Thursday, December 30, 2010

BAD

This is a little 30 second video that Adam put together of the boys dancing to Michael Jackson. It is hilarious!!

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas 2010


We've had a great Christmas this year!! Sabrina's parents came out on the 15th to celebrate a week early. We had fun celebrating Christmas, shopping, bowling, and playing lots and lots of games. Wes and Grandma played for hours each day I think! They love to trash talk each other too.

On Christmas Eve we spent the evening at Adam's parents house for dinner and presents. On Christmas Day Jenna, Zach, and Chloe came over for a few hours to exchange presents. It was a very laid back year and we loved it!!

The boys' big gift this year was a trampoline. Adam and his employee assembled it on Thursday, but they did it on the side of the house so the boys wouldn't see it. Adam and I thought it would be easy to just turn it vertical and roll it in between some trees and into place on the evening of the 24th. Umm, we were wrong. Really, really, really wrong. From about 11:30 at night until about 5:30 Christmas morning, we worked on the trampoline. There were times that we felt we may have to call Zach or Jim in the middle of the night to come help us. It was awful and we honestly didn't know if we were going to be able to save the trampoline or even move it. At 3 in the morning, Adam and I even discussed cutting down a tree. It was that bad. But, we made it. The trampoline is in place and is in perfect shape! And throughout that stressful night, Adam and I both remained incredibly calm and avoided any battles and tears. :-)

We were asleep by 6 a.m. and the boys woke us up 2 hours later to open presents from Santa. We were tired, but we had a great morning. In addition to the trampoline, the boys got other gifts such as transformers, legos, Criss Cross Crash (Hot Wheels), scooters, Wii games and GI Joe/Iron Man/Batman toys. The boys played outside for hours and hours today. It was such a wonderful day!!

This is also the first year that we had the boys shop for each other and me and Adam. We quickly learned that Calvin can't keep a secret. He gave Wes huge hints about his gifts (several minutes after wrapping it) that Wes knew exactly what it was. Then, when Adam asked Calvin what Calvin bought him, instead of saying "I can't tell you" -- Calvin just said "oh, we bought you blue shoes." Silly boy. He told us that he just kept forgetting it was a secret.

I hope you and your family had a great Christmas too!! 25 days until we head to Ethiopia -- the countdown begins! We received a second video of Allie and she was wearing a Santa hat. The video showed her nanny giving her a picture of our family and pointing to her "mommy, daddy and brothers". It was great to hear how the nannies pronounced her name too. I have watched that minute video about a thousand times!

Calvin's new "cheese" face

Early Christmas with Sabrina's parents and niece, Chloe

Calvin and Wes with Great-Grandma Fischer

Christmas Eve

Criss Cross Crash - Wes wanted it so badly for Christmas

Our new trampoline

Learning how to ride on the new scooters


Christmas Eve photograph with Allie (sort of)

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Allie's Room

We have finished painting Allie's room!!



Sleeping by the Tree

Every Christmas season, we take a few nights and sleep by the Christmas tree with the boys. Here is a picture of our nap the other day.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Wipeout!




This weekend, the boys went to the Festival of Cheer in Peoria. They had so much fun playing games; seeing Santa; playing in the snow; playing on inflatable toys; and getting their faces painted. This was the first year that they went up to Santa and sat on his lap by themselves -- and even told him what they wanted for Christmas!!

What a great day --- but wait, there's more! When playing in the snow the boys were each slipping and sliding around. Wes even announced how slippery it was. Adam laughed a lot -- and then Adam fell down. :-) If you'd like to see his "wipeout" watch the video below. This is our gift to you! Merry Christmas!