Our Little Neville

We are thinking we should have named Caden - Neville. After the Harry Potter character Neville Longbottom.
Why you might ask?
Because he seems to have a long bottom. No matter what we do he always is showing a little plumber's crack.
Today Clark heard him crying after his nap and came into the room to find him stuck in his own pants, oh the curse of the long bottom.

Stupefied

The other day Ethan jumped off the couch and yelled, "I'm stupid!" I was shocked, so many questions ran though my mind in a matter of seconds: "who did he learn that word from?," "does he know what it means?," "why is he calling himself stupid?," "does he have poor self-esteem,?" "I hope he doesn't say this at nursery!," "don't you know how wonderful you are?!"

While my thoughts were racing I was trying to compose in my head how to talk to him about not using this "s" word. In the meantime Ethan climbed back on the couch and jumped off again yelling, "I'm stupid!" I was a little puzzled because he had a big grin on his face, and then it dawned on me, he was yelling, "I'm super!" I was so relieved! Yes Ethan, you are SUPER!

Even though I know what he is saying it still catches me off guard when he says it. After his bath when I wrapped him up in the frog towel he said, "I'm a super froggy." That's what this video is all about...would you have been confused too?

And while we're on the subject of frogs...here's another little froggy that I think is pretty super too!

Thoughts on Art

I've heard the quote that "great art picks up where nature ends," but I don't know how any artist could beat the art we have found on our windows when we wake up this month.

When I pulled up Ethan's blinds I was amazed that the tree in our front yard looked like it had leaves made of ice.

We had a fun time inspecting the window together and noticing all of the intricate patterns and details made of ice crystals.

Earlier this month Clark and I had a chance to visit the local Art Museum. I am a person that appreciates art, I'm amazed at what people with talent can do. I am also a person that struggles a little with modern or abstract art that looks to me like something went terribly wrong in the kitchen and happened to land on a canvas (maybe I would appreciate it more if I had studied art? not sure). Anyway, we were having a fun time exploring the museum and appreciating the painting, sculptures, etc. We were trying to be open minded about some of the "weird" ones...but then we came to my favorite.
It was a white canvas hanging on the wall. For a second we thought one of the paintings had been stolen. But upon further investigation realized that was the art work. A canvas painted white. We read the little blurb, apparently the artist limited himself to the color white to avoid unnecessary distractions. Really? Why didn't I come up with that, even I could have painted a canvas white! Then the giggling started, followed by a quick exit.

Oh What Do We Do In The Wintertime...

We have had a fun sledding outing with friends!

Just trying to stay warm.

Caden's first trip on a sled. He looks so amused.

These kids had it made, they got to be pulled back up the hill too!

Ethan's first sledding train.

To avoid the cold we've had lots of playing in the tent!

We've had a little climbing in boxes!

We have had some major sleep issues!

We've even had a random photo shoot!

One night while getting the boys ready for bed Clark dressed them and Josephina in blue pants, green shirts and hats for a photo shoot.

Clark realizing that getting these 2 to hold still for a photo shoot is pretty much mission impossible.

We have definitely had a lot of cozy nights being very grateful for a warm house to live in!

He wore blue velvet

This little guy has a 2 tooth perma-grin!

I found these jammies with the tags still on them, they were given to me from one of my students as a baby gift for Ethan. Everytime we put this hat on poor Caden Ethan cracks up. But seriously, who would have thought someone could make baby blue velvet look so good!

Downhill Derby

Friday night I could hardly sleep anticipating the big race Saturday morning! We met early to do a little practicing in the living room. Here is our team on the "purple people eater" the "human caterpillar" or the "snake of doom."

When we got to the race we saw some awesome creations...like this duck or alligator below. Some of our other favorites were the giant toilet, the full size Harley, the big Monster truck, and the shark.

Our creation didn't look so splendid sitting next to all of the others...but we were in it for the speed contest, not a beauty pageant! And I felt a little proud that we were the only sled that could boast that it could carry 6 people!

We were number 77, there were over 80 entries! They made us all line up, and it was quite a wait in the FREEZING temperatures! We were very glad we had left the boys home in the warm house with a babysitter.

This is where we were at the end of the line.

Clark was wearing our cardboard face, we didn't want to put it on our sled to slow us down!

After watching most of the sleds crash and burn it was finally our turn. I was so nervous and excited. After test running our saucers earlier in the week I knew we would be FAST! The time to beat was a fast 11 seconds! The next picture series was taken by the radio station and shows pretty well what happened!

Taking off...Carolyn is still smiling!

Gathering speed quickly and realizing our front sled is not going to keep up with the saucers!

Our snake started to turn and Clark's sled bit the snow hard and he started to flip!

Clark and I tumbled a long way down the hill...yes that is my leg in the air!

The rest of our group tried to keep going, but to no avail! I was ticked our ride was so short after waiting so long, so I hiked back up, found one of the broken off saucers and rode it down the hill, until I crashed into the berm on the left and took a huge face full of snow! I think we provided good entertainment to the spectators!

We should have tested our lead sled! If I could do it again we would just do a saucer train...but "What Might Have Been," has been my consolation song in my head the last couple of days. "I try not to think about what might have been, cause that was then, and we have taken different roads, we can't go back again, there's no use giving in, and there's no way to know...what might have been."

All in all it was a great Iowa adventure! As we were walking back to the car we all started brainstorming what we could do better next year before sadly realizing we won't be here next year!

But we can still win the best hat contest! Go to this website and vote for Clark! I'm an entry too in the turkey hat, but my vote goes to the hot dog man!

http://www.lazer1033.com/pages/9040964.php

The Sled Video

I was pretty excited that our crash made the radio station's Youtube video! This video is worth watching just to see the giant toilet crash!