Pete is giving Brandon a ride on the ice.

Try to see Brandon's expression in this picture. Pete was making him go super fast and he was totally loving the exciting fear of sliding on the ice. Believe or not, Pete never fell in this adventure. I'm not really sure how because this was quite slick.

I am trying to show you how deep the ice was. I know it looks like snow because it's white, but this is all solid ice. I guess this picture doesn't quite capture it like I was hoping. I was just trying to get some record of how deep this was. I don't really remember seeing anything like this before. And hopefully our sump pumps and drains can handle all the melting that should be happening here very soon.

This is such a typical Jordon pose. He's up at the computer reaching for something he most likely knows he shouldn't have. (Just like he knows he's not supposed to be up near the computer by himself.) The best part about this is that you can see that his shoes are on the wrong feet. 9 times out of 10 he puts his shoes on the wrong feet and has since the day he started putting his own shoes on. Out of plain exhaustion I didn't always correct him when he was younger. Now I can see some negative consequences to that because he thinks wrong is right. He truly cannot feel that his shoes are wrong. Whenever I tell him they are wrong now he seems totally surprised and many times tries to convince me that they are on the right feet. So Jordon!

Gideon's new favorite game is Duck, Duck, Goose. It was hilarious to watch these four play while they were waiting for me to finish up dinner one night.

And this is so totally Gideon. He is remaining true to his nature and hitting some milestones before his brothers did...including the terrible twos! He now throws some pretty big fits and gets into everything. We are just on the tail end of this phase with Jordon and so Gideon is learning quickly all sorts of great trouble he can cause. Now the reason he was able to get into the pantry and get into the cereal box (which I so loving created by combing 1/2 honey nut and 1/2 regular cheerios-who needs all that sugar?!) and dump it all over the floor is because I had my back turned and was vacuuming another mess that he had just made right before this one. I couldn't believe my eyes when I turned around and saw this whole thing dumped out and both Gideon and Jordon were picking up handfuls and throwing them across the room. And the part that cracks me up now is looking at this picture. Gideon is just sitting there looking at me with that smile like he's just a little angel...and then dark-shirt Jordon off in the background. It's almost as if Gideon is trying to blame it all on Jordon. This is just so typical...and now that all the messes are cleaned up it's pretty funny too.

Friends

Jordon, Abby and Gideon. Three buds that hang out a lot when their older brothers are at school. This is one the best pictures I've ever gotten of Gideon smiling. He's tricky.

Jordon's smile for the camera. Gotta love how he puts his heart into it!

A typical "good" picture of Gideon.

Carter and Brandon are home from Kindergarten now and get to join in the fun.

Brandon said he was using his "farmer smile". It kinda looks like my jaw before I had surgery!!

The reason why I took all these portrait pix is because we got a new box of Crayola crayons and they have the coolest thing on their website where you can upload a photo and make a coloring sheet out of it. So that's what we did today. It was a lot of fun. The color sheets end up looking line pencil line drawings. It's really pretty cool. I think I'll be taking lots more interesting pictures and using up lots of paper as we create more of these fun coloring sheets. To do it, you have to enter a password that you can only get off a box of crayons. Then you have unlimited access for 6 months. After that you have to buy a new box of crayons to get a new code. Great marketing! I'll definitely be buying Crayola and not the generic until this promo is gone!!

Basketball!!

Our whole family went to a Butler Bulldog basketball game last night. I think everyone had a good time (until the popcorn ran out and the diaper almost leaked through!)

I made some shirts for the boys. Jordon wasn't into wearing his nor being the picture, but these two were all about it!

For the next couple of months you will not find anyone in our home sleeping in on Saturday mornings, but instead we'll be cheering on Brandon at his 8am basketball games. Here he is taking it down the court. He is pretty good and loves being coached. In his game today he did a great job "guarding his man", they match them up by the colored wrist bands you see them wearing. The only problem was that he didn't get that when his team was on offense he doesn't need to keep guarding. He sure kept that guy from getting the ball, but I think he also missed some opportunities to have the ball passed to him. It was so fun watching him!

At the beginning of each game they play this fun music and call the players' names and they run out and high-5 their coach. It's so great. Brandon was a little disappointed at the first game because he realized that they don't keep score. But he still had a great time.

He's in gray.

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!!