Happy Feet and Baby Hef

The boys both got some new stuff this week. Drew got a chair for bath time. He really likes it because it makes it so much harder for his big brother to drown him.

Nathan got a new pillow case. He actually got it from Aunt Shauna for his birthday. But he didn't get a pillow until last week, so this was his first chance to use it. Between the tractors on his pillow and Thomas on his comforter, it's a wonder he ever gets to sleep.

Drew has taken responsibility for feeding himself now.

He should be able to look for a part time job within a few weeks.

Great Grandma Dudley stopped by to see the boys last weekend. Nathan was quite excited to see her which surprised me a little. He's usually more shy, but he and Drew were both very happy to see Grandma.

Drew's getting better about sitting up on his own too.

We had the Olympic opening ceremony on the other night. Nathan took the opportunity to practice his dance moves with the performers...


Last weekend, the wind stopped and the sun came out long enough for Nate and Olivia to go play in the snow for a while. So, we put on Nathan's "fat pants"...

...slid on his cool shades...

... and headed out the door.

He also, uh, made a new friend while out there...

Liv also broke out a new article in Drew's wardrobe this week. Meet "baby Hef"...

It's no surprise he's such a hit with the ladies.

Sir Spitsalot

Here's some more pics of the boys. Drew was being a little exhibitionist at bath time the other night. Look at the tree trunks this kid has for legs.

He's finally getting to where he can prop himself up for a short spell. His balance still needs some work, but he's getting there.

Liv had some coupons for free pics at Sears, so Nate got a couple more 2 year pics.

Nate is in the early stages of potty training. He's usually far too busy to have time to stop and potty. So, Liv is going to start using big boy pants and letting him get a little damp and uncomfortable. Drew, on the other hand, is far more advanced and can't wait to start potty training. He even went so far as to steal some of his big brother's Elmo tightey whiteys.

And finally, this is Drew's latest little quirk. This is what he does when he's supposed to be sleeping...

Where the Wild Things Are

Not a whole lot going on since my last post, but since I've got some time I thought I'd go ahead and post some pictures from this week. Last Sunday Drew was dedicated at church. All the pictures look pretty much the same, so I'll only post one. He was a perfect gentleman, but his brother had a meltdown moments before we went up. He saw Nana and Pop in the choir and became quite distressed that they would leave the stage without coming down to see him. He had to be rushed out to the hallway to see them and wasn't composed enough to come up on stage with us. He's become more and more attached to his Grandparents since we've moved over here.
Of course, Drew continues to ooze cuteness...

He's gotten to where he can pretty much roll over at will...


He's starting to scoot too, and should be crawling around within the next few weeks. His mother pointed out an interesting fact today. Drew is wearing an old pair of Nate's pj's that Nate was photographed standing in. They may have shrunk a little, but Drew is about as big as Nathan was when he started standing up. Wow.

We had an interesting visitor this Saturday. I was watching cartoons with Nate and just happened to look out the back window. There was this giant raccoon nosing around our little shed behind the house. I wasn't able to run outside guns-a-blazing as Drew and his mother were still sleeping, but I managed to capture things on camera. The little critter circled the shed a few times.
He thought about crawling underneath the floor.

But then decided to climb the front door.

He got his paws over the top edge of the door and managed to shimmy across to the middle.

...and squish himself up and over the top.

I was rather impressed by the little guy's acrobatics. There's nothing in that shed, so I don't really care what kind of critters snoop around in there. Not 30 minutes after all this, I looked out again and saw this little fellow...

It's hard to see, but it's a pretty good sized red fox.

When I spotted him he was standing right in front of the shed, but by the time I got the camera out he had trotted over into the neighbor's horse pasture. I shouldn't be surprised to see wildlife out here, I'm just still getting used to it again after having lived in suburbia for the last 8 years. I can't wait until spring when we can finally get out and start enjoying our little piece of the rock some more.

The Holidays

Once again, it's been far too long since my last post. We're finally all settled into our new "house". It's far from a house, but it's a temporary exile. We had to list the old house with a realtor this week since it wasn't getting any traffic through it. Breaking even now should be a real challenge. Anyway, things haven't been all bad. We had a rough week or so where I was the only one in the house that wasn't on antibiotics. I hope that doesn't mean I'm the problem. Luckily everyone was mostly healed for the holidays. Drew is growing like crazy. Maybe it's because we let him be responsible for metering his own consumption...

He started eating cereal last week too.

He has taken to it much quicker than Nate did. What a moose. The holidays were good as usual. Aunt Shauna and Uncle Tom were home plus there was lots of unhealthy food. What more could you ask for. This was Nate's second Christmas, but he was able to appreciate this one a lot more than he did last year. He got a butt load of cool stuff at Nana's Christmas morning...

He seemed quite pleased. And now, some random Drew pics...

Sunday was Nate and Nana's birthday, so we had a joint birthday party for them over at Great-Grandma Dudley's. Nate had a wonderful time again, of course. He got to practice his billiards...

He got another butt load of cool stuff...

And of course he got to break all the rules, smashing cake while sitting on the countertops.

Drew had a good time too because he got to shuck his pants and show off his bratwurst legs...

Speaking of bratwurst legs, his mom got a couple good bath time pics of him the other day. It's a good thing legendary old west law-man Wyatt Earp was available to make them decent.

You can tell from the pics that he's getting quite strong. He's rolling himself over pretty regularly these days. He's scooting a little now and I'm sure he'll be crawling in no time.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Here's a video of a Trans-Siberian Orchestra song we did at church this weekend that I did the light show for. The video/audio of this recording don't do it justice. You had to be there. It was awsome. Thank God I didn't screw it up!