Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone. We hope everyone is enjoying celebrating Jesus's birth.

The boys gave us a great gift by sleeping in until 8 today. Mommy and Daddy loved that!!! Eli woke up as the Grinch, literally. He was not in a good mood this morning and it has continued all day. He has croup and was given steroids yesterday by his Doctor Mom, and one of the side effects is irritability. Well he certainly has it. He did sleep through the night, which was an improvement from being up al of Friday night with a barking seal. However his mood today has much to be desired. Even after a 2 hr nap this AM, still Mr. Grinch.

He is enjoying his car, and Mom has taken to seatbelting him into his car so he can't get out and cause trouble. His brothers are enjoying their toys. Graham tried out his bumblebee bike and Luke is enjoying his Marble maze and his Handy Manny toys. The boys had a good
Christmas.

We are getting ready for a dinner and then having a birthday cake for Jesus.

Hope you guys had a great day also.

Christmas Tree

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We decided to set up our christmas tree after our Thanksgiving. It took all day on Friday to get the tree up and then as I did the lights I realized half our lights didn't work. So, Graham and I traveled to Walmart to buy the lights. Then after dinner we started to do the tree. The boys put all the ornaments in the front and we had more broken ornaments this year than ever before, but they had fun. Taking a picture however wasn't as easy as Eli was not cooperating.

Windy

I get home from work today and everyone is sleeping except Luke. I was in the bathroom changing and Luke comes running in saying it is really windy and he watched the grill roll across the deck and is on the ground. So we start to have a discussion about not telling lies. And he says no it is really on the the ground. So I finish changing and low and behold, the place where it was on the deck and empty, and low and behold it is on the ground. So I apologized for thinking he was lying and we decided to wait for Daddy to come home to life it back on the deck and assess the damages!!!

Boot Rack

I was looking online for something to hand the boys boots, and hats and gloves on so that they dry and don't stay wet for hours. I was thinking of buying something. I know I had seen a metal tree stand type thing before. well I can across this wood/pvc pipe creation and decided to give it a try. All it is, is some 1 x 4 and some pvc pipe to hang the stuff on and bingo, I have dry boots and gloves now. I used it for the first time today, but I like it!!!!

Snowman

So we had about an inch of snow this am when we woke up. Luke say it and wanted to go outside from the start of waking up. I had to convince Graham it would be fun and then Eli came too. I got Luke dressed and sent him outside, then got Graham dressed and out he went. Finally it was Eli's and my turn. Eli enjoyed swinging for a while, but wasn't too keen on getting put down in the snow to have his photo taken. We also went for a small sled ride with all 3 on one sled, they did ok, but again Eli started to scream.

When I came home from work, everything had melted. Bye snow man.

Freedom run 5k

Last night our church hosted a 5k race. It started at 7:27 at night and was a 3.1 mile loop around the church. We went through a road by farms with lots of manure, even saw people out on horseback at night, ran by a high school football stadium with a game going on, and then through a cemetary called the Freedom Cemetary. The area where our church is used to be called Liberia and was part of the underground railroad. And the cemetary was a place for slaves to be buried. The purpose of the race was to raise awareness for the slavery that exists today around the world.

Having never run a 5 k before I started training for about 6 weeks or so with a goal of running 27 minutes. Since the race was at night, I practiced at night and was used to the dark. Most people had headlights on and they had lots of luminaries around the raceway so you knew where to go. They had over 60 volunteers directing traffic and giving us encouragement and telling us which way to turn.

Joe doesn't run, but this was his 2nd 5 k race this year. He ran once 1 week ago and only a mile and he was ready to go. He works out 3-4 times a week so didn't feel he needed to run.

So they had about 140 people run/walking the course. Joe wanted to be in the front, so I joined him and found myself going much faster than i ever wanted to go. My phone told me I was runing 8:15 second miles, which is great but I didn't think I could keep up that pace, and I was right.

Joe finished 1st in his age group, 30-39 with a time of 24:30 beating his only other time by 20 seconds. I got 4th in my age group with a time of 27:22. So I almost did the 27 minutes I wanted. We were both happy with what we did and enjoyed the bonfire afterwards with smores.

Not for Sale is one of the organizations we teamed up with to raise money for. Their website is below if you are interested in the Slavery around the world.

www.notforsalecampaign.org

Sunday we are having a Orphan experience to see what it is like for orphans around the world. So that should be interesting and eye opening for the whole family.

Grandparent Weekend

While Joe was off hunting for a long weekend in Colorado, I called in some reinforcements. Grandma and Grandpa Meier came to visit and help out with the kids. The weather was beautiful so we went to a pumpkin farm on Saturday to pick our pumpkins. The boys enjoyed playing in the hay as well as going on the hay ride to find their pumpkin of choice. We carved them on Sunday and had fun. Grandma Meier also had the boys make Mummy Pizza's and pumpkin rice crispy treats. IT was a good weekend, except for lunch on Sunday which was one of the worst restaurant experiences ever, but we all survived.

Zoo

On Tuesday, I took a friend and her 2 boys to the zoo with us. Some might say we are crazy to go with a 5 to 2 ratio of boys to girls. But we went and had a great time. Luke is the oldest, then Caleb, and his brother Josiah who is 7 days older than Graham, and then Eli. They enjoyed following each other around, looking at all the animals and learning fun facts about them. The polar bear was swimming around and the elephants were busy eating their hay. This is probably the last zoo visit for the year with the cold weather coming in, but our zoo membership is well worth it!!

Halloween

This year we were actually home for Halloween. We carved pumpkins with Grandma and Grandpa Meier (well the boys picked the design the grandparents carved). Then we had a block party tonight. Harrisville likes to do Trick O Treating the thursday before Halloween. Why, we don't know, but we all met at the cul-de-sac tonight and shared candy with each other. It was a good time. This year we had Optimus Prime Luke, Frog Graham, and Turtle Eli.

Women Of Faith

I had the priviledge of going to the Women Of Faith Conference this past weekend here in Pittsburgh. I went with 3 other ladies and there were various others I knew from Slippery Rock who were in attendance.

We had a blast listening to women from all walks of life - married with kids, married with infertility, single for 48 yrs, single for 80 yrs, divorced, marital separation and abuse. It was amazing to hear the stories the ladies had to share and to laugh with them and cry with them. I don't think I have ever cried so much in my life, whether it was tears of laughter or tears of sorrow they were there a lot. There was amazing music by Natalie Grant, and a group called Mary Mary. It was amazing to hear their testimonies of faithfulness of god through the trials and where he has brought them.

I have plans to go back next year and if there is a Women of Faith near you, I strongly encourage it.

Potatoes

For those of you who have known me for a long time, you know I hate potatoes. Well when I first got married, I decided I would make Joe mashed potatoes, as it was his favorite food. Well lets just say it was more soup than anything else. It was a complete disaster and I never tried again, nor did Joe ask me to try again. I really think if they had the show, "Worst Cook in America" at that time on the Food Network my potatoes would have qualified me for it!!!!!!!

So over the years I have slowly, and slowly is the key word as we have been married almost 9 years, trying potatoes. I have started by eating the potatoes and onions Joe often cooks for breakfast for the boys. Then I graduated to trying a baked potatoes (fully loaded of course) but enjoying it and even shocking Joe by requesting Mashed potatoes with steak at times. But I couldn't get passed the Mashed potatoes. When Joe would make them it would be lumpy and I couldn't stand the potato chunks in it. So I opted for instant potatoes, as obviously the recipe to do the potatoes to taste doesn't work for me if I won't taste them. So the other night we were having a rotisserie chicken. We had potatoes at home and I decided I would try to make mashed potatoes again. So I cooked them until they were falling apart, and then put them in the mixer, for what seemed like years. I added butter and salt and a tad of milk ( not a whole cup like before). And after a few minutes i loved the result. I told Joe I didn't even want the chicken, but just the potatoes. He checked to make sure I didn't have a fever and was like wow.

So I now like potatoes and eat them all ways. However, I told Joe I was picky and had to make the potatoes as I am not sure how I would do with some lumps. But I am now excited about Thanksgiving with the mashed potatoes. So if you are having us over for dinner anytime soon, I now eat Mashed potatoes!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gator riding

So it is the time of year when Eli is old enough and starts playing in the Gator. So when Luke was at preschool the other day Graham was driving it, but was going very slowly. so Eli got to go for a ride. He did pretty good, but didn't quite get the concept of holding on. at least he didn't fall out like Graham did on his first ride.!!

5 k

Joe and a friend, Marty, decided to run in a 5k race. It was this morning. So the wives and the boys headed to the race course to cheer them on. Luckily Marty's house isn't that far away and we could walk. We cheered on the running guys who finished under 30 minutes. Neither of them are runners, but they did a great job. We then enjoyed a brunch at their house afterwards. The first photo is of Joe running, he is the second runner. And the second photo, is of Marty he is the guy closets to Graham.

The cat

So today we came home and found a cat outside. Well actually Peanut had the cat cornered in the garage.

So Luke took to the kitten immediately and they have been best buds, or at least Luke thinks so. but the kitten has been purring and letting Luke hold him and play with him all afternoon. They were inseparable.

so we may have a new pet in the house. it has been called sleepy, sweet pea, scout, and thor, not sure if any will stick.

Aunt Erin's Visit

We all enjoyed having Aunt Erin visit with us for 2 weeks. She watched the boys while I was at work, and enjoyed it but I am pretty certain was happy to hand them back over to me each and every day. She played all sorts of games with them and created new ones. They went on hikes and were on adventures on the pirate ship, or Noah's Ark, or outer space with Eli the "alien" who would come and attack. We had friends and family over and went to church. We even went to the zoo and were one of only like 20 people there and enjoyed seeing the tigers and polar bears out and playful. We will miss Erin as she heads back to PNG for another year to do what God has called her to do.

Bed changes

Well due to recent instances involved our little climbing child. We have moved the beds around. We had been trying to get Graham into his big boy bed, and have had success but seemed to resort back to his crib if need be. But we have been doing good this past week. So I watched Eli on the monitor today being upset about being in bed and was trying to get his leg up. He wasn't anywhere close to climbing out, but I would rather have him fall 2 feet that 4 feet. So we took the crib out of Graham's room and moved it into Eli's room, as it low sitting. Then we took down Eli's crib. We have the older 2 in 2 twin beds across from each other. Hopefully they are each enjoying their new beds!!!

Preschool

Luke started preschool this year. He is going to the Montessori school here in town. They have 12 kids and he loves it. This is his first day of school taking in his special box. Since that time he has gotten the job of feeding the fish, he told me to sang the alphabet song to Lulu, he wants to wash dishes as his next job, is learning about the letter "b", and has some Good Morning Song he keeps trying to sing to us. He is enjoying his time for sure. Our little boy is growing up.

Visiting with Friends

With Erin being here, we invited our friends, Bob and Meghan McMichael out for a time of food, and smores, and fun. The kids are all very close in age and we had a great time together. They especially enjoyed the rocket launching and the smores.

Welcome home Sign

My sister returned for 2 weeks, and the boys made a sign for her. We covered the table with paper and let them go crazy with paints. I even got Eli's handprint into the action. The boys loved the painting and Aunt Erin enjoyed the sign.

Super Hero boys

We have recently gotten into being super hero's and fighting the bad guys. Here we have pirate/turtle graham, and turtle head/super luke who bravely got all the bad guys in a 5 mile radius.

colorado pics

Hiking

Today after dinner we went on a little walk on our land. We have some blackberry bushes the boys wanted to check out and Joe wanted to put up his deer camera. So off we went on our "venture" as Luke likes to call them. Eli was on my back in the backpack. He was quite content to hang out back there as long as I would give him a blackberry now and then. The problem is we have had too many pickers and there weren't that many left, so he would get upset with me and go "WAAN". Well Joe found the perfect spot for the deer camera, and he went off the path into the woods. Luke followed him of course and then started to yell for Graham to come too. Well Graham is holding onto my hand and isn't letting go. So I see a spot that looks like not many prickers and we can get into the woods area better, so we duck under some tree branches (which Eli thought was funny) and the we are in the woods. There was a little ditch almost, where the water would come down and it kind of made like a little ravine (I am talking 3-4 ft) but a narrow pathway and then around a sharp bend. Well Luke wanted to climb down and then wanted Graham to go to. So Joe took them and I stayed on top with Eli. Then both Luke and I saw a bridge up ahead at the same time. Someone had taken an old railroad tie and put it across this ditch. So we walk to that area a little bit, and Eli starts getting animated on my back. Swinging his arms and squawking (what he is saying we weren't sure). But we guessed he wanted down. So we got him out, and boom, he takes off right for this "bridge" (only like a 8 in drop off into 100 yr old leaves and sticks). He crawls across it no problem, gets to the other side and goes back. Luke is starting to get brave and jumping off it. Graham, is being cautious, and needs a hand to hold to go across it. Pretty soon Eli is crawling down in to the ditch and just walking all over, and pulling himself up onto the bridge from below. No fear at all. He was more adventurous than Graham. At one point Luke went for a little walk around some trees, and Eli just followed him the whole way. It was of course the one time neither of us had our phones for a picture :( But you may see the spot in our Christmas photo, as it looked like a neat place for a picture.

Baking

Since Joe came home I have baked more in 1 day, than in a whole year combined. I am not sure what got into me. I made blackberry muffins last week, that were very good. So we had received zucchini from our neighbor, and I made some zucchini bread. Also good, or so Joe tells me so. Joe is always saying he likes cinnamon rolls with chili. To me that sounds weird, however to him it sounds delicious. I tried once to make them in about 1 hrs, and realized the "rising" part of yeast wasn't happening, so I canned the idea. So I tried again tonight. We will see how they turn out. I had to get some tips from my neighbor Sylvia, as I wasn't sure how long you "let rise" the rolls. I even decided to make homemade icing, as I realized there wasn't any icing in my recipe. I may not be the Next Food Network Star, but I am trying to use up the brown sugar and powdered sugar that are in my canisters that have been there since our move from Texas. (Just kidding I threw them away!!!)

ZOO

So Joe leaves us for the weekend and goes hiking with friends from Kansas in Colorado. He wants to do something really cool like climb a 14,000 ft mountain. Since the last time we checked our backyard only had a 100 ft incline, he had to travel for this. So we were left alone.


Instead of being alone, my friend Daly came down for the weekend. We decided to do our own, fun, and cool thing--and go to the zoo.





The Pittsburgh zoo has a kids area, we typically don't make it there because the boys are too tired after seeing all the other animals. today I decided to go there first. The boys loved it, especially trying to get the deer to touch them, petting the camel, and sheep, and baby goats.




We also picked blackberries in our backyard and played in the pool outside. We had a good weekend ourselves. However the boys were all very happy to see Joe arrive at 945 pm Sunday evening. Everyone stayed up for the event and were treated to gifts and then bed!!



PS-Joe did make it to the top of the mountain!! WAY TO GO JOE!!!!

Boys and Hats

So the boys, especially Luke, have been really into hats lately. We finally put up a hat holder in their room, and Luke has stolen all of Joe's hats and claimed them as his own. So we went out for ice cream and put the Penn State hat on Eli, so everyone needed a hat. Luke took Joe's hunting hat, and Graham took Luke's Phillies hat and put it on backwards. Very cute

Deck

It has been Joe's dream to have a deck. Well not really a dream, but he really wanted one since we moved into the house. We finally decided to go for it this summer. The "DECK GUYS" are almost done. They have another bench to build and then a covering to put up along the bottom of the deck. Luke has enjoyed having them around as he goes out every morning and talks to the DECK GUYS or yells out the window "Hey Deck Guy, what is that tool for". We do know their names, but Deck Guy comes out a lot. We are happy with the deck and are excited for our first grill out on the deck. The best thing about these deck guys, is that they used to live in Joe's hometown in Kansas, Olathe and worked at the same plant his Dad worked at: small world!!