Penguin Pals

Tool Time!

The boys had extra special stockings in these pictures. I had purchased a Black and Decker tool set from Aldi's that had enough small tools to basically give each boy something every night until Christmas. The set came with a hard hat and tool belt which I considered to be pretty big gifts. I went ahead and gave them to the boys so we could have something to hold some of the tools. They also got to enjoy suckers!

The Polar Express

We ventured to Mt. Pleasant, IA last Saturday with Mimi to take a ride on the Polar Express. My friend Tara told us about the exciting adventure and helped us get tickets. While it decided to be a very cold, blustery day, we still had a lot of fun. First, we waited at the train depot for the steam engine to arrive. Some braved the cold and waited outside, but we opted to stay in since the boys where so young. Once the train arrived, we boarded the Rudolph coach and took a ride to the North Pole while listening to the story of the Polar Express. We pulled into a morton building which resembled the North Pole. We were able to take a picture with the winter scene they created, visit Santa and get a Polar Express bell, enjoy sugar cookies and hot chocolate, and make Christmas goodies in the craft room. The pictures are spotty because my camara was picking up all the dust in the air from the gravel. As I said, it was a fun day and definitely mommy's last outing until Baby Sister arrives!

Waiting to see Santa with Tara and Drew!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

We are really lucky to have a Daddy as fun as you! We hope you will still be able to get around and play with us now that you are "older"! We love you!

Finally, Stockings!!

I have been waiting several years to be able to hang stockings on a mantle. Our new home has a beautiful wood burning fireplace that makes the perfect spot for these Christmas icons. Due to my procrastination, we do not have cute stockings with our names on them. I quickly found out that the boys don't care what they look like. They are just thrilled to get presents and candy our of their "socks". So, you might wonder why they are already getting presents and candy...I mentioned procrastination earlier. I love the idea of advent calendars, but I put off getting one until it was too late. I kept waiting for them to go on sale, but instead most of them sold out or would have arrived too late. So, I put a little toy or piece of candy in the stockings each night and the boys get to get in their "socks" after we eat supper. Christmas is so much fun! I hope to find us some stockings that we can personalize and an advent calendar during the after Christmas sales! That means Baby G better hurry up so I can be recovered by then! Maybe it will be her first shopping trip!

Thanksgiving 2008

Unfortunately, I do not have my pictures from our T-giving this year. I will post them as soon as I get my memory card. My sister and nephew flew in from California on Monday and spent the entire week in the good 'ole town of Carthage. Gavin and Gunner had a great time chasing their big cousin around and I had a great time catching up with Jen. She had to get up early her first morning here to go to the doctor with me, but we were rewarded with massages afterward. We left the kiddos with Mimi and Papa so we had a pretty relaxing day! We spent Thanksgiving day at my parents house. It was such blessing as we not only had Jen and Gabe celebrating with us, but we also had my aunt's family from Iowa City. It has been many years since we have spent T-giving with them. While the kids were napping, most of the guys and teens enjoyed a movie while the women searched through the Black Friday adds. Jen and I then ventured to St. Louis on Friday to try a little shopping. Probably not the best thing for me to do as I became pretty sore. It was fun but I had to take several breaks! The boys and I said our good-byes when we returned Friday night and headed home to pack for our trip to Marshall on Saturday. Again, probably not the best idea for me to travel that far in the car, but Clint did all the driving and I laid down in the back seat. Thank goodness for our van! We were able to visit Clint's grandma Thelma, Lance, Amy, and Cael, (Clint's brother, wife, and son) and his sister Maria. Of course, the boys got to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa, and Xena (dog), too! The boys enjoyed seeing the new mount of Grandpa's very large buck he got last year. Thanks to everyone who made our Thanksgiving wonderful and gave Gavin and Gunner some extra-special attention!

Photo Memories

Ok, so I'm going to throw out a little survey here! I know there are several moms who check our blog, so I'm needing some suggestions! Digital cameras are great! I love being able to take pictures and view them immediately so that I can retake the picture if need be or I can just take hundreds of them and delete the ones I don't care for. I came to realize long ago that although this is great, I now just have literally thousands of pictures on disks or memory cards and do not have hard copies of them. I just made myself create a Halloween photo book from this year so that I would be able to actually view and share the pictures I took. I am also working on one for each of the boy's birthdays, but it takes a lot of time. I obviously post tons of them on the blog, but I don't think you can actually save all the posts to anything. I love the idea of scrapbooking but don't have the time or money to put into it. What do you do with your pictures? Do you print your digitals and put them in an album? Do you just keep them on CDs? Let me know! Remember, you can post anonomously so I won't know who you are! :-) I have a few other questions that I will be asking our audience in the near future!

A Great Thursday!

I got these two outfits last winter at the Monster Sale at TCP. I thought Gavin looked really cute and grown up in the half zip sweatshirt, so I tried desperately to get a picture of him. The only way he would stand still was to try to open the bathroom door. Not exactly what I was looking for, but I take what I can get. Gunner thought this was cool and wanted to do it, too!