Finally some snow

I know our family back in Kansas is getting quite tired of all the white stuff coming down but we were thankful for snow last week here after a pretty mild winter.  And it was even warm enough to go out and play in it...not usually the case with our single-digit or below-zero temperatures!

So we took the 15 minutes that it takes to get bundled up and headed out to play.  And they LOVED it!  Ben had the most fun now that he's big enough to just run around and now fall down every few steps and Cooper was okay as long as he didn't have to walk too far.

We stayed out for a good 45 minutes before anyone got too cold.  Cooper's favorite activity was being pulled around in the disc sled and we have the perfect little "hill" in the front yard for sledding down.

After our fun in the snow, we headed inside to get warm again!  I worked on lunch - grilled cheese and tomato soup (a favorite from when I was little) and the boys worked on building a fort.  After lunch they chose a movie to watch together and decided I was "too big" to join them.  That was just fine with this me - I caught up on some reading!

Looking forward to many more snowy days with these boys!

One For the Grandparents

Grandparents - if you are reading this, I wanted to let you know that your insistence has paid off and I finally got around to adding more pictures on the Shutterfly site.  ( <-- Click here to go to the site!) Enjoy! 

And just so I don't have a post without a picture, here is one I posted on Facebook the other day of our most majestic new neighbor!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

My handsome boys! 

Words that make me pause

The other day I mentioned how nicely my boys can play together.  Then there are days when I think they are playing well together, only to realize one is tormenting the other.  So in light of this, I want to share things that I have overheard the last few days that make me stop whatever I am doing and check in on them:

- "Hey, come put your head in this. . . "

- "I promise I'll catch you"

- "Don't tell Mom I'm on the excercise machine"

- "Better put your helmet on so we can bang heads" (not endorsed by the NFL by the way!)

- "Hey Coop, do this" (this is an all . day . long . occurence around here)

- And the worst is actually not words but - SILENCE!!!  This is sometimes worse than words that they say!

And yes, most of these things are said by Big Brother to Little Brother, and I'm afraid that's how it is going to be for awhile!

And say hello to our newest family member - Aviva

Melt this mommy's heart

The day Cooper was born and the doctor uttered those infamous words "It's a Boy!" I remember crying. Happy tears of course because a) I had just a baby and my horomones were all over the place and b) all I could think was BROTHERS!!! My dream was that because they were close in age and most likely to both love cars that they wold be close. . . like best friends close!  And they haven't let me down:

They love playing together. . . and play nicely most the time.  Last week they built a rocket ship out of a box and have been astronauts together ever since.

And my favorite melt-my-heart moments come when they decide to read together and sit so quietly while looking through book after book without fighting. Ben is getting pretty close to reading so he just LOVES reading to Cooper whenever he will sit still long enough to let big bro try out his new skills!

And some of my other favorite moments lately are when the boys pretend to play bedtime and Ben puts Cooper "down to sleep. " Ben tucks Cooper in with his favorite bear, covers him up and then kisses him goodnight! 

Now if they would just stay this sweet forever . . .

Valentine's Preview

My boys are troopers.  When their mom gets it in her head that she wants to dress them up and take pictures, they are pretty good at playing along.  It usually helps if I bribe them a bit with Skittles if they cooperate and I'm okay with that!  Last week, we had an unusually "warm" (35 degrees) day here in northern Iowa so I quickly made a Valentine's banner and we went to our favorite spot to take some pictures.  Here is what Ben will be giving his friends at preschool along with some treats in a little baggie:

And would you believe I did not pay the $300 for Adobe photoshop software like I've always wanted?!  I used a site that my friend told me about and have absolutely fallen in love with it.  Picmonkey is my new go-to site if I want to dress up my photos just a bit with text or some different effects. I'm only slightly obsessed with it and will be using it from now on.

And if you're wondering if I took any pictures of Cooper that day, well, you'll just have to wait until Valentine's Day to find out!!!