More Snow!

What's up with all the snow? It's like it's really winter around here or something. After several years of getting icky ice storms instead of snow, we've had three or four opportunities to play in the snow already, and it's still December. Fun times! We (especially a certain snow-suit-wearing-sled-ride-loving-two-year old) are hoping for a snow-filled winter for a change!

This is the first wet snow of the winter, so this is the first snowman Colter got to build. Isn't the pink scarf lovely? Mush, Daddy!

Sledding with Mommy!

I promise, I'm not sitting on my kid. He insisted I ride in front. :)

Friends?

I want to always remember my sweet boy's experiences with Grandma's snowman. At Grandma and Grandad's house, a metal dancing snowman appears during the winter months. The snowman dances and sings "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" when its sensors are activated. Last winter when Colter was one, he wasn't so sure about the snowman. In fact, it kinda freaked him out! When Colter and the noisy contraption first met, Colter would run to Mommy! Then, his mischievous cousins taught Colter to hit the snowman on the head to make it sing, so Colter decided that if his cousins thought Mr. Wonderland was funny, than the noisy snowman must be all right. We have some amusing video of a cute toddler hitting the man on the head and running away giggling.

Last spring, when we visited Colter's grandparents after the snowman had been put away, Colter wanted to know where it was. This Christmas, when the snowman was back, Colter was reunited with his old friend. He had a few moments hesitation again, but pretty quickly he remembered how to whack the poor metal man on the head to get him to dance and sing. Colter and the snowman are friends now. I'm pretty sure Colter will always associate Christmas at Grandma and Grandad's with this snowman. I don't know what we'll do if Colter gets too aggressive and breaks him! It would be a tragic loss of a Christmas tradition---the whacking the metal man on the head tradition. :)

As a side note that proves I'm blogging way after the fact but pretending that it's actually still December and not March, when Colter went to visit Grandad and Grandma last week, he asked me before he left if the snowman would be there. He wanted to sing "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" with his metal buddy. :)

There Is a Theme This Christmas...

Can you guess? Choo! Choo!

Umm....Why?

Some people can say and do the most ridiculous things and get away with it, while some get committed. Fortunately, my sister is one of those that can get away with crazy behavior and people just smile and laugh at her. What? Courtney just bit some guy on the leg? Oh, ha ha! Don't worry--she's had her shots. Really? Courtney just laughed at the lady and called her a hooker? Awww...what a cute thing to say. Seriously, my silly sister can do the most outrageous, goofy, insane things, and no one cares! She just flashes her beautiful smile, and people think she's just kidding. Well, I have news for you people. She's not kidding! She really is a nut! I love and adore her, would do anything for her, and wish that I got to see her beautiful face and listen to her absurdities every day, but I sometimes worry that she's certifiable. Not really. She's just a nutter, a loveable nutter, but a nutter all the same.

Courtey and her antics are often the life of the party, and she is a master at creating hilarious, memorable moments as exemplified this Christmas. My siblings, the significant others in our lives, and I draw names for a gift exchange each Christmas. John drew Courtney's name. Among the various things on Courtney's list was a camera cleaning set, books (not dumb ones), earrings, moccasins, a paddle ball, and a plastic Indian man. That's right. A paddle ball and a plastic Indian man. What does a twenty-three-year-old need with a paddle ball and a plastic Indian man? Where did she even get the idea to write a plastic Indian man on her list? She's goofy, I tell you. Goofy!

Well, what Courtney wants, Courtney gets no matter how bizarre, so one of the things we bought Courtney was a plastic Indian warrior and Mom and Dad gave her moccasins. Here she is posing with both. This girl doesn't look one bit crazy........(wink, wink).

The two gifts complement each other. I LOVE my goofy, silly, plastic-Indian-man loving sister.

Snow!

Somebody

loves

sledding!

Oh, and the two-year-old likes it to. :)Go, Daddy, go!

Colter's Favorite Outfit

Does anybody else's kid want to run around in their diaper all the time? 'Cuz my kid sure does! Colter's old enough for fake smiles now, in case you couldn't tell. ;)

Oh Where Oh Where Has My Sleeping Boy Gone?

Nap time has gotten interesting this week. My boy has been boycotting his bed, and I've tried numerous ploys to get him to take a nap. I've moved his mattress to the floor, let him make a nest with his stuffed animals on the floor, let him sleep in the recliner in his room, etc. I don't care where he sleeps, I just want him to sleep! While I love to play with and entertain Colter, alone time has its value as well. There's a reason God designed children to need lots of sleep. :)

Since Colter has been completely anti-crib during the afternoon, I've resorted to letting him sleep on Mommy and Daddy's bed, which seems to work. The only problems is, he goes missing! When I go to wake him up, he's not in the bed. I found in the closet on top of a storage bin the other day. Today when it was time to get him up, I could not find him. It was bewildering. :) I finally spied his head sticking out from under the bed in the narrow place between our bed and the wall where I stick things like the fan and exercise ball so the room doesn't look cluttered. I pulled him out from under the bed before I thought to get the camera, but here's the sleeping boy anyway. He was actually about halfway under the bed and the much of the rest of him was hidden by the dust ruffle. Sneaky boy! What's wrong with sleeping on a nice, comfy mattress anyway?

Where Did These Kids All Come From?

I remember the days when my roommates from college, my bestest friends, Rachel and Gina, could get together with our husbands and play games or at least hear each other converse. There has been an invasion, and those days are long gone (for now)! Seriously, where did these kids all come from? We were just in college a year or two ago...right? How did we reproduce so quickly? Oh, wait. It's been more like nine years since we all lived together! ACK. Time flies!

Who needs uninterrupted conversation when there's these kids to adore? Notice the eyes Colter and Taylor are making at each other, Rachel? Hmm... True love?

I'm submitting this photo as proof that's it's impossible to get five children under five to all look at the camera and smile at the same time. Riley did great!