The Cousins with Hats

We stayed at Ben's Uncle Pete and Aunt Brenda's house over New Years to visit. Both Uncle Pete and Cousin Anthony, Ben's cousin, has a collection of hats. All three of the kids were fascinated and they had to try on the hats and were acting silly.

New Years 2009

We finally arrived! We then got back in the car and drove another 1 1/2 hours to Ohio to celebrate New Years with family. Crazy? Maybe, but the kids did really well. We played the redneck game. See if you can spot the endings to "You might be a redneck if..." It was quite funny.

St. Louis Day 3

Yes, THREE DAYS! The third day wasn't such a long day either, I think we only drove for 6-8 hours. Cora was unthrilled about the arch as you can see. The third day went really well. I think the only significant thing that happened was that Cora took a huge poop and when we pulled off to change it there was no ramp to get back on the highway. We had to back track a few miles, but we managed. Oh and Cora had managed to just fall asleep when we reached an exit to change the poop. Darn the bad luck on that one. A few cookies later, she was as good as new. We also started a car game of "can you find the water tower."

Nebraska -- Day 2 on the Road

I thought the state of Wyoming was forever long, but holy cow Nebraska goes on forever! Or at least it seemed that way. We thought for sure that we'd be watching movies. Instead, we were looking at the mountains become rolling hills, more windmills, Cattle farms (Logan's fav), and one lone Llama. For some reason Logan perked up when we passed the cattle farms because there were A LOT of cows.

We stopped at saw the huge dam and ate lunch. Logan wanted to go down and collect the rocks. My little collector.

Wyoming

In January we took on our biggest car trip yet; we drove from Elko, NV to Indianapolis, IN. On the way there it took us 3 days and only 1 hour of home movies. How we ended up so lucky is beyond me. I think it is mainly because we left after Ben was off work and drove until 2 in the morning, slept on the side of the road, and then got up and went.

Driving through Wyoming was interesting because it was pitch-black

with hardly any traffic. When the sun rose it was nice to see the landscape. The windmills were huge and really amazing.

Cora is fully 2

Cora started the terrible two's on her birthday and didn't hold back. I can't remember why she was upset, but she was.

Cora's Birthday Part 2

On Cora's birthday, we got our care package from Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Deubelbeiss. Of course, Cora thought it was all for her. In the princess' package came pretend lipstick and she had to immediatly try it out too.

Cora's Birthday Part 1

Cora was really excited about opening her gifts. When she opened the Beauty and The Beast dolls she gasped and exclaimed Princess'. Cora also got a pop-up tent that Logan insisted on sleeping in it the first night.

Logan's Creation with Blocks

Logan has recently gotten into building more than just towers with his mega blocks and has moved on to making things. His latest has been this crane. He was so proud of it. I took several pictures of it. Afterwards he went into his room and said he had to change it. If only you could see what my brother has built with his connects you would understand where Logan has gotten it from. My brother, Nathan, has build a huge ferris wheel and roller coaster. They are super neat. We showed Logan the pictures and he thought they were pretty cool himself.

Mismas Lights!

Both Logan and Cora are completely fascinated by Christmas Lights. It has become a thing we do to stand in the kitchen window to look out and see all the lights. It helps me because I am able to cook supper or clean up from supper. Cora can't say Christmas lights or tree in one breath so it comes out in two breaths.

Oh and I should mention that is our new window that two months to get in correctly, but we ended up settling for one that didn't fit anyways just because winter was coming and I didnt' want a hole in my wall in the cold. Talk about frustration. It looks better now and I can tell a difference in the warmth of our house since we've replaced the windows.

It Snowed!

It finally snowed in Elko, and since then we've had a lot of it. We went outside to play and I managed to get a picture of Cora, of course, my camera died before I could get one of Logan. When we came in we drank our first cups of hot chocolate. The kids loved it and couldn't believe that I had given them a cup of warm chocolate...major treat.

Bad Hair Day

I'm not sure that the pictures do Cora's hair justice. It seems to be in a constant state of mess. I can wash it, condition it, and put leave in conditioner and then when she wakes up from nap this is what she looks like. Even when her hair is down if you fluff it out with her fingers it stays fluffed out. It even happens after she wakes up from her nap, it goes back to what it was like when she woke up in the morning. I think she is just doomed to have crazy hair until it becomes a little thicker.