Christmas Eve Blizzard

View from Mom & Dad's front door

Echo, Nathan and Natalie ready to open presents!!!

Natalie loves Choo Choos so this was a huge hit

Our Lego Genius...we had this entire set put together within a day or two

See....no joke, we had a blizzard!!

Check out the 3 foot snow drifts in Mom's front yard!!!

Half of the yard decorations were completely covered up by the snow.

We spent the day at Mom & Dad's with Jimmy, Celina and Echo.  Had a wonderful Christmas lunch and then opened presents late in the afternoon.  We had a huge ice/snow storm come through and dump about a foot of snow.  The roads were terribly dangerous and the blowing snow made it even worse.  The Christmas Eve service was cancelled at church.

Mommy Mobile

So, with the new baby on the way, we will need a larger vehicle for Mommy.  The Accord won't fit 3 car seats.  So, we went to see Uncle Gary at Eskridge and brought home a Honda Odyssey.  I was so sad to give up my car, but after driving the mommy mobile for the past month, I can honestly say that I LOVE it and have no regrets.  In fact, I wish we had done this sooner.  The sliding doors and DVD player make trips a breeze.

Christmas Parties

The Weather Center had a big Christmas dinner for all of the WC employees and their families.  Mom, Dad, Jimmy and Echo, and the kids and I all went and had a great time.  Santa made an apperance and brought each child a gift (pre-arranged by parents of course :) which was lots of fun.  Nathan and Echo were really into Santa this year, but Natalie not so much.  Following the WC dinner, we all went over to Grandma Ovella's nursing home to visit.  The nursing home had a huge party with music, food and Santa!! 

Here is a pic of the kiddos in front of our fireplace...took this just before we left for the WC dinner, they looked so cute in their Christmas clothes!  The pictures turned out pretty well so these ended up on our Christmas card this year.

At the Nursing Home with Grandma Ovella

Ultrasound Pictures at 13 weeks 2 days

Gingerbread House

After school the kids put a gingerbread house together...it was so much fun!!!  I think the majority of the candy was eaten before it ever made it to the house, but that's part of the fun, right?!!

Nathan pouring the red sprinkles right into his mouth...see, never made it to the house :)

Notice how little sister is watching his every move!  Yep, she tried it too!!!

Halloween 2009!

Dorothy and the Tornado from the Wizard of Oz!

Nathan helped make his costume...and he did GREAT! I drew the pattern and he cut, pinned, sewed, and stuffed it. Mommy put the finishing touches on it and evened things up, but he did 90% of the work :)

We went to the Weather Center to trick or treat in the afternoon. So much fun! Safe and warm too :)

Future School of Meteorology students :)

Standing in front of "Dorothy" the tornado probe from the movie "Twister"

After visiting the Weather Center, we headed home and let the kids trick or treat at a few neighbor's houses.

Then, they handed out candy to all of the kiddos that came by our house.  Natalie was a pro at handing the candy out...one smartie roll for each kid and no more!  Most looked at her like, "that's it"??  Fine by mom and dad or course :)

Pumpkin Carving

The kids were able to choose a pumpkin out of the patch on the field trip to bring home.  Look at this monster of a pumpking Nathan just HAD to have!  He carried/rolled this thing all the way to the bus, then all the way to the classroom. 

So, today we of course had to carve it to make a jack-o-lantern.  So Mommy isn't the best pumpkin designer, but the kids loved it and had a great time scooping out the insides :)

Class Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Nathan's class took a trip to a pumpkin patch on Tuesday.  I volunteered to be a chaparone which proved to be fun and challenging!  We only had a group of 4 so it wasn't too bad, but the kids were so excited and kept running off in different directions :)  Here is our group....

They had a huge slide made out of some sort of pipe.  Soooo fun, the kids LOVED this part.  They also did a hay ride through the corn field.

A Day at the Park with Papa

Took the kids to park in our neighborhood the other day after school to let them run around and get some energy out.  Dad saw us out there when he stopped to get their mail, and decided to come play for a little while. 

Natalie managed to get Papa to climb the big toy and go down the slide...weeeeeee Papa!!!

Once at the bottom, Nathan jumped out from behind the slide and scared Papa with a big BOOOO!  He looks terrified, huh?!!!

Fall Break

The kids were out of school last Thursday and Friday for Fall Break.  Nathan had football practice on Thursday evening at 6 PM of course, so they couldn't head out of town until around 9 that evening. 

Travis was awaken by an eager golfer around 6 the next morning....ugh!  But, being the good daddy that he is, they got up and headed outside to play a little golf.

Not only did Nathan get to do some golfing at the Medford house, he also got to participate in the Urban Golf event for kids which I am sure he loved!  Last but not least, he got to ride in the big tractor with Travis...too cute!

H E A R T S

Nathan's class won HEARTS last week so they performed the warm-up for this morning's "Good Morning Dragons!" assembly. Classes earn the H-E-A-R-T-S award for being Honest, Encouraging, Accountable, Respectful, Trying our best, and being Safe in our actions.  Parents are always welcome to attend the assemblies, which are generally held on Friday mornings, but since today is the last day of this school week, it was this morning.  The class did really well!  They led the school in a fun little dance to kick off the assembly and get everyone's juices flowing.  It was fun to watch them spin and clap and jump up and down.

Pumpkin Patch

Today we took a drive to get the kids out of the house.  Along the way we happened to come across a pumpkin patch in Tecumseh that was put on by the Methodist Church as a fundraiser.  The kids had a great time looking at all of the pumpkins and had a really hard time deciding which ones we should get. 

Wahooooo!

So, this morning Natalie gets out of the shower and heads straight for the potty in her bathroom.  We were running a little late this morning so I tried to get her interested in something else since these "sitting on the potty" episodes usually last quite a while and she has never actually gone potty while sitting there.   Distractions didn't work so I let her sit there with her beloved "woof woof" and her favorite book while I went back to the kitchen to make some breakfast.  She looked so cute I had to get a pic of this....thinking what a great blog pic that would be! 

A little while later, Travis and I went in to check on her and praise her for being such a big girl.  We walked in to find her "wiping" herself....oh joy, I thought....wonder how much she has already stuffed into the toilet?!!!  So, helped her wipe, pulled her off the potty and what did I see????  Pebbles!!!!!  Wahoooooo!!!  She went poo poo on the toilet all by herself!!!  I couldn't believe it!  Luckily I had already stashed some smarties in the cabinet so she got lots of hugs and kisses AND candy, which of course was her favorite part.

I have been emptying her poopy diapers into the toilet so she will get the idea that the poop is supposed to go in the toilet...hoping one day she would make the connection to go in the toilet and not her diaper.  Guess it worked!!!  We'll have to wait to see if this becomes part of her routine, or if it was just by chance that it happend....but either way, looks like she has officially started potty training :)

Samantha's New Baby Boy

Cooper

9-9-09

Natural History Museum

We went to the Natural History Museum on Labor Day. Ironically, it was the first Monday of the month so admission was FREE! This offer stands every month, so take advantage of it sometime...the kids loved it and it was a great get-out-of-the-house activity.

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