Beautiful Day

After a few crazy-cold weeks, it was in the mid 50's today! We thought it felt like summer compared to the preceeding days. Yesterday, after we completed our school work we all headed outdoors to play and enjoy the beautiful day. The kids played in the pasture, running and making up silly stories. Abe wandered through the tall grass and tried to keep up with the older two. Piper keeps flashing the "peace sign" when I try to take her picture. I wonder if she even knows what it means :)

Abe actually hid in the tall grass for a few minutes and pooped!

Piper and Cohen took turns winding the swing up and letting the other twist out of control. They laughed and had such a good time playing together (which is a pleasant change from their usual bickering)!

Cohen in an all-out spin!

I will have to do some catch up posts as I have been so slack keeping this blog up to date. Maybe I will do better in the coming year, but I doubt it!

Abe and The Feet Game

"The Feet Game" is still a favorite with the kids and now Abe has mastered sitting on Daddy's feet in the air! He is so proud of himself and claps as soon as he dismounts, it's adorable! I'm not sure what's going on here, but from the laughter I could hear I know they were having a good time!

Snow days

We got snow here and lots of it!! I think we have about 8-9 inches, which is huge for us! It fell Friday afternoon and on into the night. We woke up Saturday morning to a beautiful white covering. Chad took Piper and Cohen over to his sister's house to sled because they have the best hills ever behind their house. He brought home the kids' cousins, Isaiah and Elijah to stay for a couple of nights. Here are Chad and Cohen getting the day started: Cohen seems to feel no cold! He runs in and out with just a tee shirt on. Here, he and Elijah are doing some important work with their dump truck:

Here are Isaiah and Piper working on a snowman:

Chad, Cohen and Elijah digging the four-wheeler out of the snow:

The finished snowman, complete with a blue mohawk!

And last but not least, one of the big kids left the front door open and I looked out to see this sight:

Maybe he's going to be like his brother and feel no cold! Anyway, we are enjoying having the cousins over for a few days and enjoying the gorgeous snow!

Cake Pics

I mentioned in Cohen's birthday post that we celebrated with Poppy at home after the day's events. Here were a few cute pics from the cake eating madness.

Here is Cohen with his Hot Wheels cake. He picked it out at Harris Teeter and refused to even entertain getting the cake anywhere else (I really like Sam's cakes beacuse they will do cream cheese icing, but the birthday boy had made his mind up!) And most *good* moms make their kid's cakes, but whatever!

It appeared that one person enjoyed the cake more than anyone else! Abe was covered with icing before it was over!

Skating

One cold, rainy Saturday afternoon, we loaded up the kids and headed to the skating rink. I could not believe the improvements Piper and Cohen have made. Cohen used to cry and refuse to even try after a few minutes and he made it all the way around the rink without falling several times! And Piper was flying all over the place, and even made some new friends to skate with. It was so cute seeing her interact with the group of girls, but also scary because I realize she is growing up :(

The boys taking a break and watching the skating games:

Chad did sneak a lap around the rink holding Abe but the manager asked him not to do it again for safety reasons! So Abe mostly stuck to the arcade games and rides:

Because a tree like this deserves it own post!

Another lovely tree this year :) Picked with love by Piper from the woods surrounding our house!

Half of a Decade

I cannot believe five years have passed since we welcomed Cohen into this world! Five is such a big number, halfway to 10. Cohen is such a loving, tender-hearted soul. Don't get me wrong, he is "all boy", but he has so much love in his heart. He loves going to the nusing home with his granddad and hugging and loving on the residents; he is notorious for loving on his grandparents and he is alwasy right on time when it come to snuggles and love around the house.

Today we had a wonderful day celebrating as a family. Cohen started off the day with a trip to the meat market with his dad. Next, we were all off to Toys R Us to pick out his special gift. He chose a pack of realistic-looking dirt bikes with 2 drivers, little helmets and kickstands. So totally Cohen!

Next was Funigans where we played and ate junk food for lunch! Here is the birthday boy gearing up for a pinball game: A spirited game of air hockey with Daddy:

Abe looking closley for more Skee Balls! He was throwing them all over the place, no where near the intended target.

The brothers teaming up for more pinball:

Bowling with Piper (who is striking quite a pose in the first pic):

And climbing the rock wall:

Both kids were climbing experts! They flew right up the rock walls and rang the bells at the top about four times in a row. This was Cohen's first successful climb!

Lastly, we had pizza and cake with Poppy. Poppy always calls Cohen "Poppy's little, big man." Cohen seems to love the nickname and always showers Poppy with hugs and kisses. What a special day to celebrate an awesome kid!