Ohhhhh B...L...A...K...E!!!!

I don't think I can actually count how many times I say "Ohhhhh BLAKE!" in a day. And I'm sure it will only continue, but here is another snapshot of why I say this....

He loves putting shoes on his hands and crawling around like this.....

and 90% of the time, he uses whichever pair of shoes were outside most recently (=dirtiest, slushiest shoes)

(notice Matt's slippers on his hands)

gotta love the 'no pants, one sock' look

...and the one that takes the cake thus far happened just last night....

Mr. big stuff thought he could walk down the stairs holding just the railing and unfortunately, the post at the end of the stairs won! When I picked him up the goose egg was just beginning to grow and the purplish color was coming in quite quickly. The skin split open before my eyes and Matt thought we might need to get stitches (I have deemed Blake my ER kid as it's only a matter of time before we wind up there)

Thankfully, we just used bandaids to act like butterfly strips and called it good.

Back at it in no time...and still scaling tables, sofas, etc. Don't think a small cut will hold this kid down!

as a quick side note, I realized last night that my First Aid kit was not fully stocked, so I went today and got everything of a mom of a little boy like this could need, and probably more! So now we are all set!

a budding artist?

These are all pictures Sadie took over the last month....she loves to use my camera whenever I let her and she loves taking pictures....I think she's pretty good, if I do say so myself! But i'll let you decide for yourself..





This last one was taken on my phone, so the quality isn't great, but the artistry is still present.

**sparkling**

Recently, while in the car running errands, Sadie said to me, "Mommy, the snow is sparkling! Did you know that snow sparkles?"

To which I answered, "Yeah Sadie, isn't it beautiful?" as I looked out my window and saw farm fields filled with snow for as far as we could see with glistening white flakes in the sun's rays.

"Mommy, I think God made snow sparkle because He knows how much I like sparkly things"

And isn't that the truth? My little 3 year old daughter pointed out to me not only what an amazing Creator we have but also how much He loves us and has created this world for us. Now each day when I look out and see the snow, I look for those sparkles and am reminded of His love for us and am so thankful that Sadie understands that even at her young age.

(It also made me so thankful that I have continued to put up with my kids' complaining and whining about not getting to watch the DVD player in our car or have video games to play in the car--because if they were doing any of those things, they wouldn't have time to look out the window and think about the world around them. So although Sadie didn't realize it, she has reinforced my desire to keep my kids 'technology free' in the car!)

We've got a couple of skiers on our hands!

This past Saturday we took Wyatt and Sadie skiing. They had been asking to go for awhile and we had told the kids the week before that we could go. I got a babysitter for Blake and everything was lined up, however, we didn't really think about praying for warmer weather and the high on Saturday was 6 degrees. Matt and I were both cautiously optimistic but also willing to accept that this may only last an hour, if that.

Getting the kids' skis on

(we decided to rent for the first time to see if they'd even like it)

Sadie looked so stinkin' cute with her little ski trainer backpack

Thankfully, Matt is a great teacher. Being the oldest of 5 kids, he did his share of teaching his siblings as well as others, so our kids were lucky! i can ski, but not so much teach

On the magic carpet...I thought the kids would love this, but they were more excited about the chair lift, which served as great motivation to master the bunny hill first.

matt and wyatt headed up the lift first

..workin' on it...

Sadie wanted to take a break with Mommy while the boys skied for a bit

The kids did awesome and after only about 30 minutes, we were off the bunny hill for good and on to some real runs. We did one green run and then spent the rest of the day on the blues. So proud of the kids and how well they did!

coming inside for some lunch

Amazingly, the kids didn't complain at all and lasted over 5 hours out in that cold weather!

Looks like a family ski trip will definitely be in our future!

Sadie was exhausted by about 3:30 (we started around 10am) and was also getting cold, so I offered to go inside the chalet with her and watch the boys. Wyatt didn't want to leave, so Matt skied a bit more with him and they did two black runs together. I tried taking pics but it was too hard from inside the windows.

After only 3 minutes in the car, this girl was out! Such a trooper

I didn't end up taking near as many pictures as I did video, so here goes! From the moment we left the hill, Wyatt has been asking when we can go back! YEAH!!!

busy, busy, busy

No, I'm not talking about me. It's Blake...all I can say is that Matt and I are daily confounded at the ability this kid has to make a mess, get into something he's not supposed to, or fight his way out of any form of restriction (i.e, belts in shopping carts, having his diaper changed, etc). I have said it before, but until you experience it, you just can't fathom the strength this kid has. I literally had to climb in to the car today to try and hold him down while I put him in his carseat. And I usually have to use both of my legs to pin him down while changing his diaper, which I am still unsuccessful at the majority of the time. It's hard to convey the amount of energy this kid takes out of me, but here is my attempt in pictures.

This took him less than 3 minutes while I was making dinner

At my parents house over Christmas....

as if standing in his seat backwards wasn't enough, he had to try and climb on the seat

Mr. Risky

I love the faces on both my boys in this picture

And I love the amount of energy he has and his strong desire to explore things, but it often seems to come at inopportune times (or possibly its that this is the only time I notice it). I am anxious and a bit nervous to see what this part of his personality will look like when he's 5yrs old and then when he's 15!!

Sibling Love

I have been waiting to post a collection of pictures I've been taking to help illustrate how much Blake is loved and adored in this family. Sometimes I hear 3rd or 4th (or 5th) kids say that they didn't get some of the same things as their older siblings because by the time they came along the novelty of some of those things had worn off. And while that may be true, I would have to say that the constant love and attention Blake gets may far outweigh the fact that his baby book won't be quite as complete as Wyatt's.

Wyatt and Blake were 'bonking' heads and loving it.....look at how red Blake's forehead is!

Our friends Erik and Angie Kuch gave Blake a MN Wild jersey for his birthday. And while we thought it was a great gift, Wyatt was overjoyed that he and his brother would be matching. If it were up to Wyatt, they would both live in their jerseys.

one of the many wrestlings bouts that occur on a daily basis

Wyatt teaching Blake

Sadie loves on Blake just as much if not more than Wyatt. However, it seems that her love language of constantly wanting to mother him and hug him and hold him isn't what he always wants. But there is no less love from her!

Blake is one blessed little guy and although he may not experience the same level of parental supervision that his older siblings did, he certainly makes up for it in experiencing life with a big brother and big sister.