Collapsed

This is what happens when you make Coop clean up. He just gives up....

The Return of the Egg

Good Idea: repainting the bathroom... Bad Idea: Painting the bathroom with the kids : ).  A few Saturdays ago Tucker decided to tackle some of our "to do" list and went to paint the bathroom. The kids were very excited about helping and begged and begged to do so. Tucker decided to put them in "eggs" which are what he called wearing your dad's big shirt as a kid. I guess the name comes from how you can pull your legs up inside and look like an egg. Anyhow, the kids loved it. It all went pretty poorly form the moment the paint can opened. It became disastrous when Cooper knocked over the whole paint can on the floor!  Luckily, we came through pretty much unscathed. It was too crazy and not funny at the time to take any pictures of the spill... but just imagine blue paint everywhere!

The kids in their "eggs" very excited to start painting. When Cooper put his egg on he exclaimed "I an angel!"

This was one of the brief moments they were actually painting where they were supposed to. Cooper seemed to want to paint the laundry chute blue more than anything.

Awhile back we could not find Cooper anywhere. Lo and behold, he had gone to play under Jill's bed (one of his favorite hideouts) and had fallen asleep.

Cooper's talking has really taken off lately. He surprises me everyday with the things he says. He is pretty hilarious. One of my favorites is that he calls "Ninja turtles" "Turtle Engines."  Everything is a train to him : ).

Jill turned 5

In lieu of a party this year we kept things simple and went to dinner at chuckie cheese. The kids had a blast!
Jill ran around like a maniac and she especially loved doing dances with Chuck E. Cheese the mouse. I could barely drag Cooper away from this little train toy that had Barney on it.
Also I was the parent helper at her preschool on her birthday and we brought in cupcakes. She ate up all the attention and her "feeling" that she shared at school was "excited".
Cooper wanted to be right in the thick of things. Jill was nice enough to share lots with him.

Speaking of birthdays... Jill made this sign that reads "Happy Birthday Andy" for him before he was born and put it up on our wall with Christmas stickers. Pretty cool big sister.

odds and ends

It dawned on me as we headed home from Chicago at Christmas that we would not be doing this drive many more times. I decided to document one of our favorite marks along the way- the "sears" tower

We stopped at McDonalds for dinner and Jill surprised me by making me this gift. Maybe she does love me after all : )

Cooper has had some trouble with all the variability in his schedule. He put himself down for a few naps after we got home. Pretty sweet.

A pic of Andy just because he's the baby.

We have some choo choo obsession going on around here. The kids line up all their toys into trains. Cooper somehow expects me to ride on this with them.

Cooper enjoys carrying every stuffed animal we own all over the house with him. Often he has to use my laundry basket to manage all of them.

Snow Snow Snow

Tuck and the big kids attempted to build a snowman 

It kind of dissolved into a snowball fight and snow angels

Cooper seemed to target the car

Christmas Program

Annual Nativity narrated by Gus. Jill is Mary and Cooper was an irreverent Joseph.

Simon had a dual role of shepherd and wise man.

I am having trouble loading the video of the kids singing. I will have to try again later.

Little Snorty

I have a very snugly baby. He is always making little grunts, snorts, and other assorted baby noises.
In other good news Tuck passed the last part of his written boards. They even gave him a certificate of "satisfactory attainment." Now he just needs patients for practical boards.

Christmas

Santa came!

Jill kept talking about how she just could not believe Santa did not bring her coal.

Andy checking out the tiger Santa brought him

Gus built them this awesome play area 

Trying the scooter out.

Cooper just preferred to carry his scooter.

Christmas Eve

The kids before going on a walk to see Christmas lights. Cooper was real excited because someone had a display of Santa's sleigh in their yard.

They like to "help" you with your presents

It took us a while to get Cooper to quit gushing about this Thomas tent and move on to his next present. It was all so exciting.

Jill in her awesome headband that Morgan made for her. 

Jake 

Gus read them his Rudolph story from when he was a kid

Sprinkling reindeer food.  I had trouble getting my flash to work here so not many good pics of this

Watching movies!