Tonight's Project

When we were gone for our Thanksgiving trip, we turned the heat to our house down way low. However, when we got back home at 2:00am Sunday morning, the freezing house was like a smack in the face.

AJ was fine. He was in nice warm jammies and transitioned from car to crib wrapped in a warm snuggly blanket perfectly. Andrew, however, woke up and and got to stay up a bit while we unloaded a few things, etc... He was freezing. And the thought of putting him in that cold bed was too much. Marc even offered to sleep on the couch (he wasn't going to be able to go right to sleep anyway after driving the whole time) and have Andrew sleep with me in our bed (it was just as cold, but at least we could snuggle). But, and this is a first, Andrew wanted to sleep in his own bed. Who doesn't after being gone for a while?

So, I warmed up my "heater buddy" (sewn together hand towel, stuffed with rice, that you warm in the microwave) and stuck it in bed with him. The boy is hooked. Every nap and bedtime, he wants my heater buddy. It's MY heater buddy. So, this week I hit the fabric shop and tonight I made both boys their own heater buddies. They even have soft, fleece, washable covers. Of course, they will not be receiving theirs until Christmas, so I will just have to sacrifice my heater buddy a little bit longer.

Andrew's is the Pistons print and AJ's has the puppy dogs.

Bop Bop Bop

We are settling in from our Thanksgiving trip. However, I am going on Day 2 of laryngitis. Even though I don't feel fabulous (mostly extra tired), I feel a lot better than I sound. I get barely above a whisper. I've been clapping to get the boys attention. However, since I don't have much energy, the boys have gotten to watch some Holiday TV today. They watched a Charlie Brown Christmas before dinner and now they are up past their bedtime watching Shrek the Halls. Marc had a meeting on the west side of the state until late, so it's just us tonight. I played hooky from our Young Adult Bible study, but I think Marc is going to try to make the last half hour.

Even if their mom has been a party pooper these last couple days, at least the boys are still burning some energy thanks to the Christmas present, the Bop Bag. In fact, the bag was such a hit, that it caused some unnessesary roughness between the boys. However, at Aldi's, they had a mini bop bag for $2.99. So now, they bop away. Actually their favorite game is to set them up next to each other and run through the middle.

Uncle Don

When we saw Grandpa Boehlje this past week, he told me that he checks my blog every day.

HI GRANDPA!!

He also mentioned that the more he looks at AJ the more he is reminded of his little brother, Don, when he was a boy. Of course, I was instantly curious and pestered until a picture was found. Here is Grandpa Boehlje and his little brother, Don.

Maybe that's where the blond hair comes from.

We are home...

We made it home around 2 AM this morning. Needless to say, today was a 'nothing' day. A little napping (ok, a lot of napping), a little cleaning, a little unpacking, a little laundry, etc... We did have dinner with some friends so the kids could run a bit, but that's about it.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. We decided to head west a day early and avoid the rush. I am thankful we did. This trip was the easiest one we've done yet, Praise God. The kids did well, the roads were clear (weather-wise and traffic-wise), we made good time all around, Marc wasn't tired, etc... Once we were at Marc's parents's house, we didn't do much. And I loved it. It was a full house the entire time, but it was also a lot of reading and watching movies and eating and lounging around. A perfect holiday.

I did get a book read while there. No Way Out But In by Belvah Golding. It's a Scripture-base fictional account of the Noah's family - specificially the wives. It was really interesting and drew me in more than I expected it to. I recommend it.

Ok, I will leave you with some pictures from this past trip. Enjoy, have a great week, and I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well.

The Annual Picture is here

His Presence, His Protection, His Counsel, His Glory

We are heading west today to spend Thanksgiving at their place. We are looking forward to it!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Psalms 73:23-24
Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

For that, I am thankful!

We've been Elf'd

Check it out.

-thanks Kristin.

It's Over.

As I write this, I am still wiping tears from my eyes. I just put off everything that I need to do, and finished the final Harry Potter book during nap time. WOW! I just want to sit here for a bit and soak it all up. Then I want to turn around and start the whole series over again, now that I know how it ends. Phew, I feel like I'm the one who just.... well, I shouldn't finish that sentence and give anything away... but I could go for a nap, if I thought I could sleep. Bravo, Rowling.

I need a house-elf!

We are having a nice dinner party at our house tonight and there are a MILLION things I need to do to get ready for it and yet and I can't stop reading HP!

Scrabble on crack.

Last night, after Bible Study, I was introduced to Speed Scrabble. There are few of the "young adult" ladies that love this game. One so much, that the girl even carries the Scrabble tiles around in her purse for impromptu games. And such was last night. After Bible Study a few of girls needed a place to kill time (since their house was currently holding a different Bible Study) and they wanted to play. So I offered for them to come over to our house if they would teach me. So five of us played Speed Scrabble and sipped hot chocolate downstairs in the toy room until midnight last night. We even tried to have themed rounds, such as holiday words or Titanic words. Which truthfully, at 11:30p, brains were making huge leaps connecting words to the Titanic. It was interesting...much better than the real thing.

AJ at 19mo

There are so many things that AJ is doing right now that I keep thinking,"I need to record that!". He is at such a funny and adorable age right now.

• He is talking all the time. Most of it is in his Ducka Dialect. With perfect tone and inflection he will carry on a conversation with you in ducka, ducka, duckas. Imagine the sentence, "Mom, I need another drink, please". Keep the tone and inflection, just replace each word with 'ducka' and you speak AJ.
  
• He is saying a few words in English. He knows "Mama" and "Dada". He knows "please" although he still does the sign with it and it comes out in a high sing-songy "peeee". (It really melts the heart to hear it). He knows "more" and no longer does the sign. He also knows "here you go" and "Thank you" (Although the latter sounds an awful lot like 'ducka', too.)
  
• He is giving kisses. He doesn't actually touch his lips to your face. He just gets close and goes "mmmmm-ah!" He also makes the same sound after we pray (he does fold his little hands- it's too cute) for Amen.
  
• He has an adorable dimple under his right eye when he smiles big. It's not new to him being 19 months - I just don't think I have ever recorded it before.
  
• He is showing his indepedence with food. Quite often he will turn down the food we offer at meal times. He will eat healthy alternatives, so I guess I can't complain too much. It's just the same 3-4 alternatives at every meal. Oh well.
  
• He adores his brother and mimics him all the time. It's really funny to watch.
  
• The kid loves being outdoors.
  
• I think he loves music even more. He is attracted to any music. From the radio, to a little jingle a toy makes. It could last 3 seconds, and his little behind is shaking and his head is bopping.
  
• He is a snuggler. He requires a good 15 minutes of wake-up snuggle in the morning and after naps, or he turns into a crank. And almost any other time, he is willing to give a snuggle-snuggle here and a snuggle-snuggle there. I love it!

I am sure I could go on and on and I might add to this list as I think of things.

I love you Baby AJ.

I can see it's all about me.

I know it's been a while. And I can't even say we've been too busy. Plenty busy, but not too busy. The biggest thing has been Marc has been under the weather. He is feeling a little better now, but for the last week, if he wasn't forcing himself through work, he was miserable on the couch. Which is sad for him, but (here is where I turn his misery into being all-about-me... watch my human, selfish nature in action) it meant that I was pretty much single mom for the week. So, I like I said, it was busy. Then, of course, I got my book from the library. So I have been stealing away minutes at a time just to find out what happens next.

We still made it to Bible Study Wednesday night. Thursday night, I had a friend/ex-coworker, who I hadn't seen in forever, over for dinner. She has a little girl about Andrew's age, so they had a ball rediscovering every single toy in the house. And on Friday night, Marc, in his feeble state, even took the kids to Burger King for dinner and put them down, so I could have a girl's night out.

Saturday late morning, my parents showed up for the weekend. The kids got all the attention they could have wanted and we got spoiled because Andrew would wake them up first in the morning. We had a nice time, albeit lazy. Other than making a few apple pies and meals, and hitting church on Sunday, we didn't do too much.

This morning, we had Noah and my folks left around noon. We even got outside a bit today for a walk and some playtime. I need to run and finish my Bibly Study for tomorrow morning.

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I got it today!

It came in today! The final Harry Potter book! So of course, I had to run right over to the library and pick it up. I am definitely going to start it tonight, despite the tons of the other stuff I need to get done. In a way, I am almost sad to be starting the last book. Weird.

On that same note...

Andrew has been asking about the word "Holy" lately - I think because it is several songs mention the word. So in the car today, I was describing, the best I could, the word "Holy". Like no other, the only one, no one like Him, etc... was how I was explaining "Holy".

Andrew then said, "I didn't remember that, I just remember, 'Holy Moly!'".

Music to His ears is...

...when my three year old goes around the house all evening saying,

"God is who He says He is".

He was even trying to teach it to AJ.

Reward

To reward exceptional behavior this past weekend at the Young Adult Retreat, last night we visited The Rat.

How in the world are we old enough to lead young adults?!

Pray for us this weekend. Tonight, when Marc gets off work, we are heading north to a camp for a young adult retreat... with the kids... through Sunday. We have a non-retreater who is going solely for the sake of watching our kids and the leader's kid. It should be a nice time. I am just hoping the kids do alright, as Marc and I will probably be busy and I am not sure there is a whole lot to do there for small children. I am not sure how the weather will be for them to get outside and burn energy. Plus, AJ hasn't been sleeping well (I think he is teething). It's one thing to wake up our own house, but I just don't want to wake a whole camp. :) I am really not worried about it, but extra prayer for good sleeping and well behaved boys would be appreciated this weekend.

And of course, you could pray for the retreat itself. That our God would totally show up and do amazing things in these young (and our older - gasp!) lives. He is Good!

So worth the ten bucks.

Andrew at 1.5, 2.5, and 3.5 years old.

I think we got our money's worth. And next year, AJ can wear it.
(Although who ever heard of a blond superman?)

GASP!!!

It is nap time and while I should be doing many other things, I just had to finish my book... FINALLY. It's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince".

And all I can say is, WHAT?!!!

I don't want to say more to anyone who might read it. I already have the final book on hold at the library, so hopefully - that will come real soon.

Rain vs. Sugar

We did it. Even in the rain. And the boys were troopers. Nothing like making them get a little wet so that we can sneak their candy after bedtime. Way to take one for the team, guys!

AJ in an adorable Tigger costume.

We met up with the Sischo's and went around their neighborhood. Camdyn was a pumpkin and Riley, a kangaroo.

Andrew and CJ - very good friends.

Daddy and AJ.

The Ace of Spades and Tigger.