Snow, Rain, Snow, Rain

Last weekend, our winter weather started and so the news stations FINALLY have something to talk about - 24 hours every day. It is now known as Artic Blast! Artic, yes. Blast, not so much. It started snowing on Sunday. The boys didn't have daycare on Monday or Wednesday and they are also home today because as we were loading the kids in the car today, the snow dumping started again. We are a little stir-crazy and if the weather doesn't improve soon, I will cook/bake us out our minds. I bake, and bake and bake - which naturally means eat, eat, eat. 

Example...Saturday, Henry helped me decorate the sugar cookies. 

This one was my favorite. Good job Henry!

This was taken after a few sugar cookies had been eaten. That is Henry with a "collar" on. Who knows! Pushing Charlie in the laundry basket. Charlie LOVES this and Henry must also because he'll do it for hours. I never thought I'd say things like "Henry, go push your brother around in the laundry basket so mommy can start dinner.". 

Sunday morning. Come on snow!!!

And then it started snowing:

Hey! No snowballs at the camera!

"Come here Boya! Come take a picture with your pappy!"

I am one lucky lady....

Daddy thought it would be fun to make a snow angel. Henry didn't think so. I think he was saying something "Nooooaaa Dad. I don't want to!"

He'd rather throw snowballs at mom. What a little stinker!

Party-time on Daddy - this seems to be a daily game.

So cute! And that is puff in Charlie's face.

Where's Charlie? There he is!!!

This is what Henry made us for Christmas at daycare this year. So cute and such an improvement over some of the gifts he brings home...see below.

Like this one. Yes, it is a painted rock that says #1 Dad - I assume this was for Father's Day..but you can never really be sure. Of course, this is still proudly displayed in the kitchen. Its a nice resting rock for the spiders.

Another snow day today. I converted the living room into a play zone. 

Henry also spent some time watching Buzz Lightyear on the computer while Charlie was napping of course! 

We are supposed to get more snow today/tonight which is supposed to freeze tonight and make tomorrow rather difficult driving-wise. Any bets on school closing? I throw up in my mouth a little when I think that we paid $1600 this month for 3 days of daycare in December.  Thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa are rescuing Charlie and will be watching him full time for a few months. Phew. They are good like that and we are forever grateful. 

I cannot close this out without documenting on how Charlie has changed in the past couple of weeks. He is the ULTIMATE daddy's boy. He cries when daddy walks out of the room and will literally sit on Nathan's lap for hours on end happy as a clam, or Chillaxing, as Nate calls it. I have no idea how Nate does it...but I am so happy that Charlie has such a wonderfully loving dad who is just as happy snuggling and loving on Charlie as Charlie is on daddy. 

We are starting to prep for our long drive through the snow to Reno for Christmas. We are so excited to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa in Reno! Love, B

AH! I'm "Back-Blogged"!

Times must be good if I am actually "back-blogged"!! It was a busy week - good and not-so-good. But lots to updated on. First, and most importantly, IT'S SNOWING!!! Is there really anything better than being snowed in on a Sunday? Besides being snowed in on a Monday and work and schools are closed, of course. We took lots of snow pics of the kids today, which will need to be in another entry because we had so much going on this week that I don't want to skip over. 

Monday, daycare called us to come pick Henry up because he threw up at school right after naptime. I don't remember Henry ever "throwing up" for flu reasons. He was pretty excited to talk about how sick he was. He kept telling us "I'm not feeling good" and "I threw up. It came out my nose". So, I set him up on the couch with a big blanket, a big pillow, a puke bowl and movie. He was sick on Tuesday too and really didn't start eating normal again until Friday. I always worry that he is getting to skinny. He is s-k-i-n-n-y - seriously, he is only 10lbs heavier than Charlie at this point. Henry is feeling much better and is eating much better. Charlie, oh Charlie, seems to always be sick. He is usually pretty happy even if he isn't looking/feeling so good. He just has a cold now..but last Saturday, he threw up in Costco in a way that made me actually panic. It was crazy - like a fountain and it kept coming and coming! Strangers were offering help. Here is a picture of my sickies on Tuesday morning. 

Charlie battled diahrea all week. Here is super dad in the war zone. I couldn't stop laughing - so dramatic! Charlie took many, many baths and had clean sheets almost everyday this week because he just couldn't keep in all in his pants.

Yesterday, Henry told me that he needed to pee. Though it may seem silly and insignificant, it ISN'T! Henry has had no interest in potty-training and it is starting to get embarrassing...for me, not him. So when he told me he wanted to go on the potty and wear spiderman "underwears"...we partied! Here is Henry checking out his new skivvies. He was obsessed with them!!

He held his shirt up like this for the longest time so that he could see his "underwears". 

"oh, and fancy that...look what is on the backside!"

I think he has covered all angles now. 

And then he found the mirror...look at those fancy pants!

Well, we tried. We didn't do so good. This morning, after his 3rd accident in less than 2 hours, we went back to pull ups, for now. Just way too much laundry for me! We are taking baby steps and I plan to go all out while I am off over Christmas Break. I'll keep you posted on our progress...please, please let their be progress. Luckily, he has such a small butt, he is wearing 3T pull ups...I just don't want to get to the point where he is a big boy and we have to move up to adult diapers because that is down right wrong and creepy. Love, B

Deck the Halls!

We spent the weekend decorating the digs with Christmas! Henry is SO into Christmas this year. Last week, I pulled some xmas containers out of storage and left them out in the basement. Henry came running upstairs singing "Ho, Ho, Ho...Merry Christmas!" and wearing a sparkly santa hat. He wore it to school the next day..all day! 

Tree decorating. Charlie, miraculously hasn't even touched the tree...yet. Henry was really excited to put ornaments on the tree (for the first 5 minutes and then Nate and I had to finish it up)...but Henry put all of his ornaments on one branch. Over the course of the night, his ornaments fell, and I redistributed them so Charlie couldn't reach them. 

I've started down the long path of trying to get "the" photo for the Christmas card. Here are some of those attempts. Henry is all smiley, but he is all hopped up on ice cream sugar in the next few pics.

Our little elf:

It's no surprise that Charlie puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. EVERYTHING. This morning, I found him like this: 

It's a jingle ball. I started laughing, and so did he

Henry has never been one to "name" things. His blanket is "blanket". His binky is "binky". Other kids have cute names for their belongings or stuffed animals...but not Henry. Until we stopped at Del Taco on the way back from the beach. Henry saw a picture of the following toy and wanted it so bad. He immediately named it "Puff". He talks about Puff a lot. Like how Puff only has one eye, but daddy has two, Henry has two and Mommy has two. He likes to kiss Puff's eye and often sleeps with him. 

Last night, he told me Puff wanted to sit in the tree:

And so, Puff became part of the Christmas ornament tradition. 

Love ,B

Thanksgiving at the Beach!

So, I'm a week late, but Happy Thanksgiving. Truthfully, we had so many awesome pics that I have been sorting through them for days...which had to to be done before I could choose blog photos. Right? We left for Seaside last Wednesday afternoon and stayed until Sunday. We really had a great time with the family. It was my parents, Krisssy, Ryan and their kids Kysa and Alex, Merri and her kids, Wyatt and Bodhi and Nate, me and the little toots. It was a houseful - often loud and nutty, but oh so much fun! 

Here is the kitchen & Grandma working hard making pumpkin and apple pies:

The living room with an amazing view! The furniture was less than desirable, which was probably the only complaint from the weekend. It was upright wicker. Ew.

Hi Aunt Sissy and Charlie! Um, Charlie, watch the hand little man...

The view:

And sweet little Bodhi who I think I really bonded with this week. Such a sweet, gentle little fella. Montana is just too many states away Bod!

The master bedroom. The little boys turned this into their "club" room. Lots of Wii playing, jumping on the bed and the love seat and somehow they littered the whole room with poker chips and I heard a rumor that they dismantled the telescope (not pictured). The three amigos named themselves the Bad Boys Club...and that they were.

And speaking of the little devils...

We celebrated Kysa and Grandma's birthday. Happy Birthday!!

Testing...Is this thing on?

Apparently so. Mers doing her version of "Living on a Prayer" Rock Band II style!

Crazy time in the jacuzzi! Question. Why is Alex so tan?

Craft time! Turkey headwear. Of course, Merri and I ended up doing 80% of this project and the kids didn't even wear them until we literally packed up on the last day. What ev.

Craft #2: Pinecone turkeys....Krissy and I made 80% of these too. Darn you kids!

Post-Turkey dinner, we look over and find the kids flocked to the mac watching Wall-E.

Post-Turkey beach walk! Aunt sissy and some of the kiddos - Wyatt, Alex, Kysa and Henry

Merri and I (with fire in hand apparently!)

Mom Dad and Henry...it was too cold and windy for Charlie to come out

The Coffeys:

Rock Band II! Ax on drums and Wy-Wy waiting for his turn. So bored! 

Ryan on bass:

Papa! This photo is an anomaly...papa usually cannot do anything "technical" unless his tongue is sticking out. 

We tried so hard, oh so hard, to get a group shot. A few problems: 1) Charlie was in a mood (see below) and 2) We could not get all 6 babies in one general area looking the same way. They were all so cute wearing matching PJs from the grandparents. 

Another fruitless effort:

Nate and I were in charge of breakfast each morning. This day was french toast day. Nate is the master french toast maker...I am the master "french toast plater" with berries and powdered sugar. 

We spent one day in Cannon Beach - note Haystack rock in the background. Again, Charlie was asleep in the car! 

Charlie baby!

One of my favorite pictures of the whole trip:

And how could this not be another favorite?

The kitchen had the perfect sink for a Charlie bath!

Grandpa, is that you? Oh, its Charlie's buns! They are red from me squeezing them - so cute!!!

Another attempt at a group picture...Of course, we are missing 2 little ones.

This is a game that they figured out themselves. Who knows! 

And then they crashed! They were watching A Spongebob marathon.

What up WyWy?!  And I love Ax's little mug in the background!

Another favorite pic...grandma and Henry braving the rain. 

Though you may not be able to tell...its Aunt Sissy and Kysa.

The babies got parked above the beach because it was too rocky to drive the buggies on. They weren't to upset about it. They are the binky cousins!

Funny baby eating (and wearing!) carrots!

Its the last day...and the kids decide to wear their craft projects. 

It was so much fun to see all of the kids together. They played SO hard and slept SO little! As did the elder peoples in the house. Lots of great food, good movies, good views and good Rock Band! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!! 

On a separate note, Charlie had his 9-month (though he is 10 months next week) appointment today. He was 21 lbs (51st percentile) and 29 inches long (76th percentile) and of course, his melon got first place at 87th percentile. Big head. Charlie got more shots today and I had to "man" the limbs (hold his arms down) because Nate had to leave for an appointment before the shots got under way - so Henry was left roaming the room while all of this was going on. Of course, Charlie started crying and I looked over and saw little Henry with a curled lip and was starting to cry - empathy?? It was pretty cute. So, now that Thanksgiving is behind us, we have moved on to Christmas. Henry is so excited for Christmas and all that comes with it. I put a tree up in his room today and I thought he was going to go through the roof! He walked around all day with a Santa hat on singing Ho, Ho, Ho..Merry Christmas! Looking forward to all that is to come. Love, B