Ants and Cooties

Today turned into a game day for the boys. Ty and Jack got Ants in the Pants and Cooties for Christmas and we played them a lot today. The best part was that Ty was actually playing Ants in the Pants and flinging the little ants like a big guy. He got a huge kick out of watching those things fly. Cooties was a blast too. Jack was very proud of his "Crazy bug". It brought back memories of me playing that game at my Gram's house when I was younger. Jack does pretty well with board games. He's such an honest kid....if he cheats, he tells you before you can bust him. HAHAHAHA!
I look forward to many more game days!!!

Our Holidays in a Nutshell

We spent our holiday in PA this year. With our recent addition of a mini van it made the drive super comfortable, and we even had enough room to bring the dogs along. We got to PA on Thursday night and spent a week at home with our families. Our holiday was busy but so much fun! We started Christmas morning with my parents and brother, then headed to Tom's parents for the afternoon with his parents, brothers and grandmother and finished it off at my Grandparent's house with my huge extended family for the evening with our tradition of Dirty Bingo(Yankee Swap). It was really an amazing day.
The boys were beyond spoiled by our families. The attention they got alone was crazy. Jack definitely loved the spot light. It took Ty a while to warm up to everyone, but once he did, it was game on. Hahahah! The boys really don't know how lucky they are having so many people who love them. They essentially had 4 Christmases (we celebrated our own little Christmas when we got back to KY on New Year's Day). Our families went way beyond what they needed to do for the kids. I really hate being so far away because I wish family gatherings could happen more often in their everyday lives so it would be more common for them! Just seeing everyone on the holidays isn't enough! I miss stopping by my grandparent's house on a weekend when she makes her homemade pot pie or meeting my mom and aunts for lunch and shopping or going to my cousins sporting events or just seeing everyone more frequently and not having guilt when we run out of time and have to head back home. But enough about missing everyone, it goes without saying....

All in all we had a great holiday!!! I have over 600 pictures from our week at home. I'm not sure how to narrow them down so I'll do my best to pick out a few to post. But before you get to check out the pics I have to tell you about one of the greatest gifts we got this year and it was from Jack....he's POTTY TRAINED! YEAH!! We started potty training in March. That's right....March. I think we pushed him before he was ready and that's half of why it took 9 months, but by golly, he's got it now! When we got to KY I had to get the boys physicals to get registered for day care in case we'd ever use it. The pediatrician gave me great advice about potty training. See, Jack got #1 down pretty well months ago but #2 was a huge fight with crying and hissy fits of all kinds. He'd go once on the potty then we'd regress completely for weeks. So the Dr. told me to give him a prune at breakfast and by dinner he'd have to go. Do this every day with making him sit on the potty a few times a day just to get used to it. Well, with that advice and a special reward of these gummy strawberry things I found Jack is now pooping on the potty like a champ! We're so proud!! It's been a few weeks now, but I didn't want to jinx it by saying it out loud. :-) Even with traveling over the holidays he went at other people's houses and even at a Wendy's on the trip home! We don't even use the prunes now, he's got it! I assume that your first kiddo is always your guinea pig, right? Ty you're lucky, I have a few things we'll be doing differently when your time comes! Hopefully with less tears for all of us! :-) So......... YEAH for Jack!

Hope everyone out there had a great holiday too! Here's to 2011!!!

Jack got to open the first gift. It was a very special gift that Santa left at Oma and Pop Pop's because it wasn't going to be left at our house (ya know what I'm sayin'??).....a purple unicorn pillow pet. He's been asking for that thing for 2 months. He LOVES it!

Oma and the boys

Tom was REALLY excited about his coffee! Ty....not so much.

Pop Pop in his new fancy hat! Tom was jealous!

Tim demonstrating the straw glasses he got for the boys.

Building towers with Uncle Tim

Boobie and Jack tearing into a present.

Ty and Uncle Luke

Uncle Bruce was on battery duty.

Uncle Bruce and Ty

My extended family with a few missing...

Who doesn't love Mouse Trap?

Poor Lexie.....This gives a whole new meaning to the "I've got your nose" game.

Aunt Lisa bribing Ty with a jelly filled munchkin! He was pretending to be shy. A donut hole can cure anything for that kid! :-)

Back in KY, Santa left a few gifts that were from Oma and Pop Pop and Boobie and Umpa. This rocking horse was from Boobie's house. Ty LOVES it....

He loves it so much he did NOT want to share with Jack.

Ty demonstrating "Safety First"!

The boys discussing what they should grill first on their new kitchen.

A cement mixer and dump truck....I'd say he loved them!

A ride on loader.....like I said, the toys are growing just like the kids....we need a bigger house! :-)

Entertainment

We discovered a new activity in our house this weekend. It's great for wearing out the boys (young and old-er) and also cleaning my floors. Of course this was Tom's idea, and the boys loved every minute of it.

(please excuse the disgusting 3yr old with a whole slice of Italian bread shoved in his mouth....he must be raised by wolves!)

I HEART Chick-Fil-A!!!

This past week was a weird one! We had some crazy weather. No snow....just ice. I've never heard of freezing fog before but we had it yesterday. hahaha! We got about 1/4" to 1/2" of ice that is still coating everything outside. The temperatures haven't gotten above 29 for the past 4 days so it's been chilly and slick to say the least. Before the crazy ice this week we woke up to our power going out at 6:30 am Tuesday morning. It kicked back on after a few seconds but it did that about 8 times before lunch that day. At 10am we lost power for over an hour. Along with our flickering power we lost all service from Comcast for 2 days. No phone, internet or TV..... Bummer! With the temperatures being too cold to play outside and all of our crafts exhausted I decided it was time for a play place outing. We have a Chick-Fil-A with a play place in E-town. This is very exciting to me because Chick-fil-a is yummy. I believe everything should be dipped in their Polynesian sauce! But back to why I really love them..... The workers there are amazingly nice and helpful! They actually have floating workers that just walk around and take your tray when you're done, offer to get you refills on your drinks and even ketchup. This is amazing. See, it was just me and the 2 boys. Now, I've gotten pretty good at the 2 baby juggle. There's many creative ways to get through shopping, eating lunch or a doctors appointment with 2 very mobile boys who want to go, go go!! However, The woman who took our order asked if I wanted help, I said, "That's OK, but thank you". I've never had someone ask me if I wanted help carrying a tray at a restaurant. She didn't listen to me and actually carried our tray to a table for us, got us straws, napkins and ketchup along with a high chair! How NICE!!! I LOVE CHIK-FIL-A!!! Not only do they have Polynesian sauce, and a play place, but the people who work there are helpful, while being NICE and Friendly, and more importantly, accepting of a mom with 2 boys! Thank you Chick-Fil-A!!!! We'll be back!!!


Ty was a big fan of the little man area of the play place.


The loungey way to slide.


It only took Ty one time to learn the lesson of NOT standing at the bottom of the slide...

Cooooookies!

The weather wasn't supposed to be so great this weekend. Last week we had freezing temperatures (Beth I know you experience what "freezing" really means up there in AK, so ignore me) and then they were calling for 1-3 inches of snow over Saturday and Sunday. We love the snow so we were ready. The boys have coats, boots, hats, mittens, a sled and an innertube..... we were ready to go. Also I thought ahead (this really doesn't happen often) and I decided to stock up on our cookie dough so we could bake and decorate our cookies this weekend. Well, the snow didn't really happen like they predicted. We did get over an inch but the wind is so crazy that it's just blown all over the place and it really only snowed last night. So my plans for a snowy weekend of snowman building and sleigh riding was a bust but we still managed to knock out some cookies. Since I denied Ty the experience of working with colored sugar crystals, due to his glitter glue fiasco, he got to enjoy a lollipop with Tom while Jack and I worked or better termed...made a huge mess. Hahha!



The infamous McMurtrie, I'm getting my picture taken, face.

He's one gross kid!

Glitter Glue...

....Oh how I loathe you!!!

Pre-dinner time is always craziness in this house. Entertaining 2 whack-a-dos while cooking dinner before Tom gets home is a BLAST (sarcasm!!!) Hahahah! Tonight I decided to make Jager Schnitzel because I was feeling special, like I could pull it off. Silly me! So while I was prepping I set out a bag of crayons, markers, stamps (all washable) and paper for the boys and let them have at it, at the dining room table. This is all of 10 feet away from where I was cooking. Jack was working with the stamps and Ty was all over the crayons happily being artsy, then I looked away. See....you can't ever look away....EVER! Especially with TY! That kid has tiny devil horns sprouting I swear! He found the glitter glue sticks that I seemed to have forgotten were in the stinkin' bag. Glitter Glue!!! Really? Oh yes! In a matter of seconds he squirted it all over the floor, rubbed it on the table, on his face and all over his clothes. And being the mother of this whack-a-do, the first thing I did was laugh and get my camera! Then, while barefoot (that's right barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen), I stepped in a puddle of glitter glue and I immediately stopped laughing!

These pictures really don't do the glitter justice. It was everywhere!




After I stripped him down and hosed off all the glitter the conga line started. Ty held on to the back of Jack and they ran around the house giggling hysterically while I over cooked dinner. :-)

O Tannenbaum

We are all decorated for Christmas. Last weekend we did the outside lights which I'm thankful for because it took Tom and I the whole 2 hours the boys were napping last Sunday afternoon. Plus it was a lot warmer last weekend than this weekend.


Oh yes....that is an inflatable yard decoration! It's an RV with a Santa that pops out of the door! The kids LOVE it! Hahahahah! Don't judge us!


Then this weekend we did the inside decorations which included the tree. Since we're heading to PA for the holidays we went with what is becoming our little unwanted tradition. The fake, bought at the scary German Wal-Mart, Christmas tree. Oh, how I loathe this thing! I really really LOVE real trees. But with going home we put up the fake one, then we don't have to worry about getting rid of it before we travel or not and waiting for it to shed off all of it's needles while we were away. This tree is so lame! It leans and wobbles, has a missing branch and you can see through it. hahahah! For how much I dislike this tree it has been used for 6 of our 7 married Christmases together. I'm sure most of my friends in the military are in the same boat and can relate. Being so far away from family all year round, we usually spend Christmas somewhere other than our own homes. I'll take a huge family holiday over having a real tree any year. Anyway, we are all decorated and the house looks pretty good. The boys did a great job helping with the tree as you can see....