Boys, Boys, Boys

You can tell you have boys in the house when you find things like this

This is one of my knitting needles with a pen taped to the end.

My best guess is that it is a spear or an arrow.

and this...

A squirt gun with a flashlight taped to the top.

laying around the house. As you can probably guess, we go through

a lot

of tape in this house.

Super Bowl

The Super Bowl was a couple of weeks back and I thought I would share a few photos. Since we have moved back to the USA , the boys are loving football (American football). They all have their favorite teams and they all love playing, especially playing with dad. This winter they have cleared out a large space in the basement where they have their own field. They have named this game basement football. They are down there most nights playing. They are always looking for an audience, but mom and grandma's don't give in anymore. They are really rough and someone usually ends up crying. I've deemed basement football, Dad's territory.

This year the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers played in the Super Bowl. Cason is our die hard Packers fan. You can see from his jersey and the fact that he got green and yellow rubber bands for his braces the last time he went to the Orthodontist. Andrew is a Chicago Bears fan, so the game two weeks earlier was more fun for both of them. The Packers and the Bears played each other in the playoffs to get to the Super Bowl. Needless to say, the Packers won. Since the Bears weren't in the Super Bowl, Andrew cheered for the Steelers, just to go against the crowd. Although, Uncle Mark cheered with him as the Steelers are his favorite team.

For the Super Bowl, we had a bit of a party...lots of snacks, two grandmas, one grandpa and one uncle. We did end up making the kids go to bed before the game was over since it was a school night, but we did record it for them. They promptly got up the next morning and finished the game. Cason ended up being a very happy camper since the Packers won the Super Bowl this year.

It was a great night and great to see the boys so excited for a game and so dedicated to their team.

Our Big Three Year Old

On Christmas, we celebrated Nate's third birthday. Nathanael is such a good-loving little boy. He is pretty laid back and so happy. He goes off and plays by himself in the basement for hours. He also makes it his goal, while he is down there, to dump each and every box of toys. The next time I head downstairs, it looks like a tornado went through. The other kids don't like that he does this very much, because they are the ones who we make clean it all up.

His birthday and Christmas gifts pretty much consisted of trucks, tractors and cars. It made this little boy VERY happy.

Here, one of the boys put dish cloths in his shirt to be like football pads. This is the face and the growl he thinks football players do.

One of the funniest things he does lately is tell everyone how old he is. For example, someone will ask him how old he is and he will respond, "ten." We then tell him, "no, three." Just the other day, we asked him and he responded, "ten!" We said, "ten?" He then said, "no, probably eweven." He cracks us up more than we can count everyday and we are blessed by him.

Conversation Between Boys

The other night while we were out for a walk, we were all discussing what kind of dog we would like to have someday. We all shared and then continued to walk along. After a bit, Steve overheard the following conversation.

Andrew: "I want a Toy Poodle."
Either Tristan or Cason responded: "I want a real one."

Just wanted to capture this so we could remember it. They so crack us up.

Guys Weekend in Northern Ireland

I'm finally posting some pictures and a few comments about our trip to Northern Ireland. The picture above is of us having lunch at a small cafe in Ballycastle. All of us except Cason had an Ulster Fry. It's basically a bunch of breakfast foods fried. It consisted of fried potato bread, fried soda bread, pancake, fried eggs, bacon, sausage and beans. It was great and we all really enjoyed it (Cason had a chicken curry). This was the point when I commented to Ted that when I married Marti I would have never thought that I'd be touring around Ireland with him and my boys.

This is a picture at the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge (on our way out to it).
As you can probably tell from the pictures, it was quite windy and chilly.
We did get a bit of sun and could just barely make out Scotland (not in the above picture). The boys and I have been here before, but it was amazing how easily we could get around with just the five of us.
The two eldest at Giant's Causeway (along the North Antrim Coast). Still very windy and wavy (which the kids really enjoyed).
More pics at the Giant's Causeway. We were very close to the water but because it is such a shallow approach to the beach, the waves weren't too bad right on the edge (although I suspect mom wouldn't have let the kids get quite as close, but we won't tell her.)
Cason and dad at the top of some columns of basalt enjoying the view.
Ted in front of Dunluce Castle. The kids stayed in the car (pretty tired-out from a very early morning and lots of driving and walking) so we didn't explore it too much, but it really a very pretty setting. I can only imagine what it would be like to live in a castle in this location (cold, wet and drafty I suspect).
On the second day we did more driving and spent some times in the Sperrin mountains. Towards the end of the day we stopped at a museum called the Ulster American Folk Park. It is a park that explores Irish immigration to American in the 1800's. We learned that the poor in Ireland at around 14 pounds of boiled potatoes (at least a man did) a day. I think the kids enjoyed it and Cason even got to feed the chicken (above).
On the last day we drove all the way from Coleraine (near the 'top' of NI) to Newcastle (near the 'bottom' of NI). The above picture is of Ted trying on some hats (not sure what they are called).

This is a quick summary, but all in all we had a good time and I really enjoyed spending time with my father-in-law and the boys.

Winter in the UK

I took these pictures of our backyard today. As you can see, we still have snow. It's been three days. It is amazing that we still have it. It was warmer this afternoon and it started to melt. Tonight, it is once again snowing. What a fun winter. We love seeing the snow.

This is the snow fort that the boys made. They worked really hard and they are very proud of it.

Brothers

I really don't know what I would do if my older three boys were are school all day. They are so much help with many things. In particular, they are great helpers with their younger brothers and sisters. A couple of weeks ago, I asked Andrew to look after Nate while I vacuumed the stairs. I peeked in at them when I was finished and they were still playing. I asked Andrew to watch him for a little longer while I put the girls down for a nap. He agreed. He entertained Nate for about a half an hour and on the couch the whole time, none-the-less. When I came into the room, I heard giggling and laughing from both of them. It was one of those price-less moments. I had to capture it on the camera. Andrew then showed me what they were playing. They were playing peek-a-boo with Andrew's belly button. He sure kept Nate entertained and helped mom out in the process. I just love seeing my kids love and take care of each other.