We have been living in the darkness. Seriously! We had one lamp we used for light in the living room. The problem is I don't like it to be dark. I would love to have a house full of sunlight. I mentioned several times I would love to have lights in the living room. Well.. the time has come!! We got several LED recessed lights put in the living and hall. We put them on dimmers and good thing because when they are on full blast you could get a suntan!! Which I love.... :)
My favorite part is to be able to photograph at night! With such a dark living room an evening photo was pretty much out of the question. In the winter time that means anytime after 5pm it made getting a good photo pretty difficult! I don't think a night has gone by since without me taking a photo now. They have come in handy since I have been participating in a 52 project, one picture each week with a different theme!
A few weeks ago on a Friday night we had planned on going out to dinner to use a gift card we were given over the holidays. Then we heard that the Monster Trucks were at Wells Fargo Arena and all the sudden we had tickets and were on our way. It was spontaneous and the boys were so excited. More so Jaxson since he went last time they were here. Asher had no idea what he was in store for.
Once the trucks got started that boy couldn't take his eyes off the loud and fast trucks jumping around. He was in awe. The only time the boys took their eyes off the big trucks was to check out the lady sitting directly behind us who was almost louder than the trucks. She was yelling and hollering at the drivers. Her favorite phrase was "GET 'ER DONE' as loud as possible. We think she is a Monster Truck groupie. Seriously. It was kind of comical. But even though it was loud from all angles we had a great time and so glad we went!!
Asher was checking out the big trucks biggest fan.
Umm... so it's been 2013 for almost two weeks and I haven't posted about our fantastic New Year's eve. Terrible....
Anyway, we had a fantastic New Years Eve!! A couple months back the Holcomb family, who we usually spend NYE with (besides last year when they ditched us to go to Vegas.. boo hoo) decided to spice things up for New Years and suggested getting a hotel room with a pool for the kids. Dave thought it was a great idea but then suggested the waterpark hotel by Merle Hay. We called to check availability and made our reservation. It is the first time in awhile I have been really excited about NYE.
After Dave and Josh both called several times requesting an adjoined room, when we got there, we luckily did get the double room they were desperate for. Our plans were to put the kids to bed in one room while we played games and otherwise hung out in the other. Dave was relieved when he heard we did indeed have adjoined rooms.
We got swim gear on and headed to the waterslides. It was much bigger than I expected!! They were definitely big and fast enough for the adults to have fun too!! And the water was pretty warm so that was awesome. The kids played and played. Asher has no fear we found. None. At least Leah remembered her water vest thing so we could put him that. Jaxson was pretty brave as well, even going down the big slide with me several times!!!
The kids didn't go to bed until well after midnight. Our put them to bed in the other room didn't really work. They were indeed in the other room, with the door mostly closed, lights off, and cartoons on. But there was no sleeping happening.
In the morning we decided to make a trip into the arcade instead of getting our suits on before checking out. I was surprised that they had any tickets left when we were done!! I first hit the jackpot for 212 on a classic arcade game where you hit the light as it goes around and around. Then Dave plays "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" getting the jackpot on that of 400 tickets. Plus several other random games we ended up with over 700 tickets, enough to get each of the boys a football, another little toy, and me a glass ring that is actually pretty cute!!
It was a great time and we will definitely do something like this again in future years.
Jaxson has been waiting to go sledding for about 2 years. We promised to take him last year then it never snowed. Ever. It barely ever got cold. Luckily for Jaxson, we didn't get as lucky this year. After our blizzard the other day we have plenty of snow to go around. After Jaxson and Asher got new sleds as a gift for Christmas it has been hard to contain him. We waited for a "warm" day.. as in not below zero.. and headed out. I am lucky to have such great friends who are willing to loan me their snow pants.. and then their snow boots because during the conversation about the pants, I realized I didn't have any boots either. Oops! The boys ended up being a replica of Ralphie and his brother from A Christmas Story. Poor Asher could barely walk and putting down his arms was out of the question. It was cute until he face planted in the snow and couldn't move. Then I felt bad bundling him up like that. He did alot of riding around on the sled as we pulled him here and there.
Jaxson surprisingly didn't have much fear of going down the bigger hills. We were unaware of how fast and far the sled would go our first trip and he ended up in the parking lot. I was running at full speed (which unfortunately wasn't very fast with all the snow gear on) chasing him. He wasn't in danger since we were the only ones there and it wasn't busy, but it freaked me out so we hiked up much much further. It didn't matter much... you could still sled all the way to the parking lot, which we did a couple times. Once to grab my camera and Dave once to get us some waters.
We talked to Jaxson about just falling off instead of going to far or too fast. Instead we just stood at the bottom and one of threw our body in front of his speeding sled. Dave once went airborne trying to jump in front of him. I think he missed his calling as a soccer goalie...
Towards the end of our three hour sledding trip Jaxson seemed to have mastered the ditching the sled technique. He was just tumbling out at the bottom of the hill and hiking back up. So Dave was sitting with Asher and I helped him get started and took a video. He must have forgotten all about the "ditch the sled" technique..
Jaxson's Sledding Incident....
And yes, he was perfectly fine. Not to worry.... But it was his last trip down the hill for the day...
Dave and I had just as much fun as the boys. Dave was brave and gave the head first sled a go. It was more brave than I was going to be. Asher went down several times and wasn't scared at all. He would giggle and demand "again" at the bottom. Lucky for him everywhere we went it was like sledding since he was just being pulled around. Jaxson learned quickly that sledding took some hardwork though lugging his sled up the hill over and over again. After his first few runs though, he didn't seem to mind! The forecast is warming up next week and we will likely be without snow after several days near 40. It makes me sad to think we might not get anymore after seeing how much fun he had. :(
Dave's brave headfirst sledding
Asher sledding
Hey Mom, I fell and can't get back up!!!
This is how Asher got around all day. Pretty sweet if you ask me!
This is going to be a multitasking post. First my dad came over for dinner a few days after Christmas. He doesn't really do the big groups on Christmas day... we don't see eye to eye on him missing his family christmas every year.... but anyway... Jaxson was super excited when I told him he was coming for dinner. When he pulled in the driveway Jaxson literally squealed. My dad is good at being a big kid with them and they love it. My favorite part of everything was we had so many leftovers from Christmas Eve and day that I put everything in dishes in the oven and stove. Once it was done it looked like I cooked a feast but since it was really Elaine's, it tasted amazing. :)
The first thing Jaxson wanted to do after dinner was play Sorry! We had already played several times early in the day.. and the day before that... and before that. He is absolutely crazy about this game. It was his first Christmas present I bought for him, picking it up before even Thanksgiving. I had no idea it was going to be the most awesome gift ever! He completely understands how to play, you don't need to help him one bit, and you don't have to go easy on him either. He doesn't go easy on you, that is for sure. He is strategic, and ruthless when it comes to kicking you back to home! He is so awesome and figuring things out, thinking things through, before making up his mind. When he gets a card, you can see his little eyes move across the board considering all of his options. Then he will grin when he has made his decision, especially if he is sending someone packing back to their home. He loves this game so much he plays all four players all by himself. And follows the rules. He has an amazing ability to concentrate on something for such a long time. He will play this for hours, with people or by himself, he doesn't care. I only know a few 4yr olds, but it seems he excels in this area. The other thing I noticed was as soon as we sat down to play Sorry with friends the other night he started talking. With a loud, confident voice. Explaining the rules of the game, and helping his friend across the board. He loves it, and knows he is good at it so he has no problems speaking up. I love to see him like that.
One thing he does need to work on though is losing gracefully.... :/
