January and February...

Five months after my last post...our lives are so different. This post and the next few are just snapshots of our life since January 14th. After Christmas, we enjoyed having 8-10 inches of snow on the ground. Uncle Mike got snowed in here, so he was able to play with us too. Above, we went to the Dorothea Dix campus to sled on some of those big hills. Good thing Uncle Mike was there, because he thought to bring a really long climbing rope so we could pull the sled back up the hill easily.

I don't think the boys liked it at all ;)IciclesMark and Zack on the finished loft bed

All the animals and people and superheroes were having a party on the coffee table.

Being goofy...or Woody!

Blue swan cookies for the baby shower in January

Ray, Danny, Mark and Dad, about to drink beer (water for Dad) from a baby bottle. Danny won. Dad wouldn't drink at all.

The awesome cake that Susan made for Eli's shower.

Zack's Reading Award from school

Zack and his Pinewood Derby car

Except for the R, Xander wrote his name on this Valentine card.

At the circus...

They would not let me get a picture with all of them looking nice. Oh well...

Just being silly again...

Valentine's flowers and cards for Gramma

Valentine cookies

Tidbits

1. First a baby update...I'm at 33 weeks now, just 7 more weeks to go. (Last week was my 32nd birthday, and I was exactly 32 weeks along!) Everything is going very well. Eli is an active little one, from the time I wake up til I go to sleep at night. I'm up to every other week for appointments, and in just 3 more weeks I'll start going every week. I've reached a certain number in weight that I really hoping to avoid, but I've still gained less than 20 pounds, so I'm not worried about it.
2. What I am worried about it Xander getting used to the new baby. He just seems sort of disinterested, says he doesn't want to be a big brother, and he really doesn't like it when I call the old playroom "Eli's bedroom."
3. We've enjoyed the wintry weather since Christmas, especially since Uncle Mike had a couple extra days and was able to take the boys sledding with us. We went to Dix campus where there are lots of big hills. We tied a 200 foot climbing rope to the sled so we didn't have to keep hiking up and down the hill. It worked very well, and the boys had a blast. This last bit of wintry weather, ie. the snow/ice/sleet/freezing rain that we got Monday night and Tuesday morning and caused the kids to lose a day and two half days of school, was not as great. It wasn't something the boys could really play in, but on Wednesday, we explored the backyard to see what the ice was like. We found a really cool formation at the bottom of the downspout, plus sheets of ice on the swings.
4. I still have more Christmas decorations to pack away. The manger is still on top of the entertainment center and the stocking holders are still on the mantle. Then of course, we have to put the boxes away to store til next year.
5. I'm making progress on Eli's bedroom, and as soon as Mark anchors the shelves in the boys' room, I can really make some headway. We're having a shower to celebrate Eli's birth in two weeks, and I would really love to have his room done (at least partly) before the shower.
6. Speaking of the boys' room, just in time for New Years, Mark finished Zack's loft bed! He now has an extra little bedroom underneath his bed. We put his dresser in there temporarily (we're hoping to build some shelves instead), and he has his desk underneath. The part that he loves is that there's a door that he can lock so his brother can't get to his toys. We moved Xander out of the race car bed and into Zack's old twin bed. We helped make it exciting by letting him pick out some sheets for his new bed. He went straight for the Toy Story sheets, but since we didn't pick them up right away, he looked around and fell in love with the Spiderman sheets. So much to my disappointment, my three-and-a-half-year-old has Spiderman sheets on his bed. I almost cried! Also that night, he picked out a little Spiderman/Green Goblin set instead of an Imaginext robot thingie that would have been a much better deal and much more age-appropriate for him.
7. Mark got me Adobe Photoshop Elements for my birthday, but I haven't installed it on the computer yet. I'm looking forward to having fun with photos, and once I do, I'm sure I'll put lots up on here.

Wordless Wednesday: He sleeps...

Halloween and more...

Halloween 2010..an event that spanned two weekends!! Starting with trunk-or-treat at Gramma's church. That meant that we had to have costumes ready a whole week before Halloween! A BIG HUGE thanks to Aunt Mo for helping make that happen. (Warning: this post has TONS of pictures!)

Here's Woody ("Reach for the sky!") and Buzz Lightyear!

"To infinity..and beyond!"

Fast forward to Halloween weekend...Xander and I took off for Emerald Isle with Lisa and Kennedy. Saturday morning's breakfast was a picnic with biscuits in the back of my car.

Lowes Foods was letting kids decorate pumpkins for free!

Festivities at the campground included horse rides, a costume contest, trick-or-treating, and a pot-luck dinner.

Love this one!!

Waiting so patiently for our turn to ride the horse

My Little Cowboy!

Trying to scoop out pumpkin gunk, but he REALLY didn't like it.

That's our ghost face jack-o-lantern

with Xander's name on the back!

Sheriff Woody and Mrs. Potato Head

Mrs. Potato Head and Cinderella (I really didn't want my picture taken. We used purple eye shadow and eye liner to try to make Mrs. Potato Head. I don't think it worked as well as I thought.)

A dead bear! Yes, it's real!

This was a trick hand in the bowl. It grabbed at you every time you reached for candy. That was the one thing that Xander kept talking about for days.

Taking a walk to the beach

"Give Eli a kiss!"

Finally...

two kids fast asleep.

While Mommy and Xander went to the beach, Daddy and Zack went on Zack's first ever camping trip--Tent-or-Treat with Cub Scouts! They played sports and went fishing, carved pumpkins and went trick-or-treating. Here's a look at their weekend.

Such focus and determination

The complete Buzz Lightyear Costume (the other one was missing some buttons)

This was a collapsed cottage of some kind that Mark and Zack found on their hike (when they got lost!). Zack really loved telling about it.

Making faces like their pumpkins

The last of our festivities happened the day after Halloween. I planned a classic fall activity and a spooky meal.

Before dinner (you know, as an appetizer), the boys got to bob for apples. Zack sort of got the hang of it--he figured out that he had to trap the apple on the side before he could bite into. Xander, well, not so much, he ended up using his hands. But they both still had fun!

He thought it was funny putting his face in the water.

And here's our spooky meal: mummies, mummy brains, and mummy thumbs!! I couldn't be too fancy because of the little picky eater in my house, and I wasn't even sure he would eat the green mac & cheese. But everybody loved dinner...

...and the owl s'mores for dessert!