Happy Birthday Anna!!

This year for Anna's bday we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. We had started a new ticket system at our house and one of the 'rewards' is a trip to CEC. The kids needed to earned 300 tickets to get to go. I ended up being a bit of a pushover though -- Gabe had 225 and Anna had 115 so we just added them together. The extra tickets were how many tokens they got once we were there. So, yes, even though it was the weekend of her bday, we did make them "work" fot it. We ended up taking them on a Saturday at noon, and that will NEVER happen again! We learned our lesson. It was so busy they had to seat us. But, they did have a wonderful time and we all learned a lesson in patience and waiting our turn.

Since we were over there, we did a little shopping, but nothing major. It was more about having fun than running from store to store. I did manage to talk them into going to the mall though. =) I found some awesome clearance deals on clothes for Gabe for next year though. And, of course, the kids got to play at the play area so all was wonderful again!

On her actual bday, the 26th, we had cupcakes and presents. She was able to take cupcakes to school on Tuesday to celebrate. Apparently she was so excited that they sang "Happy Birthday" to her.

In case you were wondering, my birthday was great also. Doug was able to take me out on a date again this year. We went out to eat (ALONE) and saw a movie. It was a good night, but very, very cold. We saw "Gran Tourino" with Clint Eastwood. The movie was good and had a good story line, but the language was horrible. I know that they had to have some bad language to fit into the movie, but I thought it was a little over the top. Now, keep in mind, we don't generally use bad language in our house, so I may be overly sensitive. We took the Saturn that night because it was just the two of us. I have had that poor little car for over 11 yrs now and it has seen better days. (But it still runs great!!) Well, after the movie I wanted ice cream -- crazy because it was -6 out. When we got in the car my seat belt wouldn't work. So, we went to Culvers and let the car run a bit to warm up, but it still wouldn't come loose. We had to move the one car seat to the front seat so I could sit in the back and properly use the seat belt. So, I had my own little chauffeur for my bday....my friend said I was the "birthday princess." hahah

All 4 Front Teeth Gone!!

Due to what Doug calls a "New Years Day Debacle", Gabriel is now missing all four of his front teeth. Are you wondering why the weird name for this next milestone in our son's life?

Well, let's back up a couple days to 12-30-08. Gabe has lost his two bottom teeth, and the two top teeth are getting really wiggly. I was out grocery shopping so we would have food for our visitors. I called Doug at one point to ask about chili sauce and beans. (We were having chili and Doug is the chili maker. I couldn't understand what I had written down about how many cans of which to get.) So, I here Gabe wailing in the background and asked Doug what happened. He didn't know, because Gabe had just started the hysterics. I let him go to investigate and told him to call me back. Well, he finally got part of the story from Gabriel and Anna. Apparently one of Anna's beanie babies made its way into Gabe's mouth. ??? Anna wanted it back, so she gave it a big yank. Out flew Samson and out flew one of Gabe's top teeth. It wasn't quite ready, so it hurt and it was bleeding a little. Hence the hysterics... I am a horrible mom, but I couldn't help laughing when Doug told me. How many times do we parents tell our kids not to do something and yet they still do?? This time it proved that mom was actually right!

So, now we still have one tooth on the top. But, it has tried to take over the entire spot of both teeth and it is hanging sideways because one side was really loose. So, he looked so funny, yet so cute going through this phase. Now, we are at New Year's Day. And you know from my previous post that my sister is here visiting. She is a nurse and her kids are older, so she has been through this already. Doug and I were looking at Gabe's tooth in the bathroom and she wanted to see also. Well, she took a tissue and just pulled it out. Gabriel was horrified and had a little waterworks. Apparently it was stuck just a bit, so it hurt a little. He told Aunt Wendy that it hurt and he was mad at her. Once again, I am holding back laughing at him, but I did hold it in because he was being so sincere about it. I think he likes sticking his tongue through the front "hole". So, he is missing all the 4 front baby teeth and he looks so different to me.

This past Wednesday Doug and Gabe went to get haircuts and Jack noticed that a bottom tooth was already started to poke through the gum. I looked yesterday and saw that both are starting to poke through. Gabe thinks that is just so silly!!

Now, about the picture of Anna. She wanted her teeth to fall out also. She kept telling us that her teeth were loose and made us check them to see if they were ready. So, I decided to humor her and take her picture each time we took Gabe's.

Happy New Year!

This year the kids got to stay up all the way until midnight!! After church we had a "game night" in the fellowship hall. We were pleasantly surprise with the amount of people that stayed to play games with each other. We got home from that a little after 11p, so we decided to see if the kids would make it until midnight. Along with the excitement of getting to stay up late was the fact that my sister and her family were only about 2 hours away. They were coming to visit and celebrate Christmas and both Gabriel's and Anna's birthday.

Wendy and Jay made it to our house about 1am, but we were all asleep by then. The kids got to see the ball drop and make some noise, but then we were all off to bed. It was going to be a long couple of days with visitors, so we wanted to get some rest.

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We have been blessed by many since we have been in Slayton. We are all healthy also, so that is something to be quite thankful about. I wish it didn't feel like we were so busy some weeks, but from what others have told me, it will only get worse as the kids get older.

We have church service on Christmas Eve, but not Christmas Day. After church Christmas Eve we took some pictures of the kids all dressed up in front of the tree. (We didn't get any of Doug and I, but I figured we would do that and a whole family picture when my sister we here visiting. Well, they have come and gone and I still don't have those pictures this Christmas. Very frustrating to me. I am going to have to figure out the timer on the camera and see what happens.) They received a few gifts from friends at church, so we let them open a couple gifts tonight. They had a blast.

We let them stay up later than normal so they thought that was cool. Mainly it was because we wanted to sleep in the next morning. Well, we got to sleep in until about 8:00 so that was nice. We finally made it downstairs about 8:30 to start presents. (I guess the kids forgot or something. hahah) Since we didn't have church and we didn't have family and we didn't have anywhere to go, we took our time opening presents. It actually took us close to 3 hours to open presents. Not because we had that many, but because the kids wanted to open them up and play with them before they moved on to the next. So, we let them because we were in no rush. It was so nice to just be relaxed and spend time together.

We stayed in our PJs until about 2p and then decided it was time to go sledding. The temps had hit 21, so it was a heat wave. There was only one other family most of the time we were out there. It was so nice not to have so many people sledding down at the same time. We all had a blast!! There were a couple bumps in the snow towards the bottom, so that stung a bit for the old folks.

We finally headed home because we needed some hot chocolate and to warm up a bit. Then we snuggled on the couch with a movie and had a nice supper together. It was just a nice, relaxing, fun day and the kids even got a couple toys.

I forgot to mention the favorite toy of the day for the kids. It was a tie between their laptop computers (play ones, don't worry) and their dogs (play ones again, but they do bark and wag their tails.) Anna still carries hers around everywhere she goes. We have had to replace the batteries in both already....

Anna's Christmas Program - Dec 18, 2008

Please forgive me, but I have about a month's worth of fun to share with you. Hopefully I will have it all done between today and Thursday while the girls are at preschool.

Let's start out with Anna's Christmas Program at Preschool. She was an Angel in the program. (Pretty fitting for her huh??) Actually she did a good job singing, but had a little difficulty with the actions for the songs. She thought it was more fun to stick her arms in her angel costume and do the actions under the costume. But, she did look like she was having fun. She didn't even manage to bring her arms out of the costume when she got to ring the bells or use the wood sticks for "music." She did bring them out when it was time for the angels to say "Glory to God in the Highest."

After the program we had cupcakes to celebrate Jesus' Birthday.

She did look like a very cute angel, especially with her gold halo. She talked about being Mary...maybe next year. Now, she starts her Christmas vacation. She was off a long time and both her and Zoey were ready to start back to school! (Maybe I was also!!)

Gabe loses his first TOOTH!!

On Dec 10, we passed another milestone in the history of Gabe. He lost his first baby tooth. It was a bottom tooth. Both bottom teeth and one top tooth have been loose for a while. The bottom two got VERY loose and Gabe wouldn't even wiggle them with his tongue. He was a little concerned about how this whole losing a tooth would work and more importantly, feel.

Needless to say he was pleasantly surprised when it came out and didn't even hurt. (Doug did help it along with some floss, but we didn't want it to fall out during the night.) He didn't want to look in the mirror though...I think he may have seen the tiny bit of blood in the bottom of the tooth.

A couple days later Gabriel told us, "I have a very loose tooth in my mouth." So, we went to the bathroom and Doug got out the floss again. Doug wiggled it free and then Gabe looked like he was going to puke. Here the tooth had landed on his tongue and he didn't like the feel of it. It was so hilarious both Doug and I laughed at him. Once he was able to spit the tooth out into Doug's hand, he laughed also.

Gabe has informed us that he can still whistle even though he is missing two teeth. Now we just wait for the top teeth to go. What a bummer that we won't be able to sing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth."

By the time we took pictures, the next night, Gabe was OK with looking at it in the mirror and actually holding the tooth. Unfortunately, I keep forgetting to take a picture of both bottom teeth gone.

Happy 6th Birthday Gabriel!

This year for Gabriel's bday, we decided to throw a kid party for him. He has been talking about some boys from his class, so we thought it was time to invite them over. Since most of the parents don't know us, we also invited the parents to stay and get to know us. (Why did they all smile and leave when they found out we had 6 boys in the basement???) All the boys we invited showed up, so that made Gabriel (and us) happy.

Doug had the fun job of keeping them all happy and occupied. I think he liked it just as much as the kids though. At one time all 6 of them were piled on top of Doug and he couldn't get them off. The kids just thought that was great. We also had fun sword fighting with the noodles. Surprisingly, we didn't have anyone get hurt or get into any fights. They all did really great taking turns and sharing. Especially with the train track.

For Gabe's actual bday, it was just us. We had the other half of the cake and he got to open presents. Apparently Doug and I are too practical though. For his birthday this year he got all the "fixins" for a new bedroom centered around a Sports Theme. He was excited about the lamp, and the clock with his name on it. We could tell he was dissappointed that he didn't get any toys though. I guess we have crossed over into that age already! He did get some 3D paints and a puzzle from a couple of my friends so those were named "the fun presents." Oh well, at least he will have some toys at Christmas so he doesn't have to wait that long.