Silas Turns 5!

Silas recently turned 5 and we celebrated his birthday at the BOWLING ALLEY! Our family, along with Silas' friends Simon, Jonah, & Ethan, had a great time bowling, eating pizza & cake, and opening gifts.

Chowin' down... Silas is at the back table with his friends.

Silas & friends...

Azael bowls...

Cutting the cake... Silas chose to have a Club Penguin Puffle Cake.

The Birthday Boy holding a gift.

Happy 5th Birthday, Silas!!! We love you!

Pinewood Derby

Azael entered a car in his first ever Pinewood Derby last week. This is a Cub Scout event, for those of you who haven't heard of it. Azael designed and painted the car himself, applied graphite to the tires, and he named the car "Normal." He won the "most unique car name award" with that one. :) Azael was thrilled to place 6th out of over 20 cars.

Here's a photo of Azael with his car and awards:

Mystery Man and Jane at the Derby. MM is a Den Leader.

Azael chews on his lip as he nervously watches his car racing down the track.

Azael's car is the second from the left.

Hooray for Azael and Normal!

happy smiles

Just wanted to share 2 cute photos with some happy, smiles:

So BE HAPPY!

Science Museum Day 2!

Mystery Man and kids loved the Science Museum so much that they went again 2 days later (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) and Lorelai went along, too. Jane and I enjoyed ourselves at home and I got caught up on a project that has been waiting for a year. What a relief! Anyhoo, here are the photos of their fun:

Silas - in awe of the mystical floating balls
Lorelai inside a giant bubble!

Lorelai tries out the floor piano

A real live TORNADO... wow!

The T-Rex at the natural history museum (also free with the Children's Museum membership... )

Fun Science

Recognize this guy?

Yep, that's Mystery Man. This photo is FREAKY, if you ask me!

Saturday MM and the 3 boys went to the Discovery Center Museum (free for anyone with a children's museum pass!)

They had a blast!

Here's Silas, trying out the funky face thing...

Below: the plasticized face of Silas.

Ephraim and Silas check out a vacuum ball shooting thing.

Azael & Ephraim play a virtual sports game.

Silas examines a demonstration of moving water...

Azael & Silas practice newscasting (Silas' head is on the TV screen in front of the space shuttle)

This museum is GREAT! And they're expanding, so go check it out!

Thanks to Stacy B for recommending it!

The Black Widow

Azael and Ephraim love playing Poptropica on the computer.

They love it so much, that Azael decided to make a costume of one of the Poptropica characters, the Black Widow. Here they are...

Simple pleasures...

Trendy, Blessed Jane

Jane is already 10 weeks old! She coos and smiles at us often. She slept through the night once and generally sleeps until 4 a.m. when she awakes for a feeding. She is a joy... everyone in our family loves her!

Daddy and Jane dressed up for Jane's baby blessing at church:

Jane is starting new trends... so stylish! :)

Danger Girl

We thought having 3 boys first would break us in. We were wrong. Lorelai takes the cake on experimentation, curiosity, and danger! You've already heard about her cooking crazy concoctions and her toilet issues. Today I bring you two more "adventures" in the life of Lorelai.

#1: Lorelai is not letting old injuries heal. In other words, she likes to pick at herself. We tried covering the owies with bandaids, but she just took them off. Now we've gotten out the BIG bandages. With lots of tape. Hopefully she won't take THIS off!

#2 - a very dangerous one! YIKES! Ahhh! That's how I reacted when Lorelai walked into the kitchen with shaving cream on her foot mixed with - YOU GUESSED IT - Blood. I knew immediately that she had gotten into one of the should-have-been-locked bathrooms and found MM's shaving supplies (which he unfortuantely forgot to put away).

As I took these photos, she kept repeating, "Owie, foot. Owie, foot!"

After bathing her I went to the crime scene and found THIS! She had played with 4 razors! Um, Mystery Man, honey dearest, it's time to lock those bad boys away!

I've analyzed this series of events and realized Lorelai thinks she's a grown up. She truly believes she can go take a knife out of the drawer and cut some carrots, or mix any random smattering of foods and cook our dinner. I'm just grateful she hasn't picked Jane up yet. Or turned the stove on. Or...nevermind. Your positive vibes/prayers/happy thoughts are very welcome! :)

Plain Nasty

I love to eat healthy foods. And I love to experiment in the kitchen.

This week, I took both of these statements too far. At least for MM's taste...

This is a photo of a homemade black bean burger.

And this is a photo of MM almost throwing up as he ate one.

C'est la vie.

Better luck next time.

You can't win them all.

When life gives you lemons...

P.S. The black bean burgers are CJane's recipe. Don't blame me.

Chain Saw

Azael (on the way into Target): "Mom, I need you to buy me a chain saw."
Mom (trying not to laugh): "Why's that?"
Azael: "I'm going to cut a secret entrance into our room so Silas and Lorelai can't get in there."
Mom: "That's a great idea. But chain saws are illegal for people under age 18."

At least he's resourceful.

A Glimpse of Our Holidays

For Christmas we opened family gifts at home, then went to Iowa to visit Jen's parents (and open more gifts), then returned home where we opened our gifts from Santa. For New Year's Eve we went to a New Year's event for kids, complete with inflatable bounce houses and a train! Here's a glimpse of our holidays...

Lorelai in her Christmas dress...

Our family's fondue night (our Christmas tradition)
Jen and Lorelai do some yoga while at Jen's parents' house.

The electricity was out for about 36 hours in Iowa, so Grandma fashioned a little hat for Jane out of an old sweater. It did the trick and kept her toasty warm.

Great Grandma (Double G) holds Jane.

Double G made pillows for all the women in her family...

Double G and Jen Back at home, the boys open their Lego! (Silas is wearing a cool owl hat he received as a gift)

Jen's Mom made us some cool mittens out of old sweaters...
Ephraim and Azael wait in line to jump in the bounce house on New Year's Eve.
Silas goes into the bounce house.
MM made us some GREAT New Year's Eve hats and everyone decorated them.
Happy New Year! Make 2010 a great one!