Tire Swing

Remember this tree house?  Well, Uncle Tyler & Aunt Molly (or "Aunt Wowee" as we like to call her, a name given to her by Kaeden a year ago) were back last weekend to celebrate a late Christmas with us.  We weren't quite ready for a second story on the tree house yet, but they definitely didn't come empty handed!  We now have our very own tire swing, and the boys are super excited.

Getting ready

Peek-a-boo!

Watching the show with B.

Give Kaeden a screwdriver and he'll figure out something to do with it, even if it's just poking holes in a log.

Everyone had fun with the chains while the tire was being prepped

 

Who needs a tire?

I call this one "Sun Spot"

Finally time to attach the tire

Checking it out

Looks good!

Uncle Tyler joined in on the fun.  I love the look on Kaeden's face.

(Back inside.  Ethan took over Kaeden's Christmas gift and hammed it up for Aunt Wowee.  So sweet!)

And we learned today that the swing works great in the snow too!

 Thanks again, Uncle Tyler & Aunt Molly!  We love it!

The NKV

Kaeden has come up with a new version of the Bible.  We'll call it the New Kaeden Version (NKV).

We have a CD of Bible verses put to music (Seeds of Praise - as a side note,  I highly recommend the Seeds Family Worship CDs... they are pretty much all that the boys & I can agree on these days).  Anyway, the boys got it for Christmas, and we've been listening to it a lot lately.  Kaeden likes to sing, so on a couple of occasions, I have heard him singing the lyrics to the songs...which is great, 'cause he's singing Bible verses... except that to a 3-year-old mind, they don't always come out quite right.  

"Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34) becomes:

"Out of the overflow of the heart the mouse squeaks"

And "Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord is the rock eternal" (Isaiah 26:4) becomes:

"Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord is the rocky turtle."

Now I can't listen to the songs without thinking about squeaky mice and rocky turtles (whatever a rocky turtle is!)

Snow

It doesn't take much snow to get us excited around here.  We've had snow two weeks in a row, which is pretty much unheard of!  Last week, we only got about 1/2 an inch and didn't bother to do much playing, but I did let the boys get out and explore a bit:

Yesterday, we got a little over an inch - just enough to go sledding!  (and, thankfully, to keep Daddy home from work for the morning to assist with sledding!)

 

Ethan, all bundled up and ready to go

Trying out the sled on flat ground to start

Up the hill they go

Best I could do while holding him and the camera... and waiting for the big boys to come down the hill

Think they liked it?

We got Daddy to help with the picture :)

Ethan's turn!

Despite what his face might suggest, he immediately asked for "again" when they stopped

Not a bad view from the top of the hill

Sledding gets a little more extreme when you get to ride with Daddy!

 Of course, hot chocolate is pretty much a requirement after playing outside in the snow:

Next up on the activity list was play dough - we made a big batch of our own, and they played with it for a loooong time.  Even Ethan enjoyed it, but I didn't get any pictures because I was too busy reminding him not to eat it ;-)

The final planned activity of the day was rice krispie treat snowmen.

Eager to get started

Ryan really grasped the concept

Kaeden.... not so much

He called his finished creation, "The monster"

Ryan's decorated snowmen

It was busy, and a little crazy at times, but we had a great snow day.  I'm glad the boys get a little bit of a taste of real winter every now and again :)