Lilypie Pregnancy tickers

Lilypie Pregnancy tickers

Friday, February 19, 2010

Major REWIND!!

Okay, so even though I said I would, I didn't get my Halloween photos posted before New Years, but I have a good excuse-- my mom gave me permission to wait until after the holidays were over. Moms always knows best-- right!! (Thanks Mom for the break!) I'm sure she wasn't thinking that all our January birthdays and Valentine's Day were included when she said "holidays" with an "s" but, hey, as kids we take all we can get right. :) Anyways, finally here is a post to cover the last several months.

Rewind way way back to October:

Pumpkin carving:


Costumes and Halloween:
For the Harvest Party at the boys school the kids wore different costumes then they did on Halloween. For the school party Brian was Indiana Jones again, Andrew was a dinosaur again, Timothy was a knight, Kylie was Cinderella, and Philip was a Jack-o-lantern a.k.a Cinderella's pumpkin. For Halloween Brian was a clone trooper from Star Wars, Andrew was Indiana Jones, Timothy was a dinosaur and Kylie was Cinderella again and Philip was still a pumpkin. We had a fun Halloween. The boys enjoyed trick-or-treating and Kylie and Philip enjoyed helping hand out the candy.

The whole "Gang"

Philip & Kylie:

Timothy:

Andrew:

Brian:

The Family-- at Trunk-or-Treating:

Philip & Kylie waiting on the doorstep to help hand out candy:

The boys trick-or-treating:


The twins turned 9 months old this month:





Timothy:
He is our mischief maker that loves to make messes! Just in case anyone wants to know how to get permanent marker out of the carpet, hand sanitizer is the trick. I can know testify that it works great! Too bad I couldn't use it on Kylie's face. :)


This picture doesn't even do justice to what it really looked like. (But then again maybe nothing looks as bad as the memorable images of food coloring in my mind :)). It took almost a whole 12 oz. bottle of sanitizer to get it out.



Rewind way back to November:

Brian and Andrew joined flag football teams. Brian's team didn't have a coach so Derek stepped right up and took the job. No one had to twist his arm as coaching is his dream job. All three boys enjoyed the season and had lots of fun. Timothy wanted to participate so bad. Many times I had to run out on the field and grab him. I was a psuedo assistant coach helping Derek out and even taking over practice when he couldn't make it. Someday I might actually learn how to play the game. It's really hard to teach plays to 7 and 8 year old boys when you don't understand them yourself. But I faked it well. :)

Andrew was a Running Back and this is him practicing "his" play:



At his first game:


This is where he hung out when it was his turn to be on the side line-- on his coaches shoulders. :)

I was usually too busy during Brian's practices to get pictures but I did get some of his games. He was the Center on his team.

(Coaches were allowed on the field during the game so that's why you see Derek too.)

Here's Derek doing his thing:


Waiting on the sidelines:





Thanksgiving Tree:
We made our annual Thanksgiving Tree (everyone writes something they are thankful for on a leaf when they put it on the tree and there can be no doubles). It is one of our long standing family traditions. It's always fun to see what the boys say they are thankful for.



Timothy:
Timothy decided that it had been awhile since he visited the ER and it was time to go again. He informed Derek on the way there that he likes the hospital. So anyways, one night as we were putting T to bed he informs us that he swallowed a coin. We thought nothing of it and whisked him off to bed. After a short time we heard him crying and went to check on him. We found him in his bed screaming and writhing in pain. He couldn't lay still it hurt so bad. He kept telling us he wanted that quarter to come out. A quarter!! So off he and Derek went to the ER. They did some x-rays and confirmed that sure enough it was a quarter and it was stuck about half way down his esophagus. After lots of looking the doctor determined that T would be alright and the quarter would just pass through on it's own. That it did, but it was not a fun experience. Poor T was in pain all night as it slowly moved down to his stomach. It took all night to get there. Silly kid! A few days later I found him lecturing the babies about not eating quarters. :)

We enjoyed a long awaited trip home to visit family for Thanksgiving. It was really fun but it was jam packed with activities and went by way too fast. The kids did really well on the trip. The babies did great on their first flight even if they were sick. People were often amazed to see our whole family truckin' through the airport. It was an adventure but it was worth it and the kids can't wait for the next one.

Kylie & Philip on the airplane:


This month the twins turned 10 months old:








Rewind back to December:

When we sang "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" we didn't expect it to come true, but it did. We even got snowed in and they canceled the last three days of school before the break. It was awesome!! We had almost 2 feet of snow. We were literally "snowed in." We couldn't open our front door. To get outside we had to use the garage door. Because it opened up and not out we could get it open. It took Derek over 5 hours to shovel the snow from our driveway. Good thing our neighbors had an extra snow shovel we could borrow since we didn't even have one. Here's a few pictures we got of the snow:




On Christmas Eve we wanted to do something special. Last year we went to Medieval Times. This year we went to ICE. It was an indoor wonderland made entirely of ice. It was really cool-- in more ways then one! :) It was only 9 degrees inside with the ice. They gave everyone special coats to keep warm. It was fun and the sculptures were so pretty. The boys thought it was neat too. Their favorite part, of course, were the big ice slides they got to slide down. Timothy went down at least a dozen times. I took several pictures but sadly I have none to show. Our camera went AWOL somewhere in the last 100 feet of the exhibit. I put it in the cupholder of the stroller and just before we left we realized it was gone. We aren't sure if it got knocked out, or if Timothy took it out and did something with it or the worst case scenario-- someone took it. We searched for it for over 30 minutes and checked with the lost and found several times before we gave up. We even called back everyday for the next few days after and nothing. So sadly, no pictures and our camera is gone, but at least I had just downloaded the memory card and so the only pictures we lost were of ICE. Here is a you-tube video link to see some of the sculptures instead:




Since we lost our camera we had to buy the photo they took. Don't we look so cute in our special blue coats:

Christmas Day:
Guess what I got for Christmas-- a camera!! I couldn't go without one for the holidays so we stopped by Target on the way home and had just enough time to purchase one of their remaining cameras before they closed. Thank goodness they were still open! They only had like 4 different ones left but at least something was better than nothing. We ended up with one from the same series and brand as what we had. I don't like it as quite as much as our old one but it's pretty nice and will be a fine replacement.

Anyways, Santa found our house and the boys got what they wanted so everyone was happy. The babies even had some fun opening their presents but I think the boys had more fun helping them.

This slide show is way long-- its all for the grandparents! :)





Timothy:

Timothy enjoyed his trip to the ER so much last month that he decided to do it again this month. (Sigh!) We were putting him in the tub before bed one night only to discover a tick right in the middle of his back. I know, you are thinking-- it's December, where do ticks come from in the winter, that's what we thought too. Who knows, but none the less he got one anyway. He hadn't even been outside, it's too cold. Anyway, during the summer the kids get ticks all the time just from being in our backyard. (Lovely, I know). So, after finding it, I moaned and then proceeded to try and pull it out just like I have a million times. But this little bugger decided to be difficult and wouldn't come out. He was "dug-in" pretty far. So after trying for along time to no avail Derek finally took him in to the ER. The crazy thing was the Doctor told him it was the 4th tick he had removed that day. Go figure!!

This month the twins turned 11 months old (these pictures are special for you Suzie--thanks for the cute sweaters!):





They were holding hands-- I just missed it.

Just for Rob:
I had to take these just to prove that Derek can grow some facial hair-- this is almost a weeks worth of growth. (Don't laugh Rob!)



Temple:
We got to go see the Christmas lights at the D.C. temple again this year. They were beautiful! It was so cold the night we went but we had fun anyway. I couldn't help but remember when we went last year-- I was very pregnant and I'm not sure how I walked around to see them, but I did. I enjoyed them much more this year. :)




Rewind to January:

We had a little New Year's party as a family. We did the same thing last year and the boys had so much fun they looked forward to doing it again this year. We ate lots of food and played games (Derek and I don't remember Twister being so tiring as a kid).




Fantasy Football came to and end this month. Sadly I wasn't able to keep a reign on my championship. I lost in the first round of the playoffs. But Derek on the other hand played better than he has ever played before. So after like 20 years or so of playing he finally won a championship. Go Derek!! Brian and Andrew played this year too. We set up a little league just for them. They had fun playing too and actually stayed interested all season. Thanks to those of you with kids who played with them. Hope to see you again next year.

The Raiders played a team from our area so they actually broadcast the game on TV and we could watch it. It was a big event at our house (Derek is a huge Raiders fan). Here is a picture of us all on the couch wearing our Raiders shirts (thanks Suzie & Rob) wrapped in the Raider blanket. Go Raiders!! It was a fun family activity-- even if the Raiders did lose. :(

Intently watching the game-- Timothy changed out of his Raiders shirt part way through:
Timothy is just a bit confused-- He wears his Seahawks outfit, tells you he is Jay Cutler (QB for the Bears), and roots for the Raiders.

Building:
We got a new entertainment center and some more bookshelves. Derek and the kids had lots of fun building them. (Brian helped too, I just didn't get any pictures of him-- oops!)





One Year Old:
Our little twins are now a year old. We can't believe that we have had them for a whole year. The time has gone by so quickly! It just blows my mind when I think about it. They are a lot of work but they are a joy too. It's hard to imagine life without them now.






Since Derek's birthday is only a few days after the twins, we celebrated them all together on a day when everyone was home. We had a fun and chaotic party, that seems to be how everything goes at our house. Here's some photos of the birthday party and eating the cakes:



Timothy:

Well it wasn't food coloring or permanent marker he found this time, instead it was ceramic paint-- red of course. Why is it always red! I'm guessing from the crime scene that he decided he wanted to paint a picture. So he got out the paint he found and got some paper. He didn't have a paint brush so he used his sock-- which I found completely drenched in paint in the dryer on top of the clean clothes that had just been dried. The little red finger prints on the dryer door led me to it. :) I found the picture under the bed. He had done the painting in the hallway and then tried to clean things up in the bathroom. So with all the rooms involved you can imagine the size of the mess. Luckily, the paint is water based so with my trusty "Green Machine" shampooer I was able to save the carpet. (Maybe I should go into carpet cleaning when I grow up). It was funny-- as I scrubbed away on the carpet Timothy stood there next to me for a little while disgusted saying, "Dang it! Dang it! Dang it!" over and over again. I guess he was upset that the paint had spilled all over the floor. Then when I wasn't looking he put his coat on and snuck out the front door to the neighbors house where his older brothers were playing. Good thing I heard the door so he wasn't too hard to find. While I was shampooing away I noticed myself singing-- not an uncommon thing. Yes-- when you clean messes like this up everyday it's enough of a common occurance that you can sing while you clean. :) Anyway, I happened to stop long enough to really hear the words I was singing. They were from a favorite primary song: "Our Heavenly Father loves them, he loves them, loves them, everyone." I was reminded at that moment that even as I was shampooing the carpet and being exasperated by my little son that my Heavenly Father loves me-- even if he did send me Timothy. :) I also was reminded that no matter what he does He loves Timothy too. I am very grateful for the sweet primary songs I learned as a child and the sweet messages they can teach us even as adults. Later that night I was teasing Derek telling him to please remind in case I forget due to PTSD or something that someday when Timothy has a little son to make sure when we visit him that I slip him red food coloring and paint and tell him the carpet makes a great canvas. Derek didn't even smile and just said, "Honey, that's not fair to his poor wife!" (Oh, how sweet!) I had to admit he was right!! Hmm. . . maybe I'll take her on vacation and leave Timothy with the kids. . . .

Fast Forward to the the Present-- February:

Well when the Groundhog saw his shadow and said we would have 6 more weeks of winter he really meant it for us. We had one of the largest snow storms in history for this area. We thought we had a lot of snow back in December when it stormed but that was small compared to this. We got almost 3 feet of snow!! Several people lost power but lucky for us we didn't. We didn't have any problems. We just stayed home and enjoyed being together. Plus I got a start on my spring cleaning. The boys loved that! :) The boys ended up missing 8 days of school, Derek missed almost a week of work, and we missed two weeks of church. Even now we still have over 2 feet of snow in our yard. It is melting but not very quickly.
Silly me didn't get any pictures of all the snow, but we did get these of some of our ice-sicles:

This is the wreath on our front door:

This one was on the back of our house. Luckily it was just outside the window so Derek could reach out get it:

Here is a slide show of some cute photos that just didn't have a spot but were too cute not to post.




That's all for now. Hopefully it won't be as long of a break until I post again. (Hope that helped with your "photo fix" Dad Loveland).

5 comments:

Suzie-Q said...

Wow! So much that I want to say, but I don't remember everything now.
Thanks for the special pictures just for me!
I'm glad that you guys like your shirts. you all look so good in them.
Love you guys!!

Jessica S. said...

Whew! I'm tired from reading all you do! You are so stinkin' busy!You are an awesome mom and have a lovely family!
Oh that sweet, sweet Timothy. I'm sorry, but it's a hoot to read about what he does! :) I think Heavenly Father loves you very much to give you such a spirited child!!!
Your babies are beautiful and of course Brian and Andrew... always so cute!

Becky H. said...

Wow what a great post. Loved all the pictures. All of the kids are growing so fast. Thanks for finally updating us. :) I loved the part about singing primary songs while cleaning and that we are all loved even when we mess up. I still find it hard to believe you got so much snow

Meagan said...

What an update! So fun. Brian looks so tall in these pictures. They grow up so fast. And that snow was crazy! We haven't had hardly any here. Anyway, I'm glad to see everyone is doing well and growing like crazy. So tell me this, do you stay up clear until midnight on New Year's Eve or do you celebrate early?

Meagan said...

Oh and my stomach sunk when I read about your camera. UGH!! I would be sick! Glad you got a new one though.