SnowBowl

Some of our neighbors organized a touch football game yesterday. Brady was thrilled to be able to play with his dad!

Basketball game

We made it to our first ever college basketball game. I didn't get any pictures, but Brady was totally into the game. He would tense up whenever someone would take a shot, and then flail wildly if our team scored.

Rudy was less interested in the game, but enthralled with all of the music and other stuff going on. He even got his groove one during one of the songs:

Yet another snowstorm...

So, I've lost track of what number snowstorm this is for the winter. We're up to at least 3 major storms, and another one or two smaller flurries.

Our cowboy snowman:

Cindy, Bella, and Ben came up for some sledding. We added a jump to our hill this time.

Bella and Brady:

Brady and Ru:

Brady, headed for the jump:

Bella, not quite clearing the jump:

Brady getting some air:

Bella, apparently about to belly flop!

Oops...(that's Brady's face planted in the jump)

Kelly and Bella:

Rudy and Ben:

Fun in the "sun"

I ran upstairs to flip the laundry and get dressed around 10 am. I came back down and found Rudy sound asleep on the couch. I guess that's what happens after several days of sledding!

And, to make it all even more exciting, our power went out. Thankfully, it was only out during daylight hours, and only for one day.

More snow

When did we move to the arctic? This is our third winter storm of the season and the second one with a significant amount of snow! We were only supposed to get 3-6", but we're easily up to 8 or 10!

Charlie is still so NOT impressed with this cold precipitation:

James and I got the driveway cleared and then we played some football with the kids. We played through a couple of possessions before we started playing "meatball." We usually play meatball inside. James and I toss the football to the kids as they run past and then they slide across the hardwood floor. In the snow, though, they can dive for the ball. James and I even took a turn :)

It's significantly colder today than it was during the Christmas storm. We didn't last outside quite as long because the boys got really chilled!

We did manage to stay out long enough to perfect our technique on the sledding hill a bit more. Turns out the secret is to drag the hand on the inside of the turn. We even managed to pull a few "tricks" (180 degree turns) at the end of the run.

Rudy's songs

Brady's exciting day chart

We've still been working with Brady to encourage a positive, "can-do" attitude. We're trying to encourage him to take an optimistic view of life and to try to keep things in perspective.

Over the weekend, we started asking him at bedtime what type of day he was going to have the next day. He was pretty creative coming up with adjectives. The next morning, we'd ask him again. It's such a small thing, but it really helped him start the day off on the right foot.

Yesterday was supposed to be an awesome day. When he got off the bus, he said it was almost awesome, but he thought it would be all the way awesome before bedtime. On the ride home from the bus stop, he started writing down more words that he could use and then decided that he wanted them on a real list.

He wrote a draft list on paper and then he typed them on the computer. (Obviously, he had a little help with formatting.)

Last night at dinner, we told him about the plan for today and tomorrow...Oma is picking him up from the bus stop and taking him out of town for the night after art class. Today was going to be exciting.

When James went to wake him up this morning, Brady was awake in bed (very unusual!). He popped up, pointed at the list, and said, "Exciting!" Before he left this morning, I told him to have a good day. He shouted back at me, "No, Mom. Exciting. Number 17!"

Exercisin'

Penguination

No, I can't explain it.

Days of the Week

Both boys have learned this song in school this year, but Rudy wouldn't sing it in front of the camera...

"Nap" time

Rudy naps only once or twice a week these days. Usually, he's very good about playing quietly in his room:

Christmas present

We continued our tradition (started only last year!) of not giving the boys a Christmas adventure, rather than toys or 'stuff' for Christmas. They both decided over the summer that they wanted to go to Great Wolf Lodge. James and I weren't all that interested, so we told them to save their money and they could pay for the trip themselves. We figured that would be the end of it, except that they both diligently started saving up. Around Thanksgiving time, they had nearly enough in savings.

They were SO excited to go. We didn't feel right about having them use their hard earned money for a family trip. We also didn't have any other fabulous ideas for our Christmas adventure, so we booked a night.

We gave them new monster beach towels at our family gift exchange. We told them how proud we were of them for saving their money, but that our Christmas present to them was a night a GWL.

We just got back yesterday. Of course, they loved it! We all had fun, but James aptly compared it to Las Vegas...a fun, loud, overstimulating place where you feel slightly robbed of your money, and where you don't feel a burning desire to return to anytime soon.

That makes it sound terrible, and it really wasn't. It was perfect for one night (not sure we could have done two!)

The new monster towels:

There were several small issues with our basic room, so they upgraded us to a KidCabin. The boys were so impressed with the bunk beds!

They each got to pick out one game in the arcade. Rudy picked the motorcycle race and I got to play air hockey with Brady. I love air hockey and am so excited for the day the boys are old enough that I can 'rationalize' buying an air hockey table for the house :)

We didn't get too many pictures. The lighting wasn't great and, obviously, it was very wet and splashy! Rudy loved these little slides. Up the stairs. Down the slide. Wash, rinse, repeat - for hours on end!

Rudy did try some of the other, bigger slides. By the end of our visit, he was willing to consistently go down one of the mid-sized slides. He went on one of the big tube rides with us twice, but did not really find it to be an enjoyable experience!

Brady wasn't too impressed with these...not nearly exciting enough. He did agree to race his little brother a few times though. Brady preferred the tornado and other tube rides.

We spent a long time watching people on this bodyboarding 'ride'. I was schocked that both boys agreed to try it out. Brady said he would do it if James would, so they went to get in line. Rudy waited with them while I grabbed the camera. When I came back to get Rudy to wait with me, he declared that he was also going to try it.

Six years in four minutes

I had to limit it only to birthday pictures, or it would have been six years in four hours!

Truck full of

On the way home from town yesterday, Brady suggested we play “Truck full of”. This is our car ride game where we take turns asking, “Would you have rather have a truck full of A, or a truck full of B”.

It started as "Would you rather..." but Brady prefers to keep it to 'truckfullof'. Apparently, whatever trucks we use are infinite in their capacity because they'll hold a varied assortment of items: beaches, real cars, ice cream shops, Busch Gardens...

On one of Rudy’s turns, we had the following exchange:

R: Would you have rather have truck full of windmills or a truck full of sky chutes?

K: What? Windmills or sky suits?

R: Sky chutes.

K: Sky suits?

R: Sky CHUTES!

J: Like parachutes?

R: Yeah, parachutes.

K: I’d rather have windmills.

B: I’d rather have parachutes

J: I’ll take windmills.

K: How about you, Rudy?

R: Parachutes, then I can shoot parrots.

Happy new year!

We had a relatively quiet evening at home (as quiet as a house can be with 4 kids and 3 dogs!). Cindy, Andy, and the kids came up and spent the night. The kids had a great time with each other - playing upstairs (and somehow not making a huge mess!) and playing their new games and some Wii.

These were just before midnight as Bella was planning their 'show':

Blue Angel of Christmas

Tony made Rudy a movie for Christmas: The Blue Angel of Christmas. Rudy was enthralled watching it: