Little Helper

I love my little boys...and they love to vacuum. We have to divide up the vacuuming equally so that they both get a shot. There are days when I think I need a shop vac for my kitchen, but that's a whole different story! So I pulled out the vacuum a few days ago and Walter insisted on doing the whole kitchen floor on his own.

Here he is trying to retract the cord. Whatever he sees once, he tries...


I think this is how mommy pushes the button...


That didn't work. Guess I just need a little more weight. Try again...


Hmmm...let's re-evaluate the situation.


Never give up!

The Pantry Trick

As you can see, our little guy took a page right out of his big brother's book (click Here and Here to see what I'm talking about and then scroll down a little...)! He figured out that if he takes the step stool from the bathroom sink to the kitchen, he can open the pantry doors, move the step over and presto - lots of goodies are suddenly within reach! Unfortunately, he didn't realize that Mom was onto his scheme and moved all the goodies up a few drawers...

Little Chairs

Henry and Walter each have a special chair they like to sit in. They used to both fight over Henry's blue chair, but Walter got a chair for Christmas so now they each have a place to sit.


We just thought this was kind of cute - of course, Henry is in Walter's and Walter is in Henry's chair. This lasted about 1 minute because Walter doesn't have time for watching T.V.!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

We finally celebrated our Christmas with the four of us on New Year's Day.


Family Pic in front of the tree...most of the ornaments survived this Christmas.


Our little dinner. It was pretty quiet until Henry wondered what would happen if he put a paper napkin in the candle flame - thankfully, Nate and I have developed fairly quick reflexes over the last 2 years.


Henry with his fun gift.


Walter loved his Thomas the Train books so much we couldn't get him to open his other present!


Singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and blowing out the candles (notice there aren't any napkins nearby!). Henry thought Jesus would really like ice cream dessert so that's what we had for a cake.

Christmas Part II

On the 30th we celebrated with Nate's parents, grandma, and his brothers and their families. The boys love being with their cousins so they enjoyed every minute. We had some crazy rain all day long and then wicked wind all night with a little snow, so we were thankful for a warm house.


The cousins and Great-Grandma Josie


Henry and Walter with Grandma Josie - both of the boys love playing with her flowered-cane!


Getting a hug from Uncle Jon.


Nate getting to work on putting some toys together.


The present opening begins!


With the cousins

Christmas Part II

So next up was Christmas with my side of the family. Once again, Henry and Walter had a lot of fun.


Henry was very excited to see the truck and trailer full of little cars that he was so drawn to at Target...Walter was excited, too.


They even took it for a ride...it got going a little faster than they expected!



The building blocks have gotten a lot of use at home and have only been used as weapons once (so far).


Evidence that they really didn't need gifts: the paper bags kept them occupied for awhile.


Reading a good book with Daddy.


And a kiss from Walter...

Christmas Eve

Last year we were snowed in at home on Christmas Eve, but this year we were able to drive to my grandma's house in Wisconsin. We don't get to spend a lot time with my mom's side of the family so it's nice to be together for Christmas Eve.


Mimi and Henry at church. The church service was too late for the boys so we only went to see the live nativity and went back to Grandma's house for bedtime. Henry and Walter liked petting the goats.


Henry had fun passing out the gifts to everybody on Christmas day.


Walter trying on his new Toy Story 3 shirt!


Playing with Daddy.