With a corncob pipe.....

From Snowmen

Here is the finished product!! L->R, they are, Mommy, William, Daniel, and Daddy. Daniel insisted this morning that he didn't want to go out in the snow again, so William & I waited until he was asleep & out we went. It was mid-40's & everything is melting, so it was perfect snowman-building weather. I didn't even need a coat--just gloves to keep my paws warm. We used our new snowman kit from our friends Calvin, Alayna, Ms. Dawn, and Mr. Ryan. William was so excited to put the hats, scarves, and faces/buttons on!!

We built William first:

From Snowmen

Then added Mommy & Daniel:

From Snowmen

We were out of hats & out of big-sized eyes, so Daddy was going to get the shaft (Sorry, Dad!), but Allie, our neighbor, came out to play & insisted we had to have the whole family, so she built Daddy (or "Mr. Scott" to her) all by her lonesome:

From Snowmen

Then, she decided we had to have a "little bean", so here he is standing next to Mommy. Since he's not born yet, he didn't need a face--go figure!

From Snowmen

And, here's just some random snow cuteness:

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From Snowmen

From Snowmen

Snowdays!

We finally got enough snow to build a snowman, and wouldn't you know it--it refused to stick together. Allie and Maddie, our neighbors, tried for almost an hour to get a pile up so we could at least have a snow "pile" to decorate, but no dice. Maybe tomorrow, it will be wet enough to build a valid snowman. The kids had fun playing in it anyway. Here are a few random snaps from the past two days. The ones with the dark sky are from yesterday--we got several inches on Monday night & then it snowed off & on all day Tuesday & until 3 AM or so this morning! Today, the sun was out, but it never got out of the 20's, so it didn't melt enough to make for sticky snow :-( And, thank goondess for my neighbor again (see Sunday's post!)--she shoveled her driveway AND mine 2 days in a row. Both of our hubbie's are gone & she refused to let my pregnant self help.

From Snowday

From Snowday

Maddie & Allie hamming it up:

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Snow angels:

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From Snowday

From Snowday

From Snowday

Random snow shots:

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From Snowday

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From Snowday

From Snowday

Cool snowblower machine one of our neighbors had. Of course, it fascinated the boys!:

From Snowday

And, just to give you an idea of how MUCH snow we actually got, here is a shot of the sidewalk after the snowblower was done:

From Snowday

William had a blast sliding face-first down all the snow banks & Daniel alternated between being very happy and being cold & miserable (as you can see from his snaps!). William seemed to have more fun today when the snow was deeper & he could spend all morning diving through it, while Daniel liked it better when the snow went "cranch, cranch" (otherwise known as "crunch, crunch") and he could walk on it. Stepping into it & sinking down was not for him!

My poor neighbor!

So, my neighbor had quite a weekend! She watches my kiddos one weekend a month for me while Scott is out of town so I can keep working my job at St. Elizabeth's in Belleville, where this little guy will be born. After we scheduled this weekend, her husband found out he had to go out of town on a work trip, so she'd have all four kids (her 2 and my 2) by herself. Now, she's got two girls, Allie (almost 7) and Madison (4 1/2), and they're very well-behaved. But, combine them with the Palen boys & there is no telling what might happen! Mikki went upstairs yesterday & when she came back down, this is what she found:

From doggie bed

Of course, her girls had to jump right in for a photo-op, too, so here is Allie:

From doggie bed

And, Madison:

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And, just for good measure, one of all four kiddos watching some TV:

From doggie bed

And then to top it off, after she had them all day yesterday, she had them again today, but Sundays are usually very light, so I'm back at her house by noon. Today, we finished up right on schedule, but I was having a lot of Braxton-Hicks contractions & thought I might have been leaking a little amniotic fluid, so I went up to Labor & Delivery to have it checked out. SIX HOURS, 2 IV bags of saline, and one shot of a contraction-stopping drug later, I finally got sent home. Nothing to worry about & I kept trying to tell the doctor that I've had contractions throughout my two prior pregnancies, but he took the cautious route (which I guess I should be grateful for!) & kept me there all afternoon. My neighbor was a saint & even managed to get my two kids fed dinner, so all I had to do was put them to bed when I got home. Thank God for great neighbors!!!!

And so it begins......

Yesterday, William & I were watching Disney's The Fox and the Hound together. I don't know if you're familiar with this movie, but it's about a fox kitten and a basset hound puppy who get to be friends & grow up together. The song that plays throughout the movie is "We're the Best of Friends" and William loves the song. I asked him who his best friend was & he said, "Daniel!" Of course my heart melted!

Then, this morning, we're all home sick with nasty colds (see Tuesdays post!) & the boys are cranky. Daniel had a toy William wanted & he wouldn't give it to him, so William looked right at him & said, "You're NOT my best friend ANYmore!" and Daniel immediately starts yelling, "Yes, I am!" It's pretty funny in hindsight, but all I could think was "and so it begins....." How do they know exactly what buttons to push & how to be so mean at 4?!?

Daniel's "sick" day

Daniel woke up this morning VERY cranky. He came down with a cold yesterday & was just miserable last night & it showed this morning. Here he is laying on the couch demanding juice--maybe he's got more of his father in him than I was giving him credit for?????? The Palen men definitely don't do well with being sick!!

 

And, here's a quick video of him feeling MUCH better at snack time as he counts "eggs", otherwise known as yogurt-covered raisins.

New model train

The boys got their first model train over Christmas from Kristy & Brian (Scott's brother & sister-in-law) and family. They FINALLY talked Mommy into setting it up. If I'd known how easy it was to do, I'd have done it a couple of weeks ago!

Christmas cuteness

Here is just a random video of Daniel dancing to the "cool" (as William says) Christmas ornaments that Nana had on her tree. If I wasn't such a procrastinator, I'd have posted it back with the Christmas pics, but oh, well!!

It's a bird, it's a plane.....

It's a HAWK (which, okay, I guess is a bird, but it sounded good!). My neighbor behind me sent me these pictures tonight. Apparently, she was able to get some pictures of this hawk in our backyard this fall. He started on our fence:

From hawk pics

From hawk pics

From hawk pics

And, ended up on our swingset. Isn't he pretty? I wish we'd have been home to see him!

From hawk pics

Y, M, C, A!

Nope, it's not a Village People video, but William's fourth birthday party. We rented out the children's center at the local YMCA & had 14 of his friends & neighbors come. They had full access to the children's center, which included the large rock climbing wall, as well as a full-size bouncy house. It was a Thomas the Train party per his request & I again put my new-found baking skills to use & made his cake (although, hopefully, this will be the last of my Martha Stewart years!). We had pizza delivered (thank you, Pizza Hut!) and then all the kiddos sang & had ice cream & cake. William got lots of nice presents & he and Daniel have been having a blast playing with them so far! Please click the picture to see the full library.

William BD party

And, here they are thoroughly enjoying their birthday cake!

From William BD party

From William BD party

And, William's face while everyone was singing to him. He was doing his best to not look too pleased, but this pic makes him look scared to death!

From William BD party

Disney on Ice

Anyone who knows my kids, knows they LOVE the Disney Cars movie. On the morning of William's birthday, we went to see Disney on Ice, Worlds of Fantasy. The Cars characters were the first out. If you could have only seen my children's faces!! Every time a new one came out, Daniel literally gasped & shouted, "YAY, (whichever one it was)!" It was too cute. Here are Mater (tow truck), Sally (blue Porsche), and Lightning McQueen (red racecar):

From Disney on Ice

Mater and Flo

From Disney on Ice

And a pretty blurry shot of all of them:

From Disney on Ice

After Cars came The Little Mermaid. My kids have never seen that movie, but we may need to try it out because they were fascinated with Sebastian the Crab:

From Disney on Ice

and Ariel and Flounder the fish:

From Disney on Ice

Even the plant life and seahorses were magical:

From Disney on Ice

Here's a pic of me & the kids. Unfortunately, no one was very cooperative with picture-taking, but here are some pics anyway!

From Disney on Ice

And, William with Carly & Ella, two of his friends who came with us:

From Disney on Ice

The rest of our Christmas vacation

We got to see Uncle Jim after he came back from his hunting trip, but I managed to take no pictures of him rough-housing with the boys. I think my boys are needing some Daddy time because they were ALL OVER HIM, wrestling, etc!! It was great to see him.

On the 30th, we packed up & moved to my friends', Kim & Carroll's, house. Their two girls are both my boys' ages. Linley was born 16 days after William & Laney the October after Daniel. We spent New Year's Eve with them & the boys had their first fireworks experience. William's favorite thing was "sprinklers", otherwise known as "sparklers". Carroll & the other daddies bought a TON of them & all the littler kids ran around with them while the bigger kids shot fireworks off in the street. My little guys made it until 9:30, when William told me he was tired & wanted to go home. I'm embarrassed to say, I was in bed by ten, but we had a blast!! Again, no camera for me--I'm not sure what happened to the darn thing while we were there! Thanks to Kim & Carroll & "the girls", as William calls them, for their hospitality.