Brad's project

After watching our neighbors across the street attempt and fail to build an igloo in their front yard, Brad discovered his own talent in the trade. Once the igloo began he realized this will be his last igloo built by his own two hands. (Too much work) But like any project Brad takes on... it was a success and fully functioning. The three of us can sit inside of it (tightly), it can support the weight of a person (ok, maybe only a little person), and it is about 5 feet high inside. It is made purely of packed snow. I was thinking I might eat lunch inside it sometime, since it will probably be in our backyard until spring.

Stitches, Slump and Sledding

STITCHES:

We spent our Sunday morning in the E.R. Parker tripped and sliced his head on a piece of furniture as he fell. We weren't sure if he needed sitches; we didn't want to look stupid when the doctor said it was just a cut and to put a bandage on it. Brad said it looked really deep so we went to the E.R. anyway. Brad and I are glad we did, as you can see he ended up with 5 stitches on his forehead. I fought so hard to not be one of the weaping mothers while I watched them restrain Parker and stick a needle in his head to numb the wound. I almost lost it. The poor little guy was such a trooper though. While screaming, he kept saying "all done" to the doctors, hoping it would get them to stop. He then got so worked up that by around the 4th stitch, he started to fall asleep. Once we left the hospital and entered our car, I lost it. I just cried as I watched him fall asleep in his car seat on the way home. He will get his stitches out on Saturday.

SLUMP:

Mark and Carrie and the boys came to visit for New Year's along with Leavitts. Our family has a game called Slump. It is a horseshoe type of game but you play it with the stacking baby toy. Each ring gets harder and harder to throw on. We have an official SLUMP KING! Mark was able to successfully toss the top ring on with out even breaking a sweat. This is an amazing feat. No one in the history of Slump had yet to do this until this marvel of man created history on the last day of 2007. Bravo Mark, bravo!

SLEDDING:

New Years Day many of us went sledding. This was so much fun. This first picture was taken BEFORE sledding. Parker was so tired from playing with all his cousins all day that he fell asleep even before we left our driveway.

Parker (aka "Ralphie") and Emma had a good time playing with the snow at the bottom of the hill.
Shane... faster than the speed of light.
Brad put a ramp on top of the ramp... genius idea.
Emily...sporting Brad's sunglasses. Hers are still MIA.


Bradley... fearless. Shane took this picture, isn't it awesome.
Mark and Ryan soaring down the hill while the crowds cheer.
Miles was an animal. He wanted to try everything. HE kept wanting to do whatever made him go the fastest. "Will someone big go with me so the tube will go faster off the ramp?" This is what Brad was doing. Brad lifted him up at the last minute to save Miles from the impact of the fall.
I told Ryan to smile, but the sun was reflecting so bright he couldn't keep his eyes open. Too cute!
Parker had such a fun time going down the hill with his Mom and Dad. We got going down the hill so fast sometimes the it would make his eyes water.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Day

Ok... so these top two pictures are from the Sunday before Christmas and not Christmas Day as the title says, but who's counting.

Christmas Eve we all smothered anything we could find in chocolate. My favorite is the chocolate covered cinnamon bears.

Parker first wondered if this really was for him.
He clearly got over wondering once he jumped on. This is his dancing/"I'm having fun" face.

What good is snow with out a snowball fight. Brad's mom was the target. This is the view from Brad's parents back yard...isn't it beautiful.

Almost every day of our trip, Parker would wake up from either a nap or in the morning with a new scratch on his face. So for Christmas morning he had a total of 6 scraches on his face. Crazy sleeper. His nails aren't even long.
You can never start learning to be a handy man too early. Brad was putting together some shelves for his mom and Parker had to be a part of it. He didn't want to let go of the screw driver. Brad was so patient and let him help.

All aboard the Polar Express...

Brad's Jacket is OLD! It belonged to his Grandpa. Brad told everyone his Grandpa used to go hunting back in "Nam" wearing this jacket. Hunting=True, "Vietnam" = False.

A few days before Christmas we jumped onto the Polar Express to go to the North Pole to Santa. Wow, it was cold at the North pole. We were served cookies and milk, sang carols and of course went to Santa's workshop. Santa even came and visited us on the train on our way home from the North Pole.
Here's the train. We had so much fun!

No melt downs... Can you believe it? I think the candy cane was the trick.
They didn't know I was taking the picture. No smiles- oh well. Cool train though.

Is Thanksgiving really gone already?

The second picture was before our first HUGE storm... see, no snow. But isn't Parker just so CUTE in his coat and hat? We couldn't find his mittens that day so we put some socks on his hands. Laugh if you want, but I think I will do socks more often, they stay on better than his mittens.









The rest of the pictures are right after we got 8-9 inches in probably about 12 hours. We had our good friends Rob and Jocelyn come out to play and try to get a fun family picture. As you can see, we had a good time.





Brad's pride and joy... the piles of snow by our driveway. ( Well, Parker is his pride and joy too of course) Every winter when the snow starts accumulating, I laugh whenever I drive into our driveway. It really is an art form to get the snow berms to come to a perfect point like that.

Fun with Grandma

Grandma ball came to visit for about 5 days. Her first day here we all went to the park by our house. Luckily she remembered her camera so we could capture this time with Grandma.

Yes... that is Brad's bike. He has had this pocket bike for about a year now. He loves it. Grandma even got on the back for a while with Brad. I have to admit, it is pretty fun. I won't drive it alone though because you have to shift gears...makes me nervous.

Dinosaurs say "ROAR!"

Parker had so much fun at our trick or treat! He could not stop walking all over the place. Parker doesn't know what a dinosaur says so when we wanted him to roar we would whisper in his ear "What does a lion say?" which would be followed by Parker yelling "Roar!" to our friends. Everyone got a kick out of it.
One of Parker's many girlfriends... Emma. Neither of them were thrilled to be in their costumes.