New Year's Eve

We had a great New Year's Eve night! Brad and Sheri gave Jeremy and I their hotel room for the night, while they stayed at our house with the kids.... WHAT A TREAT!!!

Then we went to Jeremy's cousins, Talyor & Randy's house for a really fun New Year's Eve Party. Thanks for inviting us Taylor!

Happy Birthday Connor!

Connor celebrated his 7th birthday on New Year's Eve.

We started out the day playing with a present we got for Aiden - Blendy Pens! This was in hopes that Aiden didn't feel too left out or jealous as Connor's day progressed

We celebrated his birthday at the Movie Theater.
(Thanks for the idea, Tara!)

The party room was decorated so cute. They even blew up a ton of balloons for us that the kids used as swords. Perfect!

After all the balloons got popped, the boys moved on to the pop to have burping contests (NOT my idea!)

Making a birthday wish!

8 boys in an elevator

Connor even got to go up and see how the movie projectors work. He was really impressed. The manager even gave Connor the footage for the trailer of our movie - Bedtime Stories.

He's yelling down to his friends...

His favorite gift! He has been begging us to buy him this book for a while. lol!

A little about Connor:
Connor is such a good boy and we are so proud of him. He's rather large for his age but he's so gentle and sweet to everyone. He is very observant and aware of other people's feelings (sometimes too aware). Being with Connor is always fun. He always has good ideas of fun things to do together and he loves to make you laugh. He's so funny! He is completely incapable of telling a lie. He is the most honest kid I've ever met. He is such a good brother. He watches out for his little brother and sister and takes good care of them. He is very cautious. He does not like to disobey rules and is very careful to make sure everyone else is obeying the rules too.

WE LOVE YOU, CONNOR!!!

Christmas Number 3

Grandma and Grandpa Cates came to KC to celebrate a late Christmas together. The kids got an 8-foot mat which was immediately put into use! It's amazing that they knew exactly what to do with it.

Matching Napa Valley sweatshirts!

Weights just their size! (Even Whitney got 1/2 pound weights!)

Whitney's favorite gift... a little purse with a dog to carry around. Doesn't she look like a little Jessica Simpson?

VUR

It has been 1 year since Whitney was diagnosed with VUR. She has to go once a year to have an awful procedure done to see if it has resolved yet. Unfortunately, she still has it. The good news is that last year she had Grade III on one side and Grade II on the other side...
now she has Grade II on both sides.

Here she is watching Elmo before the torture begins...

30 Hours

We lost power to our home for the last 30 hours. What an experience!!!

Jeremy made scrambled eggs on the fireplace. Connor was appalled!
He said "We're like poor people!"

Whitney didn't mind. She was shoveling the eggs with both fists by the little lantern

The boys were ok until the juice to the portable DVD player ran out

Lunchables by candlelight for dinner

Keeping Whitney away from the candles was a challenge

"Camping" in front of the fireplace all night.
The boys thought that was fun. Whitney... not so much. lol!

Overall, we were just fine... thanks to Jeremy's survival skills. We made it through the night. When we woke up the thermostat was at 59'. But we had lots of blankets and warm clothes. I ended up sleeping with my little hot potato (Whitney) all night. She's a great bed-warmer.

This morning the boys were restless, not knowing what to do with themselves. I pointed out all the things we DID have... coloring books, markers, toys, a roof over our heads, food, etc... Connor said "We're blessed, huh Mommy?" I felt so thankful for all of our blessings.

At 10:00am I said to the boys... "Pretty soon we're going to hear a beep and then... " at that exact moment, we heard a beep and then all the lights came on. Connor immediately grabbed the remote to the TV and said "I love you, Cartoon Network!"

Life is back to normal.

A new high

It was beautiful today! We had a new record high temperature of 66 degrees. It broke the previous record set in 1954 of 63 degrees. Jeremy took the boys to the park where they were only wearing t-shirts. It was kind of muddy, due to all the snow melting, but we stayed outside all day.

A stack of bricks, a chain-linked fence, a metal pole, a dog, each other, and beautiful weather...
what more could 2 little boys want??

Christmas Morning

We had such a fun Christmas Day! This was our first Christmas in our new home as well as our first Christmas with just our family. It was so special, but at the same time, a lot more work for the parents!!!! The kids were all so thankful for each and every gift they opened. They were so cute and sweet. They didn't get what they really wanted for Christmas and we were worried they would be disappointed. But, they were happy with what they got. We played all day. It was so much fun! Here are a few pics of Christmas morning...

Little Pill

Our little Whit-Bit....

She is just so cute but such a little pill all at the same time. I was able to catch just a few pics of her over the last week that pretty much sums it all up.

This is how I found her after she was put down for a nap 2 hours earlier. She never did go to sleep and just sat in her room screaming her head off the entire time. As soon as I opened the door it was all smiles as she stands in her crib half naked (Yes, she was wearing a shirt, pants and socks) and everything that was in her crib in now on the floor.



I ended up getting her up for the day and she missed her nap. This is what she looked like during dinner as a result...




I caught her trying to be like Mommy here...



Whitney discovered herself in the mirror on this day....










Whitney went Xmas shopping with me and we stayed way too long! We were both starving and hadn't had dinner yet. I stopped at McDonald's and got Whitney her first cheeseburger. She LOVED it!! She was so happy and ate the entire thing.





One day I was upstairs and heard a strange noise downstairs. I discovered Whitney (Again... half dressed! This time she even took her diaper off!) She dumped the brand new box of cereal all over the table and floor and went to town stuffing as much of it in her cheeks as fast as she could!