Kids, Kids, More Kids...

Kite's Legends Room was NOT the place to be Saturday evening if you are young and single . . . If you have at least three kids, we probably let you in ;)

Neither are great shots, but you get the idea. A few kids were even too little or too "grown up" to be in this crazy mob. I don't think this group even noticed that K-State lost--way too much snacking/chasing/hiding/teasing. . .

Disguised

This outfit was my mom's gift to Amy. Graham modeled it so she could see how cute it was :) I think the owl trend is so fun!

Amy's Baby Shower

This past weekend, Sharla and I hosted a baby shower for our long-time friend, Amy. Since we have five boys, it was a lot of fun for us to "think pink."

Invitations.
Amy and David loading up on candy (no, he didn't attend the shower, he just drove her to town since she was going to have to come from St. Louis alone).
Napkins made into dresses--idea stolen from some blog that I should credit, but now can't find.
Onesie garland.
The food (my contribution was small).
Pink Valentine's Day candy worked well for treats.
It was fun to pick out/make pink stuff. I found the cutest stuff at Target like this sweat suit and these leggings.

Made a few burp cloths. I like the pink ones, but had to include the cats for Amy :)

Weekend at Grandma's

The little boys and I spent last weekend in Lebo (you know Owen is getting old when he has to stay home for practice). Miles loved being a one-man show! We originally went because Sharla and I hosted a baby shower for Amy, but it also worked out that we could attend Bonnie Lou's surprise 65th birthday party and see Quint and Susan.

He hid this Lego Man soooo many times and then gave directions warmer/colder.
And he played the "Fish Game" many times. Pretty soon this game will have to be moved to the table--Graham wants to crawl so badly, just can't quite get out of the Superman position. My mom took Miles to Wal-Mart to get groceries and was going to let him pick out a little toy. Instead he stopped her at the clothes and picked out a Batman T-shirt and reversible shorts. We all had to vote whether we liked the blue or silver side better. He also got to go meet Tex, Susan's parents' 20+ year old longhorn (great opportunity to wear the Texas jersey) and cat, and also check out their neighbors' array of goats, horses, llamas, etc. Those would have been good pictures!
Lucky for me, my mom had made these fun Star Wars cookies. We brought them home and I conveniently bagged them up and turned them into Miles' preschool half-birthday treats. He said his friends liked them and his teacher said he "rocked." Oh how I wished I enjoyed baking...

Dirty Man

Graham has been eating more food lately....well, maybe not eating it, more like rubbing it on his face!

Snow Day

We had a snow day a week ago. The big boys shoveled the entire driveway (Adam said he'd treat them to hot chocolate, but they came home with some frou-frou drink from Star Buck's instead). A week later, we are out for MLK and it pretty much looks the same out. Boo to all of the snow and cold weather!!

Six Months

Graham is halfway to his first birthday! Miles wanted Graham to suit up in his OKC jersey for a triplets picture even though his is a romper. At six months he is: sitting up, rolling and pushing to move around, messily eating some baby food, chewing on EVERYTHING, and (best for last) he has one tooth! He looks chunky but is smaller than the other boys were. He's 27", 16 lb., 10 oz. **Edit--make that TWO TEETH!

Gamers

The "bigs" (Owen and Miles) and cousins and friends have been VERY INTO playing Super Mario Brothers on their DSi's over break. . . however, there is another gamer in our house that likes to take his turn trying to save the princess (or whatever the objective is nowadays, didn't it used to be saving the princess?). Here, Owen is offering his advice.

Black Power Ranger

Miles has been very into the Black Power Ranger, Ninja moves, something called a "drive slammer" and the color black lately. Santa brought him new tennis shoes that were too tight so we exchanged them for these (even better) black ones. He spent some his Christmas money from Grandma Jean and Grandpa Harlan on these black clothes. When he's not Jacob Pullen, he's "Black Power Ranger."

For Christmas, Adam and I each picked something out for ourselves at Best Buy and called it good. I got a flip camera (not really a flip because I got the one that can go underwater, so watch out pool people :) so here's a video to share of Jacob Pullen/Black Power Ranger.

Fun DIY Gifts

I was able to use some of the ideas on my "to try" list for Christmas presents this year. I love making fun, SHORT, easy projects like some of these...

Coordinating tie shirts for the babies/cousins.
Gift card holders.
Yarn covered letters which I'd really like for my boys, but how many times can you put your name up in your room?? Made a few other things, but I guess there are no pictures of these.

Love Legos

This was one of Owen's Christmas gifts (he wanted to try other things in addition to the Star Wars stuff).

One day later.... He says he's ready for the Taj Mahal (of course, it was only $300)

Let It Snow

We left Manhattan last Thursday afternoon to hopefully avoid potential bad roads. It started snowing right as we pulled into Atwood Thursday night. We left 60+ degree, go-to-the-park-in-shorts weather for single digit temperatures!

The big kids (minus Reese, who was on the D.S.) ready for some sledding.
Miles going down the big hill in front of the Braxmeyer's house. Notice Edie and Newman on the neighbor's porch :(
Raly and then Owen sledding down the same hill.
Eventually the kids talked Grandpa Mike into driving the truck to the bottom of the hill and pulling them to the top each time.

The kids were hoping it had snowed in Manhattan...no such luck. I say if it's going to snow, we might as well get enough for a snow day :)

New Year's in Atwood

Since we didn't make it to Atwood for Thanksgiving as planned, we decided to head out over the long New Year's weekend. Fortunately Adam's sisters and their kids were able to come as well. The kids trashed Grandma Rosie's house with all of their projects, cold-weather clothes, Christmas toys, etc. I'm sure I contributed as well, given that I only left the house for an hour the whole time we were there (treadmill in the basement so I was set :)

The boys received marshmallow guns from Mike and Rosie. You can shoot one big one or a bunch of little ones (BB style). They are a lot of fun. Mike took the four big kids to the grocery store when it was closed on New Year's Day so they could shoot/hide/talk strategy on the intercom. I heard it was a blast!
Reese REALLY LOVES playing the D.S. He was either playing it or watching Owen play Mario Brothers nearly the entire time.
We finally got to meet our nephew/cousin, Jack (on the left). He's 2.5 months younger than Graham and Brody, but bigger than both--so cute! Brody (on the right) just had his surgery two weeks ago and looks great! These three are going to get into all kinds of trouble I'm sure...