Cookies and Snow

We got about a foot of snow this week. The boys had a good time "helping" Greg shovel - which means that they shovel for about 30 seconds and then play.

Sweet little face.

Ryan especially loves the snow. He spent a lot of time outside yesterday creating a sledding path and then swinging and sliding on his playset.

We also made gingerbread cookies this week. I really wasn't up to making and decorating Christmas cookies this year - but these were pretty easy and the boys liked decorating their own cookies.

Santa Claus 2011

Ryan and Luke are so excited about Christmas this year. Luke asked Santa for a stuffed animal snake (not sure why) and Ryan asked for a remote-controlled robot. Nana also made the boys advent calendars. They are designed to hold one Hershey's kiss per day. On the morning of Dec. 4, Ryan woke up early and ate his 20 remaining kisses for breakfast. The next day I discovered that he had eaten 7 of Luke's kisses, as well. Looking at this picture above really shows me how much they have grown up in the past year - I don't think they will fit on Santa's lap next year. Here are the Santa pictures from the last few years.

Waiting patiently for Santa. Actually, Greg waited patiently for Santa while the boys and I hung out at the Lego store.

We also went on our annual neighborhood hay ride a few weeks ago. It was really cold.

Poor Santa had already spent 3 hours on the hay ride before we got there - he looks really cold and tired at this point. It had snowed a lot the day before and I think it was only around 15 degrees that evening.

We stayed bundled up and warmed ourselves up afterwards with hot chocolate.


Lastly, a video of Ryan making his gingerbread house. He did a lot more eating than making. He has to be one of the most sweet-obsessed boys ever. I can understand that - I snuck a lot of candy and sugar when I was a kid, but I turned out ok.

November in Review

Busy month with little to no time to post. So here is a brief review.




The boys had their first science project at school. They had to determine how big their alligators would grow in water or in water with another substance. Ryan's alligator was in sugar water and Luke's was in apple juice. After 7 days, the apple juice had a thick layer of mold on top - it was very disgusting. Part of the project was forming a hypothesis, graphing the size of their alligators each day, and writing about the outcome. Ultimately, the alligator in water grows bigger than the alligator in another substance.


Ryan was Star of the Week during Thanksgiving. He got make a poster and then bring his class bear home with the bear's journal. Scruffy had an eventful week. He got to eat Thanksgiving dinner with us, ride the train downtown, and see the Lion King.

Me and the boys, plus Nana, Grandad, Uncle Todd, Aunt Conny, Jacob and Olivia went to see The Lion King the day after Thanksgiving. We had great seats and the boys loved it. We even got to take a picture with young Simba and Nala afterwards.

My whole family came this year for Thanksgiving and it was really great to have everyone together. The plan on Sunday was to go snow tubing in the mountains, but Ryan woke up in the middle of the night sick, so he and I stayed home while everyone else headed up. From what all the kids said, they had a blast.

Lastly, Nana made Gingerbread houses with all of the kids. They loved it and Conny and I loved that we didn't have to do ourselves.

Overall, November was a good, but busy month. Greg was gone almost every week, so the boys and I were in our normal strict schedule required survival mode. Thanksgiving was great, but exhausting (mainly because we all get sick at the end of the week). We're looking forward to having Christmas break and hanging out around the house.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween with the boys. On Friday, we met Jonny, Jenny and Tommy at Boo at the Zoo. The boys had a Halloween party at school on Monday, complete with a school-wide costume parade. And then we headed out Monday night to trick-or-treat around the neighborhood. I remember that our first Halloween here we made it to 3 houses. Last year, we barely made it around the block before Luke gave out. But this year, we could have gone all night if we had let them. Greg encouraged the boys to pick Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock - but it was a pretty easy sale. They initially wanted to be Anakin and Luke Skywalker, but they were fine with changing their minds - Ryan was especially excited about wearing Spock ears. I keep thinking that this will be the last year of the combo costume idea - but they have been fine with it the last 2 years - we'll see what next year brings.

Ryan and Luke with their jack o'lanterns - they drew the faces and then helped Greg carve them.

Hanging out with Tommy at boo at the Zoo.

Previous Halloween costumes:

2006

2007 - they were actually Darth Vader and Yoda but they were too wiggly at this age to get a picture of them together in their costumes.

2008

2009 - my all time favorite costumes.

2010

2011

First Snow, Pumpkin Patch and Football

We had our first snow of the year this week. It wasn't really that much snow, but it was heavy enough to knock our power out for almost 2 days. That wasn't really a lot of fun. I spent much of yesterday either throwing everything out of the refrigerator and freezer or under a couple of blankets reading a book. Fortunately, the boys had school and it is my Fall Break this week, so that was helpful to the situation. We spent the first night with Jonny and Jenny and I was prepared to rough it the 2nd night in hopes that the power would come on soon. I bundled the boys up in 2 layers of pj's, wool socks, and under 4 blankets in my bed for the night. But the power came back on at 8 pm - so that was a huge relief.

I also got the boys out this week to take their annual pumpkin patch picture. This one wasn't really in a pumpkin patch, it was in front of Whole Foods, but the display was nice and convenient.

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

I also finally got a picture of Greg and the boys in their Bronco gear. We've done this on opening day every year, but Greg was out of town for almost every game in September, so this was our first weekend to get around to it. Here are the past years' pictures. This weekend was also Greg's chance to watch his first football game downstairs in the basement. I must admit it is a really nice setup. I've watched a few movies down there this week, and the best part is that I couldn't hear the TV at all on Sunday while Greg was watching football.


Lastly, a super sweet picture of Luke with Teacher Bob.

Luke and Teacher Bob

This weekend is Luke's turn to take Teacher Bob the bear home for his Star of the Week project. He has to complete a journal of what Teacher Bob did with him this weekend, make a poster about himself, and put 5 things important to him in a mystery bag. After looking at the class journal of what Teacher Bob has done since school started, it looks like he has been to several soccer games. So we decided to do something a little different. We took the boys (and Teacher Bob) to Heritage Square this afternoon to ride the Alpine Slide.


Greg and Luke rode the lift to the top. Greg said Luke was a little scared, and he really didn't like it when Greg held Teacher Bob over the side of the lift.

Ryan and I rode up together - he wasn't the least bit nervous. It was pretty windy, so it wasn't the most pleasant ride up.

Here is me, Luke, and Teacher Bob at the top.

And here we are at the bottom - Luke loved it. We'll have to find one more something to do with Teacher Bob tomorrow.

Ryan sat down on this rock, posed and asked for his picture to be taken.

Silly boys.


Picture of the boys and Nana from her visit at the end of September.

Ryan and Luke are doing great. We've all been really busy with school and work, so there hasn't been time for much else lately. The boys are still loving school. We had their parent/teacher conference a couple of weeks ago and both of their teachers had nothing but good things to say about them. They are making huge strides with reading, Ryan's teacher said he is a great artist, and Luke's teacher said that math comes naturally to him. We couldn't be more pleased with their Kindergarten experience - we are most happy with how much fun they are having every day.

Nana Goes to School

Nana has been here this week helping me out some since Greg has been gone 4 out of the last 5 weeks. It has been nice having an extra set of hands around the house and getting the boys ready for school. She also spent one morning in each of the boys' classrooms.

The first day she went to Ryan's class. He was so excited to have her there. She got to help out with one of the learning centers. I did the same thing a couple of weeks ago - I think we both came to the same conclusion that Ryan and Luke are much better behaved than the majority of their classmates. They are both squirmy little boys, but they are good sweet boys (which we already know).

The next day she went to Luke's class. He loved it. There was a discussion in Ryan's class about what the class would call her - Nana, Ms. Nana or Mrs. Corbell. Ryan said he would call her Nana. Luke told her that he would call her Mrs. Corbell.

Nana stayed long enough to see the boys buy lunch. They take their lunch most of the time. But they always buy lunch on Thursdays because we have a late evening on Wednesdays due to karate and then eating out with friends (plus Thursday is pizza day, which is usually a safe bet).



On Sunday after we picked Nana up from the airport we went to the zoo. The boys loved the dippin' dots the best. I haven't taken them to the zoo since last summer. It was neat to see how much more interested they are now in learning and studying the animals. Ryan was especially interested in watching them for a long time.



My birthday was a couple of weeks ago and Greg took the boys to pick out their own presents for me. I often end of with some random stuff (like the time that Ryan bought me colored sanding sugar and Luke bought a bag of jelly beans) but it is a really sweet way to get presents from them. Greg did say that he had to steer them away from the costume jewelry.

Ryan picked out these lovely dangle-y purple earrings. He is so incredibly proud of them. He kept commenting that they are so beautiful and that they look great on me. I won't tell him that they really aren't my style - so I've put them on a few times when I've taken him to school and then picked him up after; he loves to see me wear them. I love how much he loves them and how proud he is of himself to pick out a birthday present for me.

Luke picked out a sweet silver bracelet with the serenity prayer on it. He liked it because it had words on it.

The boys are doing great in school. They love going every day and they are so excited to tell us all about their day afterwards. I'm glad that Nana got to experience some of it with them.