Playing in the snow

I know I owe a lot of posts between the last one and this... I promise I'm working on them this week! But until then, here are some pics from our first trip out in the snow this winter.

Grandma's 80th Birthday

Last Sunday (November 22nd) we went to Grandma K's 80th birthday party/open house. Everyone did a great job with all the food and decorations. We showed up towards the end and there were still a lot of people there to celebrate with her. Someone did get a picture of all of us with Grandma. The boys were rather shy when we first got there (and did not want to pose for a picture) but quickly warmed up once we let them down to run around. And run (and run and run) they did! They ran all over inside - cousin Chloe helped us keep them corralled and out of the kitchen at least. Thanks Chloe! They even made a few breaks out the door, but were quickly brought back in. We took them for walks around the building when they got a little too bored with inside.

I think their favorite part about it was the chocolate cake. Nick and Alex talked about chocolate cake for days after that. Thankfully, we took home a few chocolate cup cakes for them to have later. Logan didn't really care for the chocolate - he was fine without cake. It's no wonder he's smaller than his brothers!

Happy Birthday Grandma (even if this is a little belated!)! 80 years, 9 kids, 19 grandkids, 23 great-grandkids and still a smile to show for it!

Happy Thanksgiving - Family Style

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! We actually celebrated with two different meals - on different days thankfully! We started by going to the Kreher Thanksgiving last Saturday. Grandma hosted this year at her new apartment complex's recreation room. It was just the right size for all of our family (with quite a good turn out) and the boys still had room to run around the room. Alex found Grandma's walker and had a blast pushing it around. The boys even did great sitting at a big table without booster seats or anything! After dinner was over, we packed up the boys and took them to the Christmas parade. They were very calm for the whole thing. Logan would wave if we told him to. Otherwise, they just sat and took everything in - but at least they seemed to enjoy it!

On Thanksgiving day we went to Grandpa Brandy's house and the whole family was there - including a surprise appearance from Angela, Sydney and Halas! They drove up from Alabama on Tuesday night after work to surprise us all. The boys were so excited to play with their cousins. Halas has grown so much since we saw him last! He and Alex hit it off quite well. They both were sharing and everything!

A great time was had by all. I am very thankful for all of my family! And speaking of family... stay tuned for more posts coming shortly about all our other adventures this past week. Too much to fit into one post!!

Stickers

Tonight the boys found some VHS tape labels and discovered some creative uses for them...
Nick liked to direct where they should go. Logan enjoyed putting them on Adam and taking them off. Alex (in this case) enjoyed attacking Logan with the gator.


This one is my favorite :-)
Everyone was having a blast. The boys all tried the stickers on too, but it was way more fun to put them on Dad!

We had a very busy week with family visits, Grandma K's 80th birthday party, Thanksgiving and Barry & Judy's 50h wedding anniversary celebration. More blog posts to come!

We love to read!

Books are some of our favorite things. The boys read their books all day long and love to have people read to them. They have also been known to carry around a favorite book for an hour or so, even though they're playing with a different toy - you never know when a brother might steal your book! There are typically two types of reading styles: 1. read the book front to back, flip over and start again, and again, and again; or 2. read the book, throw it aside, pick up a new book and repeat until all the books from the box are out on the floor!

Here is a slide show of some of our recent (past couple of months) reading moments (caught on camera). Enjoy!

Of course, some books can't handle the "love and care" the boys give them. We have had to recycle a number of books that were no longer in one piece. There are a number of books that don't have covers any longer either. Oh well. It just gives us another excuse to have to go to the bookstore and buy more! Buying kids books is fun.

Nick and Dad

My favorite picture from today. Just because...

Working in the Yard

Today is such a beautiful day outside - we went outside to play. The boys were even excited to help dad clean up the leaf pile!
Alex and Logan wanted to help sweep with the brooms too!
Let's hope they keep this interest/enthusiasm as they get older!