Christmas Pageant

Ben and Joey both sing in the choir at church, much to Joey's delight and Benny's dismay!  The annual Christmas Pageant was held on December 11.  Ben was a shepherd and Joey was a...well, we aren't sure what Joey was.  I thought perhaps a donkey but someone else thought a goat.  If you ask Joe, he will tell you "I am an ANIMAL!"  Yes, Joe.  Yes you are.

The boys sang beautifully and I loved watching them perform AND play with their friends at the chili supper immediately following the show.  There was a table filled with kids and I can't help but smile when I see these kids loving each other and knowing they will be spending the next 15 or so years enjoying one anothers company.  I love our church family.

Merry Christmas to All

And that brings us to Christmas...it was wonderful.  As always.  Brookie spent the night with us the night before Christmas Eve.  She woke up at about 5 a.m., which actually ended up being a blessing as she and I started preparing food right then and it took us over two hours to make deviled eggs, hashbrown casserole, broccoli salad, and sweet potato casserole.  And then it was time to make cookies.  The boys were up by this time and we made gingerbread and sugar cookies to take to Nana's to decorate. 

We headed to Nana and Bampaw's at about 1:30 p.m. and decorated our cookies and the kids played together while we waited for Abby and Uncle Craig to arrive.  Once they came, the kids settled down with Bampaw to read The Night Before Christmas before tearing into the gifts.  They were spoiled rotten as always.  The highlights for Ben were his telescope and wrestling ring from Nana and Bampaw and Joey was particularly pumped about his InnoTab from  Nana and Bampaw and his dinosaur from Abby and Uncle Craig.

We were home at a decent hour and the boys enjoyed putting cookies and chocolate milk out for Santa and sprinkling reindeer food in the yard.

Ben woke up at about 3:30 a.m. but we convinced him to climb in bed with us and go back to sleep until 7, at which time he was allowed to wake up Joey.  We heard Santa leaving our house and tried to see him out the window.  The boys were so excited about their gifts and tore through the whole pile in about 25 minutes.  A new record.  They were most excited about their personal DVD players from Santa. 

We headed to Oma's at 11 a.m. and enjoyed spending time with daddy's family.  More spoiling occured and the boys loved the games, puzzles, guys and money they received at Oma's.  We got home around 3 p.m. and Joey and I fell asleep on the couch watching a movie while daddy and Ben played Uno.  Nana, Bampaw, and Aunt Mallory came over around 5:30 to enjoy some leftovers and see all the boys gifts.

It was a wonderful day.  We are truly blessed.

Fun With Friends

We have enjoyed several fabulous visitors this month.  We had sleepovers with Brookie the night before Thanksgiving and the night before Christmas Eve. 

The White's were in town for a sleepover on December 16.  Joe and Ben loved  being silly with Georgia and Cooper and I loved catching up with Suz. 

Finally, the Burris' were in from Austin, Texas to celebrate the holidays.  We enjoyed spending a few hours with our favorites!

Another one of our favorite new traditions has become the monthly evening we spend with the Matelics and DeLisles.  We went to the DeLisle's new house this month and the kids has had a blast having a dance party in their basement complete with blaring music, a black light, and glowbands! 

We also managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Christmas at the Zoo with the Matelics.

We are blessed with such amazing friends. So lucky.  Speaking of lucky, the boys and I also managed a trip to Conseco Fieldhouse to check out Daddy in action at the 2011 Pacers Fan Jam. 

YMCA Basketball Wrap Up

The boys finished another fantastic season of YMCA basketball on December 19.  This was the first time Joey played organized basketball and though he loved it and really enjoyed being coached by his daddy, he thought the games were a little long and was usually well over it by the time the final buzzer rang.  He played very well though, was great at dribbling, passing, and most importantly, cheering on his teammates. He even managed to get a few balls through the basket a time or two!

Ben, as always, loved playing ball with the same group of boys he has for the past several years.  They won all of their games and really grew as teammates and individual players this season.

Celebrate Good Times...Joe is FOUR!

disclaimer:  I actually started typing this post on December 5th but was waiting on pictures from my friend's camera to post...and then life happened and the whirlwind that is the month of December got the best of me.  No time for blog updating.  Tomorrow is the last day of the year, however, and I refuse to let myself celebrate without catching up on our blog.
Well, we managed to have yet another "low key" birthday celebration...that lasted an entire week.  The fun began Tuesday morning with a joint birthday party for Joey and his best buddy, Drew, who is 13 days older than him.  The boys invited their favorite friends:  Macy and Tommy, Camden, Zoey and Ty, Trey, Adam and Ryan over for some birthday fun.  The kids played pin the candle on the cake, limbo, and the grand prize game.  They loved selecting prizes from the prize basket but the highlight of the party was definitely the awesome cake created by our own local "Cake Boss," Angela!  My friend Amy took a ton of pictures that I will definitely post here as soon as she sends them my way.

Joe's actual bday was Saturday.  He had a basketball game in the morning and scored three baskets! His fan club cheered wildly!  After watching Benny's game, we headed to Chickfila for lunch with Oma, Nana, Bampaw, and Aunt Mal Mal.

I had to go downtown to work the Big Ten Football Championship Game that afternoon and Dean and the boys continued the birthday celebration without me. They went to Healthplex for awhile and then headed to the Speedway High School Basketball game.  The boys had a blast playing with friends (and watching the game).

The third (and final) birthday party was on Sunday at our house.  Aunt Barbies family, Sissy's family, Abby and Uncle Craig, Nana, Bampaw, Aunt Mal Mal, and Oma joined us for mexican food (including Joey's favorite, chips and cheese) and oreo ice cream cake.  We had a great time and were sufficiently exhausted and ready to move on from Joe's birthday by the end of the day!

And now a few words on my 4-year-old.  Joe.  You wake up every morning (usually with your dad by your side because you wake him up nearly every night asking him to come lay "on your pillow pet" with you) and want to know immediately:  A.  If you can have some chocolate milk and B. "What are we doing today?".  You are a planner (like your mom) and always want to know what is coming.  You are content to do nothing all day but play at home...you just want to know ahead of time if that is the game plan!

You love to watch movies.  Your favorites include Backyardigans, Scooby Doo, Shrek, and whatever movie we may have rented from RedBox or the library.  You don't ever just sit and watch TV (you are a multitasker) but I think you just like to have it on as background noise.  You love to play with "guys," specifically your current favorite, Imaginext Batman characters with your new Joker House.

You are a social butterfly and love to play with friends but are equally content to play by yourself.  You LOVE school and are so happy on Mondays and Wednesdays when you get to spend the day with Miss Kim and Miss Missy and your best friends, Drew, Macy, and Trey.

You are super independent.  You get yourself dressed every morning (you prefer to wear pajamas at all times) and also shower by yourself at night. 

You love your big brother very much but also really, really love to get him riled up. You know all the buttons to push to make Ben mad and you usually push them all at once and multiple times a day.

You are so much fun to be around and make every day more enjoyable.  I love you so much.

Unforgettable Joe

Over cupcakes after school at the kitchen table, I was talking to the boys (Ben and Joe and their best friends Nathan and Drew) about their day.  Joe suddenly got super fiesty when telling me about his visit with Santa during school.  "He didn't remember me from last week!" said a super frustrated Joe (everything is last week, he meant last year).  I said "He didn't?  How do you know?"  Joe said "Because he asked me my name! He didn't remember me."  Poor Joe.

This Post Brought To You By The Letter "D"

On the way to school this morning...
Joe:  "Hey, Mom?  Do I still have the letter "J" in my name?"
Me:  "Yes, Joey.  J-o-e-y.  Joey starts with the letter "J."
Joe:  "Oh maaaan.  When will I have the letter "D" in my name?"
Me:  "Well.  When you are a daddy then you will have the letter "D" for daddy in your name."
Joe:  "But DREW has the letter "D" in his name already and he isn't a daddy yet."

I had no argument for that.

Thankful...It Goes Without Saying

Another Thanksgiving (definitely one of my favorite holidays) has come and gone and once again "it was the best ever!"  Amazing how every year it just keeps getting better and better.  The boys were wonderful and we enjoyed a huge meal at Nana and Bampaws along with about 20 other family members!  The best part of Thanksgiving this year, I think, was that Dean didn't have to work the next day so he really relaxed and enjoyed the day for the first time ever really, at least in the 11 Thanksgivings that we have spent together.  

I have so much to be thankful for...I will hit the highlights briefly:
Dean:  Truly my better half, I am thankful that Dean is always there to ground me and put me in check.  He doesn't feed off my moods, but tempers them and helps me to evaluate every situation fully before diving off the deep end...sometimes he is too late, but he tries anyway to keep me calm!
Benny:  I am so very, very, very thankful for my relationship with Ben recently.  We have been in a really good place...and it has been a long, long time since I have been able to say that.  Ben has been affectionate with me, loving, kind, and just overall enjoyable to be around.  We have had some wonderful talks about anything and everything and I love him so much and am so proud of the young man he is growing up to be.
Joe Bug:  My Joey, I almost can't help but smile when I think about this little goober of mine.  Joe is in the middle of a challenging stage but even so, his sweet spirit and kind heart shines through.  I am grateful for Joe's lesson on being hospitable that he teaches me every day.  He is always concerned with making sure those around him are happy and their needs are met.  He is a truly caring little boy and I love that about him.
Family:  I am thankful to have my family (both my and Dean's) so close.  I love how much my boys love their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. 
Friends:  As Dean said the other night, I have a great group of friends. I  am truly blessed with close friendships that fulfill all my needs.  I am definitely a social person and I am so thankful for my girlfriends.
Emerson!:  I am thankful for my sweet puppy girl.  I really feel like Jackson hand-picked Emmy for our family.  She is sweet, snuggly, and full of love. 

There is so much more I am thankful for...but right now I am thankful that my boys went to bed early so that I can too!

Too Much Information?

I live in a house with two little boys who are exerting their independance in many ways every day, not the least of which is their desire to shower by themselves.  Now, as you can imagine, hygiene is not a top priority of prepubescent boys...or now that I think of it, really boys of many ages.  This fact leads me to the lovely conversation Benjamin and I just had while sitting on the couch watching Polar Express for what will surely be the first of 1000 viewings this holiday season.

me:  "Ben.  I can smell your bottom."
Ben:  "Doesn't it smell awesome?"

Um no.  Disgusting.

The Leaves Are A Fallen

We have had some amazingly mild and beautiful weather recently and that coupled with the fact that the trees are rapidly shedding their leaves has prooved way too tempting for my leaf pile loving boys to resist.  Joey will spend an incredible amount of time raking leaves into the perfect pile....

Only to have this little booger

jump into the pile before Joey has a chance, which does not please the Joe Bug.

But he gets over it and jumps in to join his rotten big brother!

The boys love jumping in the leaves so much, that they invited their best friends, Nathan and Drew, over for some leaf jumping fun.

Emmy even got in on the action and if possible, she may love playing in the leaves even more than Joey!

Happy Halloween 2011

The boys had round two of trick or treating at church on Sunday afternoon, October 30, during the annual Trunk or Treat.  Ben was thrilled that his skeleton costume won a prize for "scariest costume" and Joey surprisingly kept on his Bumblebee Transformer costume...the first time he has ever made it out the house with an actual costume on!  On Monday night we were good and ready for some more (and final) trick or treating. 

The Brand family stopped by and we all loved our beautiful Miss Minnie Mouse and the super fierce lion!

Nana and Bampaw couldn't resist the urge to spend time with all of their costumed grandchildren so they came over for the fun too!

Oma and Nana stayed at our house to pass out candy so we could enjoy trick or treating with our neighbor Abigail and the Chaplins.  Along the way we met up with several other friends as well. 

We were out over an hour and a half this year trick or treating and the boys brought home WAY too much candy.  It was a very successful night and definitely one of the best Halloweens we have ever celebrated.

Trophy Time

The boys wrapped up their soccer season on Saturday, October 29.  Joey was thrilled to get his first trophy and Ben was equally happy to add another to his vast collection.

Pre-Halloween Festivities

The boys and I were thrilled to actually be healthy this year and able to celebrate all the fun things that are available to do during Halloween.  We kicked off Halloween weekend with a trip to Zoo Boo after school on Friday, October 28 with the Metalics. 

We ended up meeting Lisa, Taylor, Jordan, Adam, and Ryan there as well.  Joey was thrilled to have so many of his favorite friends along to enjoy the zoo and of course the trick or treating!

Following the fun time at the Zoo, we headed home for some pumpkin carving and painting.