Sorry didn't post last week; but so far the Great Experiment is going well. The first night Christopher did take a very small tumble coming down the ladder; he missed the last two steps. But he didn't cry and said "Even though I fell, I'm going back up." So it's been a week now and things are going great!
We moved the little toddler mattress out over the weekend and they are officially moved into their new beds. Stephen even took his naps in his bed on the weekend which is also a plus. Although Mommy will miss the snuggle time on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

I hope to be posting a series of blogs on our trip to Disney in December of 2009...Stay Tuned!

Momentous Event

Hold the presses...tonight, on the spur of the moment, we decided to move Christopher up to the top bunk and Stephen into the bottom bunk. Mom's a little nervous about Christopher going up and down the ladder; but he said he would be careful.

Wish us luck for an uneventful night!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Boys started the season with a wrestling match at the AVFD Christmas Party. Not sure who actually won this in the end.

Stephen's favorite present was either his new Harmonica or his pal Scout. (Amy, his jaw dropped when it said "Stephen!")

Daddy's favorite present was a new fob watch for job sites and the FD...that he had picked out himself; ($10 special from Kohls)

Christopher's favorite present was his Crane Truck from Santa. He's been asking for it since October.

Mommy's favorite present was a new coffee maker...hopefully that will help with the grumpies in the morning.

Daddy and the boys were able to get a little more play time in the snow at Grandma's in VA. They even made an Ice-Man.

And finally, for those that know me very well, you will enjoy this. My boy Christopher is following in my footsteps and building all kinds of things with Lego's. He's built a house, dune buggy and helicopter...is he an engineer or architect in the making?

Snowy Wonderland

Just a few more pictures of our snowy house.

Total was about 17-18 inches.

Blizzard '09???

This is the yard at about 8:30am Saturday morning (Dec 19th). When we woke up we already had 6-7 inches in the front yard.

This is later in the day; about 2:45pm. My poor car has not been uncovered yet, hopefully the hood doesn't cave in. Its already been dented by this fall's acorns!

Its kind of hard to tell... But the mound of snow on the right is almost taller than Stephen.

Stephen is now transitioning from his lawn mowing business to snow removal. He rents his services by the hour...I think he will have college paid for by the time he gets to the end of the driveway.

Granted this is a snow drift; but it is taller than the kids chair.

Now that's a lot of snow.

Hope everyone is staying warm and dry!

Merry Christmas!

Where is Christopher???

Can you see him?

Both Christopher and Stephen were a big help getting up all of the leaves that built up in our yard. We all worked hard and had both the back and front yards cleaned up in about 4 hours.

We also took some time to play...Christopher remembered what piles of leaves meant, and Stephen learned real quick. Even Daddy got in a few times!

All told we collected about 38 bags of leaves. Seems impressive, but that's only about a third of our normally yearly total...Just 24 hours after we were out the yard is starting to get covered again.

Halloween

We had a rainy dreary Halloween, but we did manage to have a big enough break in the rain to participate in the Community Halloween Parade and to Trick or Treat. Below are the kids dressed up in their Halloween Costumes.

Christopher wanted to be a firefighter, we got the jacket and backpack from a friend as a hand me down, and mommy purchased the helmet and nozzle. Daddy cut reflective strips for the helmet and mommy put reflective strips on his pants. Christopher wore his snow boots to complete the effect. I thought he looked pretty sharp and liked the way his helmet turned out.

Stephen had two choices for costumes this Halloween. First one was a Dinosaur and the Second was a Race Car Driver's Suit. Stephen of course decided to do his own thing. All he wanted to do for Halloween was go outside and push his lawnmower, so he ended up with a hammer and drill hanging off of his pants and pushing the lawnmower for the parade.

This year Christopher helped mommy and daddy design and carve the pumpkin he got from a school field trip. Both boys colored pumpkins this year for Halloween and we all went out at dusk to go Trick or Treating. The big thing for the night was every house we stopped at Stephen would try to take something from his goodie bag and give it to the person at the door.