Great Wolf Lodge

We recently spent two nights in Williamsburg's Great Wolf Lodge, a family resort with a huge indoor water park. The boys were able to sleep in their own "cabin" area of our room, complete with bunk beds.
Nicholas was able to ride almost every water slide, and he and Chris enjoyed going down them repeatedly. Daniel and I stayed busy in the toddler pool/fountain area and watching a huge bucket of water spill on people every five minutes. We all were able to ride the four-seater family water slide together.
Although the photos didn't come out very well because of the lighting in the waterpark, above are a few from our trip.

The L-O-N-G winter!

It has been a very long winter up here in Virginia- we've gotten around 30 inches of snow since December. Hopefully, spring is coming!

Here is an update on the boys:

• Nicholas is becoming more "big-brotherly" with each passing day. Although he occasionally instigates an argument or aggravates Daniel, he seems to be increasingly more patient with D's tantrums, often giving him a toy to pacify the little guy. It is sweet to see him being such a peacemaker. He is very excited about the upcoming birth of baby Andrew, and loves to feel my tummy when Andrew is kicking around.
  
• You may be wondering how the homeschooling is going. We have fallen into a comfortable routine of working for about an hour 3-4 times per week. Nicholas knows around 20 sight words, and is starting to transition to actually reading his (little) books rather than just memorizing them. We have recently started a kindergarten math program, which covers place value, addition, etc. He is a great student, and is eager to please! Next fall, we will begin "Classical Conversations," a weekly meeting with other homeschoolers where he will learn fine arts, science, history, geography, and Bible. I will reinforce what he's learning there at home during the week, in addition to teaching him math, reading, and probably Spanish.
• Nicholas will start speech therapy at our neighborhood elementary school next week. After some concern on our part that many of his sounds and words were not completely intelligible, we decided to have him tested, and he qualified for services. We are looking forward to having someone work with him on this!
  

• How N. made us laugh this past month:

Nicholas: So, Dad, what did you do at work today? (speaking to Chris over dinner one evening)
Chris: I worked on a software procedure.
N: That doesn't sound very kid-ish!

• Daniel is very much in the "terrible twos" phase. Although we still see glimpses of our laid-back little guy, screams of "NO" and "MINE" are more the norm these days. Daniel is very attached to his big brother, and the two will play together quite a bit. It's easy to see N's influence as D. loves all things Star Wars, and has even started watching episodes of "Voltron" on Netflix. Reading books and going to the library are favorite activities.
• We recently finished Daniel's new big boy room, complete with blue walls and bunk beds. Although the boys will not have to share a room, the bed will come in handy with visitors as we no longer have a guest room. Nicholas has wanted to sleep in the top bunk, and I think this has made the transition easier for D. Promise to post pictures of the new room soon!

• How Daniel has made us laugh recently:

Bev: Guess what, guys? We're going to Great Wolf Lodge tomorrow. They have a water park and bunk beds for you to sleep in.
Daniel: And food, too?

It's a BOY!

Today's ultrasound proved our suspicions correct: We will be having boy #3 in June! Chris is planning a sports team of some type (ha ha), and we are both preparing ourselves for lots of rough-housing, huge grocery bills, and a future filled with all things "boy."

So, this will make grandson #3 for Chris' mom, and #6 for my mom. It's a good thing that our younger sisters, Amanda and Tori, might some day give them granddaughters!

We are looking forward to getting together with my brother, Shawn, his wife Erin, and their three sons over the years. We figure that with six boys (all within a six year range), it will definitely be a free for all.

One more bonus: I won't have to change the name of my blog. :-)

Walt Disney World!

Daniel fell asleep waiting in line for the Buzz ride.

We traveled to Florida last week to visit Chris' mom and siblings. Unfortunately, all the shorts and tee-shirts we packed did not get much use! It was COLD! But, we did enjoy the sunshine, company, and lots of good food while we were there. (I'm sorry that I didn't get any pictures of family this year.) And, as always, the boys got spoiled by Grandma Jo and their aunts and uncles. :-)

On the way back home, we spent a day at Disney World. We hoped that January fourth wouldn't be too crowded, but we were wrong. The lines were long! Still, we enjoyed a beautifully sunny day, and were able to experience all the rides and attractions that we wanted.

The funniest story from our day involved Buzz Lightyear. We waited in line for a while to see him, and as we were waiting, I mentioned to Chris that I hoped he wouldn't leave before we got up to him. Chris said, "Nah. He'll be here for a while." To Nicholas' delight, (Daniel didn't want to touch Buzz, but was fine in my arms.) we got to see him and have our picture taken. BUT, as soon as we did, he walked away, leaving the rest of the people behind us to wait! Must've been our lucky day!!!

Catching Up

Since I haven't posted since mid-November, this will be a giant "catch-up" entry! Before the onslaught of pictures, here's a quick update:

Most of you have probably heard that we are expecting baby #3 in June! We are excited, of course, and will hopefully get to find out whether we'll have a third son or girl #1 by late January. The pregnancy has been great so far! When Nicholas found out, his response was very sweet. He hugged my tummy and started talking to the baby. Soon afterward, he was full of questions, including, "How will the baby get out?", "If you open your mouth, Mom, will it get out that way?", etc.

Below are some photos from the past month, including our trip to the Christmas tree farm, visiting Santa at the YMCA, and Christmas:




Our Christmas tree farm "debacle"... There wasn't much of a selection this year, so we chose the best-looking tree we could find. After getting it home, we discovered that it looked like a Charlie Brown tree in our living room. Chris went to Lowe's and got another one. At least the boys had fun and we got some cute pictures!

The boys got to see Santa at a special breakfast the Y provided.

Daniel was not thrilled to sit in his lap, but didn't mind giving Santa a high-five.

We got a foot of snow on Dec. 18-19, and it didn't melt for a week!



Christmas Day

Nicholas was excited about his Bumblebee Transformer.

The boys thought it would be fun to jump on my back simultaneously.

Our awesome neighbors, Cherri and Corinne, joined us for Christmas dinner.

Cast-Off Day!

In the doctor's waiting room- not much longer now!

Yuck! The nurse threw the cast (front half) right into the trash. We had no desire to keep it.

Cast coming off!

Daniel with Dr. Atkins, right after his cast was removed

(About a week ago, Daniel started to stand with his cast on, and even cruised around the train table!)

As you can see, the cast is outta here! Daniel's x-rays looked great, and reminded us once again, that God truly is our great physician. How miraculous that the largest bone in his body could be fully healed in "just" five and a half weeks! (Seemed much longer to us, but in reality, is pretty amazing.)

Daniel cried when they used the saw to remove the cast, mostly because it was so loud, but was a great patient. He didn't even cringe when we put his pants on, although the doc warned us that he might be very sensitive for a day or two.

Right now, I am enjoying all the little things I've been missing the past several weeks- holding my sweet boy close to me and feeling how light he is, watching him delight in a warm bath, putting on his cute jeans, and even being able to change his diaper normally.

We will go back to the doctor in a couple of weeks so that she can check his progress, but in the meantime, will enjoy watching him relearn to use those stiff leg muscles!

Halloween!

We had a Star Wars themed Halloween this year, with Nicholas as Darth Vader and Daniel as Yoda. We had gotten the costumes before D's accident, so it was fortunate that Yoda's robes fit pretty well over his cast! Of course, Daniel did not want to leave his ears on, but once we started trick-or-treating, he got distracted and didn't notice me surreptitiously slipping them on.

Daniel was determined to get those ears off!

In other developments, Nicholas is definitely at the questioning stage. I am willing to bet that if we counted, he must ask several hundred questions a day. Many of them are rhetorical, and he is never satisfied with the explanations we attempt to give him. So, my very intelligent husband has started saying, "What do you think?" whenever he asks one of these impossible questions. Surprisingly, it often works! Of course, we realize that this is a normal part of growing and learning, and are thankful that he is curious, even if it's maddening at times!