too much to do!

I have SOOO many projects I want to do. I even have a gift card to Jo-ann fabrics just waiting for me, but I seem to have the hardest time actually getting out of the house.... ! My priorities are on things for the downstairs, but I keep seeing a million things I'd love to do for the boys room. Today I am inspired by this room. It's even the same color as the boys room! I love the reading tent, and especially the play pad with the mirror and mobile hanger for the baby. Now where could I fit that in my house?! I also love this truck and dumptruck from 20x200. Those should go above Ben's bed. Or I could do these trucks, from Make it Love it, who incidentally has a ton of free tutorials that I want to try. (Look at your own peril, crafters!) I did finally come up with a solution for Ben's bed that requires a lot less effort and skill than a quilt. I am planning to get him a cotton duvet from ikea (washable!), and make a duvet cover with some of this material I've been stashing away. And while I was looking for a picture of my fabric, I found this amazing fabric site. Ack! Project overload - .........must stop now!

It's winter, the wall cracks are showing

I generally dislike the first half of the year. Really almost everything that's fun comes in the second half - all of our birthdays, the best part of summer, fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas, vacation, etc... all in the second half. So January is not my happiest month. But fun things have been happening, and there are more coming down the pipeline, which is nice. Last weekend we went to a belated Christmas party with a bunch of friends. No kids, (except for little marley, who barely made a peep!), lots of amazing food, and enough uninterrupted conversation to make any parent happy! I wish I had a picture or two, but I guess no kids means no cameras as well.
This weekend we are seeing people who we haven't seen in awhile. Sat. we have supper with Kevin mayer fam., who I think we've seen once since they came back from spain. And sunday we have lunch with len's fam. and his cousins collin and shelley and their little girl, amelie.
And valentine's day is coming! I'm going to get benny some jelly beans, as he keeps asking for the ones Len had after Christmas, even tho they've been gone for at least two weeks! And Izzy will get a stuffed bear or something. Len and I will go out somewhere, though we haven't figured out where yet.
March brings my favorite part of winter - our anniversary! 8 years this year. We like to do it up big for our anniversary, partly because we don't do much for birthdays. (It's fun to tell people you have the same birthday, but when it comes down to it, it's actually not so fun.) A list of things we have done for our anniversarys.
Year 1 - spent a night at the Hilton at easton. Cheesecake factory for supper, amazingly ridiculous breakfast buffet at the hotel.
Year 2 - Spent a horrible amount of money for a cabin in hocking hills with a hot tub. The hot tub was nice, but it was too cold to do anything, and not much was open that time of year. Good, but not my favorite.
Year 3- We were feeling poor, so we just went out to eat. We had an AMAZing dinner tho, it was our first trip to G. Michaels in German Village.
Year 4 - we were in Spain! We left our team for the weekend, and went to Nerja and Frigiliana. Best part - we dressed up and had an amazing italian dinner at a tiny place decked out in Christmas lights. Worst part - we paid too much money to see this cave, and Len ended up lugging our bag the whole way through it!
Year 5 - ahh, my favorite year! It was almost derailed, as we were supposed to fly skybus, but were scheduled to leave the morning they stopped flying! But we made it, and had soo much fun. Highlights - our apartment, Giacomo's, having the whole weekend to see the city.
Year 6 - Having just had a child, we opted for dinner out. Went to Tratorria Roma. I had the special, which was squash ravioli with walnuts and mushrooms - fabulous!
Year 7 - went to the German Village Guest house. Really cute little place. We tried to do too much tho, and wished we had spent more time vegging out. The hotel was very much the best part of the weekend.
So what will we do for year 8? I think we're heading to Cleveland! We have some ideas of where we want to go, but nothing nailed down yet. I think the problem again will be trying to do too much, as we are only planning to stay one night. We're both pretty excited about it.

What else? The boys are good - both are teething like mad, especially Izzy, and keeping us up nights far too often. Benny is saying new words like a mad man - I love how he always picks out the most interesting word of the sentence to repeat! (Dizzy? Damage? Sunshine?) Or he sings the word at the end of the line in a song. (Sunshine, Sunshine, happy, gray!) Izzy is growing like a weed. He is 15 lbs., and will be rolling over soon! He'd sleep through the night if only those teeth would leave him alone.
So we are chugging along, making the most of January, and those happy days (like today) when Len doesn't have work and can stay home with us. So nice! Just have to keep remembering that Jesus will get us through this winter too.......!

Christmas Eve

The festivities have begun! This morning feels like recovery morning, after my week spent getting ready for Ben's party. He turned two yesterday, and we had both families here to celebrate. Last year I made soup and a bunch of appetizers, so I did the same this year. It went really well, but I was a bit worn out by the time everything was done! Thankfully my sister came over in the afternoon to entertain the boys, and Len was wonderful and did all my dishes afterwords. He's so sweet about that - I was putting food away, and he said babe, make sure you aren't doing any dishes!
Benny had soo much fun at the party! He loved playing with the balloons, and opening presents - really got into that! Uncle scotty had the gift of the night - a remote control car with a pretty simple control. The car lights up and makes sounds, and Benny already knows how to turn it off and on. He also got a tricycle, some elmo videos, clothes, coloring book, blocks, and a few other things I know I'm not remembering. This morning he came down and saw all his gifts still sitting there and said OOOOOOO! The other highlight of the night was the cake that Rita made. She is amazing! Len had the idea to make Benny a cheese cake, because he loves cheese. A cake that looks like cheese, that is. She saw something online, and made a truly amazing cake - I will try to post a picture.


Check out the little mice! Benny ate that first.

So this morning we opened our presents as a family, and then went to First watch for breakfast with my sisters. Very fun - Izzy wore his santa hat.


Benny opened a few tools that actually make noises and spin, and has not put them down.

Izzy got a tiger that is as big as he is! We named it Timmy the tiger.


It was a lovely christmas.
Tonight we are headed to Stephen (amber's boyfriend)'s house to celebrate his birthday, and then we will drive up to my parents to spend the night and Christmas day with them. Then we're with Len's parents, and then Christmas with my grandparents on monday! Five days of presents for Benny - pretty sure he will have present withdraw!
Merry Christmas, everybody! Remember that Jesus came to draw us to God.

asap

testing, testing - soon to be up and running!