January Happenings

This has been a busy month with lots of fun activities. Without further ado...

Tyler loves when he gets the chance to have lunch with Daddy. He's always sad when Daddy has to go back to work and can't come home with us. 

I had a serious mental lapse and bought a music set for the kids. They serenaded Emma--she was not impressed. It was seriously cute, though. And loud. Mysteriously, the kazoo has been MIA since this photo was taken. 

Our first time really playing in the snow. Gavin LOVED it. Tyler wasn't so sure, but ended up having a fun time throwing snowballs at people. As long as I made them for him he was good. 

We discovered we have the perfect backyard for sledding! Nice hill, but not too steep so you slow down before hitting the fence. 

Spencer's second snow angel in his life...

...went better than the first one. 

Meet Bob, our first Missouri snowman. Rocks for eyes and sans the corncob pipe, but it worked.

Tyler's at the tough age when he's getting too old to take a nap because then he won't go to bed on time, but he's still tired and needs one. I don't get why kids outgrow naps. I could take one everyday and still fall asleep at bedtime, no problem. Sometimes I tell Tyler I'll take his nap for him, but he says, 'No sleep, Mommy'. Not cool, buddy, not cool. 

 

Checking out the Oriental Trading catalog. For all of those things that you didn't know you needed. 

By our second snowy day Tyler had figured out how much fun it was! Brant didn't find the shoveling nearly as enjoyable, but it's still fun to see snow after four "winters" in Texas.

Now that Spencer's in cub scouts, we (i.e., Brant) get to make a pinewood derby car. He already learned that you don't need a power tool to cut the car so they went with a little saw. Now Spencer's in charge of the design. 

Tyler's idea of heaven. 

Three awesome people. 

Two awesome people. 

Since Tyler is officially potty trained (enter choir singing), he got to pick out any toy he wanted from the toy store. He picked a Batmobile and spends most waking moments with it. 

Hiking in the cold

We decided to spend the first day of 2016 going on a family hike. It was chilly, but the boys were troopers. 

Brant taught the boys about icicles and we all had fun smashing them on the rocks in the stream. 

A couple of cute boys riding the carousel at the mall. 

December Happenings

We spent the week before Christmas in Branson, Missouri. It's also known as the 'Family Friendly Las Vegas of the Midwest' so you can imagine our excitement. :) We spent a day at Silver Dollar City which is a big amusement park. We lucked out with perfect weather for December. 

After a family water ride, Emma and I hit up a show while the boys went on some more rides. We saw 'A Christmas Carol'. It's one of my favorite books and my goal is to read it every year at Christmas time, but this year I counted watching the show as reading it. It was really well done, though Emma didn't seem to appreciate it since she fell asleep. 

After the boys first roller coaster this was their reaction: Tyler: Thumbs up! Gavin: Thumbs down! Spencer: "Where am I and what am I doing here?" 

We had a quick lunch of classic amusement park food (hot dogs and hamburgers) and Brant was wonder-dad holding Tyler while feeding Emma (and trying to eat for himself in-between). I was too busy taking pictures to help out. 

The longest line we had to wait in was for the train. We waited over an hour, but I think it was worth it. The train went all around the park and they had a little nativity story at the end. Tyler's super pumped, you can tell. 

Spencer and Gavin loved the train. 

Back in our hotel room Brant finished up a giant bowl of cereal. We stayed somewhere with a kitchen so we made most of the food there instead of eating out which was nice. 

Except for the two times we went to Krispy Kreme for donuts. The cashier may or may not have recognized me the second time there...

Our last day in Branson we went to Branson Landing which has some shops and a cool waterfront. Brant was demonstrating his jump-up-and-tap moves. This picture doesn't do the height he got justice, but you can tell he was really enjoying himself. :) 

We came back home just in time for Christmas Eve traditions. In Brant's family they open love presents every Christmas Eve. That's a present that one family member makes for another family member. This year Brant's parents had us so they made the boys a teepee. It is really cool. The boys have already used it as a hide-out in their nerf wars and as a fortress while playing Book of Mormon characters.  

On Christmas morning the boys were more than helpful showing Emma how to open presents. She didn't really get into it this year, but she did look really cute. 

Emma was as happy as always even though she woke up with a cold on Christmas morning. 

Gavin got a new bike! He was really excited and it'll be nice for him to be able to ride bikes around the neighborhood with the other kids. 

Tyler got a Batman gadget set from Brant's parents. It was the first present he opened and we could have just stopped Christmas for him right there since he was so excited about it. He makes us call him 'Batman' half of the time. He calls me 'Wonder Woman' so it works out okay. 

We had a little New Year's Eve party with a few families. We usually go to the Jones' in Dallas, but we're a little further away now. We took one of their traditions and played a 'Year in Review' game. It was really fun. 2015 was a busy year with a new baby, a graduation, a new job, and a move. We feel very blessed, but we're looking forward to a calmer 2016!

Getting ready for Christmas

One kid decorating the tree and another trying to eat it. That's how we roll. 

Potty training child #3. This is not my favorite part of parenting, but Tyler's been the best potty trainer so far. Only a few accidents and after about a week he has it mostly down. His motivation was Batman underwear. We're exited to just have one kid in diapers. 

St. Nicholas Day! I loved this tradition in Germany so we do it with our kids. You put your shoes by the door on December 5th and St. Nicholas comes and puts treats inside. I think traditionally it's things like oranges, nuts, and chocolate, but we did their Christmas pjs, an ornament, and chocolate (I didn't want to leave out the chocolate part of the tradition). Notice Tyler's Batman  ornament. 

Gavin and I spent two hours at the doctor's office last week making an action plan for his asthma. He coughs all. the. time. and it's especially bad at night so it affects his sleeping (and everyone else's sleeping!) He's been on a treatment for a few days and we can already see a difference. 

It was Jedi Academy at the library. The perfect thing for my 3 boys. They got to make light sabers to bring home and make origami yodas. They each got to pick a Star Wars book to check out. 

Snow!

This is the first time Tyler has ever seen snow and Spencer and Gavin were really little the last time. Of course that meant as soon as they could they went outside to play. The snow melted by noon, but I'm sure we'll get plenty more in the next few months. The boys are all really excited to build a snowman! 

House Projects Galore

Today marks one month since we arrived at our new home in Columbia, Missouri. We've absolutely loved it and we've kept ourselves busy at night and on the weekends with lots of projects. Some of you have been asking for updates, so here goes.

Here's the house from the front at dusk. Our neighborhood is better than we ever could have expected in terms of kids to play with. We spend lots of time in the front yard.

Now, to the before-and-after pics:

First, the dining room. Brant's parents were here the first week we were so they helped us a ton with projects. Rich and I painted the dining room blue and Rich and Brant put up the crown molding. I was going for a little more of a gray-blue, but the pastel blue makes it look really bright and welcoming right when you walk in. 

The kitchen has been the longest project, but we just got things finished up today! I absolutely love it. Spencer thinks it's "too white" but I know better :) I still want to do a little decorating. Maybe add some kind of backsplash on the wall by the new cabinets or some things on top of the cabinets. 

The laundry room was pretty void of storage space, so Brant and Rich put two sets of shelves and a bench in to make it more user-friendly.

We haven't done a lot to the living room except for putting blinds on the upper windows so it doesn't get so hot in the afternoon. We put together a little entertainment center with a couple of bookcases from Target with a tv stand in the middle. We haven't hung any pictures yet, but we'll get around to that soon hopefully.

The kids LOVE having a basement to run around in (and we love that they have it, too!). It stays nice and cool during the day and they can be as loud as they want.

Now, to the outside, which is totally Brant's domain. The house had been empty for about 9 months, so to say the landscaping was overgrown is an understatement. Here's a before-and-after of the rose bushes...

...and the tree/bush/thing in the front yard.

By far Brant's biggest project has been in the back yard. The tree had overgrown the stairs, so he took the tree out and in its place he built a big retaining wall. It took him a solid week of nights and two full Saturdays, but he finished it today! We'll find some nice plants to put in in the spring.

We feel very blessed to have landed in such a wonderful home in a fantastic city. We have a lot more projects planned and I'll try to keep some pictures posted. I'm really excited about getting the kids' rooms decorated, especially a little girl's room. We miss being far from family and friends, but we're hoping we gets lots of visitors!