His New Friend

When Drew became a sunbeam, we ordered the Friend magazine for him. This kid loves to get his own magazine, look through it each day, and loves it when we read him the stories from it. I love it too- so many awesome ideas! Yeah for the Friend!!

Basketball Boy

Drew just completed his first session of pee wee basketball-- oh my goodness, it was so cute! To watch 3-4 year olds play basketball is more of a comedy than a competition, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. (well, I did.... Andy can't get over the fact that the kids didn't know how to rebound :)

"He shoots, he scores!"

All that matters is that Drew loved it, and he did really well!

Do we look alike?

I got to visit my family a couple of weeks ago (love doing that!), and happened to be looking through an old family picture album while I was there. I came across this picture:

Instantly I thought, "Oh my goodness!" That baby (me) looks just like my baby (grant)!

Granted, my baby is older and has lost that baby chub that is still clearly evident in the picture of me :) But still, can you see it? Or am I the only one?

Just like Daddy

Andy loved cars when he was little. His parents tell us that if he had a bunch of cars, he was happy. He would play with them in the back of the car on long drives.

Anyway, both of our boys love, love cars. Drew did not start to really get into them until he was two or so, but Grant already is in love with them. He's happy if he's got one in his hand, and will sit and drive them around for a while. I love to sit and watch him :)

Feeling grateful on a lazy winter day

Today we stayed in just about all day long. It sure was great, and I had so much fun with my kids! Here are some things that made me smile today:

--Drew's new infatuation with putting things in the fridge "so they get all cold" he says.

--The fact that Grant started covering his eyes and saying "da... da.... da...." (as if to count) when we were playing hide-n-go-seek.

--The joy that came to Drew's face as he danced and sang his heart out for about an hour :)

--Seeing Grant get tired of watching Drew and just planting himself on the floor to rest :)

--Singing "Five Little Ducks" with Grant and watching him do the motions of 'over the hill and far away' and 'quack, quack, quack'

--Seeing these two cuties cuddle together on the couch while they watched LeapFrog's Letter Factory

Life is good-- I have so much to be grateful for!

Creations

Here are just a few little creations I have done in the last little while. I got a sewing machine for Christmas (thanks mom!) and I'm itching to break it in. I really don't know how to sew, but I'm so excited to learn.

I love to create things, and feel like I've stopped doing this the last few years. It feels good to get back into it, even if it's just a little :)

Have you seen the "Make it and Love it" Blog? I found a link on one of my friend's pages, and have fallen in love! Wish I had the time to make everything on there.

http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/

AND, no picture for this one, but using an awesome new recipe and my awesome Bosch to make homemade whole wheat bread... MMMMmmmmm.... We either eat it or I give it away too soon to ever get a picture :)

So, what things do you create? I always love some fresh ideas!

Birthday Party-Throwing 101

Okay, so Andy and I have learned a lot about throwing a birthday party for a 4 year old.... If we keep good track of our 'things learned', hopefully we'll have it down by the time we're on our last kid :)

- 11 kids and 2 adults just doesn't work (thankfully a couple of parents did stay and were a help!)

- 3-4 year old kids will do what they want to do- no matter what

- when they get each other going on a crazy wave, watch out ;)

- the one chance you have of getting them all to do the same thing at the same time is when you eat cake and ice cream

- prepare for tears

- opening presents in the middle of the party... not a great idea

- have about 12 'backup' plans, and then you'll be set (our 2 plans ran out about half way through the party)

Overall, though, we had a great time! The kids are all great kids, they just had so much fun sometimes it was hard to control them! Drew had fun, and that's all that really matters.