Operation: Christmas Cookies!

The setup:

Yum yum, my favorite cookies! My whole life I've enjoyed decorating and more importantly, eating these cookies every Christmas thanks to my Nana and my mom. Will had a great time this year and did quite the job on his cookies. Here are a few of Will's masterpieces close up. Please note the mounds of sprinkles.

When we were ready to head home my mom packed up some cookies for us (well for me, really. I prefer not to share). It was dark in the car and the boys were quiet - Dane sleeping and Will watching a movie. I decided to have a little sample so I quietly opened the tupperware container so as to not alert Will. I quickly and discreetly slipped one cookie from the passenger side of the car over to my side. I sunk my teeth into the delicious cookie - only to find it quite sprinkly! I turned on the light to see what in the world - and saw that it was obviously one of Will's cookies. That will teach me to sneak cookies in the dark.

Will

On Tuesdays we still go to my moms. Recently we got home and I was carrying everything in and after a few minutes I was wondering where Will was. I didn't hear anything. I started calling for him, no answer. Then I got concerned and started looking for him. Finally he answered me - "I'm down here mom - I'm playing Xbox!" Sure enough, he was at the far end of the downstairs and had turned on the Xbox and started playing it all by himself! When did my baby turn into a big boy???

He actually calls it his "Ets bots" which makes it even cuter. He has such a great imagination and I love hearing him play. He pretends a lot. He says the cutest things these days. I'm not sure where it all comes from - like today at lunch I made him a peanut butter and honey sandwich. There was a little hole in the bread and he said "look mom - lizard poop" and pointed to the hole. He also calls hand sanitizer "handsitizer" - which I actually think is a great contraction! I caught him jumping on the couch - I gave him a time-out. I told him he knew he wasn't supposed to jump on the couch, why was he doing that? His response, through his tears: "I just wanted to have some fun." He also just informed me that he and Rosco were going to go over to PaPaw's mancave. ...oh really! I'm so glad that Luke is bringing home a lock for the front door that will go up high where Will can't reach it (until he figures out a way - which won't be long I'm sure) because as it is he can get out by himself...

My boys :)

Dane was about to snuggle in for a little nap. Will was star struck and just sat there smiling and mute. Finally he quietly told Santa he wanted a John Deere.

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Ringo Starr

Story to come...

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Chimes of Christmas

My mom and Chuck treated Will and I to the Chimes of Christmas at the IU Auditorium. It was a fun "date night" for Will and Momma. I think Will was most excited about the bus ride, or the "school bus" as he was calling it. He did a pretty good job at the show - especially the 2nd half when it became much more kid friendly. Santa even made an appearance! Thanks Mom and Chut for a fun night!

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Make yourself at home Rosco! He knows that PaPaw is the ONLY person that lets him get away with this.

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Live and Learn

Well now the house is done. It's beautiful and we love it. There are just a few loose ends that we are trying to get taken care of. Paint touch ups, some caulk repairs, etc. I'm pretty sure this project took a few years off my life - I now understand why people (usually) only do this once in their lives. I will never do this again, which is good, since we'll be living here forEVER. You live and learn - and if we had known then what we know now here are some things we would have done differently.

- I would have been how...do I say it - a hard-a$$, and not so nice right from the beginning. I was super nice to everyone, thinking that if they like me, they'll do a good job. I learned names and was sure to praise everything all the time. I think they did do a good job, but there came a point where I wasn't very comfortable "fussing" at them or pointing things out because I had set myself up as this nice mom with my kids in tow. I could have always loosened up but it's difficult to tighten up after you've been too nice.

- I would have inspected all the work much more thoroughly. It's uncomfortable after someone finishes a job to closely look over their work before you pay them - I like to trust that people have done a good job. Oh no. Not anymore. I wish I would have gone floor to ceiling, wall to wall, every single time. Because if I had, I wouldn't be finding these little imperfections that eat at me. Only toward the end do you become comfortable doing that kind of thing - just in time for the project to end.

- I knew I didn't want white grout - I've lived that nightmare before. I went middle of the road. I would have gone even darker.

- We wouldn't have spent hundreds of dollars on a diverter valve for our master shower. We never use it - we both like both of the shower heads on all the time.

- I wouldn't have picked out berber carpet. It already has a ton of pulls and underneath it is concrete. Apparently the concrete is uneven and because the berber isn't very tall, in some spots there is space between the trim and carpet.

- I would have gotten MORE skylights. We installed 7 of the tube skylights. Seven. You would think that would be plenty, right? No, I wish we had at least 5 more. I LOVE them. On sunny days I don't even turn on a light in the house until 4:30. Also, they look like regular lights and people who are over don't even realize they're a skylight unless I tell them.

I'm sure I'll come up with more - and I'll just add them to the list. Overall we LOVE everything and are so grateful.

Hunter, Bradley, Owen, Baylee, Elizabeth, Will & Nolan. We hosted our first get together at our new house. We had never been able to host anything more than one other couple at our old house. Our living room was just too small. (which Luke secretly loved. And I won't lie, did come in handy at times.) Not anymore! We had 19 people over for the "Priest/Schum" Christmas. (only two of the 19 are still Priests - and no Schums) It was perfect. We had a great time and the kids played downstairs the whole time. It was so peaceful! :) (unless you ventured downstairs)

Luke is one of the few (very few) people (guys) I know who can flatteringly wear their hair pretty short. Usually his sister Laura cuts his hair but occasionally I do it. This weekend he asked me to cut it for him. I was happy to do it. Normally he gets the clippers all ready for me, but this time I got them out of the box and plugged them in while he was draping his towel and getting the chair situated. I start cutting and start in the back lower right hand side of his head. I do a patch about the size of an egg and all of a sudden realize. Hmmmm. "Luke, do you usually put a guard on here?" Yep, he does. He said "too late now! You have to keep going." I HAD TO BUZZ HIS WHOLE HEAD!

He's been wearing a hat ever since the buzz. Just in time for the 0 degree wind chill weather. Sorry honey! His new doo...

Look at my sweet baby boy! He is so precious. He's sitting up so well. He is saying "ma ma ma" I'm convinced he is calling me by name. Luke says he's just making the sound. He also got his first injury, :( He was in his pack n play and I stood him up and he was holding on to the side of it. I figured if he fell he would fall into a sitting position. Nope, he fell straight back as stiff as a board. The pack n play was sitting up against the spindles of our banister. (square shape) He hit the edge of a spindle (through the mesh part side of the PNP). He has a nice little scrape on the back of his head.

Sleepover!

Will, Dane and his cousins Landon & Payton. Doesn't Dane look thrilled? This past Saturday we got together to celebrate a few birthdays. I had one of those moments where, as a mother, you feel like your heart is peeled back, raw and available for the taking. Terri offered to let them all spend the night at her house after the get-together. I was packing Will's overnight bag and as I was picking out his things and I got to thinking - his cousins are 7. Quite a bit older, and in 1st grade. They are super sweet to Will but I had this moment where I was packing his toothbrush and I wondered "will they make fun of his Elmo toothbrush?" Will they think it's "baby"? And my heart literally ached just thinking about anybody making fun of my baby boy. (DISCLAIMER: L&P are SUPER nice to Will and I don't ever think they would make fun of him. But in the same breath, boys are boys, and kids are kids. Even the nicest of kids will tease.) I know it was foolish of me even to think a thought like that, but packing an overnight bag for my 3 year-old is a new thing for me. He's been spending the night with his Nana for years but with "friends"? It's a whole new territory. He's such a big boy!!!

SO, we're at the party and I'm standing there talking to my brother-in-law Rick and we're by the staircase. Will starts to come down the stairs and when he's about 1/2 way down he slips on a step. I thought at first he was just going to slide down a few of them on his back so I wasn't too worried. But then, in slow motion, he somehow turns directions and starts to tumble forward. Rick lunged forward to try to catch him. All of a sudden his face smashes. I mean SMASHES. Crunches. Splats (and that's exactly what the horrid sound was like - a splat. Unmistakable.) Onto the ceramic tile floor. His body was lying up the steps and he was face down on the tile. I raced to him and (I'm pretty sure I ripped poor Rick out of the way) I was sure his whole face was going to be torn open. I remember shouting "Oh GOD. Oh GOD." I picked him up and somehow, by the grace of God, there was no blood. Just one little drop from his nose. That was it. He got some red marks but I have no idea how he walked away from that tumble with nothing more than a couple of marks. Then of course I was thinking all night...I"m such a horrible mother. I left him there! I'm sure he's having internal bleeding in his head. I'm going to take him to the hospital tomorrow and they're going to say "so your son smashed his face and head on a hard tile floor and you did....NOTHING??" Alas, he's fine. Not so much as a goose egg. Mike said it was his big cheeks that saved him. Cushioned his fall. Lesson to be learned from this? Put a rug at the bottom of our steps. Especially as little Dane is so close to being able to navigate himself over to our steps.

A few mornings ago I woke up and looked out our kitchen window and saw this. Does it get any more beautiful? We are so fortunate to be able to live on this beautiful land.

Dane 7 1/2 months

My big boy!!! 7 1/2 months. He has just started sitting up really well in the last week. He's also trying to crawl - up on his hands & knees rocking. He is also pulling his knee up under him and he'll lunge forward on to his belly. Not long before he gets it all figured out!

And look at those two teeth! :)

Poor Dane.... The boys helping me do some laundry.

Mandy & Jackson came over to play and visit Katie while she was here. They played so well together!

For Mike's birthday the 6 of us took a roadtrip! We went to the Ron White show up in Merrillville. Along the way we stopped at Fair Oaks Farm where we had lunch and almost watched a calf being born. (I know, strange combination)
Me, Terri and Laura.

We had dinner at Jalapenos - one of my favorite restaurants when I lived up there.
Terri and I with a senor that we met there.

We had a great time - the show was great and then we went out after to Bar Louie for a while. It was great to get away for a night of fun!

Will might possibly kill me when he gets older for posting this picture, but it's so cute! He was so excited about his Superman Big Boy Boxer Briefs that he kept showing them off.

Dane's first dip in Aunt Terri and Uncle Mike's pool. (actually I didn't want to take him in the chlorine so we made our own little pool next to theirs :)

This summer we took a trip to Columbus for cousin Jennifer's high school graduation party. We stayed with Luke at his hotel that he stays in for work and made a fun weekend of it. We went to the Columbus equivalent of the Children's museum and they just happen to be having a "construction zone" exhibit. What luck! Will had a great time climbing on all of the equipment. (ps: Look at Luke glaring at me! :)

Petting Zoo

I took Will to a petting zoo before Dane was born with Aunt Laura and Landon & Payton. Here are some pics from the trip - I Think it was in April?

Riding a horse!!

Will and Dane love their Opa & Oma!