A year in review

 We started out 2011 with a late Christmas celebration with Ashley and Jeff home.  Owen developed his love for Blankie.  In February we just hung out...played in the snow and tried to stay warm.

In March we celebrated out 10 year anniversary with a day trip to the Mall of America.  We hit the aquarium and the amusement park.  We ended the month with Heather & Chad's wedding.

In April we celebrated Noah's baptism in some very warm weather.  We made a trip to the Children's Museum in Madison.  We decorated eggs and had an Easter Egg Hunt.

May started typical.  Owen got his first hair cut.  We spent Mother's Day at the Deer Park (note to Alicia: notice how the boys are wearing short sleeves that day).  The following day was a dark, rainy day that forever changed all of our lives when we got the call that we lost Noah.  Everything really can change in the blink of an eye.  We spent the rest of the month trying to make sense of something so senseless and cherishing family time.

As the weather continued to warm up in June, Owen preferred to be outside playing in his car.  Brendan took his first trip to the dentist.  We welcomed our newest family member, Lucy.  And made a trip to the annual Ahlers Father's Day weekend extravaganza.

July we spent soaking up the sun.  Trips to the pool and to Gramma's backyard waterslide.  We also celebrated Owen's 2nd birthday.



In August, as we welcomed my nephew, Ben, most of my family headed into the Arizona heat while we stayed behind with Bella and Gabby.  We made trips to the park with friends, cruised the yard in our gator, and Brendan honed his mad hide n seek skills.  Can you find him???

September started with a last minute trip to Sesame Street Live with Cole and the boys.  We also made a trip to Milwaukee to see Yo Gabba Gabba Live.

In October we tried as many fall activities as we could....caramel apples, playing in leaf piles, a trip to the apple orchard, pumpkin carving, trick or treating, trick or treating...the works.

In November, Owen decided he was over his crib and called dibs on the right side of Brendan's bed.  Jeremy and I made a day trip to Chicago to watch a taping of The Rosie O'Donnell Show.  We celebrated Thanksgiving with family.

In December we finally got to meet Benjamin.  Owen was not  so impressed.  We made a trip to LaCrosse to the Children's Museum and to see the Rotary Lights.  We celebrated Noah's birthday sending a wish lantern to him from the cemetary.  We wound down the year with typical Christmas festivities, complete with matching pajamas yet again.

It was a year of ups and downs, and there are some things I wish I could change, but there's a million more I wouldn't change for the world.  Happy New Year everyone!!

We survived

Just a few pictures from my phone for now.  That is a picture of my tree after days of torture from a certain kitten in my house.

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Merry Christmas!

My buddy

Owen has graduated from his crib to a big bed.  And by "graduated" I mean he learned to get out and decided he's over it.  He loves to sleep in Brendan's bed.  Brendan is actually loving it too so we aren't in a big rush to get him a bed of his own.  

If looks could kill

This picture is deceiving.  He looks like he is plotting my death.  Actually, he was having a grand ol' time!  Scary.  

Alabaster week three

I am very annoyed because somehow I missed a day.  For the life of me I cannot figure out what day is missing.  Grrr.  Alabaster's week consisted of "fishing", taking a ride on a lamb on a cloud, hiding in the Christmas tree, playing in Brendan's  underwear drawer, hanging from some lights, and catching on his Nintendo game.  Lord knows what he did the other day.  We are on our final week now...

There will be a party in heaven tomorrow

Alabaster week 2

I am realizing now that you can't really see these pictures very well.  Use your imaginations a bit. 

Day 8 a boring day, he was hiding on the TV.

Day 9 he got ahold of a dry erase marker and drew glasses on Brendan's picture and a moustache on Brendan.

Day 10 he was found sipping some Starbucks coffee.

Day 11 he was building a marshmallow snowman.

Day 12 he made a campfire was was roasting marshmallows.

Day 13 he was hanging from the ceiling fan.

Day 14 he was zip lining thru the living room.

I 

Papa's troop

Ashley was home for a week and we tried to get pictures with all five kids cooperating.  It never happened.  Sad to say that this is the best we got of all five with my dad.  As you can tell, Owen was the most cooperative.  Typical.  

Just a side note.  This is my 400th post.  In case you care.  

Meet Alabaster Fluffer-Paws

Alabaster Fluffer-Paws is our Elf on the Shelf.  He showed up last Monday morning.  He brought snow covered donuts and hot chocolate for breakfast.  Brendan found him sitting on the kitchen table.  He's magical,  you know?  He watches the boys all day long and once they go to bed at night he goes back to the North Pole to tell Santa whether they've been naughty or nice.  When they get up in the morning he's hiding somewhere and they have to find him.  The first night Brendan and Owen were not going to sleep like they were supposed to so in the morning they were reminded to behave themselves.  Alabaster left a note on the dry erase board.  He was reminding Brendan not to forget to brush his teeth.  Day four was kind of tricky.  Neither Brendan or Dad could find him.  He was hiding way up high in the kitchen from the leaf mobile reminding me that fall is over and it's time to break out the Xmas decorations (I've yet to listen).  He had an elf/gnome pow wow one day.  I think he was recruiting help.  Saturday morning he was in fridge.  And Sunday he was hiding among the stuff animals.  I think he was watching E.T.!!

More adventures of Alabaster are to come over the next couple weeks.

So many books, so little time.

This is how I found Owen when I went to tuck in Brendan.

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Out of the mouths of babes

Babe is a really annoying word, just for the record. 

When we tell Brendan and Owen stories people often ask if we are writing these things down.  The answer is no, but I should be.  I often share things on Facebook but that's it.  So I decided to start a recurring "out of the mouths of babes" post of things they say for my own record.

The other night Jeremy tucked Brendan in bed.  Before he left the room, he checked to be sure Owen was covered up.  As he was pulling the blankets up Brendan said "You better not wake him up, Dad, or Mom will be PISSED!"  I don't know where he hears such things.

Yesterday Jeremy was singing Adele's "Rumor Has It".  The line is "now rumor has it she ain't got your love anymore".  To which Brendan asks "What does Uma have" (uma is our cat for those who don't know) "and if you don't want her to have it, take it away!"  Logical.

Last weekend Brendan played with Maddy.  When we got home that night he came in the room and said "Mom, did you know that last weekend the Big Bad Wolf huffed and puffed and blew Maddy's house down?"  I played along and gasped in disbelief and said "I didn't know that!"  He then said "YEAH!  Then she had to rebuild it again out of bricks ALL BY HERSELF!"  Poor Maddy!

To be continued...

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Saturday

Saturday morning was a lazy day.  We pretty much spent the whole morning staring at the TV.  Nothing like six hours of Team Umizoomi.  (for the record, I was the one glued to the couch the whole time.  Brendan and Owen watched a bit but spent the majority of the time playing.  BUT, every time I try to stand up or change the channel all hell breaks loose).

After we finally peeled ourselves off the couch we got dressed and went for haircuts.  Poor Owen, he has the thinnest, lightest hair ever.  Now that it's cut again he looks like he is bald.  Brendan's, on the other hand, is actually thickening up.

Me and my Maddy

On Saturday we went to Gramma's for a bit to play with Maddy.  Brendan took her for a spin around the living room in the Lego wagon.  I'm not quite sure how she didn't get her little rump stuck in that wagon.  Who needs Radio Flyer??

More fun than that, Uncle Tony was there too.  90% of the time he had one of the kids climbing on him.

I have no clue what Maddy is doing here, but I kind of think that maybe Brendan is considering a career in  hair?

Torture

Brendan was all about zombies this Halloween.  He listened to Thriller over and over.  He begged to go see zombies but was not amused by these monsters.

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Butterflies

A few weeks ago we were at my mom's for a play date with Maddy.  We were outside playing hopscotch and a butterfly kept landing over by the kids.  We went out to play in the yard and it followed us.  Every where we went, the butterfly seemed to go.  I bet it followed us for close to 45 minutes.  Eventually, I tried to pick it up thinking it would never in a million years let me get close enough.  I held my hand out and it climbed right on.  It let me hand it off to each of the kids and it walked around on their hands and would sit on their leg.  I have never seen anything like it.  Was it a coincidence that the day that we were out playing was four months, 22 days since Noah died??  For anyone who wonders why that would be significant, Noah passed away when he was four months, 22 days old.  

The Closet

Most people would consider being sent to the closet a punishment.  At Gramma's the kids shut themselves in it.

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Trick or Treat

We survived a night of trick or treating with Maddy and the boys.  The candy selection isn't as good as it used to be.  :)

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Fall Fun

We've been working on crossing off things on our fall bucket list.  Earlier this month we made caramel apples.   My favorite!

The other night after I got home from work I raked up a small pile of leaves and set the boys free.  At first Owen wasn't the least bit interested.  He played on the swing by himself, but eventually joined the fun.  

Where is Brendan??

Five minutes of raking = hours of fun.  

Angry Birds Invasion

Last weekend was Brendan's big birthday bash.  

We were invaded by Angry Birds!  At Brendan's request.  

excuse the bluriness....not sure what happened

from Jossabean Sweets

After I whipped up the party decorations, I went all gourmet with the food.  What does a four year old love more than hot dogs, really?

This is the face you make when you're mortified by a group of people standing around singing to you.  It is a creepy concept, really.