Cade's Holiday Party

Cade was extremely excited about his party! He got to wear pajamas to school. He continued to wear them even after school was over, even to his Little Gym class.
If Cade wears a jacket to school, he tends to wear it all day. Makes me laugh.

Nate was also thrilled to be at Cade's party. Cade shared some of his snacks with him.

Cade with one of his best buds.

Sweet Cade loved showing off his classroom to Nate. Here he is reading a story to Nate.

Cade was very happy to receive a Star Wars book in the book exchange.

Dylan's Holiday Party

Dylan had a great time at his party.

Nate had fun, too. Siblings are discouraged, but sometimes they just have to come.

Nate loves Dylan. He thinks that he is hysterical.

Here is Dylan with one of his best buds. They made these ornaments at the party. Dylan was very proud of his. He pulled it out to show it to his brothers at home, then he promptly dropped it on the tile floor. That was an ornament that was not destined to make it to our tree.

Holiday Party Overload

All 3 of the big boys had their holiday parties on the 19th. Chase's was in the morning. They had a pizza and ice cream sundae party. I picked Nate up from preschool early. Next, I went to Dylan's party half of the time and Cade's party half of the time.

Chase with some of his classmates.

Reindeer Games

On December 18th, Chase had Reindeer Games at his school. He was VERY excited about this. It is a form of flag football. Chase was certain that his team would be victorious - they were not. The injustice!

Nate was not excited about watching Chase, but he did love the bounce houses that were there.

Cade's Turkey Project

Cade's turkey project came home in December. He had a lot of fun doing this and was very proud.

Dylan's Gingerbread House Day

On December 5th, Dylan's class had an assignment to build a gingerbread house. I was able to go in and help.

The fun part!

Isn't it beautiful....or NOT! You can tell that it was built by a boy!

But he is proud :)

Cowboy Pajamas

I bought Nate these super cute Cowboy pajamas. I told him that he looked so cute that I needed to get a picture. He promptly stood near the wall to fulfill his picture duty.

I told him that he needed to smile, and this is the little smile that I got

I told him that I needed him to put a bigger smile on his face, so he complied

He does look awfully cute in his Cowboy pajamas, doesn't he?

Tree Trimming

The boys were so excited about decorating the tree this year. As soon as I had the tree up, they were diving into the ornaments and hanging them up. They had so much fun looking at them and talking about them. Every year, I buy them 2 of the same ornaments. I try to find ones that fit them for the year (for example, last year I bought Dylan Pokemon ones). I write their name and the year on the ornament. Once they are married, I will give them one set and keep the other.



Nate was especially excited. This is the first year that he really "got" Christmas. He was having so much fun.

This is the boys absolutely favorite "ornament". It is actually something that Mark got in high school or junior high on a mission trip to Mexico. You pull the lever on the top, and a snake pops up and bites you. It sits somewhere on our tree every year. It is removed frequently for quick bites ;)
The boys admiring their work.

The finished product

After Thanksgiving

Here is Cade playing dress-up with his buddy, Austin. These are camera phone pictures, and I did not get a good one of Austin (who, for the record, was a Power Ranger). Cade has no idea that this is a girl costume, he just thinks that it is a fish :)

Nate was worn out and getting over being sick. We went with a big group of family members to Holiday in the Park the day after Thanksgiving. Nate and Mark stayed at home because Nate did not need to get out in the cold.

Just a couple of pictures from the phone. Mark's sisters and their families were with us, along with Mark's cousin and her family. Everyone had a great time.

Mark left to go hunting the next day. Not long after he left, I noticed that the refrigerator (packed full of Thanksgiving leftovers) was not working! The top half was not working, and the bottom half was still functioning. Charlotte and Brad were still in town, so Charlotte and I did a speed shopping trip, and my friend Bryan was able to help me pick it up. I had a new refrigerator in place in under 2 hours. Relief!

Warning!!

Major blog catch-up coming this week. My poor blog really suffered from the super busy holiday season. I am so impressed with all of those who were able to keep up their blogs during this time.

In the meantime...Happy New Year to everyone. Can you believe that we have almost completed a decade in this century? It seems like just yesterday that everyone was panicking about Y2K!!!!

Lots to Update - No Time to Update

There is a lot to update, but too much going on this week. It will just have to wait. One quick update. Mark finally got a deer. The deer lease has been lean this year, and Mark has not been able to get one. Friday, he finally got one.....with his TRUCK! The dent is not too bad!

Thanksgiving 2008

Mark had to work the day before and after Thanksgiving, so we hosted at our house this year. All of Mark's family was able to come, including his cousin and her family. My parents were also able to make it.
Here is all of Mark's family - the cousins had so much fun together.

My dad is in this shot, my mom somehow managed to avoid the camera.

Cade LOVES having his back scratched.

Annette giving Charlotte a massage

Mark's cousin, Jane, and her family

We had a great time. We are so blessed to have a wonderful family.

Random Pre-Thanksgiving Post

Just a few things that I want to remember. On Friday, Cade came in from school sad that he had missed a word on his spelling test. He proceeded to tell me that he missed the word because the people in his class MADE him miss it. So I asked him if they held his hand and made him spell it wrong. He ammended his story to say that one friend made him miss it. After I asked him if she had held his hand and made him spell it wrong, then I was able to help him take responsibility for his own mistake. About this time, he discovered Crabby's fate. Actually, Dylan finally noticed that Crabby was missing. So, from Monday until Friday, Crabby was not thought about by Cade. Poor Crabby. Cade immediately tried to blame everyone else about Crabby's fate. Love how he takes personal responsibility :( Here are a few pictures from his latest Little Gym karate class show day.

Chase was here, too, but he was too mature to come into the gym.

Cade in his penguin outfit - he still loves costumes.

A few things about Nate that I want to remember:

- his favorite breakfast right now is frozen waffles. And I do mean FROZEN. He does not want them cooked, he wants them straight out of the freezer!!

- the other morning, he was insisting that he wanted some milk and gas to drink. I tried to explain to him what gas was and why he would not want to drink it, but he was not convinced. I finally gave up and put some "gas" in his cup. He was happy and didn't seem to notice that his "gas" drink tasted just like milk :)

- Nate loves to sing. Unlike other kids who sing sweet songs about Jesus, Nate's current favorite is "So What" by Pink. What does that say about me?