guns and a birthday

Last weekend Terry headed out to the ranch to celebrate his dad's birthday with the kids. They left early in the day to split some more wood while Ezra napped at home with me. When I arrived I found them like this, enjoying Gramma and Grampa's Christmas gifts to themselves - new recliners.

After a yummy lunch of grilled protein (hamburgers, bratwursts and chicken drumsticks), we headed outside for some target practice. After all, Noah had to try out his new BB gun target my folks got him for Christmas.

Here are a couple of Noah's first shots. 

Poor Evie didn't have much to do. Just like me when I was little, she's not into shooting stuff. 

But now that I'm older, I think it's a lot of fun! For target practice it is anyway. I don't fancy shooting animals though. Unless they come after my kids! This is my very first time shooting Jerry's pistol. Yeah, I was a little nervous. 

I was worried I completely missed the target (we were about 35 yards away) but I did hit it at least twice :) 

Noah's photobomb! 

She and Girly the dog didn't like the pistol's noise so they hung out (hid) in Grampa's truck. 

It's pretty out there. And the weather was perfect. 

Terry is instructing Noah on how to shoot our new .22 rifle. Grampa brought his out as well. Our scope was way off so they spent most of their time adjusting it. 

When we were almost done, Terry let Noah shoot the pistol a couple times.

He even hit the target! 

"Can we go four wheeling yet?" 

Fun fact: The house in the background is where Terry and I used to live before we moved to Nebraska nearly eight years ago. We brought baby Noah home to that house. Crazy!

Terry's turn with the pistol. 

Time to go, time to go! 

Upon completion of our fun outside, we headed back to the house for some cake for Grampa. Happy birthday Grampa! 

Christmas stockings

When I was taking the tree down last weekend and putting all our Christmas stuff away, I remembered I hadn't bragged on my mom's home made crochet stockings yet. Last year she only had Noah and Evie's completed. But this past fall she went crazy and did four more to complete our mantel! They're in order. Terry's is first, the one with all the colors of the stockings combined. Mine is simple red and white. Noah's has a cool mitten pocket and Evie's has a pretty purple flower. I like Samuel's best. It just looks like him. And Ezra is more reserved because so far he's pretty laid back. Thanks Mom!

Star Wars Six Pack

I finally got around to installing one of my Christmas presents to decorate the large round caboose of my van: Star Wars family decals. Of course, the van had to be washed clean of the winter road chemicals first. Terry and the kids were nice enough to do that on a day that was finally above freezing. So now if you see this van cruising around Rapid, you'll know who's behind the wheel. 

 Terry is Han Salo because he has to end up with Leia. We also thought Obi Won Kenobi would be cool. But Han Solo is so much dreamier.

I am Big Leia, because she's awesome and I'm kind of bossy like her. In the future I can be Slave Leia! Or not...

Noah is Little Luke. Of course, that means Anakin to him. Darn new Star Wars.

Evie is the Little Leia. She insists that she is really Padme though. Ug. The new Star Wars has ruined everything!

Samuel was a tough one. He could have either been a Jawa with a gun and belt or an Ewok. We felt that Samuel fit both characters. Can't you just see him in a little Ewok costume dumping out Leia's stuff and leading her around by the hand, beating up Storm Troopers and yelling unintelligible nonsense? But I could also envision him in a Jawa costume shooting stuff and going "What?!" when questioned about his questionable business dealings. In the end I cut off the gun from the Jawa and added it to the Ewok. I mean, come on, Samuel has to have a weapon! And the fact that he's the only child with a gun seems perfect. The little "scoundrel" is clearly Han Solo's son. Ha! It fits him well and makes me smile.  

And finally, little Ezra is Yoda. Terry described him as quiet and wise. I pointed out the baldness.

pulling a sled

When I was little, I don't think I would have ever been nice enough to pull my younger siblings in a sled (I can just see them nodding their heads in agreement). But Evie actually wants to pull Samuel around! She was even disappointed when Samuel came in today (he was all wet) instead of staying outside so she could pull him around.

She was lining him up on the track daddy made in order to pull him down the "hill." It's really more of a very small decline in the yard but it works.

Noah likes to do it too! I don't get it, but I think it's great.  

Ezra pushing up

Just a little more than a month ago Ezra was sitting up and falling over. Then around Christmas he started sitting up completely independently. And now that Ezra is seven months old, he's been working on pushing up off the ground. It seems too early for that business to me! 

He does go down to the floor quite frequently and rotates around 360 degrees for toy grabbing fun. Monkey bottom!

And bam, he's up!

"Eh, what? Who's that?"

"Ooooh, it's my mama. I like her."

"I will show her how strong I am by planking out. Oh wait, it's that yellow string again. I love this thing!"

Just to show that it's not a fluke, here's some photos from a different day. Noah said he's doing a push up. But seriously, how are babies so strong? He does all these Pilates moves like it's nothing!

And then he's up on all fours!

My brother likes to think that he never cries. Here's proof otherwise. Nap time!

YG Christmas party 2013

Every year Terry does a White Elephant gift exchange party for Youth Group. This year Samuel and Ezra got to come along so I thought I'd post a few photos. 

Samuel had free rein of the snack table and ate at least three cookies and many chips. Check out his Doritos fingers. Jeff's ornamental beard in the back is pretty fun too.

Here's Sarah, one of our babysitters who actually asks when she and Jazmin can babysit again because our kids are "so cute." 

This sombrero shows up every year. And of course it would have to go on a baby!

tickle toes

Samuel has been mostly pretty good with Ezra. There was an incident last week where Samuel was offering Ezra one of his toys and upon grabbing it, Samuel yanked it away from him. Little punk got in trouble for that one. But when I saw Samuel freely offering his toes to Ezra for his entertainment, I had hope these boys could grow into buddies.

Kveene Christmas 2013

Since Nathan and Ana were in Michigan with her folks for Christmas, we waited to celebrate with them until January 3rd. But it was worth it to be together (as together as we could be without Stephers and Steve :(  ).  

We decided to get together at our place since mom and dad didn't do a tree this year and Nathan and Ana's is a little small for all our kids. That made it a little difficult to make mom and dad's gift work. But I managed it by convincing mom that I really needed extra help getting the ham ready. In reality, I was just fine on my own and it was done by the time she got here. But I whined so they would come over here earlier and Terry and Nathan could go to their house in order to install their gift in secrecy. Muhahahaha! They were completely clueless. Dad did ask where Terry was. "Running errands," I said, which was pretty true and no one was concerned. Twenty minutes until dinner Mom asked where Nathan and Ana were and that they could have been here sooner. I said I didn't know and then that she had juice to prepare, which was kind of true. They all arrived just in time for dinner and no harm was done. 

After we were done eating and cleaning up, with many questions from the kids about when we'd be done (how well I remember asking that when I was little), we headed to the living room to get started on the good stuff. 

Noah was given the job of reading the labels.  

Noah then gave Evie the gifts and she handed them out. It took a little for her to understand it was her job. At first she kept giving them to Daddy to distribute. 

Nathan is quite excited about our gift, which ended up being a Lord of the Rings Risk game. 

My dad and mom. 

Terry and I very squished in the chair. 

Nathan and Ana got Samuel a tool set, complete with tool box. He loves it. It's definitely his favorite new toy. As I type, he just brought up his box to play with. 

It was funny how extremely excited Evie was to get an umbrella (from Nathan and Ana). But she was.  After the other Christmases, she was quick to inform us that she had not received her umbrella yet. Silly punk. She also got that adorable scarf and a box of play clothes and accessories from Gramma and Grampa. 

Nathan and Ana got Noah these rainbow markers and Gramma and Grampa gave him some BB gun accessories. 

Mom about died laughing when she saw her secret gift. Not actually though. For some reason it was hilarious to her that Nathan had put a photo upside down in its frame. The giggles are unpredictable I suppose :)

The largest box was for Mom and Dad and they were clueless as to what it was. We re-wrapped the box that their gift came in. 

Yup. We got them a toilet. I guess we're on a bathroom kick since last year we got them new towels. Call us practical but their old one was original to the house, circa 1982.

Nathan and Ana couldn't resist this hat for Ezra. I can understand why. GAH! IT'S SO CUTE!

"Lord I thank you for this blessed hat!" 

After the kids were in bed, we broke in another gift. Mom and Dad got Nathan a Star Trek Settlers game. Terry and I have played Settlers of Catan so many times that I'm pretty sick of it most of the time. And this one started so slow that I was very skeptical, but it turned out to be really fun. I suppose it didn't hurt that I won :P

BOOYAH!

Here's a bad close up of the game. Star ships are roads, Outposts are settlements and Starbases are cities. It's more fun than Catan because there are these extra "support cards" that help move the game along. Plus, you get to trade in weird stuff like Dilithium, Tritanium, Oxygen, Food and Water. Or Red, Green, Yellow, Blue and White. Because what the heck is Dilithium and Tritanium?

an ice dam

Despite having an unfinished movie to look forward to after they spent most of the day gathering wood, the kids opted to spend even more time outside. Making ice dams... Now I have some fond memories of making dams in the gutter as a child. But it was summer and we used mud and sticks. Right now it's winter and they're using snow and ice! And frigid melted snow and ice fills their puddle. 

 This is just further proof that my kids are crazy. After all, what is a dammed up puddle good for if not freezing your feet right off? "Mommy, my feet are cold." Really?

wood gatherers

Two days after Christmas, Terry hitched up his trailer to the Blazer and took Noah and Evie out to the ranch to get some firewood. I can't even remember what I did at home. But these punks worked pretty hard!

Gathering wood from a beaver-felled tree near the creek. Terry and his dad cut it up and the kids stacked it in the truck behind them.

Backing up with their load.

I was pretty impressed with the kids. When I was little and had to get wood with my dad, sister and brother, I complained constantly and had a terrible attitude. I never heard Noah and Evie say anything negative. Of course, I was only with them for a little bit, but they were still pretty happy.

All done! It's lovely to have a fire.