Fun in the Snow

The boys finally got to use their new gloves, boots and snow pants this weekend. They have been dying to put on their boots ever since I brought them home from the store. They had so much fun playing outside in the snow. It amazes me how kids don't seem to feel the cold like adults do. Evan and Zach probably could have stayed out all night. See how happy they were...

I think Evan was trying to catch snowflakes on his tongue in that last shot. Hopefully next snowfall they will get to make a snowman.

Christmas

This Christmas was so much fun. The boys were both so excited for Santa to come. Evan had asked for a Geotrax set and Zachary asked for a cupcake. Yes, you heard me right, a cupcake! We asked him over and over again and always got the same answer. He even sat on Santa's lap and told him the same thing. We gave him one last chance on Christmas Eve to change his answer but no such luck. Then we realized that we didn't have the one thing that Zach had asked for from Santa. Evan was going to get his train but Zach would have no cupcake. So Jake went to one of the only places that is open at 9:30 on Christmas Eve (the convenient store) and bought Zach a Hostess cupcake. We put it on the plate where Santa's cookies were (Santa needed a snack before he headed to the store) with a bow.

Here's the house before the night before

The cupcake

My favorite reaction of the day...Evan is so sweet!

Later in the day at Jake's parents... Zach's reaction cracks me up!

Message from Santa

Last night the boys received a message from Santa via email. I found this website that will personalize a message to your child from Santa. Their reactions were absolutely adorable.

Evan was totally awestruck. He sat in front of the computer screen with one hand on his cheek in amazement that Santa was talking to him. He kept looking at me and then back at Santa. First he couldn't believe that Santa knew his name and second he was sooo excited that Santa said that he was on the nice list.

Zachary on the other hand thought that he was on a skype call the entire time. He kept waving to Santa and talking to him. It was too cute.

I can't wait for Christmas morning!

The Cut List

Finally got my Christmas cards sent out today. This is one of many pictures that didn't make the cut.

Zachary's Birthday

Just realized that I forgot to post any pics of Zachary on his 3rd birthday so here they are...

I am not the best cake decorator, so this is my attempt at a theme cake. This is supposed to be the house and balloons from the movie "Up"

Christmas Cookies

Over the weekend I decided to make Christmas cookies for the first time on my own (without the help of my mom - well, that's not totally true, mom did get one or two SOS calls along the way!) I will have to say that for my first solo attempt they turned out really good. I made peanut butter blossoms and something I'm going to call "Fake-out Toffee". The toffee was my favorite and sooo easy to make. Here is the recipe:

1 sleeve saltine crackers

2 sticks of butter

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 bag chocolate chips

3/4 cup chopped pecans

1. Line a medium sized jelly roll pan with aluminum foil and preheat oven to 375

2. Lay out saltine crackers in one layer on pan

3. Melt butter and brown sugar over medium heat and cook for 5 minutes

4. Pour mixture over crackers and bake for 15 minutes

5. Remove from oven and pour chocolate chips on top. Spread evenly, sprinkle with nuts

6. Let cool, then refrigerate for several hours

7. Break into pieces. Keep refrigerated.

These are so yummy and simple to make. The boys even helped out by laying out the crackers for me. When it came time to try out what we had made their favorites were the peanut butter blossoms.

Licking the spoon...the best part of baking with mom!

Zachary is 3!!

My baby is no longer my baby. Seemingly overnight he turned from a tiny little baby that I protected in my arms to a little boy that squirms to get out of those same arms that once held him so securely. Sure, he still gives me hugs and will sit on my lap when I read to him, but I miss being able to just hold him and stare at his sweet cheeks and perfect lips.

Zachary is full of energy, spunk and surprises. He has this ability to get out of trouble just by flashing this sideways grin that somehow makes me laugh and forget about whatever mischief he has just caused. He is a charmer to say the least.

Zach is always on the go, usually chasing after his big brother and sometimes he is the one being chased. He loves to play with his cars, trains and planes and will never say no to chocolate anything or as he likes to call it "chloclate".

Zachary I love you! Happy Birthday!

We're Off To See The Wizard

Every year we go out trick-or-treating with my friend Mandy and her kids. This year we dressed our brood as the crew from The Wizard of Oz. Evan was the Tin Man, Zachary was the Cowardly Lion, Jacob dressed up as the Scarecrow and Avrey was Dorothy. They were so stinking cute I could hardly stand it. I don't think any of them have actually seen the movie or had any idea who these characters were, but they all kindly played along with our idea anyways. Really, it wasn't that hard to convince them once they knew that the end result would be lots of candy.

Evan with his Uncle Seth - too cute!

I want candy!!

The Pumpkin Patch

Our new fall tradition is to visit Stonycreek Farm to pick out pumpkins. This is the second year we have taken the boys. They had a great time jumping in the haystack and climbing through the inflatable kiddiepillar.

We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch where Evan and Zach could personally pick out their own pumpkins. But before we could begin our search we lost Zachary as we were getting off the tractor. Everyone thought that someone else was watching Zach and he slipped away. We were all (Jake, Di, Jobi, Seth and I - it was a large family affair) searching for him when the tractor driver asked if anyone was missing a child. Sure enough Zach had climbed back on the tractor and was trying to leave without us! After my heart fell back into my chest we were off to find the perfect pumpkin.

Zach with his ticket to get on the tractor

The Fam

Zach giving us attitude

Evan's Pumpkin

Zachary's pick

Now it's time to decorate! That post coming soon.

And the Winner is....

Anyone who knows me knows that I love a great bargain and that I can't pass up a good giveaway without signing up for a chance to win. In the past I have won some pretty fun prizes; a $50 print credit to Carpenter Photography, a pair of knee high suede boots, an assortment of Max Factor make-up and one years rent at an apartment complex I lived at in Tennessee. These prizes were won over the course of the last 10 years.

Recently though, I have won two more contests. So exciting! A few weeks ago I was notified that I won a sampling of products from Pangea Organics through a contest I entered at Lucky magazine.

And just today I learned that I won a pair of earrings from this blog. I originally visited her blog because I thought that maybe she too was the only woman in her house (based on the name of her blog "Mann Land"). I was wrong, but enjoyed reading it anyway.

What a sweet surprise! Now if only I would have this same kind of luck winning the HGTV fall fix-up $75,000 sweepstakes!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

I think one of my favorite things about my kids are the little things they do to make me laugh. Whether it's a silly question they pose or the mispronunciation of a word I find it both endearing and down right funny. Here's a recent conversation I had with Evan while we were both home sick sitting in the chair together:

Evan: What do bunnies eat?
Me: Carrots.
Evan: OK. What do camels eat?
Me: Umm....straw?
Evan: They eat strawberries.
Me: Ok, if you say so.
Evan: I know what cows eat, cows eat cud. I love cud!

This had me rolling. You probably had to be there, but the way he said it was hilarious. I had no idea that he even new what cud was.

Here are some "Zachisms":

smooky = spooky (When Zach looks in a dark room he will often say that it looks smooky in there)
He is always telling us "that's enough, guys, that's enough" when he feels something has gone on too long.
He is also not afraid to tell anyone that he is "tired of this" when something in his little world is not going as planned. I love his spunk.

Roger

Evan has a new friend, his name is Roger. What we do know about Roger is that he has brown hair and is taller than Evan. What we didn't know until just the other day is that he is also imaginary.

The other night Jake and I got to officially "meet" Roger. He "came over" to play about 10 times the other night. About every other minute we could hear Evan say "ding dong" and then announce that Roger was here. They would play for a minute or so and then Evan would look at his video watch (yes, also imaginary) and say that it was time for Roger to go home. Before we knew it, Roger was at the door again for another play date. This went on for close to an hour.

I don't recall having an imaginary friend as a child so I find this really fascinating and kind of fun. Evan will talk and play with him as if he were really there and he even formally introduced us to him. Evan called Roger in from the other room and said "Roger, come here I would like you to meet my mom and dad." It was really cute. I can only hope that he will be this polite when we get to meet one of his real friends!

Vacation - Evan's Perspective

Evan received a V-tech digital camera for his birthday and had a blast taking pictures of our vacation. Here are a few of my favorites:

Evan's birthday cake

Daddy (with elephant ears - or possibly being attacked by one)

Evan's feet (this shot was intentional)



Evan trying to take a picture of the inside of his mouth

A cup



A table in our cabin

A blurry toy car

Zachary

Zachary climbing on a table on the screened in porch



Pop pop

Grammy

more feet!

Evan insisted on taking a picture of my back at the fair

The Clydesdale's

The largest pig litter (with a beautiful frame hand selected by Evan)

The second largest litter of pigs

Zachary testing out farm equipment

An alligator eating Pop pop (Evan thought this was hilarious)

This was just a small selection of the over 200 pictures Evan took while we were on vacation. There were close to 20 of the nightlight in the boys room alone. I personally really enjoyed looking at our vacation from Evan's perspective. It was interesting to see what grabbed our little guy's attention.

Vacation

We visited Mt. Sterling, Ohio this year for our family vacation and stayed at the Deer Creek Resort. We left on Evan's birthday so we spent our first evening celebrating, opening presents and eating cake (a chocolate WALL-E cake by request).

The next day we had a picnic on the beach and the boys experienced their first canoe ride with their Uncle Matt and Pop pop. I think they really enjoyed themselves. Zachary seemed so relaxed I thought he was going to take a nap right there in the canoe.

Evan and Zach also got their first fishing lesson from Pop pop. No one caught anything that day but they had fun trying.

At the park where we were fishing there was this really cool tree. I asked Evan to get inside the hole so that I could take a picture and I just loved this shot of him "emerging" from the tree.

We stayed at the lake for 3 days then my parents came back with us to Indiana and we topped off our vacation by heading to the state fair. We had a great time looking at all the animals and especially eating all the deep fried fair food.

Evan and Zachary both had their first pony ride.