winter ROCKS!

well, already, in only January, I've heard several people saying how they are so ready for winter to be over. It's easy to get into a winter rut, I understand, but c'mon. It's only January, and we do, in fact, live in the Midwest, namely Iowa, known for unpredictable weather and long, COLD winters, and terribly hot, humid summers. It just comes with the territory. It can't come as much of a surprise to anyone that yeah, it's freezing cold, and yeah, it's snowing again, or whatnot. Might as well embrace it, and maybe even try to enjoy it! i LOVE winter!!

neighborhood fun; notice Ben, inside the fort!

bbrrrr

well, now's the time for sick kids I guess. It's been so bitterly cold here we don't go outside unless we have to. and when we do have to, it's a mad dash from car to door, with as much exposed skin covered as possible. so if ever a time for sick kids, now's as good a time as any. hopefully we can then be done with it for the winter?! the cold, and the sick!

the picture is from earlier this winter when we had a major ice storm. it's snowy now, but the picture goes well with the cold cold cold.

indoor fun

just a fun shot of what our typical weekend days look like during the winter. I'm pretty sure as a parent, nothing warms my heart more than seeing my kids genuinely have fun together. playing together without me having to force the boys to go play with their sister. it happens on it's own once in awhile, and when it does, it sure is sweet.

death drain

If you're not familiar with Death Drain, it's from Guitar Hero III, and where have you been?? No, seriously though, the video game "people" are onto something here; of the handful of families I know that have bought this game 'for their kids,' the adults are equally addicted and determined to move through easy to medium level, and maybe even one day, EXPERT?? (yeah, right!) Our family is no better either; the boys chose to get this 'for dad' for his birthday. Alterior motives? Ya think? He does play it just as much as they do though!

Anyways, addictiveness aside, it's super fun and even me and my close friend Laura have dueled, bringing us to the infamous Death Drain. I won't say who won, it doesn't matter to girls. But it was a RIOT to hear our families and mainly husbands YELLING at us that our families' honor was on the line with our performance, and other specifics about how to do what we were supposed to do. "Pull the whammy bar, star power," and whatever else....Surprisingly, being the multi-tasker moms that we are, it really made it hard to concentrate and we tried our best to just block it out.

Matthew is the most impressive 'rocker' in our house so far; Ben can play well too, but Matthew is up, dancing and literally rockin' while he plays. That's one coordinated little dude!

So, if you haven't tried it, go check a local WalMart to see if they have it on display and give it a whirl.....you may discover hidden 'talent'!

who let these kids stay up??

WOW! Put these kids to bed already, eh?
Not sure about the rest of you, but our kids were THRILLED to get to stay up until midnight to ring in the New Year. I think it was the first time we've ever let them stay up this late, for sure the first time we've let them purposefully. And when 12 o'clock came around they were still going so strong you would've thought it were a mere 9:00.
Good times had by all.