Hocky Night

A few weeks ago Arlan took Trey to his first hockey game along with my nephew, Brady. Trey absolutely loved it!! Arlan told me later that when he went to get food Trey almost had a meltdown because he didn't want to leave his seat, fearful he'd miss something!

Trey couldn't stop talking about the game for about a week. He liked telling everyone about Cocoa the Bear....he said,'Cocoa was nice but not funny like Silo (from the Barnstormers)' he also liked telling everyone about the "fights"....he said, 'mom!! The skaters were fighting, like naughty, and then had to go sit on a time out, just like we do!'

I think he got the jist of the game don't you?!

Celebrity Siting

We all have our little "claim to fame" don't we? Well, this week I uncovered a fabulous tidbit of information linking me to the rich and famous...(okay maybe not RICH, but semi-financially stable so to say) Anyway, I know what you're thinking....'I knew it! Dana's related to Jennifer Aniston, they look exactly alike!' (you were thinking that, right? right?) No, no, unfortunately not. But my uncle David (my dad's brother) turned famous on us!

Okay, maybe not famous but he got to pose for an advertisement.

Now, if you know my uncle (which most of you don't) let me give you a little bit of background. He LOVES guitars and is very serious about them...he has so very many (okay I don't know the actual number of guitars he owns because his favorite quote when you ask how many he has is.....'It's impolite to count!') So, we'll leave it at....he has more then ONE guitar. He's also an excellent player and has the band member vinyls to prove it.

So, I don't know much about the Benedetto brand but it must be the worlds best made guitar if my uncle is giving the company the honor of his picture!

My uncle also is a pilot and his job takes him all over the BEST parts of the U.S. and I think some of Canada with his flights so his guitar goes with him on every flight which gave the Benedetto company a great excuse to do a little "Where's Waldo" or "Where's the Travelling ANDY guitar". Sounds like David will have a "re-occurring" role with the Benedetto ads.

As I raise my glass of root beer I say, "Here's to you Captain David...the family guitar geek!"

One of Those Weeks

The other week Trey did a few abnormal, yet funny things that makes me just nod my head and say, ' it's just one of those weeks son!'
Now, many parents have pictures of their children falling asleep at the supper table but, I kid you not, Trey never, ever does this. He often has "way" too much to talk about while we are filling our mouths with food. A song, a joke, a story, or the famous "why?" questions. You name it he can talk about it. So when he fell asleep before his taco was devoured we were in total shock and knew he was in rare form.
Then the next morning he ate breakfast and got his clothes on (he's been doing that for months on his own) and came over to me and said, 'Mom, something feels funny on my butt'. Yep, he put them on wrong. It looked so funny I had to take a photo!

It must not have felt that uncomfortable because he refused to turn them around for the next half hour. Crazy, my kids are crazy!!

Belated Birthdays

Well, I almost forgot to post some Birthday photos. When December arrives I get so caught up with the 11 or so Birthdays that are happening that when it's all over my brain goes in to "crash mode". Anyway, I've rebooted my system and I'm ready to go.
Breanne was 3 years old this past December and she insisted on having a "princess" party (must to my dismay. As many of you know I'm not much of a "pink", "girlie", princess type of person but she begged so I caved)
I broke out my icing tips and purple and pink dyes and created this castle cake for the Birthday princess and her 7 cousin knights and 1 cousin dutchess.

She loved her princess slippers from Grandma Stoner and her favorite gift was a pink Care Bear. She asked Santa for that bear a few days before her birthday and was a little confused when it showed up for her Birthday with a card stating, From: Lydia

This was the year for Pinatas. Both kids were totally intrigued by this paper object that you could hit over and over again with a baseball bat. Who knew!!

The 6 weeks later Trey had his 5th Birthday party and he wanted a firetruck theme. (Thank goodness because I'm running out of train cake ideas)

His favorite gift was handmade H & O scale train cars that his Grandpa Stoner made for his new train table and tracks.

He also picked out his pinata. That shark has nothing to do with firetrucks but he insisted that this was the pinata for his party. And boy was that thing hard to break. My 10 year old nephew finally had to beat it several times on the floor just to crack a seam.

Time just doesn't slow down does it. Every year with Bre and Trey gets better and better. We love you both so much!!

Egg Helpers

This new chicken house of ours has turned into more work then we ever anticipated and we had to hire a weekly worker to go through the house 5 hours a day and just pick up eggs off the floor. Bre told me the other day that she didn't like the hired man and when I asked her why she said, 'he takes my work!' In other words my kids think they are big enough to be the farm helpers (when really they are just playing around) but I took photos of them at the job site and they actually were doing the work like we expect our hired man to do it.

At night all the chickens are on the perches but during the day they are EVERYWHERE so the kids just run up and down the aisles chasing the clusters of chickens probably scaring the eggs out of them.

Trey likes to use the "egg picker upper" (I'm sure there's a "specific" name for that grabber but I'm still not farmer enough to know what it is) to pick the eggs off the floor.

Once he's got an egg in his mechanical fingers...........................

he hands it up to Breanne (here he dropped the egg. Another one bites the dust!)

And she pops them in the nest. They will literally do this for HOURS!!!!!
It's so fun watching my kids play and work together as a team. They really do love being together and are quickly becoming best friends.

Apron Itch

I've got it again. The itch to make another apron. A girlfriend of mine asked me to make her little girl, Zoe, an apron and I was excited to take up the challenge.

This little number is what I came up with!! (still needs some fine tuning but I'll get there)

As you can tell, Breanne, just loves when I hunt her down for a modeling job.

Wonderful Day

This weekend my sister in law invited us to her family's cabin and we all had a load of fun. It had snowed quite a bit before we got there and large snowflakes fell all day Sunday giving us plenty of winter wonderland.

The temps were extremely low but the kids insisted on bundling up and playing in the snow with their sleds anyway.

The boys looked like they were ready to rob a bank and Bre looked like a huge marshmallows! We also got the four wheelers out for a few laps around the cabin and to our surprise the kids couldn't get enough of it despite the cold wind in their face.

And we followed the Stumpf family tradition and ventured out to the Honey Creek Inn for a hardy breakfast! One of those good old, no bells or whistles, mom and pop restaurants! Thanks "James" and Lisa for a relaxing and cozy weekend!!

To our surprise it kept snowing here in Lancaster and our pond was finally fit to skate on so we took the kids out today for a few laps around the pond. The Coleman cousins were over as well and it was a fun family affair.

Bre wasn't sure about the ice skates so she opted for a sled ride instead.

Trey, however, was dying to try on Lydia's skates and did pretty well on them but commented that he needs "black" ones like his daddy.

Arlan of course was zipping around the pond, dreaming of a competitive game of ice hockey with Charcoal hot on his tail!! They both got a work out.

And every playtime out in the snow must end with a creamy mug of cocoa to warm our insides. Ahhh, the ho-hum days of snow.