Placemats

I'm so excited about the boys new placemats i did tonight.  (it doesn't take much when you're a stay-at-home mom:) 

It took me 2 1/2 hours.  A lot of that time was invested in watching youtube videos on how to draw a police car, fire truck, and school bus!  I'm not known around here as a good drawer, i bet the boys will wake up tomorrow and think daddy did this. 

I let them pick what they wanted me to make, but gave them the theme.  (we had fruit before and it was looking rough, right Mare?) I asked the boys what verse i should put on their new placemats.  Ben responded with "the Lord is my Shepherd, i shall not want".  Wow Ben.  I wasn't expecting an answer at all, let alone such a good one! 

Hoping to get a good year out of these!

We needed today...

....ok, I NEEDED TODAY!  A day outside!  It was only 45 degrees, but the wind was less then the usual 30 miles per hour (ha) and the sun came out...and stayed out!  So it really felt like tanning weather :) 

This winter seems to be dragging, i despise being indoors for hours and days on end.  But i'd rather not be outside in freezing temps with the previously mentioned 30 mile per hour wind.  So praise God for a day like today.  I think this will hold me over now and I can stop begging Rod to let me go to Florida for a few days.

We spent lots of time down by the creek, picking up sticks and trimming the pussy willow bush...and potty training Clay. 

Ben and Brad weren't much help trimming the pussy willow bush but they sure did enjoy sticking them up their nose! 

Soon as Adam got home we got a fire going to surprise daddy, and hung out till dark.  These boys love playing around with fire.  Not sure i should be proud of that!

Rod put the snowmobile away tonight, so now we can officially move past the snow and get on with spring. 

The domestic side

Usually you'll see the boys doing boy things;  trucks, legos, making mud, throwing ball, making toy guns, tackling each other, etc.  But they can also expand their horizons by exploring other things.  Like giving me a hand in the kitchen.  They take turns being 'kitchen helper' and seem to like when it's their name they see on the board for kitchen helper.   The twins have also recently finished up their 6 week class of sewing lessons.  Of course everything they sewed was camo, but they showed an interest in learning something new.  Ben was proud to show me a picture he took of grandma's sewing machine and telling me what each part of the machine was for.  They like knowing that there is something they can do that mommy can't.
So here's some pictures (and video) of them doing some not-so-typical boy things....

Brad sewing something camo:

Ben:

Cute video of Clay mixing up the pancake batter for Saturday morning breakfast:

The goal is for their future wives to be so grateful to us for raising such well rounded boys :) What should we teach them next?  :)

Train ride

Saturday morning we informed the boys we're taking a train to philly to pick up a car for daddy.  They were excited and each packed their backpack.  It was fun to experience this with them, since it was my first train ride too!  (other then strasburg railroad :) 

Adam was afraid we'd miss the train.  So we got there 20 minutes early.

Here he comes!

The ride was about 1 hour and 10 minutes with several stops.

Clay wanted a picture of him picking his nose.  

Right outside the car dealership, giving a police statue a high five!

the vehicle didn't work out, so we rode home on the train also!

valentine's

my valentines day started at 6:30, due to some little boy excitment over valentines day.  they get more excited over v-day then christmas i'm pretty sure.  it's all the little valentine cards they exchange at school that gets them, i think.  we made ours on tuesday.  all 60 of 'em.  i didn't get much else done that day. 

the twins did these cute little fish bowls.  the ones for school friends said "Glad were in the same school".  family ones said "i saw you and i was hooked".  i thought they were cute, those are swedish fish swimming at the bottom.

adam's class was allowed no food items of any kind, so we went with super balls instead...

 

Clay, Grandma, Brad, and I did some cookies to give away .   Seems like we are eating most of them...I felt like Clay had lots of hands that day.

 

 

And we enjoyed a family dinner of heart-shaped goodies...pizza, pepperoni, and carrots.  and a pink punch to go with. 

 

We also enjoyed looking up love scriptures, that describe God's love for us.  We make the holiday God-centered since God is Love.  Even though the holiday is way over commercialized, it's one our family likes and what's not to love about making special memories and traditions!

coming around

we are on the mend here after a week of strep throat (me) and very bad ear infections from 2 of the boys.  and coughing for everyone.  and fevers for half.  it's weird how when you're in the midst of that, there is a point where you really begin to wonder if we will all ever get better.  as if God forgets us in the storm.  That's something i want to improve on; truly believing God is faithful during the hard times.  Not after the fact.  It's easy to believe then. 
This week starts with undoing some things Clay did while i was down.  He expressed some creativity in the laundry room the other day.  We will find out if our beloved Magic Erasers take off Sharpie from walls. 
I'm sure he did this to get attention.  But joke is on him.  I didn't even notice it till long after he forgot he even did it. 

Today we were able to take a nice hour walk through the railroad bed trail.  Felt so good to be outside.  The boys enjoyed looking for old animal skulls and carcasses of dead animals :)

  On a yummier note, I shared with our girls group at church how to make fruit bouquets.  They did a great job and it was so fun putting together something so pretty and cheery.  I love these.

To close our week's summary, i have to share what Ben wrote down yesterday:  Mom + Dad = Clay.  haha isn't that cute?  We've been going over adding a lot lately, so i guess this is taking math facts to another level :)

waiting

too cute not to post!  clay just sitting on the snowmobile waiting for snow.  ok so he didn't actually stay there very long, but as a whole our family is waiting for a good snow!

we keep this in the yard as a sign of our waiting :)  we aren't holding our breath but we shall see what this month holds.