Life

It's been busy lately. Travel, work, Ben's basketball schedule, snow and ice and more has kept us hopping.

Monday was a holiday and I took advantage of it by stripping the wallpaper in our hall bathroom. What a job! I'd never stripped wallpaper before and never before had I been so thankful for how small that bathroom is! My arms were weak a jello by the end of the day and my back ached. There are spots that need patching and I need to pick a paint color but that room is well on its way to fitting in with the rest of our home.

Last week it snowed and we had a fantastic time playing in the snow. I was busy with the boys and never even considered getting my camera out! Too many layers of clothing, gloves, hats and boots to keep track of to get my camera in the mix. We explored out at the farm, trying to identify all the different animal tracks we found. I got to pull the boys on the sled and my dad gave a few sled rides pulled by the 4-wheeler.

Last night, just before bed, the boys decided to be a band. They even asked me to sing with them! But, I didn't sing the right words so I was not part of the band for long. For the entire 5 minutes that this lasted it was fantastic!

As for today - I got up at 5:20am to go exercise (like I do most days) only to find out the Wellness Center wasn't open - due to icy roads. That was annoying. But even more annoying is that if I would have looked at Facebook last night I would have known that! Plus, Goessel cancelled school (which means Noah doesn't have preschool) and Newton cancelled school (which means my work is closed today too) it looks like we'll have a day at home together! The roads are terrible - a sheet of ice - so I'm relieved to not be going anywhere this morning. Maybe I'll get the hall bathroom walls cleaned off and patched today....

Singin' a Song

The boys took turns performing for me last week. I didn't ask them to do this, it just happened one morning. The only trouble is that for the most part, they simply made up the songs as they sang them.

Levi clapped along while Noah sang:

Levi kind of goes on and on, but my favorite moment is when he seems to check and see if his tongue is still there. :-)

Sunday festivities

Levi got to celebrate his birthday one more time with my family. He was thrilled that his birthday seemed to last another day. Noah, on-the-other-hand, was less than thrilled that Levi got to open MORE presents and he didn't.

And, in the true spirit of having a birthday at the end of December we went from a brief (but lovely - thanks Mom!) birthday party to a Christmas gathering! My Epp family gathered for Christmas at my aunt and uncle's house.

The rhythm instruments came out so all the kids would agree to singing some songs. And well, honestly...rhythm instruments are fun for everyone!

The video is a bit blurry...I'm still learning how to use my new gadget that takes video...but it gives you a glimpse of the Epp family rhythm instrument sing along.

I think it's gonna work!

I think this is super idea, one I totally stole from Design*Sponge and I think it's gonna work to add some color to my sister-in-law's house. In the gift exchange among the Schrag siblings, I got Sara's name. Sara asked for colorful art for their white walls. Well, I don't know Sara's style very well yet (although I think I'm getting a handle on it), I've never seen where they live or what kind of furniture or space they have. So, while I very much wanted to get her something colorful for her walls picking it out seemed nearly impossible. So, Ben suggested that I take her shopping for art while we were together in Illinois. That tripped the trigger on this idea that I saw on Design*Sponge a while back. So, I gathered a bunch of embroidery hoops and presented them to Sara, with the explanation (and a photo of the idea from online) that we'd go shopping to find the perfect fabrics for each hoop.

So Sara, Sue and I took off one afternoon to shop for fabric and came up with this:

I'm not sure the photo accurately captures all the colors and details. And once Sara gets all this back to Arizona she'll get to trim the fabric and figure out just how she wants them arranged on her wall. She's even got some extra hoops and will have enough of several of these fabrics to fill more hoops if she wants to. I wasn't sure if this gift idea would work out well or not, but it certainly was fun and something that she can easily put up, change or take down whenever she wants.

It's a very versatile idea too - think of all the fabulous ways you could arrange fabrics or make it appropriate for a kids room or whatever.

Illinois Wrap-Up

What fun it is to find a bunch of pictures still on the camera when I thought I had already uploaded them all! I found a slew of them last night so here's the next-to-last post from our time in Illinois.

Christmas came on Dec. 28 for the Schrag family, as that was the first day we were all present at Tim & Sue's. Sara and Josh flew in from Tempe that day and so that day was our official Christmas. It was great! A snacky meal for lunch, after naps we opened presents and then we had a feast of a Christmas dinner - ham, fatty potatoes and lots more.

Noah and Levi each got boxer shorts in their stockings.

and big, soft hooded towels

and John Deere stocking hats and jammies. Noah got a JD sweatshirt and Levi got Lincoln Logs.

Puzzle after puzzle was put together. I think we completed 3 puzzles, or was it 4? No, I think 3 - lots of tapping each piece into place - just to make sure everyone noticed a piece was correctly placed.

And, I found pictures from ice fishing. Or, in this case, from the drive to the pond where we ice fished. Levi caught a nap,

Ben drove,

Noah made a dull-eyed face and then smiled as soon as I snapped the picture and I enjoyed the beautiful Illinois countryside.

Off we go...we had to walk a little ways to get from the road to the pond. I think Noah's favorite thing about snow is that you can fall down in it and it doesn't hurt! He would walk and pretend to trip himself, fall down with great drama and then do it again and again and again.

Ben and I took the boys to the Children's Museum on Thursday (my birthday, yes I turned 30...but I don't have a single photo to document the day otherwise, so I'll likely leave my birthday at that). The boys absolutely L-O-V-E the Children's Museum. They jabbered about it at 6am on the drive to Illinois talking about all the things they would do. They love the farm area, cows to milk, combines and tractors to drive, but they also love the painting and water play areas. The Children's Museum was buzzing with kids and adults on the morning we were there - it's no wonder with it being Christmas break and all, but it was stimulation overload for me. I snapped a couple photos and otherwise just tried to keep up with the boys amongst the crowd. They do have a fabulous new theater and music area where the kids can put on an entire show on stage, it was very impressive.

Who needs to paint when there's water in a squirt bottle to use? I had to pry the squirt bottle out of Levi's hands after he'd played with it for 10 minutes and other children were waiting for a turn to paint.

Noah actually painted, maybe Levi will too someday.

This water play area could have kept Noah busy for 2 hours. I should have walked around to the other side of the area to get a photo of their faces, but at this point (just before lunch) I was so tired I couldn't get myself off the bench I was sitting on. So take it from me, both boys have huge smiles on their faces in this photo. :-)

Ice Fishing

All 9 of us went ice fishing this morning. Noah caught his second fish for the week and we did just a bit of sledding on the bank of the pond. The fish did not cooperate very well, as we only caught 8 fish total. Thankfully Tim, Noah, Ben and Andy caught enough fish earlier in the week that a meal of rice & beans and fish will be on the menu tomorrow.

Snow Play

The snow in Illinois has been a huge hit with the boys. We haven't seen snow in Kansas yet this year, so to have 6 inches of white powder to play in has been a lot of fun.

Many loads of snow have been hauled up to the playhouse and then dumped inside it. Thankfully, the slotted floor of the playhouse will help to reduce the mess the snow will surely make when it melts.

Load sled, dump it out, repeat.

Thank goodness for clothing that keeps us warm while we play in the snow and the hot chocolate and cookies we can enjoy when we come back inside!