When you give a three year old your camera....

Hunter LOVES to take pictures with our camera...thank goodness it's not the "old days" with film and I can just go in and delete them b/c half of them are pictures of nothing. He had the camera when Hoppy and Mimi were over a few weeks ago and here are a few of the pictures that were half way decent. I had at least 50 of the kitchen table and candle sitting on the table that got erased :) I make him sit in the chair with it around his neck b/c he's pretty reckless most of the time and I don't want him breaking it

I took this picture of him while he took a picture of me taking his picture (if that makes sense!)Me taking the picture of Hunter shown above with my phone

Hunter taking pictures of Hoppy, Nick, and half of Mimi

Hmmm...does he look like he's had too much to drink or is it just me?

Mimi posing for Hunter

Hunter did a good job with this one I thought, but that was after about 10 tries

Grandpa Hoppy


I bought him his own digital camera for Christmas 2009, but obviously ours is more fun. I thought it was a great gift idea, but it hasn't been played with as much as I thought. It actually takes pictures, stores them, and you can look back through them (and transfer to your computer). It's plastic though so it can withstand abuse from a 3 year old too!

Quality Family Time--Part 3

Here are the last of the pictures for now...I have pictures from the Hands on Museum with Nana & Gigi on another camera, but it usually takes me a long time to get those onto my computer.

This has been the favorite Christmas toy for sure. I saw it at Costco and gave the idea to my parents. We would have gotten it if they didn't want to, but it's been so much fun for the kids. I worry about Jack getting hurt, but so far so good. Nick and I finally set up the workbench a week after Christmas one night after the kids were in bed. It was never going to get done if I didn't assist, especially considering he took the whole week off and couldn't take 15 minutes to do it! The hammer got taken away day one. He hit my hand with it on purpose and it hurt SO BADLY. I thought my thumb was broken--it swelled, was red, and hot/throbbing. I was fighting tears and I could only imagine if he hit Jack. He's asked for it a few times, but I still haven't given it back yet--I'm still mad!

The boys have never played so much together until now. Hunter is being really nice about letting Jack stand there and play with tools too. They make real tool noises and are as close to real as possible!

Jack loves making the drills and saws make loud noises.

Last Sunday we went to the mall after church and got smoothies. I also wanted to see about getting some money for some gold jewelry I have. The place was busy and I didn't have patience to wait, so I'll have to go back another time. Jack had a death grip on this cup and did not want to let go. I can't believe he doesn't give himself brain freeze.

He drank most of this large cup. He and I were sharing and Nick/Hunter were sharing one. He would whine every time I took it for a second to take some!

So cute in his little train sweater from Nana :) The train is corduroy and so are the pants...he looked so adorable! Yes, we are going to get haircuts soon for both boys...my hairstylist has been out for her wedding and honeymoon, but hoping to take them both this weekend.

Quality Family Time--Part 2

Lots of family fun time together--I love my camera too, so it's a lot of fun to take pictures of the kids! I hope they appreciate it when they are older :)

Santa brought these little ceramic animals to paint. I think I saw them at the $1 spot at Target too. It's a fun craft that is inexpensive and provides an hour of entertainment!

I got into it too and we painted some paper plates

Hunter's finished product

I made this while Hunter painted his seal. I have no artistic talents or creative abilities whatsoever. Neither does Nick, so our kids are in trouble when it comes to this stuff.

Watching Madagascar before bed one night...I took a little snooze before Nick woke me up and told me to take Hunter up to bed. These moments are few and far between when we have cuddle time together.
I love snuggle time with my kids!! We had ice cream for dessert and I was just telling Hunter to make faces at me. I'd say, "make a silly, frustrated, mad, happy, etc face" and he'd come up with something random.

I think this was his "happiest face ever"

He has quite the personality

His "silly goose" face

His "silly mad face"

Mad face

That is one scary face! Chocolate covered face

Quality family time...Part 1

I have taken several days off since December 23rd and Nick has not been to the office since December 23rd...We've done lots of fun things together, but mostly just hanging out at home, which is somewhat unlike us. Hunter went to the Hands on Museum (twice), Daddy & Jack took me to lunch twice, we painted, played games, made gingerbread trains, and much more. We go back to work on Monday and it will be weird getting back into our normal groove. The funniest part is that Nick has been home more than ever before with the kids (I worked three days and Nick was with the kids) and now Hunter has a new BFF named daddy. Hunter wants Nick to do everything, wants to know where he's at every second, etc. I will offer him food and he'll say "My daddy will do it!" or "I love my daddy the most!" or "My daddy is my favorite". I think it's rather amusing, but annoying at times when I want to do things for him and Nick is being lazy or doing something else. I can remember my friend Jennie telling me her son went through something similar, so I'm trying not to let it hurt my feelings--haha!

On New Year's Day Hunter and I made a gingerbread train. It was 75% off at Target a few days after Christmas, so I couldn't resist. It was lots of fun and Hunter kept eating the candy, but what else would I expect? He kept telling me he "needed to try it". I kept having to take the bubble gum balls away from him b/c I'm not letting him have gum just yet.

The perfectionist in me wanted to do it exactly the way they showed you on the box, but I had to let it go and make it fun for Hunter. He did a lot of the decorating...as you can see.

Us with our finished product. I had to put it up out of reach b/c he desperately wants to get his little fingers on that candy! Daddy and Hunter did some sledding, before the snow melted. We have a decent hill in our backyard, so they had fun with some new sleds Nana got Hunter.
Sliding down backwards...Jack and I watched from inside :)
Poor kid with no mittens on...
The other night we did some baking and playing around in the kitchen...Daddy was throwing dish towels on Jack's head and he found this hilarious.

He's such a cutie and just smiles all the time
Daddy got an ice cream maker from my parents for Christmas. Nick attempted to make ice cream one evening, but he can't follow instructions. We'll leave it at that. The next night he made it again successfully. It was really yummy!!!
Hunter and I made some puppy chow while Nick (failed) at making ice cream. I made two batches b/c Nick did not want peanuts in his...but then he ended up eating it all anyway. We had a leak under our kitchen sink and the plumber would not let us pay him b/c he said it should not have happened (he installed it when house was built), so we paid him in puppy chow.

Christmas Day--Part 3...happy new year too!

Here are the last set of pictures from Christmas Day. We hope you have a Happy New Year! We had our friends Matt & Jacquelyn over last night to hang out. We always have so much fun hanging out with them. She is pregnant and with our little kids, we had a low key night which was perfect for us. The boys beat us at euchre and we just hate losing to them...and when they drink too much they get quite obnoxious. Today we've hung out at home and played all day. Hunter and I made a gingerbread train, took down Christmas decorations, and watched Michigan lose in the Gator Bowl. Hunte has been wonderful all day and was super helpful in taking the ornaments off my trees, etc. I love days like today when he's just being so sweet and helpful.

Gigi and Jack. She is the best great-grandma to Hunter and Jack. They love her so much and I know she loves to see them too! I really try hard to include her in things and have her see them as much as possible. She is so happy to be invited and Hunter really enjoys spending time with her. Grandpa Tom and Hunter on Christmas Day

Both boys in their matching outfits with Grandpa

Jack wanted down at this point!
Jack playing with Hunter's new tool set safety glasses

Hunter's Black & Decker Junior tool stuff.

Maybe he'll want to be a builder like his grandpa one day.
Playing on a new toy from Nana and Grandpa. Hunter does not comprehend that some toys are for Jack. As far as he is concerned they are all his and we're trying to explain some are Jack's and he has to share. It doesn't work so well.

Emily and her dog Madison. My mom's dog Bailey is not doing well. She can hardly walk and probably won't be with us much longer...it's going to break my mom's heart :(

Jack was having fun putting his toes in his mouth--yuck! I was about to change him into his pj's on Christmas night before we left my parent's house in case he fell asleep in the car. He was scowling and thought it was intriguing at the same time.