4 years old!!!

Wow...what a slacker I've been. I can't believe I haven't updated anything in 3 months. So, now I am just going to post the main events. Ellee and Luke are now four years old. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. It's crazy! Ellee was completely set on having a Little Mermaid birthday cake. She's obsessed with that movie and loves Ariel. Luke couldn't decide between a shark cake and a Ben 10 cake. He finally decided that he needed a Ben 10 cake. Jaimie saved the day once again and made both cakes for us. They were awesome! They turned out exactly like the twins wanted.This year we had a big family party instead of a friend party. It was lots of fun. They absolutely love being the center of attention. All Luke wanted for his birthday was little Ben 10 action figures. He got a whole bunch and a new Ben 10 omnitrix (he calls it a watch). Ellee couldn't make up her mind. She wanted barbie stuff and dress ups and anything girlie. She ended up getting a doll house. She also picked out all the colors she wanted us to paint it. It is bright yellow with different colors in each room. I can't believe they are already 4 years old!!!

Lego Fun

Ok-I know, I'm horrible. I haven't blogged in months and now I get to play the catch up game. Fun, fun, fun! Cole is now 7 years old. How that happened I'll never know. This past year has been fun watching how he's changed. He has now informed me that he is old enough to: make his own breakfast, comb his own hair-which he now wants shaggy (we're ok with that for now, might not be when he gets to be a teenager), pick out his own clothes (my favorite is when he goes Napolean Dynamite and wears his winter boots with sweat pants and no snow in sight), play outside with his friends and mom not following him everywhere, work all the electronic stuff in our house without needing any help, walk down to get the mail by himself :) , read his books silently, take showers instead of baths, etc. The list goes on and on----where did my little boy go?
Cole's birthday was on a Wednesday this year so we celebrated as a family on his birthday. He got to choose what he wanted to eat for his birthday and he chose to eat at Wingers. We opened his presents and just spent time as a family.

He decided that he wanted a Lego Party for his birthday. We had a blast. He invited 11 other boys to his party and they all had a blast. Cole, Luke and Ellee built different Lego creations for the decorations. We had tower building contests, played "Guess what I built", ate pizza-cake and ice cream, played "Pin the Dot on the Lego Block" and just ran around having fun. It was 2 1/2 hours of pure chaos and tons of fun. My really good friend, Jaimie, offered to make the cake for Cole's party. I was thrilled to have her make it. She is amazing. She made two cakes to look like Lego blocks and it was absolutely delicious!!! Plus it was the hit of the party! Thanks Jaimie!
It was cute watching how happy he was the whole time. Opening presents was great...he didn't hold anything back and got so excited! I am so glad Cole wanted to have a Lego party. We had a great time and he will definitely remember this party.

Winter Fun!

I love winter. Especially when there is fresh snow on the ground. Damon, not so much. He would much rather live somewhere that snow was obsolete. The boys are more like me in the snow...Ellee loves to stay warm. We decided to venture out in the cold and get some sledding in.
Cole could hardly wait for the truck to park before he was running up the hill with his sled. He had a blast. He loved it...but he also got worn out pretty fast since every time he made it down the hill he immediately jumped up and ran straight back up the hill. As soon as his cousins Jake and River got to the park he decided to venture over to a little jump where he was loving it til he landed wrong and hurt himself. The combination of already sledding for over an hour plus his crash and burn made us think he was done. But he just rested for a few minutes and then was back at it and even trying to make it down the hill on his feet.
Luke was a little scared to go down the hill at first. He just wanted to go down with either Damon or me and was to frightened to venture it by himself. We knew he would love it by himself so we told him to get on the sled first and that we would go down with him but then just let go of the sled instead. Good mommy moment, huh? Well, it worked. He giggled the whole way down and then didn't hesitate again. He wasn't running up the hill like Cole, he could barely drag the sled back up the hill. He didn't let that stop him. He even decided to go off the jump Cole was going off.

Ellee is our big scaredy-cat! We tried the same trick we did with Luke but even though she was grinning the whole way down, she pretended that it scared her. It took a few times down before she relaxed and just went after it. She even went down the hill head first and said that was her favorite. She just needed to warm up to the idea and then went off on her own with an occasional "Watch this, Daddy" or "Look how far I can go!" She also started making snow angels and drawing in the snow. Even though Damon hates the snow, he looked like he had fun. All of his sisters were there with their kids so we got to hang out and watch all the cousins together. I hope we get another big snow storm soon because I can't wait to go sledding again!

Christmas 2009

These past two weeks have just flown by. We've gone to so many Christmas parties and been so busy...I hope I'll be able to catch up. Christmas was a lot of fun this year. We had a Christmas party with Damon's siblings and mom the Sunday before Christmas and that really got things going. We had another party on Christmas Eve at Damon's dad's place. And a third party on Christmas night at my parents home. Busy, busy, busy!
Damon got stuck working Christmas Eve and Christmas night. I guess it was just luck of the draw. We still had our annual Christmas Eve present of pajamas. The kids loved them and even held still long enough to take a pic and send it to Damon at work. Damon got off work at 6:00 am on Christmas morning so when he got home we woke the kids up (except Cole who woke up when he heard the garage) and did the Christmas morning thing. I guess all three kids were good this year because they all got what they asked for from Santa. Ellee asked for a new baby doll and crib for the baby. Santa did one better and even got her a high chair and stroller for her baby doll as well. She also got another doll for Christmas that is almost as big as her. She sleeps with it and dresses it up in her old clothes that she has outgrown. She was so fun to watch this year. I didn't realize that it is protocol to squeal every time you open a present, but apparantely I've been doing it wrong. She got so excited with each present, even new socks. It was hilarious! Luke asked for a dragon castle and dragons to go with it. He ran right to his present and immediately started playing with it. He didn't even want to go through the stocking, he just wanted to play with his new castle. He is so fun to watch with the toys. He makes sure to play with all his toys. It's almost like he's worried about hurting their feelings if he doesn't play with them. He loves all of them! When I checked on him in bed on Christmas night I couldn't help but giggle when I saw that he had just about all his presents in bed with him. He couldn't even move because they were all around him. He's still been sleeping with a firetruck garage that his cousin River gave him for Christmas. Cole asked for a Nintendo DS, a game for the DS, and a bag of bells (???) He got all three. He must've been really good this year. At the Romig Christmas party everyone kept talking about how quiet Cole was being, and that they've never heard him so quiet. He wouldn't put the DS down. Mama and Papa made his night by giving him Super Mario Brothers...he wanted it so bad but somehow Santa had not realized that he really wanted that game. We are definitely going to need to put some restrictions on how often he is allowed to play. That will be a fun battle! Cole was so cute opening presents. He would close his eyes until the wrapping paper was just about gone so he would be able to see the entire present...not just a corner of it :) My highlight this year was opening a present from Cole. He took money with him to school because the PTA offers a store the students can go to and purchase gifts for their families without any help. He bought me a silver necklace that said #1 Mom on it :) He got Damon a package of football cards and a pen that went with a globe pen holder. He bought Ellee a big ring and Luke a pull back truck. It was fun to see what he picked out for each of us on his own. After all the presents were opened and the house looked like a tornado hit it, Damon went to sleep to get ready for another graveyard shift Christmas night and the kids spent all day breaking in their new toys.

As a family we got a kitten this year for Christmas. We've named her Kit or as Luke lovingly calls her Kit Kat. She is super cute. There are a few allergy issues right now so we'll see if this is a permanent thing or a fun little visit. We'll see if things get better or worse. She is awfully cute and a cat is definitely the kind of pet that fits our lifestyle and home. We'll see what happens.

This was the first year that all the kids really understood what it meant to give presents to others as well as getting new presents for themselves. It was fun to watch how excited they got as they watched others open their gifts. It was good to see! We had a great Christmas and have really enjoyed the time off together.