Owen's version of wheels...

Not to be left out of anything, Owen has practiced his "wheels on the bus" song too. He only knows one verse, and only sings "all...the...toooowwwn." He'll get better!

The Log Song

I think everyone will enjoy this song from Aidan that his Dad taught him...See how long it takes before you realize what he is singing. Sorry about the wiggly camera, this was a hard one to pay attention to!

Static playdate

Here are some pictures from a playdate last week. It was the first one for Sayla and Aidan (getting back together after Christmas.) They had a hard time adjusting to each other as Aidan was pretty tired and cranky. Owen, however took to Anders. He helped feed him his bottle, pet him and made sure he stayed warm. No, we will not be giving him a baby to play with, but maybe a dog or something...

And, yes we very much need to get a humidifier going in the downstairs!

Preschool Problems!

Well, not surprisingly it's still cold up here. We are pretty much house-ridden until it warms up or we start to have things to do again. I haven't been great about keeping up with the blog, but we have been pretty busy. The play room is almost done. All the painting is done and awaiting the 'furniture' to be done. Wade is pretty close, and he is making the best of his time. It seems that with Aidan getting older he knows when Daddy is down 'building stuff,' and the tools are too loud to get much done after the boys go to bed. We are very happy with the way things are going. Pictures are on their way! Until then....
So, I haven't been too terribly quiet about how I felt about Sonshine Preschool. Aidan started there in the fall, and he was having a few problems. Mostly my gripe was with the teacher and how she dealt with things (or, more importantly, how she DIDN'T deal with things.) Wade and I spent a lot of time discussing the situation and late last week we decided to pull him from Sonshine. We talked to Aidan about it, and he was just worried about getting to spend time with Sayla and not so much about not going to school. We had looked into another preschool last fall, but hadn't gotten word that they had room for him yet.....That all changed this afternoon!!!! WOOHOO! Aidan starts his new preschool next Monday. This school is the one on a farm, and the kids all start their day by doing chores. I wish I would've taped his reaction this afternoon when I got to tell him he was going. He was so excited! I will definately have to update everyone after he starts school, but for now we are thrilled!

Wheels on the Bus with Uncle Fean

This is Fean's newest hobby...guitar playing. The video is small b/c I had the camera turned and had to edit it to the right size. He is really quite good at it, and Aidan loves watching this clip over and over and over again. He knows how to run my computer, so on the days that he gets up at five and sneaks into my office this is what wakes us up. Owen has even started signing along. They'll be ready for a better performance the next time he's around with his guitar. This probably won't be until Easter. I love the end of the song...

Did you know it snows in December?!?

So, whoever wished for a white Christmas might have overdone it this year. Here are some pictures of the snow that we got to deal with. The reason I say 'got to deal' with it is because there was too much snow to even get outside to play. I took the boys outside for about ten minutes (after dressing them for 25 minutes.) Neither of them could even take a step. I cleared a path for Owen, and that kept him contained. Aidan kept getting stuck. Maybe next year they'll be a little bigger and ready for a foot of snow. And, yes they have socks on their hands instead of mittens because I can find their socks and I can't find their mittens....sometimes you just look for other solutions...

Wright/Stigge Christmas

Christmas began a little this year for the Kelley's. We started Christmas Eve up here. The weather was a little frightening, but we had planned to go to church up here (Cedar Falls) in the afternoon. The timing worked out great, as I needed every second I had to finish up all the projects I had going. Aidan's Christmas party at school was the 23rd, and I spent a lot of time getting that together. Anyway, we loaded up and headed to church. We had planned on pulling a trailer to bring a freezer down with us, but didn't want to deal with that on the roads. After church we headed out, and were actually running on time. There was quite a bit of ice on the roads, and mix that with dozens of other families who are in a hurry to get somewhere and you get an interesting driving experience. We made it safely to Mount Pleasant only to find that there was a house in town there that had their xmas lights set to music. That's really when we ended up running late....we sat there and watched that display for awhile. The boys and I really enjoyed it, and Wade was trying to figure out how they did that (I think so that he can do it next year to annoy the neighbors.) 

After the light display we headed down to Gpa Bob's and Gma Pat's. They weren't kidding that the roads were icy. We made it there without putting us in the ditch. Traditional soup and snacks followed with a quick visit from Santa. He didn't have time to stop, but we got to hear the bells from his sleigh. He left behind way too many presents for everyone, and the unwrapping began. A nice touch this year was that Santa sorted through the toys that he expected the boys to play with, and assembled them!!! 

Christmas morning, we headed down to Stigge's for dinner. I can't really explain what Mom's house looks like at Christmas, but I imagine that the North Pole would be jealous of all the stuff they have up. Owen learned to say 'Santa' from all the pictures they had of him around the house...not to mention the signing five foot tall version of him that they had on the front porch....More presents!!! The boys got a riding combine that has inspired us to create a toy room just for them (pictures to come in a future blog.) Mom and Ray got a tire/horse swing for the kids...I hope the tree they put it up in can hold Aidan's weight a little better than Gpa Buddy did.