4 legs and 4 wheels

Brandon had fun riding Lucky

Faster Daddy, Faster!

Ethan loved riding the 4-wheeler

Sledding and Snowmen

The boys got a real sled with runners from grandma and grandpa for Christmas. Ethan didn't care for getting the snow thrown in his face but loved the sledding.

Ethan's first snowman. At first he didn't get the hang of making a ball.

Once he figured it out, he was on a roll.

Ethan knew that snowmen were supposed to have carrots for noses, luckily Grandma had some.

Christmas Part 2

Running in to see what Santa left.

Stocking time!

Santa always leaves new slippers. Ethan got Ninja Turtle, Brandon got camo ones that he put on right away to wear.

I wonder what it could be???

More Star Wars

Teamwork.

Ethan's First Christmas. Part 1

It didn't take Ethan long to figure out how to do the present thing.

Ethan did get a little upset when we got his DVD player set up and it didn't have a movie in it with a lady in a black dress in front of a red background like the picture that was on the DVD on the box.

Brandon gave Ethan some spy gear just like his.

Too much Christmas. Nothing like napping in front of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles while wearing your spy gear belt.

Brandon's Christmas. Part 1

We had our first part of Christmas on Saturday. As you can see, Brandon made out like a bandit.

Christmas Cookies

We had alot of fun dipping pretzels and cookies this year for Christmas.

Ethan had a blast. He kept getting chocolate on his fingers and had to lick it off, then after every cookie he tried to lick the fork. I think we ended up using every fork I own just to get a dozen cookies dipped.

Santa

Ethan wasn't exactly sure about Santa. He talked about it and was excited before we got there, but when it came down to it, he only got close enough to take the candy cane that Santa gave him. He never cried or anything, just didn't want to get too close.

This is where Ethan preferred to stand while Brandon sat on Santa's lap.

Party time!

Today was the class Christmas party for the boys classes. Brandon's class decorated Santa cookies.

Ethan's class put together bags of Reindeer food.
Then Ethan decided that it was getting too loud in his party and wanted to come in with mama, who was helping with Brandon's party. So he sat and cut paper into confetti.
and drew a picture with the help of one of Brandon's classmates.

And danced during the dance party. He wanted to dance, but not in the middle of the room with the big kids, so he found himself a nice spot behind the bookshelf to do his own little dance.

Nintendo Expert

It only took Ethan a day to become an expert at the Duck Hunt on the old Nintendo. He figured out if you get right in front of the screen he can actually hit the ducks.

Okay, tired of kneeling in front of the tv, think I'll sit in my chair and prop my feet up while I play.

Nintendo

Ethan has been having fun trying to play our very old original Nintendo.

Jamey tried to teach him how to aim but Ethan didn't quite get it. He just puts the gun covering his eye then uses the uncovered eye to aim.

Ethan is getting pretty good at the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, even though he was holding the controller upside down. Not sure how well he'll do if he turns it around. Do you think if you move your whole body it will help the character that you're controlling move in that direction?

Happy Gotcha Day Brandon!!!

First Gotcha Day, December 16, 2000

Seventh Gotcha Day, December 16, 2007

We celebrated 7 great years with Brandon on Sunday Dec 16th. Its hard to believe it's been 7 years already. As part of our celebration the gotcha day guy got to pick where we went out to eat. Culvers was a great pick, we all enjoyed our dinner, and boys loved the ice cream you get with your kids meal.

5 year old humor

We've been talking a lot about the Christmas story, reading books and playing with our Fisher Price nativity set trying to help Ethan learn about Baby Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas. After our church at home last week when Brandon read the story if you ask Ethan what they Angels said he would tell you "Be not afraid." Tonight laying in bed getting ready to pray I was trying to get Ethan to tell Daddy what the angels said. Here was Ethan's response. "Be not spanking." Then he started laughing so hard he couldn't stop shaking or even lift his head off the bed for several minutes.

I love his sense of humor.

Lefse

Ethan got his first taste of Lefse today. He doesn't appreciate it near as much as Mommy does. Mommy likes it with butter and sugar, Daddy prefers it with peach freezer jam. Brandon tried it again today also and didn't care for it. I still have plenty of time to get them converted to enjoying this great Norwegian food.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lefse For anyone who doesn't know what Lefse is, this should help.

Snow!!!!

The snow is much easier to shovel than the ice was.

Not quite enough hill.

A little to dry to make a snowball but still fun to play in.

Even more fun outside

The Caterpillar doesn't seem to have 4 wheel drive.

Ethan wanted to shovel the driveway with "Daddy's nice shovel" all day. He finally got his chance this afternoon and cleared a good 6 foot long path for me.

Slip slidin' away

Fun sledding on the ice!

More Ice Storm

We got a little more freezing rain this afternoon which added a new thin layer of ice on what was already there. They boys went outside for a little bit this afternoon. Ethan had fun helping Daddy scoop the ice while Brandon had a blast jumping on the ice crusted left over snow to break it apart.

Ice storm

What do you do when you're stuck inside after an ice storm on a Sunday?

Watch Daddy clean the ice off the walks

Read books

Have church at home.

It's been a lot of fun teaching Ethan about Baby Jesus for the first time. He really likes the three kings that brought gifts to the Baby Jesus.

Decorating the Christmas tree

We finally got our tree up and decorated. Brandon has several ornaments that are his and he enjoyed putting them on in strategic places.

Ethan loved opening all of the ornament boxes and decorating the tree. He was excited with each one that he opened.