trucks, tractors & trouble

Rhone's birthday fell on a Sunday this year. Past experiences have taught Ben to take leave if he wants to be home on specific days. Unfortunately Ben's leave was canceled for training in GA. So we celebrated Rhone's birthday a little each day over the weekend. We took Rhone to see Tangled in the theater on Friday. He was mesmerized the whole time. He munched on popcorn and snacks, only taking his eyes off the screen when he got scared. That night he played a few games at Chuck E Cheese and ate one of his favorite meals, "rice and bean" from Chipotle. We threw in a little rock band drumming with friends and he was one tired little guy.

Saturday we played in the fresh snow and took Rhone to a bounce house place. He had tons of fun jumping, sliding, running, and coloring. We wrapped up the day with a dragon cake and ice cream with friends and watching How to Train Your Dragon. It is definitely his favorite movie. That night Rhone got sick. It was pretty heart breaking, especially on his birthday!

Sunday we all tried to recover from a LONG night and loads of laundry. We played with Rhone and his just opened toys until we had to say goodbye to Ben. Rhone was crying and saying, "no keys daddy, no work daddy" or "daddy, I come". I always wish that I could protect Rhone from the challenges of military life, but I have never wished it more than on his birthday. It just seems like life should be more merciful when you are only 2. Rhone and I relaxed the rest of the day away and web cammed with Nan and Pop.

Monday I hosted a play date with some of Rhone's friends. The boys had so much fun and the moms were so tired after climbing, crawling, and sliding in a huge indoor playground. I was especially glad that I had set it up after his not so great birthday.

Rhone is one energetic little guy. He loves dump trucks, tractors, and rough housing, helping, and asking "why". His favorite books are by Byron Barton. I love watching him learn new skills and seeing his personality show. We are so blessed to have this boy in our lives.

"Yum-ME"

helping daddy pack

Rhone and his friends at the indoor play ground.


Our 2 year old

a new year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! We had some friends over to help us ring in the new year. Which we did around 9 pm (that's a little trick my mom taught me :) We had lots of yummy food, played some silly and a little more competitive games, and laughed with our little boys. After everyone left and Rhone was sleeping, Ben and I watched the ball drop in times square and the local fireworks from the peace and quite of our own deck. Here's looking forward to a new year!

The moms trying to get a oreo from our forehead to mouth in a minute.

Some of the Dad's unwrapping a starburst in their mouth and a nice view of the food.

For the big count down all the little boys (ahem dads) got silly string and snaps. Silly string was an essential part of my childhood new years eves. Ben said silly string is not very tasty.

The little boys stomping on their snaps. Before we knew it all sorts of garage toys were being dragged out and played with (like the shopping cart).


There's nothing like balloons that says "party" to little boys.


Rhone was an angel and slept in. We started 2011 off with fresh fruit and crepes. Yum (oh and a little after party clean up).

snow time

The day after Christmas we got a delightful snow storm. What could be better than being snowed in with all your new Christmas gifts to play with? Well it would have been better for us if Ben didn't have to drive through the storm and go to work on Sunday. Boo. But such is life and we made the best of it. After Ben got home we bundled up and played in the snow. Even though it was dark we still had fun. When Rhone got cold, we took the truck out and found some tractors and snow plows clearing parking lots. Rhone was delighted to see the "tracts" and "dumps" pushing and dumping the snow. It was such a fun little family adventure. I really love those simple moments together. We've worked on some thank you cards, that still need to be mailed, enjoyed movies and football snuggled up together, and tried to soak up as much of the few days break as we could.

Going for a ride during the after Christmas snow storm.

Rhone helping shovel. Beach toys come in handy all year round here.



Cheering for the Colts with our fresh batch of blue and white cookies. That plate was full when I gave it to Rhone for the picture. We had to snatch it away quick before they were all gone.

One night when Ben was working late Rhone and I played out side for a really long time. We scooped and dumped with his new truck and tractor. We marched and threw snow and jumped off the curb into snow piles. We had so much fun laughing and giggling that 2 of our neighbors opened their front doors to see what was going on. I was pretty sad Ben missed the adventures.

I love seeing Rhone's "baby's first Christmas" ornament all snuggled up in the tree.

Movie watching, probably one of the Toy Stories. They were the most popular gift at our house this year :) I take all the snuggles I can get.


Working on thank you cards. Rhone painted for a long time this day. Adding a few truck tires into the mix really kept him entertained. We love washable paint at our house! Rhone can wipe up a lot of the mess by himself.

the Merriest Christmas

We had such a great Christmas. We put up with some really long, long work days for Ben, but thankfully he was here on Christmas! We spent most of the day at home opening and playing with gifts and webcaming with our far away family. We did an evening Christmas dinner so we wouldn't feel rushed to get everything done. Our families do an amazing job at making Christmas special for us, so a special thanks goes out to them for spending all that money on shipping!

Mostly Santa loot. He stayed up late sewing up little "snowballs" to go with the igloo tent. It was worth it, because the "snowball fights" were a big hit.
Jumping his little heart out. We LOVE how it wears him out!
Dumping the snowballs

We took a break to enjoy a traditional German holiday bread. It's called stollen. We bought a loaf last year and never even cut into it (really long and disappointing story), but we decided to splurge (it's not cheap) again this year and really give it a try. We all loved it, especially Rhone. It's really good with some "Christmas milk" aka eggnog. As long as we live by the German bakery we're gonna stick with it for our Christmas breakfast....mmmm.
Stocking dumping time. Rhone got a bag of old school cowboy and indians. I think the parents were more impressed than Rhone, but there were enough other things to make up for it.

Everyone in their new Christmas jammies. Rhone's on the move :)
Rhone with his 2010 Christmas ornament. It's snoopy from Charlie Brown, but Rhone calls him "pump dog" as in the great pumpkin episode. Rhone loves the music and watching him dance.
This post wouldn't be complete without a picture of the most controversial gift. That's right, Rhone got a baby and he likes her.

Ben with his handmade gift wrap from Rhone (who couldn't stop playing for a picture).


Can't wait to use "Ben's" new beach umbrella this summer!

I had one surprise for Ben this year. I didn't know if he'd play along, but luckily he did. We all loaded into the car jammies and all and traipsed over to our friends house (after a lot of detours, Ben's sense of direction is good). I had stashed a brand new stainless steel grill for Ben in their garage. It was a bit of work to keep the whole thing a surprise, but it was worth it. The surprise grill picture is too dark, so this is what ya get.
Christmas dinner and desserts were YUMMY. It was my first turkey ever. Ben carved it up before we took a picture. We also had little root deer card holders that I thought were cute. Hope your Christmas was as merry as ours!

Christmas Eve

After our early morning trip to the mall (see older post), we rounded up our white elephants and got ready for the Christmas Eve party at our friends house. There was tons of yummy food and lots of excited little boys. We made it home with plenty of time to open up or PJs and our own Christmas Eve tradition of a movie. We sure do miss our family on the holidays, but we still had a great day getting ready to celebrate the Saviors birth.

Our family at the Christmas Eve party

Most of the kiddos indulging in an oreo

Getting help with my jammies

Opening Christmas Eve jammies (Rhone says it more like jam me, it's really cute). Rhone got football toes (slippers) to go with them this year
Blurry but still cute
After Santa had come and I looked around our house and the tree with all the presents I couldn't believe how absolutely blessed we are.