A little break

We joined two other families and went to a cabin a few hours away and got some good r&r. Raef and Ryan that is. It was a crazy house with seven little ones running around and the oldest one being 4. Yikes! Lots of running, snacking, playing, and fighting. A house full of boys. It was so fun though. The cabin was beautiful and we were just thrilled it was situated on a hill. Yes, we found a hill in Ohio! It was amazing! We went sledding, watched movies, talked, played pool, and dunked in the hot tub.

It was a chilly run to the hot tub but definitely well worth it. The boys loved it! We had to drag them out every time. It was so beautiful to sit there at night with the snow falling from the black sky. A little piece of heaven.

4 years old!!!

Raef insisted on a icecream cake with oreo icecream and elephants on top. We had a mess getting one ordered and ended up making this one an hour before party time. He loved it though and made sure everyone of his new baby elephants stayed close by.

Raef wanted an animal center for Christmas so bad he couldn't stand it. We finally covinced him that Santa really wanted Trent to make it for him for his birthday so he could have lots of presents for Christmas instead of just one(the animal center he wanted was $140). That worked and so Trent was locked in. He still needs to stain it but made it so fun. All of the little kids that come over play with it the whole time. Raef had it filled with animals within minutes and then added trains and cars. There is a roof that velcroes on also with all of the little pieces of wood being moveable to make big and little stalls for the animals. Very cool for a big boy who believes he is Diego, the animal rescuer.

Happy Birthday

Raef turned 4 on Jan. 17th. Everyday for weeks he has asked me how many more days until his birthday. I told him ___ more days until your birthday comes. Each time I told him that he would run to the window and say, "mom, is my birthday coming yet?" I never understood what he was doing until his birthday when I finally told him his birthday was here. He again ran to the window and said,"where, mom, I just don't see it. Where is it?" I told him, "it's here. right now. today. " Still very confused he said, "well, I don't see my birthday. Where did it go?" Too cute!

Life with boys

After asking Raef to get get dressed in the morning, the boys returned looking like this. Raef said it was their underwear helmets and they played for a few hours like that. I couldn't help but laugh. You know I didn't teach them that.

Raef loves playing outside in the snow but Ryan still won't go out. He wants to but refuses to put his boots or coat on. He holds his tennis shoes and cries and cries. Raef got his first goose egg and you can see the lasting effects. This is about 5 days later and still quite the bruise. He cried until I took him up to the bathroom and let him look at himself in the mirror. He started laughing so hard I couldn't believe it. He thought it was so funny. It was huge. Trent is doing well, except he is becoming like every other medical/dental student and thinking he is dying from every disease he learns about or treats on a patient. We'll see if he makes it out alive this time. I am feeling better than I have in a long time. Maybe being down for awhile and healing has its perks. I suddenly feel great and young again. Yahoo!!!

Football season

We have had a lot of fun this year tracking a few teams and Raef has really gotten into it too. He loves to hang out with the boys and watch the games and asks about a million questions and breaks into the touchdown dance every minute or so. One day I came downstairs and Raef and Trent had stuffed pillows into their shirts and were tackling eachother. Raef runs full on and right into Trent all the while making a buzzing noise. We call him the skeeter bug.

Christmas vacation

Well, we left on the 17th for Idaho Falls to spend Christmas with the Buttars'. We wondered if we would have a white Christmas for about a day until it dumped 2 1/2 feet on us. It was beautiful and we loved every second of it. The boys played in the pile while Berk and all the boys shoveled us out of the culdesac. Ryan still stood at the doorway waiting for Trent to carry him. He has always been afraid to walk on the snow and if he touches it or it touches him (aka a snowflake on the nose) he spazs out and screams until we take him inside. It is quite funny actually.

So, my pinched nerve went away on the 24th and Christmas was magical. Trent and I didn't get eachother anything. Well, that's a lie. We each spent 10 dollars. I surprised Trent and gave him what he asks for for every holiday, birthday, or special day......panties. Pink, ruffly, panties. He was so embarrassed. It was perfect. Hey, if that's what he wants! The boys were spoiled of course by family and we filled a suitcase up with cars, macs, walle, and more animals! Raef said we had to get home so his new animals could meet his animals at home because his animals were getting sad he was gone so long. Then, on the 26th I woke up with terrible stomach pain and despite Trents efforts of healing me with a hot shower and mylanta, we went to the emergency room. After all was said and done, I had my gallbladder and appendix removed that night. That was my reward for being right that mylanta wouldn't solve this problem.....surgery. Fabulous! We were fortunate though to be with family so the boys were taken care of and I could rest. My stomach looks like I was involved in a drive by shooting since I did laproscopic surgery I have 5 incisions. Bring on the bikini! Trent says he is almost ready to trade me in for a new model. I am too. We are home now and I am almost fully recovered and very ready to wish 2008 goodbye. What a year!

O Christmas Tree

Even though we aren't going to be here for very long, we still had to do the Christmas tree decorating with the boys. They had so much fun and we actually didn't have to rearrange too much when they were done. We both grew up spending the day finding the perfect Christmas tree, often times settling for one that is not so perfect and going home too tired to even put the tree up and trim it. But the last two years, we loaded the boys up and drove all the way to Lowes and picked out the tree. Yeah, it took about......oh 25 minutes and everyone is very jealous of our hand-picked tree.

Decorating the tree

The Jones family came over and the kids had a great time decorating and getting excited for Christmas to come. They have wall hangings that they are counting down the days until they go to Idaho for Christmas with.

The cute Ugg bugs

Trent absolutely hates my Uggs but I may have convinced him they're not too bad after he saw this pic. Trent is almost done with finals and we are all very happy. It seems like every semester we go through this terrible couple of weeks but this year hit us especially hard. I fell down the stairs a few months ago and apparhently the injury from that manifested itself the last few weeks as a pinched nerve/torn muscle. I have been going to the physician and chiropractor trying to get some relief so I can at least function. It's never easy to be injured and chase two boys around. We have had lots of help though and are surviving. I didn't work for 2 weeks and went back this week to find maybe I shouldn't be back quite yet. Ouch! The boys are getting cabin fever as I haven't taken them out to do the usual exploring. We are all ready for Christmas! We leave for Idaho on Wednesday and will stay there until the new year. We are so excited to hand the boys over and sleep for a few days. Seriously, that's really what we're excited about.

Montana

In September I got to go home to Montana and go on a backpacking trip with just my siblings. It was amazing and an experience I will remember forever. It was like we were little kids again just having fun. We hiked in the Beartooth Mountains and Matt was our "professional guide" making sure to take care of his 4 sisters. Although I think he might have loved it too. We had never done anything like that trip and vowed to do it again.

Gotcha!

I had the perfect spot for fishing and caught a lot of fish. More than even the "professional guide". Although, he might claim that he was moving down the lake from one sister to the next rebaiting, untangling, unhooking fish, and all those other gross things we didn't want to do. Finally, he said "do it yourself" and we managed just fine, although not without a lot of wailing and knashing of teeth! Aaaahhhh! Just looking at this picture makes me want to be back there so bad. I've never had Trent so jealous of me.

best buds

These adorable pictures were taken at the peak of the fall coloring here in Ohio. As much as we miss the mountains and pine trees and water you can actually see 6 inches in, we will never forget the amazing display of colors here in the fall. It is beautiful. We go to this metropark about 1 mile from our home and go "hiking" and exploring. In the summer, we walk through a stream that runs through here. The boys love it.

Ryan

Raef