Bike Riding Buddies

These boys have so much fun riding their bikes and they spend a lot of time doing so. I love listening to them out there as I work in the kitchen. I hear things like, "Aden, are you going to get gas at the gas station?" and "Boozie, let's go to 'Coxco' first and then we can go to Walmart." They like to pretend that they are riding on motorcycles and that they have errands to run. I love kids' imaginations! Anyway, between riding bikes, the swing set, feeding the neighbor's goats, digging and pushing dump trucks at their "struction" site, and their various sports equipment and balls these boys definitely enjoy lots of outdoor play. And of course, they are usually joined by their sweet, little sister.

We're hoping to take Jonathan's training wheels off this weekend. I think he's ready as far as the actual bike riding goes. I'm not as sure that his attention span is ready for two wheel riding though. He is SUCH a silly, distractable little boy.

I love that he calls this his "Monster Mutt Dalmatian" helmet. For those of you not into Monster Jam, one of the trucks is painted to look like a Dalmatian and it is called Monster Mutt Dalmatian. In this house, ALL dalmatians (yes, even the 101 Dalmatians) are called "Monster Mutt Dalmatians."

Orange is still his color of choice. Can you tell?

And our budding cyclist...

And just in case you thought we were always all smiles over here, here's a shot of our little "DK" (short for "drama king"). I can't even remember what he was crying about but he was being so ridiculously dramatic at the time that I could barely hold the camera steady for my laughter! Poor child, mean mother.

Eating My Words...again!

Before having a daughter of my own with crazy, scraggly, always-in-her-eyes hair I swore I would NEVER tie up my daughter's hair like this. I always wondered what possessed moms to do it to their sweet girls! Well, (like so many other times on this parenting journey) I understand now why moms do what they do with their young daughters' hair and I find myself (again!) eating my words. As you can see from these pictures I have decided that a whale spout on the top of my daughter's head is an improvement over the shaggy hair in the eyes (crusted with this morning's yogurt or oatmeal, no less) look. At least she looks a little more "kept" now.

The other day she very purposefully climbed into her "chair" with her book and began "reading" it out loud. It was really cute!

Christmas Morning

The "Joey" dolls were such a hit the boys went right to them in the morning and started playing with them despite the pile of unopened presents under the tree!

Elizabeth seemed to know that this gift was hers and made a bee line for it as soon as I set her down.

She just kept smiling and patting it. At this point I'm not sure she knew what to do with it.

She hugged it like this for quite some time before finally getting up and moving on to something else. We decided to sit back and let her figure it out.

This girl loves her stuffed animals...especially her puppy dogs and kitty cats.

Giving the Slinkys a whirl.

I love the smiles of excitement on Lizzie's and Jon Jon's faces!

She finally figured it out!

And now she scoots around the house on it like the cutest little thing. The wheels are on casters which allow her to swivel around and navigate her way throughout the house with ease.

Jonathan was able to read the names on the gifts and was excited to help pass them out. Of course, he was most excited when he came across a gift labeled "Jonathan"!

The boys have been in a bit of a "Where's Waldo?" craze so they were very excited to add a few more books to their collection.

Sweet Jonathan. If you look closely you can see he's holding his new "pace suttle" (space shuttle)...definitely one of his favorite stocking stuffers.

"This 100 piece Star Wars puzzle is for me, right?"

I love the glow of the sun on her hair.

Dave came over that morning with his camera and captured some really sweet moments. I'm so glad he did...most of the pictures in this post were taken by him.

After a very rainy Christmas Eve we awoke to a beautiful Christmas morning. It was the perfect morning for the kids' first playtime on their new swing set.

Without question, the boys' favorite "element" of the swing set is the "horsey swing" and they ride on it together all the time.

All smiles on her "big girl" swing.

And there she goes for her first attempt at the slide.

No fear!

Ooh, ouch!

But this tough cookie was completely un-phased and made her way to the steps again and again.

Nothing will keep her down...not even a seriously runny nose!

Can we get a Kleenex over here?

My happy chain sawing boy! Thank goodness it came with safety goggles!

I think he was a little disappointed to find out that his new (toy) chain saw wouldn't really cut anything...try as he might to make it do so.

Christmas Eve

This year we had the Christmas Eve gathering at our house. We ate a yummy prime rib dinner, sang Christmas carols, played games, and watched the kiddos open a couple of presents. We had a nice time!

The chocolate cake that I made for our Christmas Eve dessert. I got the idea from last year's December issue of Family Fun.

She would just stop and stare at all the lights and ornaments. It was so cute!

I had this cute little red and green Christmas outfit picked out for her and of course she insisted on wearing her hot pink slippers with it. Oh well.

All three of my kids were sick this Christmas and you can totally see it in their faces...tired eyes, snotty noses, flushed faces. They had fevers, chills, a cough, and runny noses that lasted for two weeks! Boy was I glad when we got over that hump!

Two peas in a pod!

I think our kids each had one toy gun (wooden with no form of ammo) prior to Rebekah's visit. I think we have close to ten now (with various forms of ammo...balls, caps, foam discs, etc.) Yes, you can tell this gal has been in the army!

Aden (4 yrs. 10 months)

Lizzie (15 months)

Jon Jon (3 years, 4 months)

Buddies

The pirate and his princesses...

Poor Jonathan!

Sally Girl and Ralphie

Getting cleaned up for her first present of the evening...Christmas PJs!

We're still working on what it means when we say, "Put your arm around Jonathan."

Sweet smiles despite being little sickies

Notice the little bow that I added to Elizabeth's pajamas...I had to make them look a little more girly!

My precious baby girl!

Handsome boy

Opening their other Christmas Eve gift...

...a Melissa & Doug "Joey" doll. They each got one and they LOVE them! They have had a lot of fun dressing up their dolls and mixing up the costumes. The set comes with clothing and accessory pieces for a pirate, a super hero, a police officer, a fireman, a knight, and a construction worker. I found these at Macy's on Black Friday for $6.50 each! What a steal! Although, the boys have liked them so much I'd pay the full $12.99 price for them if I had to!

Their big present from Dave, Carolyn, Great Grandma, Sally, and Ralph...

Dave, Ralph, and Daniel set it up once the kids went to bed so they'd see it for the first time on Christmas morning.

The stockings filled with goodies!

The tree...all ready for Christmas morning.