It's Beginning to Look A lot Like Christmas....

We have finally finished decorating for Christmas. This is my favorite time of the year and I love how my house looks all decorated.

Daniel wanted to help out with lights this year. 

Safety first

Each year we let the boys pick out an ornament. We headed out to Hallmark to see what they would choose. 

Josh chose a Green Bay Packers Clay Mathews ornament in honor of going to the Packer/Broncos game. 

Daniel chose a trailer in honor of sleeping in Grandma and Grandpa's trailer at the Linden reunion.

Patrick chose an Iron Man in honor of his Halloween costume. 

Then we picked up some hot chocolate and came home to decorate the tree. 

Here are some photos of the rest of the house. 

How cute are these stocking holders I made out of ornaments?

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Thanksgiving

We headed out to Des Moines this year for Thanksgiving with the Weldons. We started our trip after school on Tuesday and stopped at a hotel about halfway. The boys always love hotel sleeping. It must be fun sleeping in someone else's bed, I guess. After a good sleep for everyone, we headed back onto the road to Grandma and Grandpa's house. The boys were excited to see their cousins and get some quality dress-up time in. It's always a highlight on trips to the Weldons.

It was a nice visit with good food and great company.

Teeny, tiny wine glasses. We didn't want to over do it.

One highlight of my trip was eating INSIDE the new B-Bops right by the Weldon's house. It was very exciting!

I didn't take a lot of pictures (obviously) so hopefully I can get some copies from family. 

Thanks for the nice visit, Weldons!

It was a great trip but didn't end so well. The trip home went fine but when we walked into the house it was freezing. Literally. The thermostat read 39 degrees!!! Luckily it was an easy fix. We changed the batteries in the thermostat and the heater kicked on. (I guess next time I notice the thermostat flashing "low battery", I will remember to have Joe change it. Oops!) We dressed the boys in their warmest pajamas and covered them with lots of blankets for the night. It took a long time to heat up but it has been working ever since. I won't make that mistake again. 

Daniel's outfit

The boys are generally really good at getting themselves ready in the morning before school. Which helps me out since I am not a morning person and it takes me a long time to get going (or worse if someone wakes me up). 

Well, this morning, this is what Daniel had picked out to wear, to school. 

He's mad in this picture because I told him he had to change. I know, he looks cute, but it's for school, on PE day. I like this outfit. I want to keep it that way. I told him he could wear it to his Holiday party next month. 

PJ Day

Today was PJ day at school. The boys have matching pajamas and wanted to dress alike. I thought it was cute so I made them take a picture. It is not everyday that Josh will let Daniel do things with him.

Of course, Patrick wanted in on the picture as well. He doesn't have matching pajamas but he is pretty excited about his "new" robot pajamas. I have switched out his clothes to 4t so all his clothes are new to him. I'm glad he is excited about it. He will be getting lots of hand me downs in the future. 

Snow Day

Tuesday also happened to be a snow day for the boys. We had a total of 10 inches of snow in the morning so the boys were thrilled. They spent a lot of time in the morning playing outside in the snow. 

They tried to build a snowman, but Patrick thought it would be more fun to knock it down. It's a good thing he is cute. 

Josh spent almost the entire day outside, including shoveling the driveway. Have I mentioned how awesome it is when they get older. 

The snow melted enough in the afternoon that Daniel's birthday dinner was still possible. I think the boys enjoyed their day off. We'll see how many more they get this year. 

Daniel's 7th Birthday

Today our middle boy turns 7! Wow! Time is going by so fast. He requested lemon blueberry pancakes in bed for breakfast (although he couldn't wait in bed long enough to get his breakfast so it's really breakfast in his room). I had also bought doughnuts for breakfast tomorrow but they all insisted they eat those as well. Can you say sugar high? I would have been fine if I could then send them off to school, but it ended up being a snow day (more on that later). 

He got to open up some presents that have been taunting him from the table because Mom is mean and won't let him open gifts early. He was very excited with everything he got. 

He likes to wear his Halloween costume almost every day and made himself a super hero mask out of paper and tape. What can I say? He's our creative child. 

Dad surprised everyone and brought home McDonalds for lunch, Daniel's favorite. Plus, we don't get to have lunch with Dad very often during the week. It was quite the treat.

For dinner, Daniel "chose" The Melting Pot. I say "chose" because I suggested it and described it to him since he had never been there and he thought it sounds fun. They host a kids night on Tuesdays so it worked out well for us. They also have a magician that walks around to each table. He knew it was Daniel's birthday and had him help him out with a card trick. It was a pretty neat trick and Daniel was blown away. He had to write his name on a card so he got to keep it. 

The Weldons were able to join us for dinner. 

I think all the boys really enjoyed it. They ate all of their food. I guess it is more fun when you get to cook it yourself. 

He requested a red car for his birthday cake and was a little disappointed when he found out it was a 3D car. High standards. 

He was still excited about his cake. 

We received a coupon from Coldstone for a free ice cream for his birthday so later in the week we made a trip out for ice cream. The boys loved it!

Happy Birthday Big Guy! We can't wait to see what happens in the next year.

Tackle Football Super Bowl

This year we let Josh move from flag football to tackle football. A lot of his friends and teammates were also making the transition so we thought it would be a good time to go. So we joined the team Warriors Steel.

The season starts much earlier (in June) with conditioning and summer practice. 

Josh ended up playing left cornerback the entire season. He really enjoyed it. It's a good position for him because he is good at reading the plays. And it's good for me because he is the one doing the tackling, not getting tackled. 

The season started in August with games every Saturday. Their team started off slow (0-3) and then never looked back. 

They ended the season 8-3 and earned a spot in the playoffs. They were the 3rd seed (only 4 teams made the playoffs). Their first game was again the 2nd seed. They had played them for their first game of the season and that game went into overtime so we knew this was going to be a hard fought game. It lived up to expectations with Warriors Steel winning 12-8. 

Then it was onto the Super Bowl.  The league likes to make a big deal of this game. They play the National Anthem before the game and announce all the players. It's pretty fun for the kids. 

The Warriors had played this team tough the first time they met so we figured it would be another good one. We were up 13-12 going into the fourth quarter but ended up short with a few late touchdowns by the other team and ended up losing 13-26. It was a great game and I think the kids all had fun.

They still got their second place trophies, which was fun. 

My favorite player!

It was a great season, Josh. We can't wait to see what you can do in the future.

Our Little Artist

Daniel has always been very creative. He loves to draw and design anything and everything. He can sit and draw for hours. Its fun to see. One day he brought home and note from his school art teacher letting us know one of Daniel's drawings was going to be on display in the library. We were very proud of him. I kept meaning to go into the school to see his art but kept forgetting. Then we got a reminder from school saying the exhibit was closing soon. That's when I noticed the exhibit was actually at the public library and not the school library. Woah!

So Saturday morning we got the family together and headed over the library to see Daniel's art on display. 

We are so proud of you, buddy!

Packers/Broncos Game

A big reason for the visit from Grandma and Grandpa Strutt was the big game. Packers vs Broncos. Two undefeated teams. The hype all week was big. 

We went down before the game for some tailgating. The fans were pretty well split for each team. It was a fun atmosphere. 

Then we made our way into the game. It was loud. Daniel was pretty excited. 

He had made a sign for the Packers. 

While the outcome wasn't ideal for most of us (notice the costume change on Joe), it was still a fun time. And we get to say we have seen Aaron Rogers and Peyton Manning play live. That's pretty cool to say. 

Hopefully both teams will have a great season and we'll see a rematch in the Super Bowl.