Happy, Happy, Snow, Snow!

last saturday we went sledding with a bunch of friends at this awesome place in orchard park! the kids had so much fun--and so did glenn and i! haven loved it, although only while sledding, she got pretty cold. look at the sweet cabes helping out--awhhh!


toran is the epitome of happy! check that kid out--he was my sledding buddy, and even had fun with a face full of snow. i only got to go down a few times, because haven got really crabby and so we hung out in the van for awhile. we tried the lodge, but she kept trying to get to places that were "restricted" or on fire!


here is ciela with josh and dave! caleb was taking pictures of random weirdness so i begged him to shoot people that we know. he did a pretty good job.


on the way home caleb passed out! all that sledding and then hiking up the hill, it was a total workout! and the wind was c-raazy! we needed goggles and those face things. more gear that needs to be purchased. rei.com here we come...


i'm not quite sure what haven's excuse is, since she was hauled everywhere, and i don't think her little boots ever touched the ground, but i guess it's alright if she sleeps...look close and you can see she's got someone on hold on her phone, she's a busy bee!

I Love Glenn!

this week, and honestly nearly every moment of every day since i met glenn thomas (almost 14 years) i have been grateful to know and have him near me. here's only a few reasons why:

1. glenn encouraged me last year to participate in more things. so hard for me, and yet now my life is so much more fun! thanks baby!

2. he is so handy! i often take this a bit for granted and just assume he can do anything (mostly right!) and that everyone else's hubby's can too. thankfully glenn knows more than just how to kiss and use a bit of duct tape!

3. the best dad ever! when he is around i am amazed at his patience and exuberance he has for our very energetic kids. WOW!

4. intelligence is always a blessing and since we seem to be in a constant state of "school" i am glad beyond words that he can do well and still have time for the rest of our life!

i have loved this man for nearly half of my life, and things are always getting better. we have rarely ever fought, and really always seem to be in sync with each other. i am crazy blessed!

My Boys

so the boys were in need of some serious hair-cutting, and toran was willing to let glenn have a bit of fun with the buzzer. here is one of the coolest kids in the world!

toran really means it! i actually loved the mohawk, but thought it might distract others more than his regular "messy-hawk" that he gets!


if you look closely at this picture caleb took, you can see that glenn has a bad "owie" on his lip. all from some racquetball that got out of hand. oh, boys...

Winter Adventures!

a few weeks ago, we headed up to see the falls in "winter" condition. we saw some great stuff! caleb took this photo of some turtles in the flower exhibit house. he named them: "slow" and "turtles", so that together they are "slow turtles"! they were so slow, that all the kids thought they must be statues, but of course they are real, and very slow.


in the flower house, they have some beautiful flowers. i am fairly horrible at remembering flower names, but this one is crazy and fun--just like our cabers!


here are the same 2 pictures of toran, because i uploaded the wrong one, but this looked to be a crazy huge orchid, growing out of the side of some kind of tree. check out the zebra striping on the stalk!

now you can just check out sweet toran--again!


here is ciela with some pretty flowers that she thought nana might like to see--and name!


and here is the fam in front of the poinsettia "tree". the flower house is really small, but with lots of pretty flowers--and totally free! there are also some exotic birds flying around in there-but we only saw or heard a few of them. there were so many beautiful orchids! i love those flowers! and it reminded me of home--we used to give orchids as gifts often, because they are gorgeous and so inexpensive at trader joe's. however, i went to check out getting an orchid for our home a few days ago--holy cow! $35 at the store! umm...i guess i need to take some more pictures!

so the silly boys and i in front of the falls, but you can really only see the mist. we are on the canadian side, so in the background you can see some of the american park.


we did something else we had never done: spent $ on food! well, at the falls, i mean. we had cocoa and muffins, and somehow a random walnut got into my blueberry muffin, which led to a panicked run to the bathroom to scrub my teeth and tongue. then when i returned ciela offered me the rest of her bagel and cream cheese, but a couple bites into it, my throat was feeling very constricted and so i had to pop an emergency benedryl (i have crazy allergies to nuts and carob, which is now used as carob bean gum and a thickener in nearly every non-organic dairy product out there!) and so the drive home and the rest of the day were a bit blurry for me!


the falls looked so green! still mammoth and amazing, but definitely a new site in the winter!


this sign is posted in the women's bathroom in the flower house--why?

Christmastime!

caleb's preschool put on a cute holiday musical filled with gingerbread kids, elves, snowpeople, reindeer and santa. caleb was an elf, and they sang lots of christmas favorites. the best part was during jingle bells when all the little "elves" shook their heads like mad to jingle the bells at the end of their hats! caleb loves to sing and did a great job. then afterwards we had a little cookie party and santa came. that was a disaster! cabes is totally afraid of santa! and he cried and wanted to leave and didn't even care if santa had a gift for him.

well, we missed out on quite a bit of picture taking for christmas due to battery shortages and camera weirdness, but we did get a few! we opened up presents from my parents on christmas eve, and haven got this excellent tin princess case with a little dora inside--her favorite!


toran loves animals of all kinds, and he was very excited to receive a new webkinz penguin to add to his growing collection. both the boys got new ones and all the big kids got their first "shining stars" pets. we now need another computer to keep up with all the feeding and tending of online-animals!
this picture seems to epitomize our family christmas this year. slow and lazy with a few great gifts and plenty of junky treats! we get to have sugary cereal! oh how we love golden grahams, and chocolate lucky charms, and our favorite cracklin' oat bran! and the pop tarts, yummy yum!
so tasty, but definitely only good to have all that high fructose corn syrup and crazy additives on just the one day! this was the first time in years that we have been all by ourself for the whole of christmas, and while we totally missed family, it was really nice to just hang out with our kids. actually i forgot for a moment that glenn and ciela and toran went to some of our friends for dinner, but the cabes and haven had been off and on sick so i did get to stay home all day. we did video chat with lots of fam, or atleast try for a few minutes! that was awesome!

It's A Snow World...

a few weeks ago we had a nice little snowstorm that dumped several inches of snow and a few kids into the yard! the boys of course love the snow. i mean think of all the great activities: snow wrestling, snow throwing, snow running, actually all of their "usual" activities fit into the realm of snow pretty well.

this here is the "tractor plow", a common sight in the lane we share, and a welcoming noise after a storm blows through!

haven loves the snow! although not her mittens so much ( i realized later they were too small), and she loved shaking her hands super fast after she had picked up snow to watch it fly all over, then have to wipe her face with the same "windshield wiper" handmotion!

haven was amazed at the snow on the van. she put her speedy fast wiper hands to good use and wiped off all the snow she could reach.

caleb would live outside in any condition. he lives for anything outdoorsy! he rolls all over the place like the crazy monkey he is, and gets snow everywhere inside of his layers, but doesn't cry until we get in the house and he is all red and frozen!