I <3 SnOw dAyS!

Today we went sledding again. We found the perfect hill. It was so much fun. Apparently, it had been found by many others yesterday because the snow was perfectly packed and we had ideal conditions for sledding. Here are a couple of pics and a video from our sledding adventure.

Today I am thankful for family time. We have so much fun together and I am so blessed to Marc, Nolan, & Carson in my life.

Our 2 favorite things: Lots of snow and family time!

My best friend!

So much fun!

No Carson did not sled. Just got in on the Kodak moment.

SNOW DAY!!!!!

Well, despite the fact that we had to postpone our big youth outreach because of all the snow. We are enjoying playing in the 7-8" of snow that we received last night. Nolan woke up first thing this morning and asked to get his snow clothes on. Hopefully this afternoon we can bundle C up and let him experience snow for the first time.

All bundled and can't get up!

Can you hear me now?

Carson has been discovering his voice lately. He seems to "talk" so much more these days. Actually it is more like humming or singing. He is very verbal during bath and especially meal time. N was the same way when he ate. A concert during dinner. I like to think of it as C's compliments to the chef. :)

It's been a while...

Okay, so I know it has been a while since I last posted. Life has been really crazy. We have been working hard preparing for our youth group's big outreach (which is tomorrow night). So any spare time has been used painting or practicing for that. And I have to say my computer time has been very limited because Marc has been editing lots of video footage for the outreach. But here we are only a day away and I have to say I am so excited about it. I pray that everything goes smoothly and that the tons of snow we get today won't keep people from coming out tomorrow night.

Speaking of the snow, I am home again today from work for an actual snow day. We have about 3 inches of snow now and are expecting another 3-4 inches today. Should be fun. I am sure I will have to bundle N up soon so that he can go out and play. Hopefully, I will be able to get good pics/video of him to post. :)

Today I am thankful for real SNOW days. I don't mind missing school when there is a bunch of white stuff to play in.

Hockey Star

Recently, we have attended a couple of high school hockey games of one of the students in our youth ministry. Nolan has been very fun to watch at the games. He cheers Aaron on and keeps his eyes glued to the rink during the entire game.

Aaron Y. playing defense!

Now that he has been bitten by the hockey bug, he constantly wants to play at home. He has created his own hockey rink in the living room. He pretends to be like Aaron and has played all day today. FYI: all you need for an indoor hockey rink is 2 laundry baskets, 1 football helmet, 1 nerf baseball bat, 1 pair of gloves, & a borrowed plastic ball from the ball popper. Oh, and a little imagination. Plus the spider man pajamas are good intimidation for your opponents. He also uses a backpack to pack up his equipment to greet his fans after the game.

Nolan with his game face on!

Today I am thankful for Nolan and his vivid imagination. He continually amazes me with what he creates out of a few simple items. Hours of playtime and fun can come from a box, a piece of rope, and a couple of laundry baskets.

Carson in Action: My 1st video post!

Here's a little clip of Big C in action.





Sweet Face! Love those eyelashes.


Silly face. Saving the upper lip snack for later. :)

Too much time around teenagers?

Okay, so I am thinking that Nolan may have spent a little too much time around teenagers. This morning he was playing with a fake cell phone and he kept making the buttons beep over and over and over again. I finally told him to stop because it was driving me crazy. He quickly replied, "Mom I'm texting!". YIKES!!! Really.... texting... how does he even know this? Most kids his age pretend to talk to mommy and daddy on their play phones. No, not my kid he is texting his buddies on his. :)

The last couple of days it has been so cold here. And by so cold I mean well below freezing... single digits with windchill in the negatives. Check out the picture to see what the temperature read Thursday morning when we got up. Anyway, cabin fever has really set in for Nolan. Everyday he has been begging to go outside to play. Finally, on Wed. I told him that it was too cold to play outside. It would hurt his skin if he went out there. That seemed to fix the problem he didn't ask to go out the rest of the afternoon. However, my genius idea back fired when it was time to go to church that evening. He said, "Mom, we can't go outside it will hurt our skin!". Oops, had to try to talk my way out of that one. Thankfully he complied after a little discussion.

Today I am thankful for something very simple.... heat. :)

Carson can talk?

The other day we were riding in the car. Nolan pipes up and says, "Mom, Carson just said I was a genius!". Funny thing is I didn't even know Carson could talk.

Yesterday morning, when I was telling the boys goodbye as I left for work, Nolan says, "Bye Mom. Love you." Then in a high pitched squeaky voice I hear. "Bye Mommy." Nolan said, "Carson said goodbye." :) (Funny thing was that squeaky voice sure sounded like Nolan.)

Well, I guess Carson has not only figured out army crawling and pulling up this week, but the fine art of speaking too.

Today I am thankful for N and his loving attitude towards his little brother. I could not ask for a more sweet, kind-hearted, loving little boy.

2 Baby Showers, 1 Birthday Party, a TBQ meet, & a Hockey Game

Today has been a whirlwind day. The morning started early preparing for a baby shower at my house for my dear friend Melissa with most of the Bunco Babes. Meanwhile, Nolan and Marc attended a Chuck E Cheese birthday party for one of Nolan's friends. We met up at church to try to catch a bit of the Teen Bible Quiz match. Marc was able to watch the kids in action, but I missed out on it. :( Then after a quick late lunch we split again and I attended another shower then met up with the boys this evening for an action packed hockey game.

Although today has been very busy, it has been so much fun. Hanging out with friends and supporting our youth kids in their various activities. Below are a few pics from the shower.

Today I am thankful for my wonderful friend Melissa. I am so excited for her and her husband Sabian as they prepare to welcome their first child, Addie, into their family in March. We are already planning to prearrange a marriage between Addie and Carson. :)

The Bunco Babes

Carson enjoying some love from Melissa. :)

Caution! Carson is mobile!

Yesterday, Carson finally figured out how to army crawl. He had successfully moved himself from point A to point B before, but it was awkward and more of a scoot/roll/army crawl maneuver. Yesterday, though, he found his rhythm and was going back and forth across the living room floor retrieving toys.


This morning, however, things really changed in our world. I had left him in the middle of the living room floor with a few toys. I walked around the corner to the computer to check my email. He had gotten really quiet so I thought maybe he fell asleep since nap time was approaching. Nolan had been running around the house playing. So as he passed by, I asked him what Carson was doing. He looked into the living room and yelled, "Mom, Carson is standing up!". I ran around the corner and this is what I found.


He had army crawled his way to the end table and pulled himself to a standing position. He was trying to pull down all the stuff on the table. I couldn't believe it! Did he really only need a one day learning curve for the army crawl and now he is on to bigger and better things?????? If so, then we are in big trouble at our house. For one, he will have to be under even closer supervision. And two, Nolan and his toys are no longer safe.

Watch out here he comes Carson is on the move!

Ice Day, Music Class, Awesome Service, & Bunco

Okay, so somehow the week just flew by and I haven't made any entries. So I am going to post all the random things that have happened the past few days.

First, I had another ice day from work on Tuesday. Kind of crazy since I usually never get snow days now that I only work a couple days a week. This was actually the first time in my entire life that I didn't really want a day off. I had to convince myself to be motivated to go back after Christmas break and once I did I was ready to get the semester moving and teach. And then, I was off again after only having taught one day. I was kind of bummed. I'm sure my students weren't, but I was. I did, however, enjoy the day off with Nolan and Carson. We just stayed home, played, and I got my web album updated with lots of pictures. So check it out. There is a link to the right.

Also on Tuesday, Carson went to his first Shake, Rattle, and Roll music class. It is taught by an incredibly talented lady named Mrs. Sarah. Nolan started taking music from her when he was 9 months and just finished his last class with her in December. He has graduated out of her program and now Carson gets to enjoy her wonderful class. He was so cute during the class. He just watched her in awe and smiled the whole time. He has watched Nolan before and really enjoyed the Christmas program too. He bounced and danced through the whole thing. Now he gets to participate and I can see that we are going to have a blast. I did have to dodge the drumstick a few times. He was very enthusiastic when it came to swinging it. I am so excited that we have this special thing that we get to do together every week. I'll keep you updated on his musical progress. :)

Wednesday night was our first youth service of 2009. I have really missed having service and seeing the kids regularly over the past month. During the worship and singing time, I just had this overwhelming feeling that we needed to stop and just let God work or direct where we needed to go next. I stopped playing the piano and just told the kids. "God's presence is so overwhelming in this place I feel like we need to stop and enjoy it." We did just that. We prayed, Marc shared a part of his message, and then we just prayed and sung some more. Other than my boys' laughter, there is nothing more that I enjoy hearing than teenagers singing praise songs and praying. Those are two of the sweetest sounds I have ever heard. I just wonder how much it must please God to hear them too. If it blesses me this much then how much more it must bless His heart. I wish every parent of our teenagers could be a fly on the wall to see and hear what we do each and every Wednesday night. God is doing amazing things in the hearts of our kids. And I can't wait to see what He has in store for this year.

I know this post is getting a little long, but what do you expect if I have to catch up on a week's worth of stuff. :)

The last thing I wanted to mention was my Bunco gals. Once a month, I get together with a group of girls and we play Bunco. It is really just an excuse to get together, chat, and LAUGH. We had so much fun tonight. I so appreciate each gal that is a part of our group and I am so thankful for our girls' night.

Today I am thankful for Carson's smiles, the sweet sound of teenagers praying and singing to God, and friends that you can let your hair down with and laugh so hard that you may even pee a little..... (not mentioning anyone in particular!)

Back to the Real World

Today was my first day back to school in over 2 1/2 weeks. I was already dreading the early morning alarm buzz yesterday. But I hated to hear it even more after a sleepless night. Carson must have a 6th sense about when I am going back to work because each time that I have to go back after a break he has a sleepless night the night before. Crazy how he gets me everytime. And by the way, being a tired zombie doesn't mix too well with teaching gifted kids. I kinda need my brain to do that.

At about 3:30 am this morning Carson was talking and whining in his bed. We were trying to let him work it out and go back to sleep on his own. After about 15 minutes of listening to him we hear Nolan yell from his room, "Carson is HUNGRY!". In a tone that clearly indicated he wanted us to do something about it. All I could do was laugh. Apparently he did not appreciate Carson's early morning concert.

It was a good day back at school. Most of my kids seemed excited about being there and we had a lot of fun. It's just the getting up and getting out of the house part that is hard. :)

Today I am thankful for my perfect two day a week job that allows me to teach such wonderful kids, but still be a stay at home mommy most of the week. This job is most definitely a blessing from God.

Long list of to do's

Mission accomplished! The tree is down and the Christmas decorations are all stored away. Now to just find a home for all the new toys. I had recently reorganized Nolan's room and all his toys prior to Christmas. But with the way my living room looks right now, I am going to have to do it again.

The other big task that we have been trying to complete is finding a new dresser for Carson. I sold the baby dresser and toy chest because it wasn't working out for us. Now I am on the great search for a dresser that will work for C to grow into, but also work with N's furniture when we decide to move the boys in the same room. Easier than done let me tell you.

The company that we bought N's big boy furniture from is now out of business so we are trying to find something that will work with it. I have gone to every furniture store in our area and then some and have searched and searched the web. Any suggestions? :) The great hunt is on. In the meantime, poor C's clothes are being stored in a laundry basket and his changing pad is being used on the floor. Maybe I should just get him a tent and his room can be a "camping" theme.

I can't believe how quickly the Christmas break has flown by. I had grand ideas of all the things I was going to accomplish while home during the break. Some of them have been checked off the list, but far too many still remain. Oh well, one thing is for sure is that we have had some great time together hanging out as a family. And that is far more valuable to me than a completed to do list.

Well, back to the web for more dresser searches....

Today I am thankful for spa gift cards that I received for Christmas. I was able to use one this morning for a great 30 minute massage. :)

2009 Already?

How is it that 2008 is already over? Where has the time gone?

We had a great time ushering in the New Year. We hung out with 3 other couples and their kids. We had a wonderful time laughing, playing games, and keeping our super hero costumed kids semi under control as they stayed up and played well past midnight.

Our first day of 2009 has been pretty laid back and very enjoyable. Nothing is better than when you want to sleep in and your boys cooperate and sleep in too. Peace and quiet..... the best.

I had the pleasure of having lunch today with a dear friend that I rarely get to see because she lives very far away. But whenever we get the chance we love to chat, catch up, and enjoy time together. Wonderful friends can sometimes be so hard to find, but I have been so blessed to have many.

Tomorrow's task is taking down the tree and undecorating the house. :( This is the longest that I have ever left Christmas decorations up. I'm not sure why either. I just haven't wanted to do it maybe because I am not ready for Christmas break to end. I must subconsciously think if the tree is up surely there are more days of break left... right? ;) Well, I will come to grips with reality tomorrow and down goes the tree.

Today I am thankful for my husband that allows me to escape from the house and the boys to enjoy a 3 hour "lunch" with a girlfriend.