least 30 minutes or so at night. If his brothers fall asleep and we can still hear him going strong, then we get him out and let him hang out with us. He loves it...and so do we.

This is a typical seen when mom needs some quiet time or when I'm making dinner. Pete watches soccer on the computer and all the boys come around to see what dad is looking at. Gideon is usually the first one on his lap and then others soon follow.

Days Before Christmas

This is the typical scene when they play with play-doh. It's a complete mess, but all three have so much fun with it. As you might be able to tell from their hands/arms this is also they day that they found a self-inking rubber stamp and decorated each other with it. Thankfully they kept it on their hands and arms and never went for each other's faces. It did take a few days to completely wash off.

Pete and Brandon primed some of the basement walls.

The boys building a fort and having a blast together!

We went bowling. This was a lot of fun. You can see J sporting his bowling shoes.

December Fun

Making cinnamon ornaments for teacher gifts. Jordon had a hard time with the concept of not eating the "cookies".

Our first snow last weekend. We went sledding at a big hill nearby. Brandon went down by himself on the saucer (background) a couple times. On the third time he crashed and rolled off. At that point we realized that he never put his gloves on and was totally frozen. Gideon and I had just arrived at the hill (it was a bit of a walk from the car) so I went down twice with Jordon and Gids and then we came back home. We definitely spent more time getting dressed and packed up in the car than we did outside, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted!

Halloween!

Gideon was the cutest little fire fighter!

Brandon as Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribean.

And Jordon, so proud to be "Spiderman" and really that just meant he wanted to wear his Spiderman shirt, which he wears everyday unless we tell him it's a day that he can't.

We went to a Trunk or Treat and there were some creative "trunks". Here's Gideon sitting on a old fire truck. They were letting all "fire fighters" ring the bell. He wasn't sure what that was all about, but loved picking out the candy!

One of the other "trunks" was a huge sailboat. Since Brandon was a pirate he got to climb on board and get his picture taken with the other pirates. So cute. However, we are in need of a new camera and so it's so sad to me that this is the best of all the pirate pix that I took. So I'm posting this as a plea for a new camera!!

We went to this family fun park on a Sunday afternoon. It was a lot of fun to play putt-putt, go-karts, bumper boats, eat ice cream, etc. Look at Jordon on his tippy toes trying to be tall enough for some of the big kid games!!

We went to Turkey Run State Park for a day. We had amazing fall weather and hiked a couple trails (not on purpose, we got a little distracted and lost our path). The boys did amazingly well considering how long we were on trails. Jordon endured a crazy fall off some stairs. His little legs were tired, I'm sure, but he never complained. That was a fun adventrue for all of us!

If this doesn't make you laugh, then go see a doctor! This is just so Gideon. He likes to make people laugh, but he likes to do it in more subtle ways.

September Highlights

For whatever reason I'm having some difficulty add text to these posts. So just know that I'm doing my best to update what I've missed the last few months. These next posts will all be out of order, but it's the best I can do.

I got to spend a few hours with some girls that I used to live with at Purdue. What fun! Tania, Sarah, Anne and Kara. This was a fun night, but it was kinda sad to realize how bad I am at staying in touch with some of the neatest girls. I wish I were better at it. What a blessing to have such neat people in my life. Too bad we are so spread out over the US. At least we were able to all get together and share three hours together at a cute little place in Crawfordsville, IN of all places!!

After Labor Day Jordon started going to a pre school program on Wednesday morning. He was about as thrilled as he looks in this picture! Actually, he loves it and is always so proud to show me what he made and to look through his papers.

This is how I found Gideon one day. I must have been doing laundry because, yes, those are underpants around his neck and a colander on his head. He was just walking through the whole downstairs like this singing/yelling. It was so hilarious!

You just gotta wonder what he's thinking about...

Kelsay Dairy Farm

We spent a Saturday at a dairy farm and had a blast. There was a corn maze, a corn box (instead of a sand box). We petted calves, saw momma cows being milked, had a milkshake, went on a hayride, pooped our pants (or at least one of us did...) It was a fun day. Who's the short plaid-shirted boy at the top of the hay tower? Yep, that's our fearless Gideon!!

Jordon's 3rd Birthday!

Here are some cake pictures from Jordon's birthday. He wanted a camo cake! He had a great time and several family members were able to celebrate with him!