Passports

Darren & I took the kids to the post office over Christmas break to apply for their passports. First I took them to get their pictures taken. Max looks terrified and Hannah sort of does too. They had to take Max's picture many times to get it just the way it is suppose to be submitted. The line at the post office for passports was long. We probably had to wait 30 minutes. It was fun! We already have them back and the kids are really excited to use them when we go to Mexico!

Sledding and Waffleman

Jack and Nolan - Jack's class robot
Will and Friends - Will's class robot

Friday night we headed to the kid's school to eat dinner. Waffleman was there serving up 20 waffles every 4 minutes. The waffles were huge and looked good although by the time I ate mine, it was cold! After we ate, we went into the gym to see the aliens. Each class worked together to build an alien out of recyclables. You could then put your ticket in whichever alien you wanted to vote for. The class from each grade that had the most votes, will win something for their classroom. Will class did not win but Jack's robot actually ended up winning 1st place overall against all 25 robots! We are pretty sure that the hit of the night was running through the gym over and over again with their friends. Max cried when we left and Will wasn't far behind. We had to get to Jack's basketball game which we were late for.

It snowed on Saturday night and the kids and Darren spent most of Sunday sledding and snowmobiling. The kids are finally begging me to sled with them so I am going to have to suck it up and get out there. I hate to be cold and freeze in the snow but it is fun sledding once in a while. I will get out there after the next snow...if it is above 30 degrees!

School

Some of Hannah's shoes she wore when she was 3 on their way out

Sharing ice cream before bed

Will feeding Max ice cream

The kids have been keeping busy at school when they are not off for a snow day or "teacher work days". Will loves everything about school and Jack likes gym class. They have not been able to go out to recess since the high temperature has been 10 degrees for the last couple of weeks. They tell me that the teachers are wimps for wanting to stay inside.

Jack told me that Will told "Natalie" that he loves her when he got off the bus this week. Will told me that she is his girlfriend. Keep in mind that she is either in middle school or high school. Will told me that some girls were talking about bras on the bus one day this week and asked if "bras" was a bad word. We are beginning to wonder if the bus is a bad idea. It is amazing what they can talk about on the bus in the 9 minutes that they are on it. We are going to need to watch our little Will.

Hannah loves preschool and has opened up so much in the past year. She has a little friend named Addison that she looks forward to seeing each day and loves show and tell. She looks forward to picking out her clothes for school and picking up Max from baby school. I registered her online for Kindergarten tonight and it was rather sad. She is really excited to go next year and tells me that I will not be sad since I will have Max. I told her that I was excited for her to meet new friends and learn so many new things.

Max goes to "baby school", as the kids call it, two mornings a week and seems to really enjoy it. He rarely cries during the hand off and the ladies just love the babies. They tell me that he just goes off by himself and plays and really likes snack time and coloring. I am hoping that when preschool comes for him in a couple of years, that he will not need to be peeled off of me!

(Jack is tough to get pictures of..hence the reason he was not on the couch with the others!) It is not from lack of trying!

An Ordinary Day

Max's dog shoes that are too small.

Hannah posing
Melody in her wedding dress


1 of our 2 V-day decorations

Proud of her arrangement

Max in his car with Hannah's pink sunglasses

Max in his tie shirt that is too small. Yes, it makes me sad!

Max in the sparkle headband

Our days around here are pretty routine. Take everyone to school, pick-up from preschool, put Max down for a nap and the bus brings Jack and Will home from school. In between there, Hannah and Max play house or take an imaginary trip with their animals. Hannah begs me to keep Max up so she has someone to play with for the afternoon and then after he goes to bed she wants a lot of snacks. I like to take pictures but Hannah seems to be the only one these days willing to stop long enough for me to get a shot. She actually asks me to get the camera out and take pictures of her as she poses. What am I going to do next year without this girl??

Today she put up our 2 Valentine's decorations and wanted to pose with her Build-a-Bear "Melody". She just bought Melody a new wedding dress with her Christmas gift card. It has a veil, a bouquet and a garter (I told her it was a bracelet). She would like a wedding dress for herself. Hannah looks through our wedding album daily and wants me to open the box that stores my wedding dress. I would almost pay somebody to put her in their wedding at this point. She never asks for anything when we go shopping, but when she lays her eyes on those fancy white dresses, she wants to go and touch them and try them on! So, for now, Melody's wedding dress will have to suffice!

Just for the record, Max bring us the headband to put on him and if you take it off he gets mad. He also enjoys wearing the pink sunglasses for lack of a boy pair and puts on bike helmets that Will drags in from the garage.

Today I cleaning up the laundry room and came across a pair of shoes that are too small for Max and had to take a picture of them. He wore them a lot and it is sad to see them go. Hannah asked if I was taking a picture because I like them and I told her yes. She then asked why I get sad to put clothes away. I told her it makes me sad that everyone is getting older and Max will not be a baby much longer. She then asked if she should bring down all of her clothes so we could remember them. I guess I better do stuff like that when she is asleep!

Funny things Will has said and some new pictures

Max loves sunglasses

He also is fond of this headband of Hannahs

See jack in the back! I told Hannah to give me a big smile and she did not disappoint!

Always asking me to take her picture

Jack with dad in the aisle at Walmart. It looks like their shopping trips are much funner than mine!

Max LOVES this batman mask!

A couple of funny things that Will has said lately:

"Mom, I have a girlfriend and she is a teenager. She rides the bus with me and she thinks that I am cute."

Will was singing the song "take a ride on my disco stick" the other day when Darren was home with the kids. I came home and Darren told Will to sing me the song. He did and then Darren asked Will if he knew what "take a ride on my disco stick meant". Will said yes, "it means take a ride on my penis". I about died. We asked him where he heard that and he quickly said "Jack". Jack said that his best friend at school told him. YIKES!! It was hilarious but not really.

Hannah told me that it was not fair that some mommies get to have 2 or 3 babies in their tummy at one time and I only got to have one. She said that if I had 2 babies, that one would have been Max and the other one would have been her sister. She went on to explain that she thought I could just pick how many I wanted at a time. I explained to her that God chooses how many babies you get and if they are boys or girls.

The pictures are just random ones taken with my cell phone over the last week or so.