Mac's Big Win

We sure love games at our house. In fact many evenings of the week there is some game or another being played. This time it was finally Matthews first chance at a really Monopoly game. We had such a fun night sitting by the fire, all in PJ's, and watched as Matthew beat us all - fair and square!

Look at that grin!
All his money!!

Hats

Here are some silly pictures of the kids at a Hat Store at Niagara On The Lake. We went up for the afternoon and had so much fun walking through the town and getting some fudge.

Like the pirate look?
Brenna loved this hat so much Nana even bought it for her - she wears it all the time - the kitty hat we call it.

Josh's Picture

Josh made this the other day with some neat art app on the iPad. I just loved it and wanted to save it so here you go. You all get a look at it too.

The Cast

A few days after Christmas Brenna and her best buddy Sophia were playing upstairs when I was in the kitchen and heard a crash. I went to to see Bren on the floor crying telling her her foot hurt. The story (from a 2 1/2 year old) was that she "fell" out of her crib. She would not walk on it so I tried to bribe her with M &M's and finally put her for a nap. She never really slept and as soon as Brett got home I told him what happened - he tried the M & M trick also but she just crawled for them so he scooped her up and said lets go!

After quite a few tears in the X-ray room we were ready to cast.
After she was all wrapped in the pretty pink cast, that she picked out, we were off to Target for easy on and off clothing and a new toy of course!
Later that day she got some cuddling from Pace.
This case did not slow her down for long though. A few days later she was caught doing planks with Nana in the basement were she declared she was getting really "sweaty" form her workout.
Such a good sport out little girl was. She managed to do about everything with this case on - even play out in the snow.

Looking Back at Christmas

Well, I have been lagging in my blogging so here is a quick recap of the holidays. After a great church service, Christmas Eve was spent at Uncle Frank and Aunt Char's house. The kids enjoyed a great meal (so did we) and playing with their older cousins toys and of course the presents. Tara and I were surrounded with the gifts - how cute all the kids are at this age.


When we got home that evening Matthew and Brenna said they were so tired that they just "fell asleep" on the kitchen counter - Night Night
The next morning we finally did have to wake Brenna even though the boys were so patient - even after being sent back to bed at 5AM- for Christmas Day to finally begin!



Later that day we went to Grandpa and Nanna's for Italian Christmas - great pasta dinner and more cousin and family time.

Here are Joshua and Nathan.
Josh, Mac and Nathan getting ready to open more presents.
Brenna - she was getting pretty good at unwrapping by this point.
The boys playing with a new toy.
Bren trying out her new pink bean bag - which she just loves.
Then this happened - I don't quite know what Grandpa did to her but look at that pathetic face!
Finally the day was over.

There are More!

Oh yes...more squirrels are living in the attic. This is a picture of our 3rd catch...who then Brett brought to the park to release and when he did, he watched it climb the tree, get in a fight with a grey squirrel and then "fly away". At the same time he was doing that, I was showing the gals at work the squirrel when one of the docs looked over my shoulder and said "you have flying squirrels". The day before Cate and even mentioned to Brent after looking at the blog that she though we had flying squirrels. They were all right...Brett saw it fly.

Since then we have learned

1. They are very social creatures

2. They live in colonies of 15-30

3. They love to invite others to live with them

4. They are the only nocturnal squirrel (that explained a lot!)

5. They remember where they live and it is recommended that you take them 10miles away to release them and preferably over a body of open water

Brett has declared a full fledged war on these guys...we trapped the 4th one this morning and he was released far far away.

Shadows

Isn't is so cute when a little one discovers shadows? Brenna and I had just finished dropping the boys off at school and on the way back to the car the sun was just right in the sky for some pretty impressive shadow making.
She had so much fun watching her shadow - jump up and down...
.....and follow her from behind.
She also loves Diego and Dora right now - so here is Diego who she loves to bring everywhere we go.