Ribs and Bass Pro...

Last night my parents took us out to eat at a BBQ place. Before we went Andrew kept asking if they had ribs. He was so excited to eat some ribs so Zach really had no choice but to get ribs. He is his fathers son for sure! This is him going to town on his ribs!

So good!

We also maked a stop at Bass Pro Shop! The boys loved looking at all the fish and stuffed Animals! They also had holiday games for kids to play. It was a fun night out with the grandparents!

Yes, He was not suppose to be up there....typical Andrew. :)

Hamster troubles...Part 2

I am having a love/hate relationship with this hamster. The boys love it and ask to hold it or play with it at least 3 to 4 times a day. So, for their sake I love that it makes them so happy and that they have gotten a pet even though it is not a puppy, like they wanted. :)
My hate relationship comes from a few instances that have happened in the last few weeks. One morning I got out of bed and walked out of my room and out of the corner of my eye I see something scurry along the wall. The boys had left the cage open after "hugging and kissing" the hamster good night the night before. It luckily had gotten out in the morning instead of the middle of the night. That has been his first and hopefully last escape.
A few mornings later the boys were playing in the room that the hamster is in and I hear "oh no....MOM!" The boys had made the cage fall over (with the hamster in it) and everything was all over the floor...food, poop, hamster shavings...ug! it was a mess. I guess it got me to clean the cage, but it was a big mess! Then just yesterday the boys were having trouble getting the hamster out and they ended up spilling all the food over the bottom of the cage in the shavings. I ended up leaving it but was frustrated that it happened right after I cleaned the cage.
Oh the joys of having a pet! The hamster is more work then I thought it would be for sure! I can't imagine how much more of a mess a puppy would have been!

Shower number 1...

We have so many wedding this year! Luke and Missy will be the first in January! We had the first shower this Saturday. It was a good time! I haven't seen "the sisters" all together for a while so it was nice to spend some time with them! These aren't the best quality, my camera was acting up. They show the good time we had though!


Bride-to-be. Love her, she is the sweetest!

Sisters, Anna and Jill, and MIL with niece Inga. We played a game where Missy had to answer questions that Luke had answered. If she got them wrong she had to put a piece of gum in her mouth. We had to guess with the paperplates weather she would answer right or wrong. She did pretty good. She got 9 wrong out of 21. Go Missy!

9 pieces of gum.:)

We also played the toilet paper wedding dress game with the mother and mother-in-law as the "brides". This was the winning team.

Mother and daughter.

gifts!

She will be a beautiful bride!!!

Christmas Decorations

The Christmas Tree went downstairs this year since we have moved some things around. The boys were so excited to get all the Christmas stuff out this year!

We don't have a Christmas trian but the Thomas trains did the job!

Zach and the boys( mostly Zach...he got it done so much faster after they went to bed) got new legos this year. We made a winter village with them. They get messed up everynow and then but they boys enjoy playing with them.

Ice skating rink.

Christmas tree and store front.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

suits and haircuts

Uncle Luke and soon to be Aunt Missy are getting married in January. They bought the boys these matching outfits! They look so handsome in their suits. I put Seth's on first and Andrew says " Seth, you look so handsome!" After I put on Andrew's he says " I look so good!" I had to laugh. Although he is so right!
They also got haircuts last night so they look older with their hair buzzed. My handsome boys!

Is loving my "new" kitchen...

We got a new table from a friend of my grandparents. It is so nice and matches wonderfully with our floor! The kitchen looks so different from when we first moved in. I love it!

Christmas Lights!

I have never had Christmas lights on the outside of my house growing up so this year I was excited when Zach said we could get lights this year! After putting them up Andrew says "our house is the bestest house ever!"

Quiet Play

Most of the playing that goes on in our house is not so quiet. It was so nice the other day while I was getting some stuff done around the house the boys had brought some toy up and were playing so nice. I hope since they are getting older this will happen more often!

They love lining things up!

Thanks Sarah!

My cousin Sarah of Sarahnebelphotography came and helped me fill this wall in my house! I love it! It looks wonderful! If you want to see it up close, feel free to come visit me!:)

Soft Pretzels...YUM!

These are Andrews favorite! He asks me to make them all the time! He even wanted them for lunch today! I have to agree with him. They are pretty yummy!

This is what kind of cheese we eat them with.

Here is the recipe.

3 1/2 C. flour

2 T. Sugar

1/2 t.salt

1pkg. dry yeast

1 C. water

1 T. margarine

butter

coarse salt

Mix 1 C. flour with sugar, salt, and yeast. Heat water and margarine to 120 degrees F. Gradually add to dry ingredients and beat with electric mixer for 2 min. at medium speed. Add 1/2 C. flour and beat at high speed for 2 Min. Stir in enough additional flour to makea soft dough. Knead dough over to grease all sides. Cover with damp cloth, and allow to rise for 40 min. in a warm, dry place. Divide dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 20 in. rope and shape into pretzels. Place on greased baking sheet...or a baking stone (which I use). cover and let rise for 5-10 min while preheating oven to 375 degrees. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with salt(optional). Bake for 14 min. We like eating them when they are warm out of the oven!

Halloween treats.

Zach and the boys went to walmart to look for halloween candy that was on sale. Along with lots of other sugary treats they brought home pickled marshmellows that looke like this! It made me laugh!

This is one of two that they bought. Andrew was eating the other one for a treat and while he was eating it this is what he was saying...

"don't eat my eye" (he bites off an eye)

"ahh nooo my eye"

"not my other eye" (bites the other one)

"Oh no, my nose" (bites off the nose)

and so on and so forth...It was so funny to listen to. He didn't eat the whole thing but the eyes, nose, mouth,"shoulders", and part of the head were all eaten.

Wordless Wednesday.

Hide and Seek

The boys and I played Hide and Seek today. While I was hiding the boys were trying to find me, they were saying the funniest things. The first thing they say everytime we play is "Mom, you can come out now" before they even start looking. Andrew says "Wow, she is a good hider." "Mom is so tricky!" After about 5 min. Seth starts getting concerned and says in a sad voice" I don't want to be alone here." " I don't know where my mom is." I almost came out when he got his sad voice but decided to stay. ( I know I am so nice right?) They did find me a few min. later with some help. :)
When is was my turn to count. I close my eyes and start to count and Andrew tells me "mom stop counting, I can't hide when you count." It is like I distract him from hiding when I count. He would rather I let him hide and then start to count. WHAT??? silly kid! :)

Ready...Set...GO!!!!

After spending a little while upstairs in his room, Seth comes down and says "mom, come look what I made." He has been into putting things in lines. He lined up all his cars, trucks, tractors, buses, ect. As you can see. He was very proud of himself. Of course I encouraged it by saying what a great job he did. :)

All his cars were all set to race. In the middle he has a race starter. you push a button and it says Ready...Set...Go...and makes a vrooom sound.

He is getting so big!

Ballerina Thursday!

I wanted to share this for a while but I kept forgetting about it. My niece Thursday got a ballerina outfit from Grandma for her birthday. She was singing and dancing all around the house. It was so cute. :)

Fire Pit!

So I can not get my font off underline so I guess we will just have to deal with it this time! Anyway, Zach bought us a fire pit a few weeks ago and one night we got it out to use it. The boys loved helping with the sticks. We even roasted marshmellows but I didn't have the rest of the stuff for smore's so we just ate the mallows.

The boys stayed in the chairs for the most part because of their nervous mom. Seth trips so much I was afraid he would fall right in the fire. I know...I worry to much. Better safe than sorry I suppose! :)

Curious Seth...

So today while at the store I stopped the cart and Seth started to push it again towards another Shelf. I stopped the cart and said "you had better be careful or we could have a bad situation." He stands there for a min. and then says " mom, what is a situation?" It was just funny to me to hear my 3 year old ask me what does situation mean. I explained it the best I could but really, that word it hard to explain. I guess I shouldn't use such big words so as not to put myself in those situations. :)

Excuses...

The normal excuses for postponing bed time in our house are...
*Have to go to the bathroom
*Forgot to brush my teeth
*I need some water
*I want daddy to say goodnight to me(which normally he can't because he is working)
*I need some medicine
I am sure some of these may sound familiar at your house also, but tonight Seth came up with a new one. It made me laugh so hard! "Mommy, you forgot to put lotion on my buns" He has a rash and I have been putting lotion on it but it cracked me up. HA HA!

What a Mess...

I walked into my living room the other day and saw my potted plant all over the floor...my first thought is why in the world was I not told about this? I think I had walked through at least twice before noticing that it was all over my floor (Who know?) After it fell they just went right on doing what they were doing instead of telling me. I am assuming Andrew was worried about getting in trouble (Which he did anyway). He apparently was playing Kickty kick ball (which is from the show wow, wow wuzy) and just like Wubzy got in trouble in the show, so did Andrew. :) It was kind of humorus to hear him explain what happened because he kept saying he just wanted to play kickty kick ball. My kids are not huge mess makers but everyonce in a while they make a decent one. Hopefully my plant will live...It is not looking so hot but we will see. :)

Andrew Monkey

Just like any other day Andrew was climbing a tree, but this time he was swinging like a monkey from the branch. It was pretty funny so I grabbed my camera and took some pictures. He loves climbing...I wonder where he get that from?! :)



Cimber...

Tada...

The swinging in action!

Hanging like a Monkey.

He lands perfectly...I think he has plenty of experince.