Happy Birthday JESUS!

Just a short video clip of the family singing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

Winter Clean Up!

After starring at the snow for days on our deck, I thought it might be smart to remove the heavy snow from our deck, so I put Darren and Ty to work. Ty was in his glory helping daddy shovel the snow from the deck by throwing it over board.

Enjoy a few cute pictures.

Snow Fun With Daddy!

My boys were very busy in the snow today. They spent countless hours constructing stuff out of the beautiful snow that God sent our way (they are still out there actually). Ty and Darren's two most impressive masterpieces, with snow, were "Frosty the Snowman" and an igloo that fit both Darren and Ty in it. I told Ty I had a hat that replicated the hat Frosty wears in the movie. I think he thought once I "placed it on his head" he would begin to dance around. He was a bit disappointed.

When I say, my "boys", I'm not just speaking of Darren and Ty. I mean Ninja too!!!! Ninja always loves when it snows. He's a snow dog at heart. Watch as he runs away from our house and back to it.

"Annie"

It's so much fun to introduce the toys, movies, stories, and music to your children that were once your favorites. My all time favorite movie was and still is"Annie." I purchased the movie for Ty about 3 months ago. Although he did not enjoy the movie as much as I still do, he really did love it. I was esctatic when I found out that "Annie Jr." was coming to the Mill Mountain theatre, so I quickly jumped on purchasing tickets. We invited Jill, Ashton, and Piper to join us.

The cast consisted of 35 children from all over Roanoke and the New River Valley. Annie was performed by a young girl that attends a school just 4 miles from our home.

If you or your child have never seen the movie, I highly recommend purchasing it for them. It would make a great stocking stuffer at Christmas time ($9.00 at Wal-mart). It's a great way to introduce the topic of adoption. Jill took the topic of adoption a step further after Piper asked her what adoption meant (being "Daddy Warbucks" was going to adopt Annie). She related it to how Christ adopts us into his life!

We really love spending time with the "Higgs". They are such a blessing to our lives.

Christmas Excitement is in the AIR!

We had a few cute ideas for our Christmas cards this year, but unfortunately, it's next to impossible to be successful and fulfill those expectations when you are trying to photograph a rambunctious 4 year-old and two 9 month-old twins. Below are a few photos that Shannon captured of Ty jumping on the bed. Can you tell the "Christmas excitement is in the air"? Shannon, thank you for giving me a second chance :) Being that I am a perfectionist, I know I am a tough cookie to work for.

52 Christmas Activities

For those of you who will be home with your children during the Christmas break, I have a "must buy" for you! It's called 52 Christmas Activities: By, Lynn Gordon. The pictures below pretty much self-explain what this is all about, but I will at least tell you that I purchased them from www.amazon.com I believe they were $6.95 for the stack of 52 cards. I didn't really pay for shipping because I ordered some Christmas items at the same time I placed this order. I knew about this author because I had once received (and still own for anyone who is interested in looking at them) 52 Alternatives to Watching TV and 52 Ideas to Do With Your Toddler. Let's face it, especially for the stay-at-home-moms, our days can be quite a humdrum. So, I do my best to spruce it up a bit. There's only so much hide-and-go-seek and match box cars you can play :) Below is an example of 1 of the 52 cards included in the box.

Let me know if you join in on the fun!

A Sleepover Filled with FUN!

By Webster's dictionary, the true definition of a sleepover is "a house party by which young people spend most of the night talking, eating, etc. etc. etc. It's funny because this is exactly what the night was all about for these two sweet boys. A few weeks back, Ty slept over his friend Nicolas' home. It was nice because Darren and I put the twins to bed at their normal bedtime (6:30 pm) and decorated for Christmas from 6:30 pm - 10:30 pm. The following weekend, we returned the favor to Nicolas' parents and let Nicolas' sleepover.

We started the evening off by allowing the boys to choose where they wanted to eat. Of course, they chose McDonald's. What kid doesn't enjoy a Happy Meal? I took them to Kroger afterwards. I had planned on letting them bake cookies, but they were having so much fun, I don't think they wanted to stop what they were doing to be a mini Martha Stewart. So, we just bought those fantastic tasting sugar cookies that have the frosting on the top of them. The boys played for while before it was time to take a bath. Nicolas' was so funny. When he walked into my bathroom, he said, "Whoa, I've never seen a shower like that before. And why do you have both of these in here?" He was referring to the tub and the shower! I said, "Well, we have both for a night like tonight. You boys wouldn't want to take a shower would you? " He said, "No way. I want to fill up that big tub with lots of bubbles." And that's exactly what they did.

After bath time, I popped them some popcorn and prepared a napkin filled with two frosted cookies. Ty always loves having friends over because mommy bends the rules a bit. We lined the living room rug with blankets, put up a "Meet the Robinsons" tent, and popped in Parent's Trap. Normally, Ty sits through a movie without a peep, but I think he was so excited to have a constant playmate that the silence only lasted about 30 minutes. I allowed the boys to stay up WAY passed their bedtimes. I said, "I allowed", because they even stayed up later than Darren did. HA HA HA

Ty and Nicolas got along wonderfully. They really have become great buddies. I enjoyed Nicolas' company immensely. He is a very intelligent and extremely well behave. It's also nice because they had their "rough housing" times and then they also had times where they could play on an intellectual level (ie. they played UNO and well for 4.5 year olds).

On the side: While we were eating dinner, I cannot remember what we were talking about, but some how the topic of Ty having a crush on Cami. I said, "Ty, can I tell Nicolas' who you have a crush on?" He said, "Yes" bashfully. I said, "Nicolas', Ty has a crush on Cami". Nicolas' just looked at me with a dumbfounded look. And I said, "Do you think anyone is pretty or do you have a crush on anyone?" In his sweet little voice, he said, "Well no. Pretty much I just think my mommy is pretty!" I thought that was so sweet!