Strictly cups

Cole has decided that he's only going to drink from a regular cup. He refuses to hold his sippy cups and only wants our cups. We have the little cups that are perfect for his hands (the IKEA ones), but he does just fine with either. He's been drinking from a cup for a few weeks now, but I just keep forgetting to take a picture. First, he surprised me with figuring out how to make it down the stairs on his own at 9 months, and now this. What will he think of next? :)

Sushi-making momma

I'm so thankful that Kevin got me a sushi making kit with a recipe book a few years ago! I don't know what I would do without the bamboo mat! It makes me even more thankful because Kevin doesn't particularly care for sushi, actually he has yet to even try it. However, the three older children of ours can't get enough of it, so they love to try and get him to eat some. They love eating just the plain seaweed! I made this for an evening in with my girlfriends Friday night. (Everyone brings their favorite appetizer.) Kevin and the kids had fun eating pizza and watching "Underdog" and they were really excited because they got IBC's and some yummy candy treats. Nothing like a fun party with Dad, right?

Snow snow snow!

It's a car that belongs to our neighbor's teenager. The snow plow came by this morning and buried it even more after I took this picture yesterday.

Snow fun

The local radio stations keep calling it the "Blizzard of 2008". I'm not sure if that's what I categorize this as, but whatever it is, it's beautiful and pretty fun. I'm glad businesses are closed and we're "not supposed" to drive except for emergencies. It's been quiet and calm and we had a good time making tracks all over our snow-covered lawn. We kept trying to make snowballs and throw them at Cole and Daddy standing in the window, but it's just not packable yet. Brayden can't wait to make a fort!

It looks a little cold to me

Kai and Brayden wanted so badly to be buried in the snow. They climbed into the wheelbarrow and kept chanting for me to shovel more and more snow into it. They promised me they weren't cold, in fact, they claimed to be warm.

Little Stitcher

Brayden is keeping his hands busy on a blizzardy day. He sewed 8 buttons onto some extra fleece we had from some blankets I made. (We had so many lava lavas kickin' around I batted them and turned them into individual blankies.) I guess I can always blog those later. :) His sewing idea came after he caught me sewing a bunch of patches on his scout uniform. I was way behind on it! Now we are all caught up on patches and his scout shirt looks the way it is supposed to...like a scout shirt and not a blue shirt with a couple patches on it!!

Future rider

Cole has found a new hobby, the bouncy horse. It was parked in the basement for a while since Kai didn't ride it anymore and he found it and just loves it. I bought it for 3 bucks from a lady in our neighborhood when Kai was a baby and I'm glad we can use it again before we get rid of it. Cole even makes the horsey sound when we ask him what a horse says, it's stinkin' cute. This photo was snapped right after he woke up from his nap, we walked downstairs and he was already pointing to his horse! And I promised a picture of him without thumb in mouth, so here you go! :)

Awaiting the blizzard!

Brayden was among the lucky ones who got to come home from school shortly after lunch on Friday. Saydria's afternoon Kindergarten was cancelled. Businesses began shutting down early and the kids were just so excited for all the snow that has been predicted. As I am writing this, we are still getting snow and we are very excited to out and play in it! Kai was ready to go outside at 6:45 this morning! He keeps me, at the very least, feeling young.

Here's Brayden just trying to see how long he can keep his face in the snow. Yeah, I know...and of course, he needed me to document that somehow.

Pinewood Derby

The "Green Arrow" placed 3rd, and Brayden was very excited to claim that prize for the night along with another award, "most original design," especially after last years' defeat with the silver bullet. Here's Brayden to the far right.
A very serious Brayden doing the flag ceremony for the pack meeting. He was looking forward to carrying the American flag for several weeks.
The pretty cool "Green Arrow" ready to race and win this one.
Here's Brayden with his cousin Joey showing their cool cars.
Brayden with Joey and another boy from his den.

Child labor

Kai was just so excited to vacuum the stairs this morning. I really try to just live in the moment with my kids when they are willing to be really helpful. Saydria sometimes makes beds and picks up things off the floor and tries to keep it a surprise, she is our secret helper. Brayden and Saydria like to leave love notes and pictures on our pillows, sometimes accompanied by a random piece of candy they may have saved from once upon a time. Kai is usually the first one dressed in the morning, so it's funny that I got him in his pajamas on this particular morning. Many a day, while the rest of the family is either eating breakfast or still asleep (depending on when he wakes up), he dresses himself each morning after rolling out of bed. What a good little boy he is. :)

A little thumb-suckin' man

Grandpa and Grandma Christensen sent our littlest guy this new little outfit and I think he looks pretty sharp in it. Thank you Grandpa and Grandma for the nice new outfit! It just dawned on me that we probably have more pictures of Cole posted here with his thumb in his mouth than not. I'll be sure to snap a shot of him doing something otherwise. :)

Future skier

Brayden thought Cole needed to try out my ski goggles and we think they suit him well. Brayden wore them for his Iditarod day at school. He really wanted to look like a genuine musher.

67 degrees and corn hole

We took advantage of a warm weather day on Monday! Kevin made a cornhole game and I sewed some beanbags and we had family home evening set for Monday night. Brayden had already volunteered to do our lesson and he did a great job. He found a story about two newfound friends from "The Friend" magazine and read it to us and even asked us if we had experiences in our lives that reminded us of that story. He kept us all quite attentive. So, besides cornhole, we enjoyed going for a walk in the sunshine, jumping on the tramp and swinging. When the kids got home from school, Brayden and Dad had a potato gun battle and thankfully, it stayed outside where little potato bullets belong.

Here's Kai getting in some pre-game warm-up while the kids were at school. Kevin and I held our own little tournament and I was the reigning champion by the time the kids got home. Things changed dramatically for the evening, however. Our final scores? Kevin took 1st place with 335. Brayden had an amazing comeback in 2nd place at 225. Stephanie, a humbled 3rd place at 220. Kai, a-little-disappointing-for-not-holding-the-lead-in-place-of-mom at 4th place with 170 (nevertheless, full of excitement and still playing after the other kids went upstairs to get ready for bed), and Saydria holding onto a close 5th at 145. She was really excited to find out she was in 5th place, so no hard feelings, obviously.