Baby, it's cold outside

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!  We are still at my parents' house.  We have had a great time.  The boys got way too many trains but that is just my life these days.  Of course, they love each gift like they have no other toys in this whole wide world.  I will post some pictures when I get home.

There are many things I enjoy and even love about our current home town.  God has shown his faithfulness over and over by moving us there and continually providing for us.  

However, it just doesn't seem right to be 75 degrees on Christmas Day.   I am so glad that we were traveling to experience the 25 degrees on Christmas Day.  We took the boys sledding and attempted to build a snowman.  We get to wear heavy coats and sweaters that only see the light of day once or twice a year.  It's great!

Hope you all are staying warm or cool where ever you are.

Ice skating

A water park near us converted part of the area to a Winter Wonderland so we decided to go and check it out. I took the test pilot and my nephew, who was visiting for the weekend. The captain stayed home with the 2 sick ones.

It was actually a lot of fun. I had a blast. I tend to be the "eat your vegetables and time to go to bed parent" while my husband tends to be the fun one more often. It was nice that I was able to do some fun stuff with them for a bit.

In this picture they are playing in the snow. The park had several snow machines that were blowing man made snow around. They thought that was awesome.



The highlight of the night had to be the ice skating. Neither boy had ever skated before but they did great. Of course, I was probably the worst parent to be teaching this skill. I can skate moderately OK, but I have terrible balance. We made the best of it. There were lots of falls and lots of hugging the wall but they enjoyed all 45 minutes of it.

Combat crawling

Well, here's a little peak at Piglet these days. He has his own way of getting around and it is not the traditional form of crawling. He moves pretty fast especially when there's a Christmas present to snatch.

My thoughtful boy

Well, I just have to brag a little. I know I shouldn't but I am so proud of my sweet boy. Last Saturday, the captain and I are working around the house. The test pilot keeps coming to dad or I asking odd questions.

He first asks for some wood and proceeds to disappear for awhile. He then asks me when dad will be done doing whatever he was doing because he needs to use the saw. I sent him to his father. It never crossed my mind to ask what he was doing.

The captain comes in saying that he needs to take the test pilot to the craft store to buy some wheels. That's when we discovered that he was making Piglet a Christmas present.

He had taken the block of wood and drawn a train on it. He asked the captain to cut it out and then he decorated himself. He wanted to make some wheels but dad said it was easier to just buy some.

Here's his finished product. I think he did a fabulous job. What a sweet boy! I hope Piglet is as happy to receive it as the test pilot was making it.

First Kiss

This past Saturday we had some dear friends over from church. One of my friends has a daughter, Abigail, that is about 13 months old. Piglet was delighted to have someone his size around to play with. They played with toys on the floor and spent plenty of time poking each other and checking each other out.

Then the cutest thing happened. I was standing Piglet up (he's not standing on his own yet) and Abigail walks over gives him a hug and gives him a big sweet kiss on the lips. It was so adorable. I wish I had my camera present. He seemed to enjoy himself.

He picked a sweet girl from a wonderful Godly family to share this moment with.

(I thought I would have a few more years before posting information like this. Oh they grow fast.)

Christmas Dinner Ware

Another reason I love Christmas is because I get to break out my Scarlet Fiestaware. A couple of years ago, my mom bought me 4 place settings of the Scarlet dishes for Christmas use. When Piglet gets bigger we will have to get him a plate.

These plates get washed a lot because I feel a lot more festive if we eat every meal on a scarlet plate. It's also one of the few occasions I let the children eat off of real plates and not plastic.

I just love this color, but for that matter I love all the colors. I am a Fiesta junkie. I registered for periwinkle and yellow dishes when we married. However, I could't stay faithful to just those colors.

Over the years, I just randomly buy one plate in shamrock or a serving dish in juniper. I love the mish mash of colors and I don't have to try and make it match.

Speaking of, I better get washing the breakfast dishes so we can eat off the scarlet plates at lunch.

Merry Christmas!

Favorite time of the year

Christmas is definitely one of my favorite times of the year. It's cold for a time- yeah! That means you can bake lots of warm things, drink lots of hot chocolate, and cuddle by the fire a lot.

And then there's the decorations. I am no Martha Stewart but I do enjoy decorating for the holidays. We put up lights on the house this year. We had not done that in a long time. I love the look. A bonus- I love those houses where they have the Christmas tree in the front window and you can see it when you drive by. Well, I can do that in my house! (It takes so little to get me excited!)


I love the sparkly Christmas trees with lots of lights and sparkly packages underneath. I love lots of sparkle. My baby likes the sparkle wrapping paper so much he decided to snack on it. Sorry Uncle Jeff!



And then you have the cute matching holiday outfits for my boys. Thanks Nana! This has become a tradition. We get matching outfits and attempt a picture. It turned out alright.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving holiday in Albuquerque with my family. The 12 hour drive went well. At times, the baby is screaming (because he is tired of his car seat) and the 2 big boys are in the back with their hands covering their ears. I wish I would have had my camera. Luckily, those moments were few and we made it just fine.

My sister was there with her husband and children. They are roughly the ages of my children so they all play well together (most of the time).

They normally have a book fest with Nana before bed each night, but this night Nana was occupied. Uncle Captain had to stand in. My mom lets all the kids sleep in her room with her and my dad when they visit (except the baby). It's a big slumber party. I am just amazed at how well they do.


Some friends of ours that are like family without being blood relatives were there as well. They are moving to China in January for 3 years for the husband's job. They brought lots of pictures and had great stories as they prepare for their journey.



Here are the Cline's playing pass the baby. Piglet's favorite game. He loves the holidays. There are a lot more people available to pay attention to him 24/7.

What would a holiday be without some trains? It wouldn't be one as far as my boys are concerned.

The captain and I had to make an emergency run to Wal-mart Thanksgiving night to buy some more trains. The set only had 2 and there are 4 big boys. Not my proudest parenting moment, but it sure stoppped a lot of screaming.

The captain calls this picture, "It's a thanksgiving miracle!" My son is 3 and my nephew is 2. Not the best ages to share. Little Crash doesn't think highly about sharing many things especially trains. My nephew liked to exploit that and well he's 2. Not the best combination!

After the run to Wal-mart (sorry they had to work but it sure was a life saver) the boys actually played really well together. They even hugged each other at one point. It's a miracle! We look forward to more fun in the future.

He's growing up

We just returned from our holiday trip. I will post about that later. We had a big milestone on the way home. The test pilot lost his first tooth! Saturday morning he was showing us how wiggly it was, and by Sunday evening it was out.


The tooth fairy will have to come tonight because she forgot in the midst of all the unpacking, grocery shopping, and getting kids in bed after a long trip home.



Before we left for our trip, the test pilot had a thanksgiving feast. As a head room mom, it was my job to assemble the feast and help out. The kids were all decked out in their "Indian" wear.

(I was surprised that they sang "Indian" songs and not "Native American". I can't keep up with all the PC stuff to say.)

Anyhow, he was proud of his costume. Note the pattern of beads on his necklace and the color pattern on his head dress. He did that on his own. His compulsively organized mother is so proud!