All in a day's work

Blake continues to be an energetic little boy...who is very quiet and very curious! Yesterday, I was upstairs moving some laundry from the washer into the dryer, when Blake went downstairs to get his milk. He quickly came back upstairs with it in his hand, so I assumed everything had gone fine. About 1/2 an hour later, we went downstairs and I saw this......

Yes, the door to the refridgerator had been open that ENTIRE time and he had taken each egg out of the container, one at a time (since the egg carton was still in the fridge)....thankfully they didn't all break...a miracle in itself!

While Blake and I were downstairs, Sadie had set this up.....

Ignore the laundry pile in the back....yes, this was her classroom since apparently her room is no longer big enough to house all these students. They each had their own book and a 'letter' page to work on.

Then this morning, as I was getting ready, Blake walked into my bathroom and said, "Blake's medicine....Blake's medicine" as I notice his hands are all pink and sticky. I follow him in to their bathroom to find an entire bottle of kid's tylenol poured out everywhere and Blake playing in it like it's finger paint! UGH!!! I didn't have the time to take a picture and at that point, I didn't really feel like taking one. I was so frustrated that I couldn't even put a bit of makeup on!

Fast forward to this afternoon, shortly after lunch,.....Blake was in a timeout and would not stay on the step, like he usually does. So I pulled out an old portable highchair seat that has a belt on it and strapped him in to that......

Yes, this was where he was after 2 minutes in it. He had started to scoot across the floor and then attempted to rock back and forth before falling backwards. It wasn't a hard fall and he cried a bit, but then found a car to play with on the banister........and this was all after he woke up at 5:30 again this morning......needless to say, this kid exhausts me! Love him to death, but he wears me out!

Christmas cookies!!!!!

Our annual Christmas cookie baking.....

The kids and I rolled out the dough and cut out the cookies after school, so we had to use the self-timer to get a picture

(Thanks to Grammy for the aprons!)

On Sunday evening, we decorated them!

Oh dear....let's just say that there were more decorations on Blake's cookies than on any other. He pretty much dumped out the entire bottle on each cookie!

Matt and I didn't even decorate one cookie this year....the kids did all of them!

And then did this while we cleaned up!

Sadie's Holiday Dance Program

Sadie had her dance class' holiday program, which basically consists of a few special dances the girls learned and each dancer gets to invite a few special guests. Unfortunately, Blake and I were Sadie's only guests and I didn't splurge and buy a special 'christmas' outfit for her dance that day...she was the only one but thankfully she didn't care at all. I just couldn't bring myself to buy something that she would wear for 30 minutes, max!

But I did remember my camera and she did a GREAT job!!!

Yes, she was the only one not in festive attire, but she looked beautiful anyways!!!

This sounds familiar.....

Well, it is Christmas time which means one thing in our household when it comes to the food.....time for buckeyes! (See here and here.)

This is the 3rd batch of buckeyes I have made since Thanksgiving and I am actually thankful that we are only in town for one more week because then I won't have to make anymore.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that I can make something that my family loves so much, but after rolling out that many peanut butter balls and dipping them all in chocolate, I get a little sick of them.

It seems Blake has grown to have the same affinity for them as Matt and Wyatt, because just yesterday I found him in the mudroom closet like this.....

See that empty tupperware sitting next to him? That was filled with buckeyes! I keep them out in the garage to keep them cold and while the kids and I were in the family room working on homework/games/reading, he had quietly gone out the back door, gotten the tupperware, brought it in, opened it and I didn't notice until I heard them all spill out onto the floor and I went to see what he was up to!!

It reminded me so much of what Wyatt had done here, that I couldn't help but grab my camera and take a picture or two before putting him in a time-out (is that too confusing for a 2-year old?) Most of the buckeyes were salvaged but I will definitely be making yet another batch...anyone want to come help me??

For the record, I have now done a total of 4 posts about buckeyes over the past few years!

Sadie's Preschool Christmas Program

You may remember back in the fall when I mentioned how Sadie had been asking to be in a choir. And since we don't have a children's choir at our church, I told her she would be in one at preschool, which seemed to satisfy her desires for the time being. So on Sunday, her 'choir' sang at the church where she attends preschool and they sang for the Christmas program. As you can tell from the pictures, she loved every minute of it.

Ready to start!

We had to sit in the back, due to the activity level of this little guy, but he was quite interested in watching Sadie the entire time she was up there.

They sang a few songs and then the kids sat with their families during a portion of the service before returning to sing at the end. During the sermon, she did what she usually does these days and spent her time 'writing'. I took this picture because I just thought she looked so precious!

Back to sing a few more numbers!

She did a great job and I think I may have to find a 'real' choir for her to sing in next year. Auntie Cam, she has asked if she could sing in a choir with you...care to move up here and sing with her??

New Kitchen

Most of our friends/readers of this blog know that we recently redid our countertops and added a backsplash in our kitchen. I haven't posted pictures because I didn't really think it necessary, but because so many of you have asked, here is the before and after. It is fun to be able to see the before and after pictures and we are LOVING our new kitchen....mostly for me I am loving the new sink and faucet.

The highlight for the kids was getting to write with permanent marker on the old countertops the day before they got ripped out. I had so many people say to me, 'What if they do that on the new ones?', but I knew Wyatt and Sadie understood the difference and thought it would be so much fun! I never got to write on a countertop as a kid--obviously most people don't--but they are still talking about how much fun it was, so it was a great memory we all shared in together!!

The worst part of my 'before' kitchen was the sink and faucet....honestly, I think the builder put in the cheapest one you can find at Home Depot. It was terrible!!

AFTER!!!!!!!

My new favorite part: the faucet and single-basin sink!

So there you have it...but I have to say, it looks much better in person, so please come visit!!!!

We are finally finishing painting the stairway and loft area upstairs, so hopefully I will have more pictures on that soon as well.

Brotherly love

What's wrong with this picture?

Yes, after painstakingly hanging 1100 lights on our tree, two sets of lights near the top have gone out. I am dreading my project for this weekend of taking the broken ones off and putting new ones on!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Blake!!!

I have to say that turning '2' is one of my favorite birthdays for my kids. They are officially out of the baby stage in every way, communicate clearly, and can obey when we ask them to do things. Blake is no different.....he is talking in full sentences and clear enough for anyone to understand him (unlike that stage when, as a parent, you can understand them but no one else can.) He counts to 10 on his own and LOVES playing hide-and-seek. In fact, many times he will start his own game by walking in to a corner and counting aloud, "1-2-3....ready or not, here I come!" But he is significantly better than his older siblings at hiding....he will sit in a hiding spot, absolutely silent until you actually find him. He has an unbelievable amount of patience for this game and sometimes when I least desire for him to do so. We might be trying to leave for somewhere and he sees it as a perfectly good time to hide.....silently! No bribing or threatening will force him to reveal himself--the only way is to actually find him. And the joy on his face when you do find him is just precious!!!

He is also at the age of knowing how to obey--and also knowing that there is a consequence if he doesn't. But unless he is tired or hungry, he has become pretty obedient and even helpful. He loves helping me to anything...laundry, cleaning, picking up toys, etc. And he always says 'please' and 'thank you', which is so sweet.

Yet with being 2, he also quickly learned the word 'mine'. He rarely uses it with anyone other than his big brother and sister. And for the most part, he plays great with them. But occasionally he has had enough of their games and wants to play his own. He will take a toy or object away that seems to be central to whatever they are doing and say, "Mine!" and run away. Matt and I just mostly laugh because he acts like he's about 6' tall and 250 lbs!

He is no less 'Blake' and still gets into all kinds of mischief, but he has gotten more clever about it and I have learned to find most of it amusing! He is such a joy to have in our family and is full of life! He makes us all laugh and absolutely adores his big brother and sister.

I haven't taken him in yet for his 2-yr checkup because we are in the midst of 2 rounds of antibiotics in a row. I took him in a few weeks ago because he was just so fussy and not sleeping well and found that his tubes have fallen out and he had a double ear infection. After 10 days of antibiotics, the right side still hasn't cleared up. So we are back on a different antibiotic and following up with our ENT next week! Oh the joys....but I have to say that with all this, he is one tough little kid. With this 2nd round of antibiotics, he hasn't shown any signs of pain in his ear or anything, but the infection isn't going away on its own and we need to get it cleared up. What a trooper!!!

Okay, on to the big day!

He was so anxious to cut into his cake and he did get a bit of frosting when I wasn't looking!

He was very willing to let Wyatt and Sadie 'help' open his gifts!

He first opened the Wisconsin Badger jersey from my parents and wore it all night!

So excited for two new 'Boz' videos (it's like the christian version of Barney)

Our family's first set of Duplos and he loved them!!

Opening his fire truck from Nani and Pops

He was so excited for Wyatt and Sadie to show him how to work it!

They all seemed to enjoy the tools!

About 1/2 an hour after we opened gifts, our friends, the Scribners, came to surprise us all for Blake's birthday.

All the kids took turns trying to blow out the trick candles

Blake and his buddy Addi

Blake..we love you and your zest for life! You experience things to their fullest potential and have a high tolerance for risk (like your Daddy), yet you are also very tender-hearted. You don't like strangers and would prefer to be with you Mom or Dad. You continue to be a great napper, so long as you don't have an ear infection. And you continually have some form of a scrape, cut or bruise on your body somewhere. You are very fast and we have a hard time catching you when you run away!! You love singing "Jesus Loves Me" when we rock you at night and always go to sleep with your 2 blankies and little bear. Your daily routine starts off each morning by helping Daddy make the coffee and you could do it without us helping you out, easily! You are always the first one up in the morning (amongst the kids) and you get so excited when Wyatt and Sadie come downstairs. You always run to give Sadie a hug and if she isn't awake, you constantly ask if you can go wake her up. Your favorite word these days is "yeah" and you can now play "Zingo" with the family and actually understand the game!

Blake David, we love you and are so thankful to have you in our family. You are a true joy to be around and we look forward to seeing you continue to grow!