The Duo of Destruction

Dear Cameron and Nina,
Thank you so much for keeping yourselves entertained while I tried to finish our taxes.







On the bright side, our tax return is on the way.

Welcome Baby Gray

I know I'm a week late, but I'm still welcoming him. Last week, when my sister had her baby, we all went down to see them in the hospital. He's a tiny little guy who looks just like his older brother. Congratulations Andersons!

Ice Fishing

We spent MLK Day ice fishing at a State Park in Northern CO. We did this a couple of years ago and I thought it was a disaster, but this time it was a little better. We still had one of our kids fall into a hole, but overall, everyone had fun.

This might have been right when Cameron threw Nina's fishing rod down the hole. Matt was able to fish it out, so Nina's not too mad at Cam.








The kids had fun throwing egg shells into the water, digging out ice and running around on the ice. They got bored after 2 or so hours and headed to the car. Seriously, as soon as they were all off the ice, Matt caught his one and only fish.

Catch Up

I think this is the longest I've gone without updating our blog. I haven't been taking very many pictures either. I feel like we've been busy, but I can't recall anything special that we've been doing. Part of what's kept me busy is that Cameron has learned how to open doors. Between him and Nina, we've swept up 5 boxes of cereal. We also finally installed the lock my mom bought for the pantry back in March. Nina has been Nina. Howie lost another tooth back on Christmas Eve and loves to tease his siblings. Donovan starts indoor soccer this Saturday and has worn his Brandon Marshall jersey 17 out of the last 20 days. Matt has caught more fish. I am crazy. I think that's all the updating we had to do. Here's innocent Cameron, and the only other picture I've taken (that's not of something naughty that Nina has done).

Not him too.

Perhaps it is genetic. And perhaps all our kids have that gene. Cameron as of late is demonstrating his scavenger tendencies. We are so excited.

He knows how to find the cupcake stash at soccer games.



He knows how to push a chair up to the counter, grab a knife and stab a piece of banana bread. Very manly.



And he knows how to hide under the table when he wants to be naughty. In this case, it's not so bad - just a little yogurt. Much better than butter or the sugar canister.



And he knows he's clever. The stinker.

Not bad huh?

I didn't take very many pictures Christmas Day. Maybe another year? But here are the things the kids got this year:






For my own sake, a recap of Christmas. On Christmas Eve we went to Jen and Ben's like we do every year. We had a huge, delicious and filling dinner followed by a bunch of baked goodies for dessert. (Jen and Jill made a RR roast that I want to try) The kids played the chimes and for the first year you could actually tell what the song was. Next they broke the pinata and scrambled to gather candy. Then Santa came and handed out a present to every child. Santa got me a snuggie. I would have posted the picture, but I look too funny. Then we headed home, put the kids to bed and got to work. Most people keep a clean house all the time, but I don't like to be like everyone else. We spent a good hour or more cleaning the kitchen and living room before we got anything else ready.
Christmas morning started at 7:00. We were happy it wasn't any earlier. The kids lined up on the stairs, posed for a picture, then headed down to check out what Santa brought. We opened presents, played with toys, then had breakfast. I made some sticky buns and none of the kids liked them. Shocking. We spent the rest of the day playing with our toys. Pretty low key. Matt made a turkey for dinner and I made rolls, mashed potatoes and green beans. We played some more games then put the kids to bed. Then I tried out my new snuggie while we watched some episodes of Psych. It was a nice, relaxing Christmas day. Writing this it sounds boring, but I promise, it was fun. For reals.

Notice the resemblance?

Santa visited us at Jen's house Christmas Eve. I thought he looked a little familiar, and two of our kids thought the same thing. We were able to convince Nina that it was actually the real Santa and not her dad. Donovan revelled in the fact that he was "in" on the identity of Santa. A right of passage I guess. But Cameron found nothing familiar about him.