Warning:  This is quite possibly the most boring post ever.  However our lives are pretty boring these days--work/school/daycare repeat.  Not that I'm complaining, these boys are the energizer bunnies all of the time so there's never a dull moment when they're in the house!  

Currently, they are out snowmobiling.  Therefore, currently I'm sitting on the couch and getting caught up on Ellen!  You'd think I should get caught up on laundry/cleaning/chores but...nah.

Since there isn't a whole lot going on these days, there's not a whole lot of pictures to post.

Remember when the Vikings won that game with 10 seconds left on the clock?

Yeah, that was awesome.

Jay ended up on the bottom of the celebratory pig pile!

Unfortunately the only thing good to come of the following week's Vikings game is this picture.  

I just wanted a picture of them in their fan gear, completely unintentional that there's a giant beer can in the background!  Whoops.

And then there's this guy....

The holidays are over and the long winter months are ahead of us now.  With the crazy cold temperatures we've been cooped up inside more than the boys can handle.  So what is there to do, inside the house, with 2 rambunctious little boys?  Sports, of course!  

Our friends, the Z's, are a wrestling family so they brought over an extra singlet and we had ourselves a wrestling meet in the basement.  I'm not going to lie, Mason looks pretty darn cute in a singlet and head gear!

Pausing for the National Anthem before the start of the meet.  

And WRESTLE!

Kade's basketball playing days have officially started.  He's on a real team, with real practices and real games.  He's been waiting for this day for at least 5 years.  Erik got suckered into being a coach, luckily at this age, the main concern is making sure the boy's shoes are tied and which hoop to shoot at.

Off to their very first practice!

Kade's friend Tyeson is also on the team.  

How many more years am I going to catch these 2 raiding my cupboards after practice?  Figured I should document the first one!

First game!

Kade wanted me to take a picture of his shooting form :-)

My handsome boys!

(Kade lost 3 teeth in 1 week.  His smile is looking a little rough these days)

Wrapping up the rest of the holiday pictures this week!  When I look back at all of these pictures, I can't believe how blessed we are.  We got to spend Christmas and New Years with all of our parents and siblings, their spouses, nieces and nephews.  Everyone was healthy and happy.  God is good, my heart is smiling.

Seriously.  

Can these boys be any more handsome?!?

I love this picture!

That smile...I can't get enough of it.

I had to work a couple days over the break so Erik took the boys ice skating.  

Then Kade convinced him to stop at the local rink to see if any hockey games were going on.  They sat for a couple hours watching random teams play.  Kade is obsessed with hockey--lucky for us his basketball league started immediately after New Years, so he's back into basketball!  Whew!

Grandpa and Grandma H got the boys an ice hockey table for Christmas.

We did manage to get started on a project over break.  

We finally tore the gross carpet off of the stairs!  

Maybe someday we'll finish those...ahem, Erik.

My sleepy boys, snuggled in, watching a movie by the light of that beautiful Christmas tree.

We celebrated Christmas with Erik's family on New Years Eve day.  It was the coldest New Years on record at a brisk -20 degrees!  We spent the day lounging, eating, playing, eating, eating and eating.

Molly Mae

This is not the topic I hoped to be writing about this week.  It's been a rough couple days for us (well, not for the boys so much).  Molly's health deteriorated fast and on Thursday, January 4, 2018 we had to put our first "baby" to rest.  She was 15 1/2 years old.

Molly was my wedding gift from Erik.  I chose her over a honeymoon and so we spent the week after our wedding in our new home potty training our new puppy.  It was exactly where I wanted to be.  I told Erik when we started dating in 10th grade that when I grew up I was going to have a Yorkie and her name was going to be Molly.  

And here I am, all grown up at the ripe old age of 23, exactly one week before our wedding, holding my Molly.  

She was our everything in those first few years of our marriage.  We couldn't get enough of her and she was treated like a princess.  She was my baby when a baby was all I wanted but couldn't have.  After every failed infertility treatment, through all of the tears and sadness, she was my comfort.  She let us hold her like a baby.  She let us snuggle her like a baby.  She brought smiles to our faces when we needed them most.  I look back at those years and all I can think is, "What would we have done if we didn't have Molly?".  

When we were blessed with baby Kade, and I was overwhelmed with new motherhood, I would lay on the bed next to her and bury my face into her her furry body until I could get my bearings back.  It may seem weird to some people to think that a dog could have that much significance to a person but she did to me, and Erik too.  

Unfortunately she was THE WORST possible dog for children.  She spent too many years being the princess before kids came along.  She never bit the boys but she sent the message loud and clear that she wanted nothing to do with them.  That may have been a blessing in disguise because neither one has noticed that she's gone!  Looking back on the 10,000 (9,368 to be exact) pictures I have since Kade and Mason were born, these are the only ones I could find of them in the same picture!

My goal for Molly was to live to 14 years old.  She far exceeded that expectation and I'm forever grateful for her companionship, love, snuggles and memories.  She will always hold a very special place in my heart.  

Thank you, Molly Malloo.

Now go chase all of the critters out of the yard.  

And remind those German Shepherds who's boss.

I love you.

My brother and his family came up from Atlanta to spend Christmas break with us.  So after ice skating on Christmas Eve morning, we went to my parents to let the week of playing begin.  I'd say it started off with a bang.  

Whenever Mason goes to my parents he immediately finds my mom's old cell phone in the box of toys and sticks it in his pocket.  He's done that for a couple years now and the cell phone has never worked.  Never once turned on, never once shown even a blip of power left in it.  But not that morning.  That morning it turned on, Mason and Noella (both 3 years old) were in hog heaven to have a "working" cell phone in their possession.  None of us really thought anything about it since there was no service--or so we thought.  

Kade came in multiple times to tell us they were calling 911 but Kade's been known to exaggerate the truth and we knew that neither Mason nor Noella actually KNEW the numbers 9-1-1, let alone dial it and push send (it was an old slide phone).  Imagine our shock when Noella came in, hands the phone to her dad, and on the other end is a man saying, "Stop calling!!  Where are your parents?!?!?"  Jeremy quickly hung up the phone, took out the battery and that was the end of it--or so we thought.

Thirty seconds later, a police officer pulled up in the driveway!!  Erik went out to explain the situation, answered a few questions and that truly was the end of it.  Turns out Kade wasn't stretching the truth after all!  It also turns out that once old phones are retired, they are automatically set to call emergency numbers.  So they weren't actually pushing the numbers 9-1-1, they were just pushing the call button repeatedly.  Lesson learned.

Of course, the rest of the day Mason was beyond excited about a police officer, with a gun and handcuffs, showing up at the house because (in Mason's words), "we were accidentally calling 901.  But it was an accident, right mom?"

The rest of the week was much less exciting.

Our little juvenile delinquents redeeming themselves

 at the Christmas Eve service in church.

Vivienne, Noella, Kade and Mason

The hatchimals were the hit of the morning.

Kade was in charge of the incubator light (a flashlight)

I love everything about this picture!!  

Nail salon...

...and horse rides.