Playing with Perry

Will has really been enjoying the stuffed Perry the Platypus we got him for Christmas.  The ironic part is that it was his cheapest gift!  We found it on Craigslist for $2!!  This is really the first time I've seen him give a stuffed animal a personality and actually play with it.  He got his own spot in Will's bed, he told Will about all the things he likes (which incidentally are the same things Will likes), and Will tried to confiscate the dogs' new bed because it was the perfect size for Perry!

Here Will was letting Perry play Cut the Rope on our new Kindle!

 

More Snow!

We got even more snow on top of the snow we already had!  It turned out to be about 12 inches all together!  Will tried to use the brick maker Uncle Tommy got him but the snow was too powdery.  Instead he dug into the mound of snow by the driveway and made a house.

Will relaxing on the snow sofa he made in his house.

He also tried out the new spinner big wheel he got for Christmas but with all the snow that didn't work well.

Snow Tubing!

We enjoyed a white Christmas at home this year and after opening gifts we all went snow tubing.  We have the perfect hill at the entrance to our neighborhood.  Check out the video clip to see what Will has that every kid wishes for!

 

Jerry pulled Will until he got tired...

Then I took my turn  : )

 

Christmas Part 4

We had our Christmas morning together on the 27th.  Will slept until 8:30 (thankfully!) and then chose to open presents before breakfast, of course!  : )

Will chose to open his largest present first

Presents...

More presents...

And even more presents...

Too many presents maybe??

Finally stocking time!

And there's still more in there!

Who knew you could trash a living room so quickly!!

Rewind to when we first got up.  Napoleon obviously remembered Christmas from years
past and sniffed around until he found his pile of gifts.  Once he found them, he never
left them!!  Look back through all the pictures above and see where
Napoleon is standing, then sitting, and finally laying!!

Finally it was his turn to open his presents!  He and Josie got toys,
treats, and a new bed.  I gave them each one treat and then
Napoleon spent another hour standing by the bag on the table
hoping for more!!  He gets an "A" for persistence (but not another treat!)

I have to add a note about Will and the train.  Not a train he got for Christmas, but the train he wanted for Christmas.  For quite some time he has been asking for a train like Grandad's but we don't want to get him one because we like the one at Grandad's house being special.  After we opened gifts, Jerry commented that he thought Santa would get him a new Wii game but he wasn't expecting the specific one he got.  Then Will said, "I thought Santa would bring me a train."  And that was all he said.  No crying or complaining, just an observation.  That broke my heart on one level because of course you want your child to have the thing they want most for Christmas.  But it made me so proud of him for being thankful for the gifts he did receive and not dwelling on what he doesn't have.  He really is good at seeing what we should be thankful for!

Adventure Driving on Our Way Home

We left Grandma's house on the 26th to drive back home and it turned out to be quite an adventurous ride.  We drove through snow, sleet, and rain the whole way.  A trip that normally takes less than 5 hours took us almost 10 hours!!  The ironic part is that we never came to a standstill on the road - we just went REALLY slow the whole way.  It turned out to be the best strategy though because we made it all the way home without any incident.

Unfortunately, many other drivers didn't share our strategy and therefore didn't share in our success.

These were just a few of the cars we saw that slid off the road.  We lost count but estimate that it was at least 30.  The white tractor trailer in the top, right corner passed us going to fast and then tried to get back in the right lane.  We watched him start sliding and then jack-knife across the road before coming to rest in the ditch.  At that point we wished we had not attempted to drive but we didn't want to cross North Mountain going west so we decided to just keep going slowly unless it got any worse.

Thankfully we had let Will open one of his presents from us before we left for Grandma's house so he had Magic School Bus DVDs to entertain him the whole way!  He never complained until we turned into our neighborhood and at that point he decided he'd had enough!  : )

We are thankful to God for our safe journey home.  We were tired but safe, and by the next day we were glad we made the trip and were able to have our Christmas morning together.

 

Christmas Part 3

Christmas evening we went to Grandma Margie's house for dinner and more presents!

Will was particularly hungry - he was in line for food while Mom and
Tom were still setting the table!

Before we opened presents, Grandma Margie read the Christmas story.

 

Christmas Part 2

Christmas afternoon we went to Grandad's house for more presents and playing with the train, which Will has looked forward to all year!

Grandad was pleased with his "fish certificate"!

Christmas Part 1

We drove to Grandma's house Sunday to enjoy Christmas with our family.  We had such a nice visit with everyone this year!  It was peaceful and so enjoyable!

First, we enjoyed breakfast then presents at Grandma's house Christmas day.

 

Trying out his new roller skates

 

Giving Grandma and Aunt Krissy the cinnamon ornaments and
salt dough decorations he made

On the left is salt doung baby Jesus in a manger and on the right is
a snowman he decided to make from the dough we used for the cinnamon ornaments!
For obvious reasons, the hilarious part was when he told Krissy to smell the snowman!

Christmas Cards

This year I vowed to avoid the last minute stress of Christmas by shopping and wrapping early.  I accomplished that but neglected to plan for Christmas cards so those were the last miute rush this year.  We took the photo one day, ordered the cards the next, they arrived in the mail two days later (way to go Shutterfly!!), and I mailed them out the next morning!  I even think most of them should have reached thier destination by Christmas!  : )

 

Making Christmas Presents

We made chocolate dipped honey wheat pretzels for aunts and uncles for Christmas.  Will had fun dipping and decorating them.

Grandad's Fish

Spoiler Alert:  If you are Grandad Nelson don't read any further until after Christmas!




Since you aren't Grandad you can enjoy seeing Will's craft now.  I was so proud of this I couldn't wait until after Christmas to post it.  We are giving Grandad a fishing trip for Christmas so I had Will make a "fish certificate" to wrap up for him.  (Shhhhh!!  Don't tell!)

Will drew the fish, cut it out, and decorated it all by himself.  If you know Will
and crafts you know how surprising this is!!  I was so proud of his persistence!
I love the end result - it looks like a flounder!

Thousand Steps

Will really needed to get out of the house today and he suggested going on a hike.  It was a little warmer today than it has been so we decided to go to Thousand Steps.

Jerry had the idea to take a picture of each numbered step - but we missed one!

We took the dogs along too and they walked all the way up
and half the way down before we started carrying them!
My big little adventure dogs!

Doesn't he look like he just owns the trail?

Will was so excited to be there that he readily posed for pictures!

Will led the way and set the pace - fast.  We were to the top in
just under 40 minutes!  He and Napoleon could have
gone faster if they didn't have to stop for Jerry and me!  It was funny to
watch Napoleon and Will vie for who was the "leader" out front.

 At the top is an old rock structure left from the quarrying activities in the past.

It's too bad the building was covered with so much graffiti.

A view from the top.

We did NOT add this graffiti - we just took advantage of it for a photo!

Will found a woolly worm!

By the time we reached the bottom we were all tired, even Will.  It was funny because suddenly the hike was no longer his idea that we were nice enough to go along with, instead he told us he deserved a treat when he got to the bottom - like buying a new car!  As it turned out sitting down in the car was the only treat he needed.  : )

A Birthday Party for Jesus

Last week at preschool the assignment for show and tell was to bring in a picture of your family at Christmas.  Will and I sat down in advance and looked through last year's pictures so he could decide which one he wanted to show.  He couldn't decide on just one and ended up taking one of himself with Kristen, one of Napoleon guarding his Christmas chew toy, and one taken during the birthday party for Jesus we had last year with Natalee and Brady.  I thought it was interesting that he didn't choose any of the pictures of opening presents.  I hope family and friends will always be his "favorites" over the presents at Christmas!

Natalee attends the same preschool but on a different day, and it turned out that she also chose a picture of the birthday party to bring in.  They all obviously enjoyed it so we did it again this year. 

Step 1:  Ice the cupcakes.

Step 2:  Sprinkles!

Step 3:  MORE sprinkles!

Step 4:  Clean-up!

Step 5:  Eat pigs-in-a-blanket and fruit on a picnic blanket by the
Christmas tree.

Step 6:  Pause for a group photo.  Lindsay and I are always behind
the camera and seldom in any pictures.

Step 7:  Sing Happy Birthday!
(You can't see it very well here, but this year we had a number 8 candle.  Last year it was a
number 3.  Will's preschool teacher asked if the 3 stood for anything and I admitted
it was the only candle we could dig out at the last minute.  This year our number 8
does stand for a tradition:  digging out a candle at the last minute!!)

Step 8:  The best part - eating cupcakes!! 
(Don't worry Amie - you can have one next year!)