Better late than never....

 Jacob clearly wants to be at the beach...and if you look carefully you can see him playing in the sand in his picture. He made sure to point out the sun and the umbrella to me also.

 Daniel was doing some grinding on some metal out in the garage & driveway during naptime one day. Obviously Jacob didn't nap and when he figured out Daniel was outside he thought he needed to help him. He came back in the house to show me how fantastic he looked with his safety gear on.

I know I'm goofy for celebrating my kids' stuffed animals birthdays when they ask. Apparently it was Big Woofy's 6th birthday at the beginning of January. Jacob told me it was his birthday one day and I told him I didn't have what I needed to make his cupcakes that day but we'd do it the next. We totally forgot about it the next day (until bedtime of course when Jake reminded me that we forgot to celebrate Big Woofy's birthday. woops.) and finally the following day I got around to making cupcakes! Yep, I'm nuts.

I'm pretty sure this was Jacob high-fiving Big Woofy though it looks more like he's tickling him.

 I was so excited to get my flash diffuser and try it out--Zach was just as excited to pose!

and the bubble fight began...

and this was right before the tears started...

This past Friday I took the boys to a place called Hullabaloo Amusement Center. I thought it was going to be more fun than it really was. They enjoyed it for about an hour and then we headed home! (and for the $8/kid admission, I think we needed more than an hours worth of fun!)

I'm pretty sure this was their favorite part. They had these "guns" at a few different places that shot out foam balls (of course you had to go around and gather up the foam balls to load it!).

sliding...

There was a mini zip line...that was extremely slow. It needed some oiling or something because the kids had to wiggle like crazy to get it to move. Zach apparently didn't weigh enough to get it to move so Jacob kept pushing him.

 Zach couldn't reach the mat below either! and yes, he really is that tiny.

 Jacob on the other hand was so tall that he had to bend his knees to keep his feet from dragging!

yes, he did rethink his wonderful idea of bouncing down the bumpy ramp before he started bouncing.

 

And then Saturday morning we woke up to snow...not a lot of snow but it was enough for Jacob and Zach to be excited and to go out and play...

 Should I even say that this was my idea???

Zach had fun!!

 I'm not sure what Jacob was saying to him other than "would you like some snow?"

 Then it was Jacob's turn. Before he actually climbed onto the toboggan he asked Daniel "are you sure this is safe?"

 He had fun too!!

and of course, Daniel decided he needed to try it too!

and the thought it was a great idea!!

Then it was time to just play in the snow!

 or should I say, it was time to throw snowballs at mommy.

 Zach's turn!

 One of the only pictures I have where you can actually sort of see both of Jake's eyes. He kept pulling his hat down so he could barely see!

Daniel was harnessed up to the sled and running the boys down the street for a fun ride!

 They thought it was sooooooo much fun! And they wanted Daniel to keep pulling them but through his extremely heavy breathing he told them nooooo way! So instead, he pulled them leisurely around the circle. 

And then through our yard into the driveway back towards the garage. You can tell he wasn't paying much attention as he pulled them and barely stopped when he heard me yelling "DANIEL, STTTTOOOOOPPP!" as he was about to take them both out by running them into the van!

Saturday afternoon was filled up with a birthday party at our neighbor's house for Connor and Abby. I made their cakes. :-)

 Hello Kitty for Abby's 3rd Birthday.

And Transformers for Connor's 5th Birthday.

 Jacob being a little stinker to finish it off!!

We're almost 17 weeks along with baby #3's pregnancy! woo-hoo! I'm feeling much better unless I'm hungry...in which case look out. Daniel tells people I get cranky and extremely grumpy when I need food. As soon as I tell him I'm starting to feel hungry (and nauseus because of being hungry!) his response is always "lets get you something to eat ..and quick!!" We find out in 2.5 weeks wether we're having a boy or a girl!

YAY!

Catching up!

(I apologize that there aren't any pictures in this post! I've attempted to add them twice and for some reason it just won't work. I'll attempt to upload some tomorrow when I'm less frustrated!)

We all had such a great Christmas! The boys got everything they wanted other than Jake wanting the go-kart. I told him that I didn't think it would fit in Santa's sleigh...he told me Santa could bring it in pieces and put it together at Granny and Pa's house. Smart little booger. He wasn't upset about not getting it (phew!!). I told him maybe in a couple of years when he was a little bit bigger he'd get one...maybe we'd have more land too...because our 1/3 of an acre isn't much for a go-kart!

We had a lot of fun visiting with family while we were in VA. I think Zach most enjoyed riding on his cousin, Gabe's, bike with him. My father in law said that I might enjoy putting my kids in harms way if it meant I could get a good picture....

Regardless, he had fun (and so did Jake!) and they both managed to be off the bike for a minute or so before Gabe crashed and hurt his own leg.

We went to Monkey Joe's while in VA with Hayden & Jonathan (and Mary too!). I think all 4 boys had a blast. Jonathan seemed to have a good time taking the other 3 around and helping them get up to the slides and stuff. Aside from them giving the pregnant woman the world's tiniest slice of pizza we had a great time! I'm thinking the guy at the concession stand must have been in cahoots with my doctor!!

Daniel of course had to go home right after Christmas so he missed out on all of our fun...and he missed out on taking the dogs to the vet. I tackled both of them at the vet's office while my mom stayed at her house with the boys...both dogs had a good checkup in case you were wondering!! The vet referred to Ringo as "lumpy;" I told her we called him our "lumpy bumpy dog." He's getting old! (but he still manages to get loose and roam the neighborhood....get into the trash, dog cookies that are out of reach on a shelf, and dog kibbles....not to mention somehow being able to open our snack cabinet at home and help himself to whatever he wants! Daniel suggested we "child proof" our cabinets...I corrected him and told him the children weren't the problems...it was all Ringo!

When the boys and I got back home we attempted to get back into our somewhat normal routine..which was really pretty silly because on New Year's Eve we had our 2nd annual "Durrbeck-Rubinstein-Longeway New Year's Eve Extravaganza!" We were the hosts this year (if you could call us that!) and it was lots of fun. We had lots of good food, fun presents, and those that were allowed...lots of alcohol (so really, it was me and the kids that were not allowed :-).) Somehow the kids all stayed up in good moods for a relatively long time. Everyone was back at their own homes by 11:30 I think (and since we're all neighbors they just had to walk across the street!) and Daniel and I were nutty enough to let the boys stay up til midnight to count down and watch the ball drop. They had no clue what was going on but were excited to yell "HAPPY NEW YEAR" in their outside voices while in the house! They helped me clean up the toys that were everywhere too and ended up in bed super super super super late!

Mom always had lots of ice cream toppings for us on New Year's Eve growing up and though I attempted it this year, I totally forgot (and was still extremely full!). So, Daniel, the boys, and I all made ice cream sundaes on New Year's Day. The boys thought it was great that I let them have all of the toppings they wanted. Mom of the year.

Today was their first day back at Preschool. Jacob was super duper excited to be back...Zach, not so much. He began by refusing to be unbuckled from the car. I finally convinced him that he needed to go to school today so he could spend the day with me tomorrow and that made him mildly happy. He was very sad when I left and waved and blew me kisses from the windows while crying. He was very excited to see me when I picked both of them up from school but said he had had a great day and was happy he went. (He also said he didn't cry when I left him but I swear he was crying through the window!) I'm so thankful that he has sweet and loving preschool teachers that pick him up and snuggle him when he's upset. Makes me feel better leaving him there!

Today was also the first day of my second trimester. I was hoping to wake up feeling magically wonderful but of course that didn't happen. I was feeling somewhat better but not 100%. Hopefully since I'm beginning to feel more like myself I'll get back to posting more frequently. I must admit though, it's not totally my fault! Our laptop is totally out of commission and the desktop computer is just old and slow. We need a new one but it's not in the budget right now! I told Daniel I'd rather stick to using the crappy one and save up a little more and get a decent laptop and not worry about having a desktop. Not sure that he liked the idea or not but he agreed since it makes wifey happy. :-)