New Years Resolutions

My attempt at "organization". I actually don't do much with New Year's Resolutions. But it just so happened that I was working on this and it is the start of 2011. We had most of the bins before but hadn't put the labels on. HUGE difference!!! Now the house isn't sparkling clean but it is significantly more picked up since the boys can sort the toys into the appropriate bins. Plus, when they want a particular toy, they go to the right bin instead of dumping 3 to find it.

Christmas 2010

We had a very Merry Christmas. It was a very fun year. The boys are beginning to understand the true meaning of Christmas and were very excited about all the presents that Santa would bring.














A few of the favorites were a bunch of "dress-ups" (boy style). There were transformers, spiderman, ironman, Captain America, power rangers, and pirates (thank you Halloween clearance). The boys love to get dressed up and run around for hours.














Another favorite was Imaginext Bat Cave. It's been great for the boys to play together with and learn to share better. They actually do play together very well with it.















Rick got his new girlfriend (a 47in HDTV) and I got a vacuum and a compact camera.
We have been very blessed this year, and know that the next year will bring new challenges but are looking forward to facing them head on.
We are looking forward to many more Christmas' together.

Merry Christmas

It's pretty busy this time of year, from our home to yours: "We wish you a Merry Christmas"

First Snow

The first snow that stuck around long enough to play in

Family Pics 2010

My super talented sister-in-law took our family photos again this year. I'm sure grateful that she was able to schedule us into her busy photo shoot schedule. I think that I ordered one of every picture. Wish I could post them all but it would take forever.

One of my favorites is this one of the boys, Jace was so proud that he was doing what the big boys were doing.

Halloween

I know, I've slacked on posting Halloween pics, the boys were a Pirate and a Pirate's Monkey. And yes, that is Levi's monkey costume from 2 years ago. It was too cute to not use it again, so I decided to "upcycle" it. The boys had a great time and really got into trick-or-treating. Too bad it was raining and we only got to do about 10 houses before we it got too wet. Luckily the boys didn't know the difference and had fun playing with their cousins.
My pirate's monkey.




Levi giving his best "aargh".

Tonsils

Our family is now tonsil-less. A few weeks ago I took Jace in to see our ENT physician to take a look at his tonsils for several reasons: 1. He is a constant drooler (we thought he would outgrow it). 2. I am concerned with all his allergies and want as much space in his little throat as possible if he has an anaphylactic episode. 3. We've met his deductible for the year.

The doctor thought that they were large for his age and would need to come out within the next year or so anyway so we decided to just go ahead and get it done.

The morning of the surgery we got there at 6:45 a.m., way too early if you ask me... Jace was the first surgery of the day and they were waiting for us. They did such a great job and really try to put the kiddo at ease. After getting weighed they let him pick out a stuffed animal. Then we spoke to the surgical nurse, the anesthesiologist and finally our surgeon. Then the anesthesiologist came back to give him a "ride" in the wagon (off to surgery).

The surgery lasted all of about 20 minutes and then Dr. Barlow came and told me that Jace did well and they took out a lot of adenoid tissue and his tonsils looked like they had been chronically infected, don't know why our family is so prone to strep. And we didn't even know Jace had a sore throat, usually they say under 2 they don't get strep throat, instead they get ear infections. Anyhow, he has done pretty well since, likes to cuddle a lot (that's a change), but we have been struggling keeping the pain under control for him. Hopefully we're past the worst part and he'll just continue to get better.