Christmas Update!

Ok...this has been the season to lose things!

The newest thing that can't be found...our cable that hooks our camera to the computer!!!!! So I'm going to update about our Holiday season so far and pictures will have to come later!

We traveled to St. Louis on Sunday and spent the days before Christmas getting settled at my parents house and getting ready for the big day! :) On Monday, we went to a Christmas Eve service and then came home and finished getting ready for Santa to come. Chris decorated some sugar cookies for Santa while Daniel ran around and had tons of fun with his uncles!

Christmas morning was TONS of fun....the boys got so many wonderful, thoughtful, fun presents...they didn't know where to start! They ripped into all of the presents and then we unpackaged quite a few for them to play with!

We are currently home but we are leaving tonight to spend some time with Greg's family. We are really looking forward to getting up there and hanging out with everyone. The boys are sooooo excited to see their cousins! :) They also can't wait to give out the presents that they have picked for everyone. My boys definitely love to give!!!!!

I hope everyone has had safe travels and a wonderful Holiday Season!!!!!

Pictures will come later! Promise!

Nicole

Drum Roll Please!

All right. So many of you already know this news so you can go ahead and skip this post if you want! :)

For those of you who don't know, we had our 20 week ultrasound on Monday. It was routine and we heard the baby's heartbeat (a good, strong 153), saw the little arms and legs, saw everything we needed to see. It was fantastic!

We also were able to find out what our new little addition is!!!!! If you don't want to know...now is the time to stop reading. If you do.....

We are having a baby GIRL!!!!! The technician said she had done an ultrasound in the morning where she was 85% sure that she was having another little girl and I asked her how sure she was for us and she told me that she was more sure of mine than the one this morning! :)

Chris is ECSTATIC! He has been confident all along that this one was a girl and he sure was right! He is already talking about what he wants to do with his baby sister and how we should decorate her room, etc. It's really sweet. Daniel thinks it's cool when you ask him, but of course since he has just turned two he doesn't really get it yet. He will come April but until then we will just keep working on it and what happens, happens!

Greg and I are still in some shock...but very excited, can't wait for April kind of shock. I was absolutely positive it was a boy...who would have thought...the four year more right than the mommy. I guess crazy things do happen! :)

We do have pictures and I will post them later on along with pictures of Daniel's birthday party! It's hard to believe that he is now TWO!

Wow...

On another note, I hope that you are having a wonderful holiday season and that you are all ready for Christmas to come! If you are traveling, please be safe. Enjoy your family, friends, food and laughter. I know we will! :)

From our family to everyone out there....MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Update with Pictures...

Hello everyone! Last week we had a great snowstorm that left us with several inches of snow. The boys LOVED going out and playing in it (which we did as soon as we got home!)

Chris loves shoveling snow! :) Here he is working on our driveway AGAIN!

Then as everyone knows we had an ice storm the last couple of days. So much ice that we didn't have school yesterday and we didn't have it again today. I did venture outside today to hang out with great friends...other than that I have only stepped foot outside to take a couple of pictures. Here are some pics of what the ice storm left behind:

The birch tree in our backyard...it usually stands straight...poor thing!

Now tonight the boys took their baths and got ready for bed at their usual times since we will have school tomorrow. Some of you know how odd Daniel can be about certain things such as his shoes and his jackets and we have added beds to that mix! We are going to be moving him into Chris's room after Christmas so that we can get the nursery ready for the new baby coming in April. Greg and I have tried several times to get him to sleep in Chris's bottom bed (he has s set of bunk beds) but he absolutely refuses because they are Chris's sheets!!!! Are you kidding ME???? This is the same problem that we have with his shoes and jackets.

Anyway, tonight I told him to go into Chris's room and give him hugs and kisses (unknown to me Chris was not in his room at that moment...he was hunting down his dad!). Anyway, I went into Chris's room to find Daniel snuggled all nice and warm in Chris's bed!!!! Chris climbed in next to him and gave Daniel hugs and kisses. I tried taking Daniel from his bed and he refused!!!! So this is how I left them for their bedtime tonight:

This is what I found about 20 minutes later...Chris was completely out and Daniel was well on his way. This made me realize that no matter how rough the day is...my boys will always make me smile!

Snow Day!

Yeah! I'm home with my boys because it's a snow day! :) Actually it's really an ice day...we are getting freezing rain like crazy and the roads are really slick...it seems like everything in town is closed except for the Hospital, Walmart, and Truman. Of course there are other stores open, etc...but the YMCA is closed, the Aquatic Center is closed, the local community college, etc. are all closed. The poor trees are just covered in ice as is everything else outside!

The boys have enjoyed not having to get dressed (they will probably be in their pj's all day!), I'm going to work on the cookies I'm making for a cookie exchange on Saturday with all of my greatest friends...ahhh. Snow Days!!!!

Later today we will probably clean the house and pick up toys, etc. but for now we are just going to enjoy being stuck together in our house while the freezing rain is falling outside....and keep our fingers crossed that no power lines come down and cause us or anyone else to lose power!

What do you like to do on a snow day???? :) Hope you all are having a good day! We will post more later!

Christmastime is here!!!!

So it's finally starting to feel like Christmas around here! We have our tree up, presents bought, the Santas my Grandma Page made on top of our entertainment center and last but not least some Christmas lights out in the front yard (in our landscaping!)!!!! :) Christmastime is one of my favorite times of year. Everyone is feeling festive and I realize how special the things and people around me are.

I've posted a similar blog before about everything we have to be thankful for but I always feel particularly thankful during this season! :) So thank you to everyone who has touched our lives....our family, our friends, those who are just around the corner and those who are far away....THANK YOU!

We hope that everyone has a fantastic holiday season!!!!!

New Furniture....

Hello! Here are some pictures of our new furniture (especially for those of you who I keep promising to post pictures and I keep forgetting!). We got this amazingly comfortable sectional couch - which is something I never thought I would own - a sectional couch that is! We absolutely LOVE it!

Pictures from our dining room and our room:

Halloween!

So we have finally gotten back on track after a fun week full of candy, treats, costumes, etc.! Below are some pictures of the boys on Halloween...they had tons of fun! We had friends over for dinner and then went trick-or-treating with them! The kids had fun playing, eating and then getting ready to go out and gather some candy! :)

Chris was a firefighter (his new obsession) and Daniel was a vampire. There was minor fussing over the costume with Daniel but eventually he decided it was ok and at the end of the night he actually didn't want to take it off! He was all ready to wear it to bed!

We hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! Here are some pictures for you:

Pumpkin Patch Pictures....

Daniel being cute and adorable! :)


Christopher at the pumpkin patch...Daniel was not having much to do with the pumpkin patch but that was mainly because he was exhausted!

This is how he spent his time at the pumpking patch and the corn maze...poor boy!!!! But that left him plenty of energy for the other activities around the farm!

Chris had TONS of fun at the corn maze. We were supposed to find the three punches (a heart, a star and a square) and if we did then we got a free cookie at the end - Chris was ALL about finding the three punches for the free cookie!!!!!

My little monsters:

What a Weekend!

So we had a long weekend this past weekend. Parent Teacher Conferences were held last week and so the school had Friday off. So what did we do? We went out of town! :)

We headed to Minnesota to visit Greg's brother, sister-in-law, our nephew, our new niece, and Grandma and Grandad. We all got together to celebrate baby Heather's baptism. It was a nice weekend.

We spent a good chunk of Saturday at a fantastic pumpkin patch. There were all kinds of fun activities for the kids to do. This place had mazes, drums, a mini-city, animals, pumpkin patch (obviously!), a corn maze, and TONS of other things! The boys had a blast running around with their cousin Peter. It was amazing!

As soon as I can get the pictures off of my camera I will post them here. The boys handled the long car ride just fine and it makes me feel very blessed to have such wonderful children!!!!!

Have a great week!

Pictures!

Here are the pictures (thanks Bill) of Daniel and his masterpiece on our wall going to the basement! :)

Funny man!

Tomorrow I'm going to post pictures of a wonderful art project that Daniel decided we needed on our walls going down to the basement. Somewhere along the way he picked up a green dry erase marker and he decided that we need more color going down our stairs! It was quite the elaborate set up he had going too! :) Uncle Bill caught him in the act however and took some pictures of our budding artist. Then he got right to work cleaning up his nephew's mess!!!! Thankfully dry erase marker comes off the walls easily!!!!!

Life...

So sometimes life catches you by surprise.

Today on the way to school my sweet, adorable little four year old said, "Mommy, I'm getting too big to snuggle you." And of course, this super attached mom started telling him that he wasn't, etc. He continued to say how he was getting too old and too big and so on and so on. Imagine my reaction. When his bus came, he got right on without a backwards glance, a kiss, a hug....nothing. This bothered me all day at school....to the point of tears at some points. Until he got off the bus and was walking across the commons....when he saw me, his little face lit up and he ran to me and I got the biggest hug ever. Everything is ok again in this mom's world. We had snuggle time tonight (along with his brother) and it was a good night...he even smiled at his soccer pictures! :)

My sister also called tonight to tell me about what her boyfriend had gotten her for her birthday and the plans they had for this weekend. She turns 20 on Wednesday and I'm finding it tough to believe...my baby sister, grown up, with a boyfriend and turning TWENTY! Where has time gone?

Then the realization hit me....I will be 30 at the end of this month. I thought about that a lot tonight and a couple of my friends who are already 30 say they don't feel too different. I don't imagine I will feel different but it's making me look back on what I've accomplished and I have to say....I'm pretty happy. I have a fantastic family, great friends, a nice house, everything I ever thought and hoped I would have when I was 30....

At the risk of sounding like a dork or self-pitying....there is only one thing I wish I had more of. The self-confidence I see in all of my friends. They are some of the most outstanding women I will ever know. They are confident in all they do....work, relationships, family....never seeming to doubt a thing they do. Amazing. I can only hope and pray that one day I make it there.

I feel like this is just a rambling post and that may very well be but I feel better. Whew! :) And what could make this better right now? My little man is sitting next to me on the couch because he wants to snuggle his mommy before bed....

Pictures!!!!

Ok...here is a whole kaleidoscope of pictures for you! :) Enjoy!



Chris's First Soccer Game: Orange - His favorite color!!! :)

Daniel riding his tricycle all by himself!!!! He loves it!!!!

My smiley boy! :) Always ready for the camera!

We also have some cute video of the two boys but I have to figure out how to put them on here! If anyone knows will you help me out!!!!

Thanks!

~Nicole

Where is Time Going?

That's all I have to say! Another month has gone by and here I am just now getting a chance to sit down and fill everyone in on what is going at our house! :) Ok...where to start...

1) Chris has started soccer!!!! He has had 2 practices and he had his first game on Saturday! He is loving every minute of it. He was able to be goalie for almost a whole quarter (about 8 minutes) and was able to block 3 goals and allowed only 1 to go by! :) Way to go! By the end of the game however, my new little soccer star decided to stand near the middle of the field and direct traffic. He would point to which way the ball should be headed depending on who had it...funny guy!!!! I have pictures on the camera and I will pull those off soon and post them!

2) Greg and our neighbor across the street are working on finishing the rest of our basement! YEAH!!!!! We are adding a bedroom, storage room, bathroom, large family room area and a linen closet! They have worked for 2 weekends and already have the whole thing framed! They think they will work on drywall this coming weekend! I can't wait till it's done! Feel free to visit and stay overnight in about a month ~ there will be a nice new bedroom waiting!!!! :)

3) Daniel is starting to learn his colors! He knows quite a few color names but matching them up to the correct color is proving to be difficult. His blue shirt today was "yellow" and his orange Tigger is "purple." It's so much fun to work with him on this because he is trying so hard to get them but it's just not happening! I guess I'm mostly thrilled that I can ask him what color something is and he gives me a real color name (not a made up word or an animal name or something similar)!!!! :)

4) In case I haven't had a chance to call or email or anything like that lately....here is our biggest piece of news from the last month:

We are expecting No. 3 at the end of April!!!!

I had an ultrasound a week and a half ago and everything looks great! We are beyond thrilled and Chris is absolutely excited! He understands that it won't happen for a while because we told him that the baby will come after his birthday and man does he know that that is FOREVER away! :) His words! :) Daniel really doesn't know what is going on but someday he will!

Well, that is all that is new with us at the moment (like all of that isn't enough!). I PROMISE to post pictures soon!!!!!

See everyone around!
~Nicole

What a Weekend!

This past weekend we spent time in St. Louis. We had the boys pictures taken, did a little shopping and Greg, Chris, my dad, John and I all went to the Cardinals game!!!! Thankfully we had beautiful weather and the Cards WON!!!!! :) What a wonderful way to spend a Saturday!

We took the boys to my new favorite place to have pictures taken! They print the pictures in an hour and they are all cropped and ready to go! They even printed some in black and white! :) Love them!

Here are the pictures that we got copies of. I just can't believe how big my babies are getting when I look at these pictures. Daniel looks like a little man and Chris could be moving out of the house any day now! :)

Enjoy!

First Day of School!

So today was the first day of school. I will pull the pictures off the camera tomorrow and post them then! Chris had a great day today. He is in his second year at Hickory Hills Preschool and he was a little nervous getting on the bus but with a little reassurance from a great friend he made it just fine (THANK YOU M.!!!!)! :) On the way to dinner he talked quite a bit about school and I'm hoping that this year will be great!

My first day of school was very calm and fun! I am looking forward to a great year!

I hope everyone had a great day and I will talk with everyone soon (I hope!)

Pictures coming tomorrow!

Not Much New To Report...

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we don't have much to report! Seems silly to add a post saying that but we are still here....alive and kicking! :) There is only a week and a half until the teacher workdays and then it is back to school!

We are headed to Des Moines this coming weekend to visit Greg's parents (Grandma and Grandad) and to do some school shopping since both boys have really grown this summer!

More pictures coming soon so please keep checking back!

Just Happy....

Have you ever had a moment in your life where everything just seems to be good? I'm definitely at that spot right now...we are lucky and we are blessed.

This is different from other posts I've written and I'm not sure about posting it on the web for all to see...but here it goes! :) You can skip over this if you like!

I was sitting here thinking about what is so good right now and this is what I have come up with:

*I have 2 beautiful (can I use that word) boys who we love with all of our hearts. They are good kids who love to have fun and love to snuggle! :)

*I am married to the man who is perfect for me...do we argue and get annoyed at each other? YES - but that does not take away from anything we have together.

*I have an extended family who always keep me on my toes and are there for us no matter what. We can always go visit, we can always call, we can always rely on them, they're family! My parents, Greg's parents, all of our brothers and sisters - We love you!

*I have friends who are amazing. For everyone who knows me - I am paranoid by nature - not sure why but it is what it is. I can't manage to get over it but my friends love me anyway (at least I hope they do!!! Just joking!). The boys and I can just go over to their house and hang out and vice versa for hours on end and we never run out of things to talk about! I know they are there for us and we are there for them! I just can't say enough about our friends - all of them - you guys all mean the world to us! Thank you! I hope you know who you are!

*Vegas Baby!!!! We just had a fantastic trip with wonderful friends to an amazing place....we want to go back sometime! See the pictures below to see just a small bit of what we saw! We had the time of our life...the shows, the food, the sights and sounds, the company...all made the trip one that I will never forget (and I have a horrible memory)!!!!

*Girls' Night Out - what else can I say? Nights at the movies, eating dinner, just hanging out at someone's house watching movies or just talking...time with our friends.... :)

*I work with some supportive, wonderful people and we work well together!!!! Always makes the job easier!

*Greg has a job that he loves - it is always changing and keeping him on his toes!

*I have a wonderful house that I am constantly changing and rearranging it seems...in small ways but they make me feel better!

*We live in a nice, quaint small town with only a Walmart - wait, is that a positive???? :) Seriously...Kirksville is a great little town!

*It's summer - pools, playing outside, sandboxes, sleeping in (sometimes) and having it stay light outside until 8:30 - GREAT TIMES!

There are a lot more reasons but I'm getting tired and I want to thank everyone who is in our lives. You make our lives wonderful, interesting, fun, and amazing....THANK YOU!!!!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

Before leaving for Las Vegas, we took the boys swimming in my parents' subdivision pool. We blew up some of the rings to take with us and Chris thought it would be a great idea to play with them in their family room!!!!! Silly boy!

Now, on to Las Vegas!!!!! Here is a picture of the strip from our hotel room. We were on the 16th floor and had a wonderful view of everything around us!

Here is a picture of the strip at night from our room.....amazing!!!! I could stand there and look at it for HOURS!

Caddy-corner from our hotel was the New York-New York...this is where this picture was taken. They had 2 boats in a pool of water out front with the Statue of Liberty, etc as well!!!!

Another picture of the Strip....you can see there was construction going on about halfway down! You can't even see the end from this point.

We have more pictures but I need to weed them out some more!!!! :) Those are just some of my favorites!

Today, we went to Beach Ottumwa so here are some pictures of the boys having some fun!!!!! We went with other people from our church...it was a good trip. We will definitely have to go again sometime!

Chris going down the slide in the kiddie area of the pool:

Daniel even attempted going down the slide - ONCE:

Playing under the mushrooms - one of Chris's favorite activities today (besides the slide!):

My little water baby!!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by! Leave some comments if you feel like it!!!! :)

We're Back!

Hello everyone! We are back from Vegas and what a trip it was! :) Pictures will be posted later (have to sort through the, etc.) but here are some details to hold you over!

We did a TON of walking but really enjoyed seeing the different casinos/hotels ~ we went into at least 12 different ones including Paris, New York, New York, MGM, Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, Planet Hollywood, etc.!!!! We saw the volcano explode at the Mirage, watched the fountains at the Bellagio from across the street. There are some really awesome shows and we were lucky enough to go see Howie Mandel and TWO Cirque du Soleil shows! Everything in Vegas is bigger, there is more of everything, and it was totally overwhelming yet wonderful all at the same time!

I'm not sure what else to say about it besides the fact that it was AMAZING! Definitely a trip that I would do again!

The boys did a wonderful job of behaving themselves at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They went to the zoo, played outside, watched movies and just hung out with everyone! Chris even went on a 4 mile bike ride with Grandpa!!!! He made it and was perfectly happy...they have plans to go on a longer one next time!

We are back in Kirksville and life is returning to normal. School starts again in about a month and Chris is very excited about that! We are going to be working on a brick patio at the bottom of our deck so life goes on!

Pictures will come later....thanks for stopping by!

I Found Some Pictures!!!!

In the post below I had mentioned more pictures...well I found them!!!! I also spoke of where would we be without brothers??? Well, we definitely wouldn't be having as much fun with laundry baskets!!!!! :)
Then, in the true spirit of his Uncle Tony, Daniel had TONS of fun while eating spaghetti!!!!! Here are some pictures from that fun meal and I will leave how he was cleaned up to your imagination!!!! Although his Uncle Tony still wins the prize for messiest spaghetti eater! :)