New Year's Eve

Brad and I didn't have very many plans for New Year's Eve, we usually don't.  We had a couple invitations but decided we were just going to stay at home and hang out with the boys.  The kids had no idea it was New Year's Eve and that the rest of the world was staying up late to celebrate.  Which is really good, because I doubt Brad and I make it to midnight anyway. 

This New Year's I will remember as being the most productive New Year's Eve I think I have ever had.  I started the day by doing a blood transfusion on my mom's dog (the second dog of hers in 2 days to get a blood transfusion...stupid rat poison).  We ended up doing the transfusion in my basement because I didn't want to be stuck at work watching her get a transfusion for a couple hours.  At least at home the kids were able to play with Grandma Dawn, Aunt Kennidy and Aunt Annie while we took care of the dogs.  Vince was so excited to see his aunts and declared Kennidy and Annie his favorite aunts.

I had really been wanting to move Vince into a new room and move Joel to Vince's old room, but Vince didn't want to move.  I was hoping that while his aunts and Grandma Dawn were here that they could convince him to move to a new room.  Joel is a really light sleeper and Vince's room gets the least amount of foot traffic past it and is quiet and I really wanted Joel moved to that room.  Vince sleeps thru almost anything and would be fine in the room in the middle of the hallway.  Vince didn't care what any of us had to say about it, he didn't want to change rooms.  He loves his room!  When Brad got home from running a few errands this morning I told him about the situation.  He said "let me talk to him."  I told him to have at it, I didn't think he was going to get very far.  A few minutes later Vince was running up to my mom and sisters and asking them to help him move his beds into his new room.  Brad was very proud of himself for convincing Vince to change rooms!  I was really impressed!  Apparently it came with promises of making it into a dinosaur room with green and orange trees.  It won't match his new bedding at all, but I don't care.

We spent part of the evening moving Joel's crib, moving dressers, moving clothes to the correct rooms and organizing everyone's "new" rooms.  As far as I can tell everyone is happy!  Hopefully this leads to Joel sleeping better, because that would be fabulous.  The rest of the evening was spent pretending we were cars from Cars 2 and racing around the house and seeing how many times 2 children could climb up and down the ladder to the top bunk (I lost count).

For the racing Vince decided he was Francesco Bernoulli, I was Lightning McQueen, Brad was Mater and Joel was a lemon.  Joel kept running and falling over and laying on his belly and Brad would run up and tow him back to the shop.  Joel thought it was the funniest thing ever and loved falling over and being saved!  I loved watching him and Brad play together and listening to the laughter.  Vince and I kept racing and he would get mad when I would win.  I only won because I finally took my socks off so I would stop slipping on the hardwood floors (yes we are competitive with the 3 year old).   Vince kept saying "I am Francesco Bernoulli, do you like my open tires?"  Vince had his pants rolled up to his knees so he could have open tires like Francesco.  Brad gave Vince the idea and Vince loved it.  He spent the rest of the night looking like he was wearing capris and reminding us that he was Francesco Bernoulli.

We had a wonderful New Year's Eve playing with the boys and getting some organzing accomplished!  2011 was a wonderful year and we are looking forward to a great 2012.  Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today was my mom's birthday.  My mom is a wonderful Christian woman who is always quick to take care of everyone around her.  It doesn't matter if you need a creative idea, a meal, help with a project or problem my mom is always there to help friends and family and the occassional stranger.

I don't think my mom had very much planned for her birthday and I planned on calling her after I got off work.  I figured the boys could sing for her or something.  Then she called me this evening.  When I saw her name come up on caller ID I thought to myself, "She knows I am at work, she should know I am going to call and wish her Happy Birthday later.  Why is she calling now?"  When I heard her voice I knew something was wrong.  It turned out one of their dogs was sick and they were pretty concerned.  They were concerned enough to drive 1.5 hours to my work to have me take care of the dog.  I figured my mom and maybe one of my sisters would make the drive, I was pleasantly surprised to see my mom, my stepdad, 3 of my sisters and my sister's boyfriend.  I would like to think that they all just wanted to see me, but I have a feeling it had more to do with it being my mom's birthday and there was a promise of food.  After spending some time taking care of the dog we went to eat at one of my mom's favorite restaurants that just happens to be right by my work.

While my mom's birthday wasn't what she had planned, it didn't turn out too bad (other than the driving and the sick dog).  She got to have birthday with almost all her daughters and have her favorite pizza!  My mom's ability to be flexible and go with the flow is just another one of her strengths!  Brad and I are blessed to have her in our lives and the boys are lucky to have such a wonderful Grandma.

Christmas is over

It has been a great Christmas and we are now officially done with all our Christmas celebrations.  Usually I am happy when we get done with all our celebrations, but they have all been very relaxing and enjoyable this year, so I am a little sad they are over.  We are spoiled by our families and have received a ton of gifts, I am just not sure where they are all going to live or if my house will ever recover from the influx of new items.  Being the really nice mom I am I have already put several of the toys, movies, and games the boys were given in a closet to use on a rainy day, or anytime I need bribery or a new distraction for the boys.  At some point their memory will be too good and I won't get away with this trick.  Actually I am surprised Vince hasn't figured it out, but I think he was so overwhelmed with all the gifts he was given that he wasn't able to keep track of every one.  I do the same thing with their birthday gifts too!  So if you ever give the boys something and you don't hear about them playing with it right away or you don't see it in the house it isn't because we don't like it.  It is just because I am saving it for another day.  The kids think it is great when I pull a brand new present out of the "present closet" every once in awhile.  Plus it saves my sanity!

There have been a ton of fun stories from Christmas and I will get around to writing about them, but I seriously need to get my house cleaned while the boys sleep!

I will leave you with a conversation between Brad and Vince.  We were eating leftovers (ham and prime rib) and Brad and Vince were discussing where these meats came from.

B: Vince do you know what kind of meat Ham is?
V: Umm, piggy meat
B. Good Job!  Do you know where this meat (pointing to the prime rib) comes from?
V: Its cow meat.
B: Dairy cow or Beef cow?
V: Beef cow.  Dairy cows make milk.
B: Where do HAMburgers come from?  (Brad was trying to confuse Vince and get him to say pigs)
V: McDonalds!!!  (Not completely right, but he didn't fall for Brad's trick!)

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!  Here is a picture of the boys with Santa this year.  We were lucky enough to run into Santa when we were in the Dells.  Vince was a little shy but was happy standing to Santa as long as he didn't have to talk to him.  Joel was not happy!

Vince and Santa

Vince, Joel and Santa

Captain Cornelius

For the leadership program Brad is in the class was split up to do a group project.  The project was to promote agricultural literacy and to go out and educate people on what truly goes on in agriculture and dispel some of the rumors that exist.  I am not sure what other groups did, but the group Brad is in divided up and went to schools in the Peoria area, Rockford area, and one team member went and presented at the school President Obama's kids attend.  Brad's part of the group went into schools in the Rockford area to grades ranging from K-8.  In order to help entertain the kids in the lower grades they borrowed the Captain Cornelius costume from Illinois Corn Growers.  Brad had volunteered to wear it so he brought it home and tried it on a couple days before the school program.

My two super heroes!

Joel and Captain Cornelius

When Brad went to try it on I was a little worried that Joel would be scared, but he thought it was great and so did Vince.  Brad left the costume on for a good 30 minutes.  Vince insisted he put on his Superman pajamas so him and daddy could both be super heroes!  They had a blast running around the house rescuing everyone and everything.  Brad had to keep ducking his head quite a bit to make sure he fit through the door ways. 

Superman Vincent

The school presentations went well and due to some health issues with one of Brad's team members, Brad needed to be a presenter and not Captain Cornelius.  Brad really thought the kids at the schools would love Captain Cornelius and he was trying to figure out who he could get to dress up.  I declined his invitation.  Luckily we have an college intern   at the farm right now who was really excited to step up and be Captain Cornelius for all the kids.  From what I have heard Captain Cornelius was as big of a hit at the schools as he was around our house!

Notice the baby gates around the Christmas tree!

Let's play go fish!

I have been the financial secretary for our church for about 1.5 years and after this year is over someone else is taking over.  Vince knows that we collect the church money and take it to the bank and knows that he isn't supposed to touch or play with the green church envelope (the bank bag).  Well this week I was using a different bank back that was a little bigger and black.  I stayed up late Monday night and got everything recorded and ready to be deposited on Tuesday.

While I was at the desk trying to order a last minute Christmas gift Vince came running over and said "Mommy let's play Go Fish with your money."  I didn't answer fast enough and he said it again.  I looked down and he had a handful of money, mostly $20 dollar bills!  I knew exactly what had happened without even asking.  I forgot to put the money bag on my desk Monday night and Vince found it on the couch and opened it up to see what was in there.  I am guessing since it wasn't in the normal green bag it didn't even occur to him that it was church money.

There were cash and checks all in a pile on the living room floor!  Luckily I had already recorded everything and knew exactly how much I was supposed to have and Joel hadn't noticed what was going on and was too busy playing on his own.  In a matter of a few minutes I had it all accounted for and organized (again) and put away in a desk drawer so they couldn't play with it before we made it to the bank.

I was a little sad to be giving up my job as the financial secretary but after this incident I think it is probably a good idea!

Christmas Spirit

Tuesday morning Brad was wanting to have some of Vince's rice krispy treat house for breakfast.  I told him he had to ask Vince.  So Brad asked Vince and Vince said "no, its mine!", but Brad was determined he was going to get to eat it.  Brad said "Vince its Christmas and do you know what Christmas is about?  It's about sharing."  Vince said "No, it's about giving!"  Vince then had a change of heart and wanted to give Daddy a piece of his rice krispy treat house.  I always get enjoyment out of listening to the two master negotiators negotiating with each other.

Vince and Logan

Vince has several friends that he loves to play with.  One of them is his friend Logan, whose mom is one of my best friends, and he has a little sister that is the same age as Joel, so playdates are fun for everyone!  We hadn't seen Logan in a very long time and this morning when I told Vince we were going over to Logan's house he was extatic and exclaimed "Oh good I missed Logan so much!"  Vince's next concern was if I was staying or just dropping him off, he was hoping I wasn't staying, and then he wanted to make sure Logan's dad was going to be there too.  I explained to Vince that Logan's dad was going to be at work.  Vince was sad because he really wanted to go for a ride in their combine.  Apparently he didn't get enough combine rides this year!

The day was filled with children running around, toys everywhere, lunch, snacks, making gingerbread houses (out of rice krispy treats), and playing outside.  While the two little kids were going down for a nap the older boys were outside playing.  I sat and watched them out the window for a good 20 minutes.  At first Logan and Vince were digging a hole at the top of a pretty steep hill in the backyard.  Then Logan accidentally rolled a little way down the hill and then Vince decided that it looked like fun.  Logan thought Vince needed help and kept trying to run after him and would grab his hood and try to stop him from going farther down the hill.  Poor Logan tried for all he was worth to stop Vince and finally gave in and rolled down the hill with him.  They spent the next 15 minutes or more rolling down the hill, grabbing a handful of rocks to carry up the hill to the hole they dug and rolling back down the hill again.  After a few trips down the hill they were having trouble walking a straight line back to the rocks.  I had a lot of fun watching them and laughing.  Logan and Vince were all smiles the whole time!

Eating the toppings

Going in for a bite of the house

After they came back inside we made gingerbread houses out of rice krispy treats, frosting, marshmallows and m&ms.  I am pretty sure more candy ended up in their mouths than on the houses.  They had a blast and when they were done Vince reached down and took a big bite out of the roof of his house, Logan followed and Heather and I grabbed the cameras and started taking pictures in between laughing.

Proud of their houses and eating techniques

One more bite!

It was a great day of the kids playing mostly without adult involvement and Heather and I getting to talk with relatively few interruptions!  I can't wait until we get together next time it was so much fun to see the kids having so much fun together.

Sharing!  At least for a couple minutes

Mr. Outgoing

Vince is usually pretty outgoing and is generally more than happy to start a conversation with almost anyone.  Especially now that it is Christmas time he likes to say "Merry Christmas" to almost everyone.  Saturday night when we were shopping we needed some parts for a plumbing project Brad and Vince were working on.  Brad told Vince they needed to get an elbow and a clean out (I couldn't pick one out but Vince can).  When Joel and I were looking for snow boots for Vince, none of which Vince liked and he thought they all hurt his feet, Brad and Vince were getting plumbing supplies.  From what I am told Vince had about a 7 minute conversation with the associate in plumbing telling her all about how and why they needed an elbow and a clean out.  Then when we were checking out Vince informed the cashier that the pipes on the on the belt were an elbow and a clean out.  The cashier had no idea, neither did I, I asked Brad if Vince was right and he told us that Vince was.

I had told Vince he could sit at chairs that were along the wall close to the check out while we were finishing up in line.  A nice associate came by and talked to him and it turned out she was the same one he talked to in the plumbing section.  Vince told her Merry Christmas, talked to her about the supplies we got, the presents we bought for people, invited her over to our house and when she said no asked her why not?  She was kind enough to explain to Vince that she had to work the next day and couldn't come over.  Vince was a little disappointed.  She was a very nice lady who told me that Vince reminder her of her grandson when he was little.  I think I have talked to more random people in stores since Vince came along than I ever have before!

A Christmas Shopping Trip with Children

Brad, the boys and I headed out last night to do a little Christmas shopping.  We didn't need a lot of things because I have majority of the shopping already done.  It was just after dinner time and I was happy to have Brad with me to do a little shopping.  For awhile we had two carts so each of the boys could be contained, but then Vince wanted to walk so we combined carts so we only had one.  Well, Joel didn't want to ride in the cart if Vince got to walk, so suddenly I was following them through the store at full speed while Brad was looking at a couple things.  First the kids found tires.  They were a little shorter than Vince and Vince was convinced he needed them for his monster truck.  Joel thought he needed them too and just kept babbling and trying to move the tires.  I was having a hard time getting them to move past the tires and keep walking so I suggested we looked for more parts for the monster truck.  We have a movie all about monster trucks and it talks about different parts, so the boys knew what they were looking for...sort of.  In our wandering around (a.k.a. keeping up with Joel) we saw jack stands on sale.  Vince called them "jackers" and was insisting he wanted them for Christmas.  I told him no and that we needed to go find Daddy and Vince could tell Daddy all about the jack stands.

A few minutes later and 10 aisles down we found Brad.  Vince and Joel dragged him all the way back to the jack stands.  Joel kept walking because he could and I looked back at Vince and Brad because I heard Brad saying "Vincent No!"  It was too late, Vince had already reached up and tried to lift a jack stand box off the shelf to put it in the cart and it was way to heavy for him and Brad was not close enough to catch it.  The box knocked Vince over as it came crashing to the floor.  No one was hurt!  There were a few other customers walking down the aisle and saw the whole thing happen.  Brad said you could hear them grimace as the box fell and then they started laughing when they saw Vince was ok and that we were laughing too.  We then had a full meltdown in the store because Brad told Vince we didn't need the jack stands and we had some at home.  Vince was crying because he wanted his own jackers and he didn't want to wait until Christmas and he didn't want to share.  Ten minutes later and a trip through the toy aisle and we found several 100 things Vince wanted and he stopped talking about the jackers...at least until we got in the car.

In the toy aisle Vince found a Dinosaur Train train and action figure set that he insisted he needed!  I told him he had one already and that it was at Nanno's house.  I had taken a few toys to Nanno's house so they would have things to play with there.  Vince wanted Nanno to stop borrowing his toy and give it back.  He wanted to drive to Nanno's house right now and get it back.  We tried to tell him that it was late (8:30pm) and too far of a drive and he would have to wait until we saw Nanno in 1 week.  Vince told us it was that far and we just needed to be patient and we would get there!  You have to love when your own words come back to get you!  At least we know he hears us when we talk.  

Vince and his Pets

Vince has never been the kind of kid that liked stuffed animal he always liked his blankets.  He has two that he loves and a couple he can substitute in if they are dirty.  His two favorites are camouflage and polkadot, but he used to not be able to say camouflage and so now the blanket is called toulaflage.  When he was a baby he had a stuffed horse but he really just liked chewing on the tail and he only liked it for 3 weeks at the most.  When he was about 20 months old he had a stuffed Elmo doll  that he took everywhere and really loved....for about 3 weeks.  We have a whole laundry basket full of stuffed animals the kids don't care about.  I was actually considering just packing them away or even giving them away.  Then a few weeks ago Vince started playing with them.  He calls them all his "pets."  His talks to them, has them talk to each other and makes up a conversation (my favorite) and likes to line them all up (usually on the couch).  There are a lot of pets and it takes awhile to line them all up.

Vince's current favorite pets are the ducks, the dinosaur, an alligator and a frog.  The dinosaur's name is "Pet the Dinosaur."  The frog's name is "Dump truck AC Stewart."  The alligator and ducks don't really have names right now, at least not that I can recall.  When Vince names things 85% of the time they have a first name and then it is followed by AC Stewart.  We have no idea what AC stands for or where it comes from and I have a feeling we will never know.

Vince likes to take his dinosaur places with him and point out the scenery along the way.  The problem is I don't know when he is talk to the dinosaur or me.  The other night he was pointing out Uncle John's house to Pet the Dinosaur and explaining to him that Uncle John was getting ready for bed because it was dark out.  Never mind that it was 6:30 at night.

Vincent and his pets and blankets.  Looks like dinosaur was still in bed upstairs.

 The other day he was playing with his two ducks.  I asked if the bigger one was the mommy and the little one was the baby.  I was quickly told "NO!" and that the bigger one was the grandma and the little one was a big kid.  He went on to ignore me and have a conversation between the ducks, changing his voice slightly for each one.  The conversation went like this:

Big Kid "Grandma I miss you so much when you go to horse shows.  Why do you have to go to horse shows all the time?  I really miss you when you are gone."

I can't remember what the Grandma duck said because I was too busy laughing and trying to read a book to Joel.  My mother in law shows horses and was gone quite a bit this summer and fall but hasn't gone to a horse show in over a month.  Apparently it made quite the impression on Vince when she was gone so much at horse shows.  Who knew! 

I am waiting for Joel to jump in and start playing with the pets too, but he doesn't seem to have any interest except to throw them off the couch when they are all lined up and make his brother mad.

Two date nights...in a bathroom

Staying in a hotel with two small children is fun but presents a few challenges when it comes to bedtime.  It is really hard to explain to the children that they need to go to bed but Mommy and Daddy are going to stay up and watch a movie.  They aren't going to just close their eyes and go to bed and ignore the movie.  The boys do really well going to bed at home, but we also put them in their beds and walk out of the room.  There is no way either one would fall asleep if they could see us and we weren't sleeping.  It isn't like Brad and I could really leave the hotel room and go do something together.  Brad did offer to go check out the hotel bars.  Well, maybe we could go sit in the hall, but I am sure that would get strange looks.  So how did we spend Friday night and Saturday night?  Having date nights in the bathroom of the hotel room!  We had a handicap room so the bathroom was pretty big.  Romantic isn't it?  We took one of the chairs from the room and brought it in the bathoom and I sat on a pillow on top of a handicap stool that was in the bathroom.  We put the laptop on the counter and watched a movie and Brad enjoyed a couple drinks.  Friday night we also enjoyed pizza with our movie.  It is a lot easier to stay awake during a movie when you aren't laying down in a comfy bed.  Thank goodness for Netflix and free wifi, otherwise Friday and Saturday night would have been pretty boring.

Waterparks

We have a water park not far from our house and Vince is always asking to go there, so he was really excited about our impromptu stay at an indoor water park.  Saturday after breakfast we headed to 1 of the water parks and thought the kids would be thrilled.  They were for the 10 minutes we spent waiting for it to open up.  Then once we got a table and got in the water they lost all interest.  The water was a little on the cold side, they didn't like the play area for older kids because of all the water spraying all over and the giant bucket that kept dumping water every few minutes.  Brad and I took them on tubes in the lazy river dragged them down a couple really small slides and they didn't like that either.  After a whole 15 minutes in the water we decided to go to another water park down the hall.  We knew it had a wave pool and baby/toddler area and we were hoping it would be warmer, plus it was really close.  We were not disappointed!  The water was warmer and the kids' area was a lot less intimidating for the boys.  The boys lasted close to 45 minutes at the 2nd water park but then they got cold and wanted to leave.  At this point neither Brad nor I were really excited to spend another day and a half at the hotel.

Joel trying to stay warm

Brad being a really good sport

Vince having fun

Vince loved playing with the "leaking pipes"

 On Saturday night we walked over to the last water park that was in the hotel to check it out and see if they would have anything the boys would like.  It was a lot like the first one with a giant bucket of water that kept dumping and a large playground like structure with water spraying everywhere, but it also had a separate toddler/baby area away from the giant bucket of water.  Vince and I discussed how much fun it would be to go on different slides, etc and I told him how much smaller that giant bucket was compared to the one at the other water park and he agreed.  They are probably the same size but I just didn't need that silly bucket keeping him from enjoying the water park.

Vince being really brave and running thru the spraying water

Joel and Brad

Me and my boys!

 Sunday morning after breakfast we went to the water park.  The water was so cold!  I wanted no part in it and neither did Joel.  Brad and I carried the boys through a few things but Joel and I weren't loving it.  Brad convinced Vince to go on a big tube ride and Vince was really excited about it, so they climb the large staircase to go on the ride.  Vince really loved it!  Then Brad took Joel and he liked it too!  After that Brad and Vince tackled the smaller body slides in the kids area and Vince was having so much fun even though the water was cold.  As soon as he got to the bottom of the slide (shivering) he would wait for Brad to come down the slide and then ask to go on another slide.  It was so nice to see him enjoying the waterpark!  Joel and I spent our time playing in the shallow water watching Vince, Brad and numerous other kids and adults coming down the slide, most of whom were shivering!

Coming out of the tube ride

Vince running over to tell me how much fun the tube ride was

Joel on the tube ride....he really did like it

Trains and Dinosaur Bones

While we were up in the Dells we decided to go eat at place where the food was delivered by a train.  I figured the boys would love it!  It turns out only certain tables got their food delivered by train, so we waited patiently for a train table.  We waited at some very cute cowhide couches near the bar.  Brad jokingly asked Vince if he wanted to belly up to the bar and Vince said "yeah, lets belly up to the bar,"  so the Brad and Vince got to have their first drink together at a bar.  Beer for Brad and Sprite for Vincent.  They were the only ones at the bar and they looked really cute sitting next to each other.  I am sure we are going to hear the phrase "belly up to the bar" come back to haunt us at some inappropriate time but listening to Vince say it and making a deep voice when he said it was hilarious.

Bellying up to the bar

Vince looking Brad's plate of ribs instead of smiling

The boys patiently waited the 15 minutes to get a train table.  Then they sat nicely and didn't even try to leave the table or climb out of their highchairs for the entire dinner.  Heck, most of Joel's food even made it into his mouth and not onto the floor or his head!  Brad had ordered ribs for dinner and Vince saw the bones and was convinced they were T-Rex bones. He couldn't believe Daddy was eating T-Rex meat! He was all ready to save the bones and use them to build his own T-Rex!  He was so excited we couldn't tell him he was wrong, so we just agreed that it would be fun to build a T-Rex.  We were having such an enjoyable dinner we ended up sitting at our table for over an hour.   That is virtually unheard of in our household and most of that time Brad and I were able to have an adult conversation with minimal interruptions and to top it all off the food was actually really good.   At least now I know if I want the kids to behave at a restaurant all I need to do is find one with a train!

Joel, Mommy and Vincent

The train was more interesting than taking a picture!

Change of Plans

This weekend my cousin got married!  The wedding was in the upper pennisula of Michigan where I have a lot of family.  We were really looking forward to going even though it was going to be a whirlwind trip.  Well, I was looking forward to everything but the drive.  Entertaining two children for that long in the car isn't that much fun but I figured between movies and stopping for dinner we would be ok.  We never made it to Michigan.  About half way there my back was hurting so bad that there was no way I could make the rest of the trip.  I knew my back would be sore riding in the car for so long, but in the past I could change positions and be fine.  My back would get sore on long trips when I was pregnant with the boys but nothing like it was on Friday.  After some discussion Brad and I decided we should stop driving.  Apparently Brad doesn't like to see me in pain but we were both really bummed to be missing out on all the wedding fun and getting to see all of our family.

We were close to the Wisconsin Dells when we decided to stop.  We ended up staying at an indoor waterpark and have never been packed for a trip but so unprepared as we were this weekend.  We had cold weather gear and clothes with us (mostly nice clothes for the wedding) and no swimming suits or floaties or anything like that.  Most people wandered the halls in flip flops or crocs or even gym shoes.  Brad and I had brown boots or dress shoes to choose from and the boys had boots too.  After a visit to a couple different stores we were able to find suits for the boys and Brad.  Maternity swimming suits are hard to come by normally and in December with a limited number of stores (and time) I knew it wasn't going to happen so I had to improvise but it worked!  Brad thought I should just sport a bikini, but I didn't think anyone wanted to see my big, white belly.

Even though this weekend was a far cry from what we had planned we ended up having a great time!  Normally around home Brad and I divide and conquer (1 plays with the kids while the other does something productive) but this weekend the kids got both of our undivided attention for 3 days!  Vince asked if the hotel could be our new home and we could just go home and get the dogs tomorrow and bring them back with us.  What kid wouldn't want to live somewhere with a giant indoor playground, three indoor waterparks, and tons of kids to play with, especially when they got to stay up late and watch movies 2 nights in a row and have a late night ice cream treat?!

No Nap Vincent

Normally Vince is really good about naps and bedtime.  He naps for 2-3 hours a day and I love it!  Joel on the other hand naps for 1.5 hours and I wish it was longer.  I love my children dearly, but when they nap at the same time I can get so much done and not stay up until all hours of the night working on things.  The other day Joel woke up from a his nap about 20 minutes after Vince went down for his nap.  Joel and I were downstairs enjoying some time together when Vince decided he wasn't taking a nap and he was going to play with us.  Vince refusing to take a nap doesn't happen very often and at first it doesn't seem like a bad idea, but about 4-5pm it become evident he really needs a nap.

Around 4pm Vince was hungry and asking for more snacks.  He had already had an apple and something else and I told him he needed to wait for dinner.  Vince was unhappy because Joel was having a banana, but Joel didn't get an apple earlier with Vince.  I was trying to order Christmas cards and I walked away from the whining.  The whining quickly stopped and I was grateful.  Then I heard a little voice asking me if I wanted his sticker.  The only way Vince could have a sticker was if he had an apple.  The only way he could reach the apples in the fridge was to drag a stool to the fridge, climb on top and open the fridge door.  Which explains why the whining stopped, Vince was too busy doing what he wanted and not listening to me.  I quickly told Vince not to eat the apple and he quickly took a bite!  As you can imagine I was not happy.  As I was walking him to the time out chair Vince dropped to the floor and refused to get in the chair.  I went to pick him up to put him in the time out chair when I heard Joel chattering away in the kitchen.  Joel was on top of the stool in front of the fridge and he was trying to open the door.  If he opened the door he would knock himself off the stool.  The baby gate between the kitchen and the dining room was closed!  I left Vince on the floor and took off to rescue Joel, who didn't think he needed any rescuing.  Sometimes I wonder if they plan this all out..."Joel I am going to get an apple if I get in trouble you escape from your highchair and climb on the stool so Mom forgets about giving me a time out.  I will let you have the apple core if you help me."  I am probably just paranoid, but I wonder sometimes.  Don't worry, Vince still got his time out and he didn't get his apple until after dinner and he had to share with the rest of us.
 
The problem with no nap Vincent is he is usually pretty happy, but he stops listening and he starts negotiating even more than usual.  He can negotiate with the best of them and he is extremely strong willed.  I have learned to deal with Vince's personality, but when he hasn't had a nap he is mentally exhausting!  Hopefully the nap boycotting does not become a regular ordeal.  I am not ready for him to give up naps.

Christmas Clock

This year I got the boys a calendar to help them count down to Christmas.  It is a cute banner that has a tree on top and little ornaments that sit in numbered pockets on the bottom.  Everyday you stick one of the ornaments on the tree.  Vince has been calling it his Christmas clock.  I am so glad I got the boys a calendar because the anticipation is killing them!  (actually just Vince, Joel is too young to care).  Just about every other day Vince asks me if there is anything in his stocking yet.  I think he now understands he has to wait for Christmas morning, but he isn't thrilled about it.  Now once a day when Vince remembers about the calendar you can hear him shouting "It's a new day!" as he runs to put another ornament on the tree.  It has been great because we have been using the calendar to practice our numbers as well.  One of these days Joel may realize what the calendar is about and then we will get to have a lesson in sharing too, but until then it is a fun thing for us to do every day.

It is so cute to see Vince's excitement over Christmas!  He was excited about Christmas last year, but this year he understands even more and is even more excited about every aspect of Christmas (cookies, presents, decorating, etc)  It is definitely helping the rest of us get into the Christmas spirit!

Prayers and Laughs

Sunday night my grandparents came over to store a trailer at our house for the winter.  They walked into our house while we were trying to get the Christmas tree up.  The kids were running all over and I believe Joel was on the desk when they walked in.  We were all very happy to see them!  Joel is getting to be more and more outgoing and loved sitting on Papa's lap and reading books or bringing toys over to him.  As a matter of fact when it was time for them to leave he ran to Papa and gave him a kiss!  Usually Joel just clings to me and waves and says "Bye, Bye."  Vince had fun showing off and also enjoyed talking to Papa and reading stories.

At one point during the night Papa asked Vince about his day.  This is how I was told it went:

P: How was church today?
V: Good.
P: Did you say a prayer for me?
V: No, you weren't even there.
P: You can still pray for me even when I am not there.
V: (with hands folded and head down) Dear God, thank you for Papa. Amen

I am pretty sure Papa's heart melted right then!

Meanwhile, Joel was busy entertaining people (following in his brother's footsteps).  He showed Grandma Pat his almost daily routine of dumping out his bowl at dinner time and putting it on his head.  He then grins hoping for a laugh.  Brad and I are over it and don't laugh anymore, my Grandma however was laughing hysterically!  She didn't realize what a common occurrence this is in our house.  Joel was happy to have an audience that appreciated his humor.  For the record we have tried one of those fancy platforms to set bowls that supposedly kids can't tip over or pick up.  It was a waste of money, Joel had the bowl off and flipped over in 30 seconds.  Joel also likes to growl and scare people which he did tonight as well, but he was laughing so hard (at everyone laughing at him) that he could hardly get a growl out.

Never a dull moment around our house!

Our Tree House Swing Set

Last summer (2010) I started talking to Brad about getting the boys a swing set for this past summer.  Something simple with a slide and swings.  Nothing fancy!  Then this spring/early summer Vince started asking for a swing set or a tree house, he went back and forth between the two, and I told him to talk to Daddy about it.  I already had talked to Brad and I didn't get very far.  The next thing I know Brad and Vince are talking about it, they are designing one (with my input too) and making plans on where to put it in the yard.  The kids are more powerful than they even realize!  It ended up that Brad was going to build one instead of buying one and it was going to have a sandbox, swings (that went high enough for Brad and I to enjoy them), stairs up to a platform and 2 slides, with the option of adding more things on later.

Kennidy, Annie, Vince and helping Brad put up the supports

Kennidy and Annie practiced their driving skills on the Gator

Joel just liked trying to drive the Gator

Vince and I carrying a board

Aunt Kennidy helping Vince lift a board

The original plan was to get it done for Vince's birthday but projects tend to take about 3x as long as we think they will, so we were hoping to just have the sandbox and swings done (and they were!) by Vince's birthday.  It was a long summer of working on the swing set.  It is really hard to keep the boys out of the way when Brad is working normally because they just want to help, when he is working on the swingset it is even harder because they just want to play on everything.  We quickly learned that when Brad needed my help with something we needed to find something to strap Joel into otherwise he would be climbing up a ladder to help me or finding a ladder we weren't using to climb up.

Brad analyzing the situation

Vince was ready to help with every step of the project

Using heavy equipment to place the beam for the swings

Adding a beam for the swings

Boys enjoying a snack and watching Brad work

At first the boys were happy with just having a sandbox.  Then they were really excited when they got swings.  It was even more exciting for them when Brad finished the platform and the stairs and they could finally go up to the top to play!  Well, Joel mostly just likes walking up and down the stairs and scaring his mother.  We even put their log cabin house up on the platform so they could have an area with a roof.  We spent a lot of time at the end of summer/early fall just hanging out as a family playing on the swing set (and getting corrected and being told it was a tree house).  We even had breakfast up there one morning!  It is hard to tell who got more enjoyment out it this summer the kids or us.  Either way, it was a lot of hard work on Brad's part and next year we may even install the slides for the boys!  When we keep working on it in phases it gives them something to look forward to!

Brad hard at work

Brad working with the boys played below in the sandbox

He really was having fun...it just doesn't look like it

Playing in the sandbox with friends

Playing in a construction zone

 Now that winter is quickly approaching we are spending less and less time playing on the tree house and in the sandbox.  We definitely miss it!  It was an easy way to get rid of a lot of energy.  On the bright side I have less sand coming in my house right now.  Hopefully winter goes by quickly so we can go back to enjoying the tree house, building sand castles and giving under dogs!

Enjoying the swing

Getting closer just waiting for the railings to be finished

The end product...for this year

Reason for few updates lately

I haven't been very good at updating the blog lately, but I have a really good excuse.  Ok, it isn't that great but I feel like a large weight has been lifted off my shoulders.  During harvest the clutter in our house started to bother me.  The boys and I decided to tackle 3 of the closets in our house.  Well, the boys didn't decide anything but they had fun helping me make a mess and playing with the random things I found in the closets.  Then I just had to wait until they went to bed to throw away their new finds!  Once those 3 closets were cleaned I had my eyes set on our office and a spare room upstairs we were using as storage.  I knew I needed Brad around home for those projects, mostly to do the heavy lifting, so I waited until harvest was over. 

Weeks in advance I planned to have the boys go to our babysitter's house for the day so I could tackle the office and storage room. I had planned to do it all the day before Thanksgiving.  That way I knew Brad would be home the rest of the weekend to take stuff out to the garbage, up to the attic and to the basement for me.  I had my goal set a little too high.  All I managed to do that day was to clean out  the storage room and turn it into a toy room, but I also made a giant mess in the hallway and never even started on the office.  The office was in severe need of attention you couldn't even see our desks!  The kicker was that I had to work the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving, so Brad and I spent the weekend nights living on the edge and cleaning our desks or at least filing papers.  The exciting life of a married couple with small children!

So I have spent the rest of this week splitting my time between playing with the kids and organizing our house and trying to get it back to normal after my cleaning/organizing binge.  The good news is we can now see our desks, they are actually quite lovely!  And Brad and I were able to switch desks which we have been wanting to do since this summer.  The kids have their new playroom that they love.  I have found a home for two pieces of furniture I liked but didn't need taking up space in the house.  All our holiday decorations are organized.  We have gotten rid of a ton of junk that we didn't need anymore and took an antique cabinet to be repaired (Thanks Uncle Tom!).  The bad news is I found a lot of framed pictures that I love that need to find homes somewhere in our house other than in the box they are sitting in.  Brad has been busy doing all the hauling of things to their new locations, fixing the boys bouncy house and putting together a crib and dresser for the baby!  We have 2 more closets I would love to tackle and a couple junk drawers as well, but if I don't stop cleaning and organzing my children are not going to be happy with me.  Vince really wants the Christmas decorations set up and I promised him we would do it this weekend, so it looks like all of the organizational craziness is going to have to stop until after Christmas.

I feel so relaxed now that everything is more organized!  I think I am now ready for all of the Christmas craziness....well, mostly ready.

Dress Up

The boys' imagination is unbelievable!  Lately they enjoy dressing up and pretending to be different characters.  They go back and forth between a super hero, pirate, construction worker, and cowboy.  When Vince is a pirate he likes to say he is "Captain Pirate Vincent" or my favorite is when I get to be a pirate and I am "Captain Mommy!"  We are always good pirates fighting the bad pirates.  When Vince pronounces his name it sounds like "Zincent" which makes it all that much funnier to me.  Vince's favorite are "Super Vincent" and "Captain Pirate Vincent."  Super Vincent always "saves the day!"  Joel likes to be a construction worker and "Cowboy Joel."  He has been known to get to be a pirate from time to time, but not very often does Vince give up the patch and sword.  I love that a hat or a cape can instantly change who they are!

Construction Joel in construction pjs not holding still for a picture

Construction Joel changing into Pirate Joel

Cowboy Joel...stopping long enough for a picture

Cowboy Vincent...not stopping for a picture

Super Vincent saves the day!

Off to save the day

Watch out bad guys it is Captain Pirate Vincent!