December 24, 2011

Day 24
Christmas Eve

AMAZING DAY!  We had the priveledge of filling a row at the 2 p.m. church service.  My dad, my sister, me, Cael and Gaven. I must say, it was a service that will be forever engrained in my mind.  It was all about the "First Christmas Tree".  The cross is symbolic of the first Christmas tree, as it represents how our Savior gave his life, so that we could live a fabulous, fruitful life.  And that Christmas tree represents NEW beginnings.  Sitting next to my sister and my dad, made me realize how fragile life can be and that decisions we make will forever impact our 'where we are now', but dont have to impact our 'where we want to be'.  Feeling truely blessed this Christmas season.











After church, we celebrated Christmas with PaPa Vroom Vroom and all of my siblings.  Great food and great company.  Kids were spoiled, as ususal.

December 25, 2011

The RAT race begins.................

Today's agenda more hectic that almost any other day of the year. 
7:00am Christmas at home
10:00am Papa and Grandma's Christmas (Paul and Penny's)
1:00 pm Mana's Christmas (Kandy's)
3:30 pm home for Karter to nap
6:00 pm Mimi and Pop's Christmas (Grandma and Grandpa Bichsel's)
(the ONE and ONLY bad part of today.....my camera broke mid-way thru gift opening. I'm still having difficulty getting the pictures off of the camera)
If you're not already aware, we're not very good at sticking to agenda's, but we did our best.
Every year, its a tradition that we take a picture of the boys coming down the steps. 


Highlights of the day:

Cael and Gaven both get Kindle Fires = yeah, Angry Birds (and Shane and I can reclaim our cell phones as ours)
Karter liked his new PJs so much that he layed on top of them and screamed :) 
Shane and I marvel at the fact that we are able to get our children many of their "wants"

Uncle Tad bought the boys a trampoline.  HOLY #*%&, are you kidding me?  And now mom needs medication ....

Papa and Grandma got the boys a Wii.

Karter and Kolten loved the dog cage at Mana's house.

Mana (my mom) bought Shane ear muffs????  REALLY???

We are able to share a meal with each branch of our family.

Bichsel family Christmas party became a JAMMIE party.  Check Shane out.  I hope everyone is getting a better picture of this man that we call dad at the Blake house.

The night ended with a return home and a quick game of trouble....Shane, Jen, Cael and Gav sitting amidst the 'tornado' of a living room. 

Merry Christmas from the Blake's.  May your days be filled with cheer.

December 23, 2011

Day 23

A night with the Hubby spend wrapping.  Of course, we make it a little more fun and do it Blake-dog style.  Glass of vino and bottle o' Bud..

The boys are busy watching Dr. Suess's How the Grinch stole Christmas.  We bribe them to stay upstairs with a cup of hot cocoa and popcorn.  They stayed put for over an hour!

Haircuts were in store for all of the boys today.  I have slowly learned to do a nice fade, on my own.  But I'll be honest, the kids sit still for a stranger better than they do for a mom, in their own house.  Gaven got a cut in the kitchen, the other two....elsewhere. 

Quite handsome young men!

December 22, 2011

Day 22
Timmy came over for a playdate with Gaven while Cael was at a play date with a classmate.  We even splurged and got burgers and fries for lunch  AND had a living room picnic.  It amazes me how the little things excite the kids.

Karter is constantly watching the older boys.  And he does NOT miss a trick.

December 21, 2011

Day 21

Cael and Gaven both attended pre-school at a privately owned/taught place called "The Learning Barn".  It's in a barn, yep!  Taught by one of Tuscarawas County's finest teachers, (my aunt) Kari.  This was such a fabulous experience for both of my kids and I'd highly recommend it to anyone in the area.  Today, Kari had an ALUMNI DAY.  She currently has 6 students, and there were 6 students that returned for this special day.  The kids were able to make gingerbread houses and create environments, yards, etc for their house.  Cael and Gaven really used their creativity this year.  It as amazing to look back and see the difference in attention to detail and overall cleanliness of the project. 

Gaven's had a pond, with a tree in the middle.

Cael explains his as being under construction (notice the cones) with a roofer on top to fix.  He also made a pond, with real fish and two gingerbread men fishing.

Cael, Gaven and Carys have been together since they were 2.  They starting going to the same babysitter, ended up going to a new babysitter together and then to preschool together.  Although they are now all in different classes or schools, they didn't miss a beat.

The afternoon was spent with more friends.  We have such a close group of friends community it is almost overwhelming. The older girls in the group gave all the younger girls make-overs while the adults got some chat time.  Gaven and Owen were no exception, they wanted in on the makeover business. 

December 20, 2012

Day 20

CAUTION-CAUTION-CAUTION-CAUTION  (continuing to read this portion of my blog may make you think less of me as a mom, just a fair warning)

Apparently today was an adjustment day.  I think all of us are not used to being in the house together for the whole day.  Cael and Gaven were CRAZY today, which in turn made Karter a little wacky!  This is just a preview of what our day looked like. 

Very nice visit from PaPa Vroom Vroom tonight.  He came out and had dinner with us, read some books to Karter and watched YouTube with the boys.  Yep, you read it right.

Cael was listening to Little Drummer Boy lastnight on my phone and a pop up ad came on the screen for Jingle Farts...are you kidding me??  Of course, his curious little 7 year old mind clicked.  The hysteria of laughter that came from the living room was almost startling at first.  He quickly found TONS of farting and pooping songs/videos.  I hate to admit it, but I got a good chuckle.  Laughter is sooo good for the soul.
This is their favorite link.... ha ha ha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg9eZxpV3VA

December 19, 2011

Day 19

Cookies, cookies, cookies. 

In preparation for a cookie walk on Wednesday, we finished up baking 10 dozen chocolate crinkle cookies to share with our friends.  Whew, glad to be done with that task.  Also made a new treat tonight, just to try. 

White chocolate covered peanut butter cracker sandwiches

They passed the test of approval, aka Shane and Andrew

Now for the holiday party at school.  Both of the boys get so excited for me to come to their school.  This year I have had to alternate being a room mom and split the parties between the two boys.  Today was my party in Cael's class. 

December 18, 2011

Day 18

Today was a beautiful day for a road trip.  The sun was shining bright all afternoon.  The temperature didn't get much above 40, but it felt a lot warmer with the sunshine.  Columbus Zoo here we come. 

Here is a link to the Columbus Zoo Lights Exhibit.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZYW72Z6iKE
This is just the exhibit at the entrance.  It was pretty amazing. 
Of all days/events that we have going on and that I'm trying to capture, I forgot to take my camera.  My pictures will be limited for a few days, but I'll add more when I get them from Tricia.

 Highlights from the zoo trip:
Obviously, the millions of lights
Polar bear rolling in the dirt
Grizley Bears in hibernation
snake shedding it's skin
HOT CHOCOLATE

Check out Karter, he was really excited about the hot chocolate. 

Successful trip and experience, but exhausted mommies!

December 17, 2011

Day 17

Happy Birthday to Karter!!!

View from our front door.  YEAH for snow!!

We finally get our first snow fall.  Cael and Gaven were begging to go out sled riding.  Shane and I argued with them repeatedly about there not being enough snow.  Finally, we agreed "go, try it and see".....

Pretty sure there was not enough snow, but due to all of the recent rain, the boys were able to SLIDE thru the snow on top of the mud. 



December 16, 2011

Day 16

I had cookies ready for the boys to put icining on when they got home from school today.   

Check out that mess!! WHOA

They were really into the icing this year.  They both insisted that yellow HAD to be one of the colors.   

Storybook Lane.  This is a favorite activity.  I'm pretty sure we'll now go thru Storybook Lane once a day until New Years Day.  Now that the boys are reading, it takes us an extra long time to get through.  We have to take turns, Cael gets to read, then Gaven, repeat, etc...........  You really don't want to be the car that gets stuck behind us.  Shane took Cael, Gaven and Timmy(our neighbor) out tonight to look for more lights. 

While I finished icing all of those d*#@ cut outs, Cael was busy writing a book downstair, listening to Christmas music on my phone.  We've been so busy lately that he must have just needed to go to sleep. 

December 15, 2011

Day 15

Tonight was tour of Christmas lights night.  We packed all the boys into the car and headed out on a hunt for the best lights in town. 

Sheer excitement for all the boys!

These are some of our favorites.

December 14, 2011

Day 14

Today, Karter got to celebrate with his Christmas Party at Miss Deana's house.  For those of you that don't know, our family was blessed with the most amazingly loving, kind, supportive, angelic life-saver of a babysitter.  She and her family have become part of our family.  They have not only helped us raise our children, but they support them in everything they do.  They attend ball games, tae kwon do practice, extra activities, etc to support and encourage them.  And they are an amazing example of a marriage for Shane and I. 

Check out some of the cool memories the boys have made at the Vonderheide's home. 

And how about this Christmas card for all the kidders there?