November Update

Earlier this month I had my 36th birthday. I bought gobs of makeup, joined a gym and hired a personal trainer. That pretty much sums up how I feel about being closer to 40 than 30. I wonder what I will do when I turn 40! Yikes. Seriously though- It was nice and uneventful.

On my birthday, I celebrated with Matt and the boys. I even got to open presents!! For some reason I don't understand, Alex was REALLY worried I wasn't going to like what he got me.

There was no need to worry at all! He got me a really pretty necklace and earrings.

Josh got me slippers, Zach got me a pretty sweater and Matt got me a KINDLE!!! Honestly I was unsure if I would like it. I LOVE the smell and feel of a book. I like the flipping of pages and dog earing them when I need to stop reading. I, also, love passing on a good book to someone else. With all that said- I do have to admit- I love my new kindle. In fact, this morning I was reading on it and Josh came and snuggled up with me so he could "read" with me. While I read the book I am reading, Josh read the words he knew on the page. His highlight was getting to push the button to turn the page. That kid is SO INTO electronics it's a little scary!! Anyway- I would highly recommend one. They are pretty cool.

That weekend we went out to my aunt and uncles farm. My aunt and I have a birthday two days apart so we have always celebrated them together for as long as I can remember! And, honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

So I mentioned that I turned 36.....look what age Mary Carol turned!!

How cool is that!! 36 and 63!! We were all very impressed by that!! I don't think that will ever happen to us again. It just made our birthday a little extra special!

Kids in costumes are just awesome, don't you think? So we dressed them up again. Which for my boys wasn't any different from the days since Halloween. I think they would wear their costumes to school everyday if they could. They were very happy to show them off again. And look how cute Sarah is as a tootsie roll!!!

We got to play with Sarah- my cousin Wade and Allison's little girl. She is a doll!! We all love spending time with her!

That night it snowed!! The first snow of the season....which means it's also the first snowball fight!! The next morning the boys had a blast shoveling snow! Let's hope that lasts throughout the season!!

In fact, they went all the way down the block.

You're welcome neighbors!

After shoveling, they made snowmen.

or had snowball fights with the neighbor kids. Either way they had a blast out in the snow!

Other news- we put our house back up for sale. We were planning on taking a break. But after we took it off the market, realtor after realtor called us. So we decided to interview a few, just to get a fresh pair of eyes in here and see if there was something we could do differently. We really liked what this one realtor had to say and have rolled the dice again with him. So far- I am happy to say we have had 3 house showings in one week and a realtor tour. We got lots of feedback from the tour which was very nice. So we will see what happens. Fingers crossed!!

Wintertime at the Zoo

I have lived in Nebraska my whole life and have been to the zoo millions of times. But not once have I visited the zoo during the winter time. We needed to get out of the house (due to a house showing) so we decided to go to the zoo. Can I just say that going to the zoo in the wintertime is AWESOME!!! There is barely anyone there and the animals were really active!! It was fun!!

We started with the desert. Zach was impressed by this bird.

He spent quite a while looking at it. I think he was impressed that it was free wandering around. We haven't really had the chance to see animals out like that. When we have gone its been nice out....lots of people....makes animals nervous.

Zach Josh Alex
Of course I had to make the boys pose every once in a while.

Other times, it was "MOM! Take a picture of me by this rock!" (Josh)

or "Take a picture of me with the cactus!" (Zach)

And Alex never says things like that. Its usually me saying "ALEX! SMILE!!"

My boys! :)

It was exciting because we got to see them feed these animals. Every time I have been to the zoo these pig looking things just lay around. They are quite active when a zookeeper throws lettuce or apples at them. :)

Next we headed to the aquarium....my favorite!

The boys got a chance to stay in the "bubble" thing for a LONG time....as there weren't very many people.

Alex liked the jelly fish.

Josh and Zach LOVED the stingrays. They were all about them this time. We had to drag them away from looking at them.

In fact, Josh loved them so much he bought a stuffed stingray. This is a big deal- as Josh NEVER spends his money!!!

Next we walked to see the butterflies and bugs and then went onto the Rain forest.

The boys were able to go over the rope bridge numerous times. I think that was a MAJOR high of the day!! In the past we wait in a line to go across and then its only once.

Today....numerous times.

One of my favorite parts was when Josh saw this frog and put his hand up to the glass. The frog immediately jumped up like he was trying to put his hand on Josh's hand. Way cool. Both Josh and I thought that was awesome!!

And life lesson learned in 5....4.....3....2...

Really the bird just stared Josh down. Josh loved how close he got. I was SURE he was going to get his eye poked out as birds are nasty like that. Its happened to me several times. You innocently stare at them and they bite you! :) Thankfully this didn't happen to Josh. Cause that is something you just don't get over! :)

We were all pretty worn out after that so we decided to go. When Alex saw the gift shop, he broke into a run.

Like mother- like son. :) Anyway-I highly recommend going to the zoo in the winter time. Its AWESOME!
After the zoo we went out to eat. It was great to sit and relax and to fill our bellies.

This picture cracks me up. Like father- Like son. :)
After dinner we did some grocery shopping. Not that anyone cares about that. But I am mentioning it because I got this awesome picture:

It was a great way to spend a Saturday....even if my comps aren't done yet! :)

Christmas

Christmas was good....for the most part. The big blizzard that has come through has really messed up our Christmas plans. For the last three days all plans to get together with family have been canceled/postponed. So that has been a bummer. But instead of sulking around about it we are trying to make the best of the situation. Santa still came. Matt, the boys and I had a wonderful time together. Christmas Eve the boys set out milk, cookies and letters to Santa.

The next morning all the cookies and milk (and letters) were gone but there were lots of presents that he left!! The boys were really excited! It has been SO MUCH fun this year. The boys have really been into Santa. Its been great!

The boys started to sort out everyone's gifts. Then ripped them all apart! It was awesome hearing all the squeals of excitement!!

They were really good boys this year as Santa brought them what they had asked for! Alex got his Batman slippers. He has been wearing them ever since. (minus the times we are our playing in the snow that is)

Josh got his aqua sand that he asked Santa for. Zach got his Color Shifter Car Wash he asked for. The picture of Zach didn't turn out, so that is why I don't have one posted for you to enjoy.

This is what our living room looked like after present opening.

This is my day 7 of 7 Days shot. I call it "The Triplet Tornado."

After opening presents, I started to make ebelskiver a Christmas morning tradition. Growing up my grandma K used to make this for me when I would visit. It was something I would always look forward to. Since she has passed its a way for me to remember her. I really miss her. Plus they are REALLY delicious!!



I have decided that I need to make these more than just once a year. We all ate them like candy.

After breakfast was over, we played the rest of the day with our new toys. It was a lot of fun!! With triplets, we had LOTS of new things to play with. Like Zach's new carwash....

And a magnetic marble maze thing....

and geomags

and Rocky the Robot (who Alex has decided to call Chuck)

and aqua sand (messy but cool)

and car ramp stuff...

and pinball

and a new hul mask. We had hulk hands but Alex got Josh the mask to go with it. It was funny, Josh asked me to take his picture then asked to see it. I showed it to him and he goes "woah. I am scary!"

These were just some of the things that we did. I had a ton of fun putting lego stuff together. I never knew legos were so fun!!

Today we are still snowed in. Just waiting for the plows to come. I am starting to go a little stir crazy. There is only so many train tracks I can build or games of connect 4 I can do before I go a little silly! We did go outside again a little today. Here are some of he pictures I took of what our area looks like. This is a snow drift at the end of our driveway. As you can see its almost as tall as Matt.

Here are the boys sledding down a drift in the front.

We went out back to build a tunnel through the snow. We all thought that was a ton of fun!


Alex sledding down the drift in our backyard.