Skiing again!

Hurray, it's that time of year again! We've already been hitting the ski trails, and it all came back amazingly for Andrew. This is Jacob's first year on skis, and he's shuffling along, slow but sure!
Hopefully today I'll remember to take the camera ice skating. Our weather has been so cold for so long now (holding at around zero during the day), that we've already had good ice for skating for a few weeks. 

New treadmill

We recently inherited a treadmill, which Mark and I have enjoyed using. The boys have, too! Andrew often tells us that he needs "to take his exercise," usually when we're in the middle of using it!
But, he also showed us during rest time the other day that we can conveniently use it as an extra child-size bed when needed! :) 

Excuse for blogging slow-down

As some of you may have noticed, I've been pretty lax about blogging the last few weeks. So, just wanted to share with you the first official picture of the culprit! We're expecting #3 in early June...we're very excited, but quite frankly, I just don't feel well! We've been dealing with fatigue and being nauseated for weeks now. So, blogging has sort of taken a back seat!

Andrew is very excited about the new baby (Jacob doesn't really "get it" yet). Andrew is certain that it's a girl. When we told him we were going to have a new baby, he said

It will be a girl baby!

We reminded him that God would give our family what we needed...if God thought he needed a sister it would be a girl, and if God thought he needed another brother, it would be a boy.
To which Andrew replied,

You ask God tonight if it will be a sister, and He will say yes!

So, we'll see! Next appt. is Dec. 15th, and hopefully we'll get an accurate gender-reading! 

More reminders from the 4 year old...

Both boys have been battling colds the last week or so, and we've been praying with them to feel better.
At bedtime prayers, Mark had just started praying with Andrew when Andrew interrupted him,

A: Daddy, don't forget to pray for me to feel better
M: I won't forget.

Mark continued the prayer, which really wasn't that long, when Andrew interrupted again,

Daddy, aren't you forgetting something?

The prayer was promptly steered towards Andrew's health!

Manners, please.

This morning I heard Andrew sneeze, so I called "God bless you!" to him,
to which he nicely replied "Thank you."
I was quite pleased with his manners, but apparently he wasn't so pleased with mine. After a minute he called to me,

Mommy, I said 'thank you' and you forgot to say 'you're welcome.'

Oops.

Steelers game...

Sunday afternoon we enjoyed sitting down together to watch the Steelers/Broncos game...Mark grew up a Steelers fan, I grew up a Broncos fan-but we kept the peace nonetheless! (And of course the best team won)! :)
Anyway, we got out the "Terrible Towel" for cheering on the Steelers that Mark's brother David had given him a while back, and the boys sort of got in on the cheering. Andrew did alright at first, but we were not happy with his second idea of what to do with it, covering up the tv screen!  

Fun birthday present!

A friend gave Jacob a set of "Wonder Colors" finger paints and paper...the paints are colorless unless they are used on the Wonder Color paper. They have been a joy for both of us! :) 

Season Switch

We had planned on this past Saturday being our major "season switch" work day. We had to get all the outdoor toys put away before the snow really flew, switch out the gardening stuff in the shed for the ice skates and snowshoes, get snow tires out for the vehicles, etc, etc, etc.
Saturday dawned clear, bright, and only 16 degrees! It warmed up nicely to 25 degrees by afternoon, and we had a blast being outside together all day, got tons done, and the boys got their first sledding in of the season! (And our timing was perfect, as God is often good to arrange...we got 3 inches of snow the next day)!