Jump Up, Jump Up and Get Down!

Forgive the title, but I had to pay homage to my thug-ish days back in the '90s ;)..... Anyways, the mommies and I met up to play today at Pump It Up and let the kids run around and jump out all of their energy. Everyone had a blast! Drew - true to form - ran in immediately to discover everything there was to do. Ben - true to his form too - stuck close to me until he warmed up to all of the bouncing surfaces. Once he figured it all out, it was worse than pulling teeth to get him to put his shoes back on and go. We all had a great time, and surprisingly, my friends and I were actually able to visit for a little while too. Here are a few pictures of all the fun:

Drew sliding down all by himself

Ben warming up to everything..."hmmm...it sure does look like they're having fun, but I'm still not so sure"

Sweet Avery is ALWAYS smiling.Jay deciding to give the stairs up the slide a tryBrax crawling through the obstacle course

To coax Ben into seeing how much fun the slide could be, I carried him up and ended up with Avery, Ben and Drew in my lap to slide down. That thing sends you down much quicker than you'd think. We were flying! And then, we ended up with a pile of munchkins all crashing in to each other. Luckily, they all thought it was hysterical, and we were all laughing. Thanks Darc, for the action shots!

Last week Michael and I went to Big Sky, Montana with some friends for our yearly ski vacation. We had a great time reconnecting with God in the beauty of His nature, and with each other. Many many thanks to MawMaw and PawPaw for making the trek down from Missouri to take care of the buddies for us!! Here are a few pictures of the scenery that we woke up to every morning:

the view from our balcony of the mountain we skied every day

the trail outside our backdoor that we skied to get down to the lifts. you can even see the edge of our hottub we sat in to ease our sore muscles every afternoon.

michael and i with our friends jeff and laurie

well that about sums up the last little bit for us! Thanks for checkin in!

Nursery Rhymes Blankinship Style

Two little monkeys jumping on the bed,
One fell off and.....busted his lower lip wide open.

Here's what happened when I tried to lay the boys down for a nap and they weren't quite ready to go to sleep: they entertained each other by throwing every single item out of their beds back and forth into the other's bed until it end up on the floor, laughing uncontrollably, and - you guessed it - jumping on the beds. It was all fun and games until sweet little Drew's chin hit the front bar of his crib, causing his teeth to meet his bottom lip. Here it is all cleaned up, after I got him calmed down.
Honestly the picture doesn't do it justice. It looked much worse when there was blood everywhere. But, after some cuddling with mommy, and special treat and an "ice bubble" (I have NO idea where I came up with that, but that's the first thing that came to mind in trying to make an ice pack sound fun and exciting to an upset 2 year old) it was all smiles. Here is our little ham showing me how to do the "ice bubble" all by himself.
And here's what you get if you throw in some silly songs and crazy dance moves:
Our little man was a tough trooper, and brother Ben was right by his side the whole time trying to make him feel better by saying "okay, Dew-ey? I gotchyou." Which almost brought tears to my eyes it was so sweet. I guess he got that from hearing us say that to them when they are upset. It's amazing the things they pick up. So, I figured I had to include at least one picture of my other sweet boy.
Boys will be boys, I guess. But this is why we are dreading making the move to big boys beds. Oh well. Here's to hoping that this week we'll be a little less accident prone. But if they take after their mommy at all, then they'd better not hold their breath.

8 Things...Or Should I Say 16?

We got tagged by one of our favorite Bible Class buddies, Ethan B to list 8 things about ourselves. And since we're still working on our letters and spelling, Mommy will type for us. So here they are:

1~I love new places and meeting new friends, and I'm almost never shy.

2~I love to play hide and go seek with Mommy and Ben during the day, and my favorite hiding place has always been behind the curtains in the dining room....I'm just sure that she can't see me if I can't see her.

3~When it's my turn to cover my eyes and count, here's how it usually goes: "one, two, free, eight, nine, ten, eh-webben, twelb! okay, i coming!"

4~My very favorite time of day is the hour that all four of us spend in my bedroom at night before I go to bed. That's when I get to "wess-uhl" with Daddy and Ben, and run in circles as fast as I can.

5~Speaking of running, I'm a really fast runner and mommy thinks I'm going to be a good athlete.

6~I am a very good eater and will eat just about anything she fixes for me.

7~My favorite movie is Cars, and I can sit still and pay attention to the whole thing...when my mommy will let me watch that much tv.

8~My brother is my best friend, and I'm very protective of him. I always have to know where he is if I can't see him, and like to call him "my Benny."

1~I am very shy in new situations and with new people. It takes me much longer than my brother to warm up to new things. But at home, I'm the opposite and I love being the center of attention.

2~And speaking of opposites, that is one of my favorite games to play right now: "oss-i-pitts". As in, mommy says "oooh, that bite of yogurt is coooold. What is the opposite of cold?" and I say "hot". Drew and I can both correctly do opposites for hot/cold, big/little, quiet/loud, awake/sleeping, and dark/light.

3~Try as my mommy might, I am just a picky eater, and have always been. I prefer to drink my nutrition, so my mommy mixes something yummy with lots of minerals and vitamins into my milk so that I can get the things I need to help me grow.

4~I am a big-time Daddy's boy these days. He can't go anywhere without me getting upset that I'm not with him. I think he's the coolest, most awesome daddy that there has ever been...and yes, I may be just a little biased since everybody else in my family thinks it's true too.

5~Drew loves cars of any shape, form or fashion. But I really love trains! I can be content to play with choo-choos either by myself or with Drew for as long as 20 minutes sometimes, making all the sounds and dancing around.

6~I love to count and sort things - mommy says I take after my Daddy in being good with numbers. And I can count in Spanish to ten all by myself. But don't ask me to do it. I NEVER perform on cue.

7~I like to sing Old MacDonald in my "mike-a-fone" (mommy's garlic press) and make music with my "dwums" (lids to mommy's pots).

8~My brother is my best friend, and I am very protective of him. I always have to know where he is if I can't see him, and I like to call him "my Dew-ey".

I tag 8 more: Darci, Sallie, Tara, Sara W, Laura T (if you still haven't done it yet), Jenni, Carrie and Maggie.

Happy New Year....and My Apologies

Every day for the past week and a half I have been fully aware that I need to put pictures on here of the boys at Christmas, and update on how great the holiday season was. Honestly, I have. I even go as far as to write it down on my to-do list every day. But I always have a hard time motivating myself to write a new post when we don't have very good pictures, and that has definitely been the case this time.

On Christmas morning Michael and I set our alarm so that we could get downstairs [of my parent's house] before the boys woke up. So there we were, armed with our video camera and regular camera all charged up and ready to go at 5:30 in the morning to capture the boys' first Santa Claus on Christmas morning experience. And wouldn't you know, we took one picture with the camera and the battery died. We were not happy. So, that led us to give ourselves an unexpected Christmas present: a really good camera. ...which I'm honestly a little intimidated by. I mean, other than being big, it looks like it requires a PhD in nuclear science to work it. But I'm reading the manual and I promise to have some good pictures on here soon.

Anyways, the holidays were really great, even if we don't have very many good pictures to show for it. Drew and Ben both really understood this year what they were supposed to do with the presents. They were so funny about it. True to their personalities, Drew would open a present and then be quite happy to sit and play with it for a while. Whereas Ben would rip one open, look at it, then throw it down and find another present to unwrap.

They certainly didn't need anymore toys to play with, but we have found out the hard way that all grandparents go overboard, even when you tell them not to. So, we walked away with even more things to fill the already-full playroom and feeling so touched at both sides of our families' generosity.

Now we are all settled in, and it's so hard to believe that we are in 2008. It feels so weird to say. If they boys were awake and listening to me say that right now, they'd say, "that's just SILLY!" ...they say that in just about any situation, and always crack us and each other up when they say it. They are so much fun right now and we are so very aware of how much God has done for us. Thanks for checking in on us. ....and I'll try to do better with this particular New Years' resolution. :)