Christmas Morning

Santa brought Bradley and Gracie this Train Table for Christmas this year, and boy where they excited! It took a while to actually get to the rest of the presents once they came down and immediately starting playing with trains.Finally we pulled them away long enough to get the stockings goingMy children seem to have shoe fetishes. I bought these new shoes for Bradley about a month ago and decided to make them a Christmas present instead of just giving them to him, and it was a good decision because he was just SO happy with his new shoes. Just like Gracie and her new boots, he wants to wear them all the time and anyone he sees he'll ask, "Do you like my new shoes?" Gracie's face cracks me up, she gives us this look lately out of the corner of her eye.You could sure tell when Bradley liked something he was opening. As soon as he got a little glimpse of what it was he'd say, "Don't look! Don't look!" and go hide from us while he continued to open the present...Then come over to us with it behind his back, still saying "Don't look..." until he was ready to present it to us and shock us with amazement!!! :)Enjoying his planes...Gracie and Daddy enjoying the traditional soft blanket that I give Kevin, who could care less about blankets so I get to cuddle with it :)We made Christmas cookies the night before and still had to decorate them, so Kevin and I started and convinced Bradley to come help. We gave him a knife with frosting and had him pick out a cookie and said, "Go for it", and he could just NOT believe we were going to let him decorate the cookie for some reason. He kept saying, "Are you sure??? Are you kidding me??" with this big smile on his face, and then he'd laugh and laugh. I don't know what was so funny about decorating the cookie, but he was sure being funny! He finally did a little bit after all the anticipation, then was done and wanted to go play with the new toys.So Kevin and I finished them on our own. He got very creative and fancy with his cookies, mine were pretty plain - but they all tasted great :)

Christmas in the mountains

This year we went up to Dad and Jan's on Christmas Eve morning. We had so much fun and it was, as always, so great to spend time with everyone and celebrate Christmas! Gracie LOVES her books and her face sure lit up when she opened her first present :)It's funny how such a tiny little motorcycle can bring so much joy :)Last year Dad and Jan got Scott a video game that he was really wanting, and when we all got home it was nowhere to be found. Everyone looked and it is still a mystery. This year Drew got a spy kit with a hidden recorder so Dad was explaining to him (off the record, just between them) what actually happened to the game :)Gracie got some ADORABLE boots, which she still wants to wear ALL the time. And she's very into pursing her lips like this lately, I call it her duck face :)Tammy and a beached whale... oh wait... :) Baby is definitely getting bigger!!!We were so happy Grandma could make it up too this year. I'm not sure why this picture is so fuzzy but I love it anyway :)

4?!?!

I am in total denial that my baby boy has turned 4! For his birthday party this year we had a monster theme. I found an idea for little monster tote bags online and tweaked it a little and here's what we ended up with. I think they turned out great and the kids seemed to love them!Kevin helped me with the games and monster decorations. He cut these guys out of poster board.This guy we used to toss balls into his mouth and we had another monster for "pin the eye on the monster" which was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed.Here are the birthday boys on their birthday sharing a cakeand opening presents :)4 years have gone by WAY too fast! Starting to talk about preschool and kindergarten is making me sad! And being so close to having baby #3, I keep thinking back to when Bradley was a tiny baby and it just doesn't seem possible that that was 4 years ago. He is amazing, and fun, and makes me laugh everyday. He is the sweetest big brother anyone could ask for and adorable to boot. I am SO lucky to be his Mommy!!!!

Meet Timmy Douse

I am an animal lover. However, when I see an animal in my home that is not supposed to be there, unsanitary, and comes out of nowhere - I want it gone :) I was sitting downstairs on the couch looking at my laptop and talking on the phone with Tammy when I saw something out of the corner of my eye run across the floor. I told Tammy, "I have to call you back, I could have sworn I just saw a mouse run across the room". We have never had ANY signs of having mice so it really took me off guard. I carefully and slowly moved some furniture out of the way and sure enough I saw it run into the corner under the coffee table, so of course I screamed and got on the couch. The kids were upstairs asleep and Kevin was at work so I was sitting there trying to figure out how to catch it all by myself before it got away. I called everyone I could asking them to come help and Tammy said she could leave work and come but it would be a little bit. I called Kevin and the first thing he asked was, "Is it cute?" :) One of the many reasons I love him, but not actually helpful at the time. If it was outside, or contained and not running around my house, yes - it was pretty cute - BUT I wanted it out of my house. While I was on the phone trying to figure out what to do it was under the couch and every now and then would poke his little head out, I'd scream at him and he'd go back under the couch. I got up enough courage to get down and move some more furniture around to try to trap it in that corner of the room and my plan was when Tammy got there I would get a bin and put some peanut butter in it, set it on it's side over there and hope that the mouse would go in, but I didn't want to take my eye off that area or else it would get away then I'd have no chance of finding it again. Right before Tammy got there Bradley woke up and came downstairs and was very confused about what was going on. I told him there was a mouse and had him get on the couch with me. He thought it was pretty fun and was asking what the mouse's name was, and I asked him what he thought and he said "Timmy Douse". He sat there with me talking about Timmy for a while until the mouse poked his head out again, I screamed, and then he got really scared and ran upstairs. He refused to come back down because he said it was going to bite him. Timmy was smart, it must have finally figured out that when he poked his head out, I didn't ACTUALLY do anything but scream at him, so he went for it and no matter how much I yelled at him to get back under the couch - he did not listen and ran away. Of course Tammy got there literally 2 minutes later and we looked but could not find him.
My mom gave me some sticky traps the next day, but I HATE those because I feel like it's a terrible death for the poor little mouse, so I didn't put them out. Then I was talking to Bill about the whole incident the next day and I was pointing down to the couch where it all happened while I was telling the story and there he was - Timmy was just sitting there right next to the couch in plain view! NOW I had help! I told Bill my plan, and while he kept saying "I don't think that's going to work Heidi..." I had him watch Timmy and yell at him to stay while I got the bin with peanut butter and put it over next to the couch. We waited a little bit and then Timmy took off into the bathroom and disappeared. Bill asked about 'real' traps and I told him I did have the sticky traps. He said "Heidi, you can't let this mouse run around the house with the kids, it's not sanitary, you need to catch it and get it out", so reluctantly I put the sticky traps in the bathroom and shut the door (and put a coffee table on its side in front of the door, just to make sure).
One day passed and no Timmy, then I put some mac and cheese from the kids lunch on the traps and checked about 30 min later and he was there, stuck on the trap, trying his best to get away - and I felt TERRIBLE! I called Kevin and he said, "Is there anyway you can get him off?" and I said, "No, those things are SO sticky, there's no way you could pry him off". So I told him it just makes me sad looking at him struggling and he said he'd see what he could do when he got home.
SO, Kevin gets home from a long day at work and right away goes to work on Timmy, he put him in a tub, went and got some tools and took him in the garage and tried and tried to get him free. After about half an hour he came in and looked really sad and said that he didn't think it was going to work. He was scared to try too hard and break his little legs or hurt him. So - I turned to Google!!! Right away I found an article that said to use Vegetable Oil, but you couldn't put too much on there or he could drown in it, and if his face and nose was stuck at all it was useless. So Kevin had to get his nose high enough off the trap so that he could pour some oil over him without him drowning in the oil. It sure is amazing what you can find on the Internet!!! Less than 5 minutes later, Timmy was free! Kevin came upstairs and said, "You know we have to keep him now, right?" and I told him that I figured that's where this was going. But we talked about it and figured he was a wild mouse and he would do better in the wild, so the next day Kevin took him to the park down the street and set him free and we said good-bye to Timmy Douse.
What an ordeal!!! :) He sure was cute though, even all oiled up :) And once again, I fall more in love with my husband and his great big heart!!!

Oh Christmas Tree...

It seems like every year I debate about going to cut down a tree in the mountains or just get one at good 'ol King Soopers like every other year. I did the same thing this year, and just like every other year, King Soopers won. It might be a silly tradition, but it's our tradition and I don't think I'm going to question it anymore. We always seem to get great trees for a great price and it's always fun to pick one out, so that's good enough for me :) (Convenient too - did I mention that?)The kids had a blast playing with the pine needles on the ground, Bradley would take huge handfuls and stuff them into his pockets. We thought we got most of them out before we got in the truck but we were wrong, we found pine needles everywhere afterwards!We found our trees pretty quick this year, I think Mom got the first one she looked at and ours was either the second or third. They had just got a new batch in that morning and the King Soopers guy even mentioned that they were listed for the 6 foot price but were clearly 7-8 feet tall - so what a deal!Gracie decided right away that she loved laying under the tree and playing with the branchesThe morning after we put up the tree I was at work and Kevin was in the kitchen doing the dishes when he realized he hadn't heard them in a while, so he went searching... It took him a while to find them, they were tucked back in the corner behind the tree with blankets and books reading to each other. Melt my heart...Gracie helping me figure out which lights still worked and which didn't, even though once she got her hands on some of them they were moved from the 'working' pile to the 'non-working' pile :)

Bath

I just can't get enough of bathtime pictures. Those cute little naked bodies are just adorable!!!When we let the water out of the bath Bradley always lays down to try to stay in it as long as possible, this time Gracie decided to join in. It's so cute how excited she gets when she is doing something with him - just like him. Watching them together and their relationship is the best thing I have ever experienced in my life!

Babies

Gracie LOVES her babies! They've all been in a drawer for a while and the other day she found them and seems to always have at least one in her hands. She pushes them in strollers, rocks them and sings to them - it's so cute!What a face!!! I just LOVE it!Kissing the baby...Bradley has gotten in on the fun too :)Stroller - wheelbarrow - same difference right? :)