December

Well, this month we've been treated to musical extravaganzas at churchand at school.And when the little advent tree calendars looked like this
we knew it was time for this. You can see that they were mildly excited. Christmas morning, Max's face appeared at the side of my bed, exclaiming (with the lisp of a six-year-old missing his front teeth), "Mama, I was on the nice list!!"

Other developments...with regards to this new addition, I will just quote Stephen Colbert: "Hello, Sweetness." 55" Sony Bravia. You can see that Andrew wasted no time finding a quality TNT western.

And look how well-behaved our dogs look. Tricky little canines.

Our house has also become the epicenter of some mad jigsaw fun! And after all the fun on Christmas, I got to do some organizing! It brings a smile to my face, just thinking about it. Look at that closetAhhh...and see that drawer? It is big enough to hold the Play-doh kits! I love everything about Play-doh except its mess factor, but it's so much fun that it's worth it. I just had to figure out a suitable way to store those kits and this drawer is the answer! Amen to that.

And the organizing frivolity continued into the basement. And look, it's the playroom floor! Hello floor! Such a zen feeling to have the toys in their places, and to have room to play.

On Regular Visits From the Tooth Fairy

Good thing I made this little tooth fairy pouch last week because we went from this to this today. Max had three teeth pulled to make room for the permanent ones hiding just below the surface. The x-rays show each of his permanent teeth is about twice the size of each baby tooth. Without enough space, they would tend to twist and turn to try to fit into the space left by his baby teeth, so we tried to make a little more room for them.

He definitely takes after his mama in that he needs as much help as possible trying to get those teeth to come in straight! Our dentist affirmed what we already know...he's going to be an orthodontic patient. Just trying to make sure our dentist and orthodontist retire early and in style!

And here's cute little brother, wanting to get in on all the picture action.

Happy 4th, Benjamin!

This morning we wrapped up birthday week at the Shier household. Ben turned 4 yesterday, and his birthday party was this morning. He chose a Lightning McQueen theme, so the kids colored little Cars coloring books, had Cars tattoos put on, and did some scratch-off racing pennants for crafts at Ramone's House of Art. We then played "Lizard in a Piston Cup," where the kids dropped lizards (since Radiator Springs is in a desert...I know, it's a stretch, but just go with it) into Piston Cups. We played "Pin the Hook on Mater," and of course, ate cake and ice cream. I almost hated to cut into the amazing cake that Mom decorated! And last but not least, the Lightning McQueen pinata. It was a fun morning with with just the littler guys over for Ben's party.

This year was the first year we celebrated the boys' birthdays individually, and it's been interesting to see how each reacted when the other got his own celebration. Ben was a very big boy about it last week on Max's "big day," and Max was pretty gracious about sharing new toys on his birthday. However, I was surprised that Max had a hard time yesterday and today with Ben getting his own "big day." We've had some tears and frustration from Max when, for example, Ben got to go first for games this morning at his party or didn't want to share his brand new birthday presents immediately. On the flip side, Ben has been holding out on sharing his toys, knowing that he might be able to get away with a little bit more on his birthday. Brothers! It's not unique to brothers though, so maybe I should mutter "Siblings!"

It's been a great week though to celebrate both our boys and we had a lot of fun with their parties. Happy Birthday, Benjamin!!

Cowboy Up, Max is 6

Today we celebrated Max's 6th birthday, complete with a cowboy-themed birthday party. We did a couple of craft projects, coloring a little cowboy coloring book and decorating a paper bag cowboy vest. For games, we played "Snake in the Boot," which consisted of standing on the coffee table and tossing rubber snakes into cowboy boots. This was a big hit. In fact, Max & Ben played this most of yesterday afternoon also. We also played "Pin the Badge on Max," (Pin the Tail on the Donkey) where the kids stuck sheriff's stars on an enlarged, laminated picture of Max dressed up like a cowboy. Lots of giggles! We also "Roped the Pony" by chucking a hula hoop over a rocking horse. We had a cowboy boot pinata, a cowboy story, a double horseshoe cake and root beer floats. It was a very fun afternoon and now I think we're in for some early bedtimes! I'll yippee-kay-ay to that! Andrew even cowboyed up by growing a cowboy 'stache this week. Here's Maxwell this morning, playing with his new marble run. He played with it for hours, telling me it was "the best present ever!" Of course, once he opened his gifts from his friends, those were some pretty cool gifts too.

Happy 6th birthday, big boy!!

I Just Roll With It

The new bench at the end of our bed has quickly become one of the boys' favorite places to hang out.

Halloween Party, Delayed

Ben's preschool Halloween party was delayed until this morning due to the snow last week.

Serious business: decorating the cookie. Enjoying his cookie. Dancing machine. When the music stops, FREEZE. He told me later he was freezing "like the Statue of Liberty." I can totally see the resemblance.

And this picture is from Halloween night. He fell asleep clutching his Starburst. Ben and Halloween, two peas in a pod.

Trick or Treat!

Snow days!!

The snow's been falling since Tuesday night (Oct 27th) and is supposed to wind down tonight. So far, the official number is 23" for our town, another 1-3" on the way before it stops. Yesterday and today, no school for the boys. Some pictures...

This one rolls out of bed with a grin from ear to ear when it snows. The snow was just getting started.The bird house was cracking me up. Four to five foot drift on the side of the house. Seriously happy kid as the snow continued. Happy dogs. Front porch. Happy boy to stay inside and do puzzles.

Mama likes a bargain

They just had a big ol' consignment sale in Parker and I scored some good stuff. Along with 3 bags of clothes, I scored a couple of fun toys! I have great memories of loving and playing with Mousetrap at my Grandma and Grandpa Duvall's house. The boys have already played with it for hours. I was impressed that after I assembled it for them once that they could reassemble it by themselves and patiently finesse the contraption when it doesn't work perfectly. And then the other great-toy-for-a-rainy-day is this Crayon maker. You put all the little broken crayons in it, wait about 20 minutes to let the crayons melt (although they're not too melty yet in this pic), tip the little tray, and the melted crayons go into molds of different shapes, so you make new crayons of different shapes, like trucks, crocodiles, etc. Awesome!

College football!

A few weeks ago we took the boys to their first college football game, Wyoming-vs-CU. Despite the dismal outcome of the game, it was a fun afternoon and they are looking forward to Wyoming-vs-AFA in a few weeks. And I don't care who you root for, when they run Ralphie around the field, it's just pretty darn cool: We sat in the north end-zone, nice and close to the field. However, we were a little concerned when we noticed the net that catches the footballs after kicks was actually behind us. Seemed like a bit of a design oversight; we were actually sitting between the upright and the net. Surely they wouldn't? Oh yes, they did. They dutifully pulled the net up to protect the brick building behind the stands for each kick. In fairness, the kicks all flew over our heads and were basically smothered by the net, but we certainly made sure to pay attention whenever the teams were kicking! :)