Keith!

Dad bought Keith a plane ticket for Christmas and we have been so excited waiting for him to come!  For work reasons (I think) he couldn't actually come for Christmas, but he made it for Michael's birthday. 

 These are actually the morning that he was about to leave.  Morgan had called the night before literally MELTING down because she did not want Keith to leave.  Seriously, having a meltdown.  It was almost as bad as when she found out that we had all been lying to her her whole life about Santa, Easter Bunny, et al.  The only way to get her to calm down was for Michael to tell her that she could skip school this day and ride to the airport with him.

Before...

 These kids.  They chowed down on $18 ribs at the Rendezvous and then $30 steaks at J. Alexanders.  I mean, I don't know what kind of life this is.  Crazy.  They love the ribs so much that they can't even split an order anymore.  We have to order them their own FULL slab.  What.

After.

Apparently we have been priming them for this since birth.  Morgan was 7 months old here.  SEVEN MONTHS OLD.  We are weird.

Slushes and a Snow Day. Or two. Or three. Or four. Or five.

Jacob's class was rewarded with a slush party.  My mom texted me the night before to say she was off work that next day and wanted to have lunch with me.  I told her I was doing this so she decided to go with me.  We didn't tell Jacob, so he was really surprised.

 Within minutes she had them deeply enthralled with stories about Jacob.  The next thing the teacher and I knew, she was telling them the story of when she was driving in a Kroger parking lot, had turned around to yell at her two sons, and then accidentally hit a person walking.  The moral of her story that she shared with the 4th graders? "Never try to beat a moving vehicle because you don't know if there is a crazy old drunk lady behind the wheel."  Um, what??

 That was a little burst shot action there for ya.  I do love a burst shot.

We went sledding 2 of the first 3 days they were out of school.  On one of the days, a dad showed up with his little girl and had just so happened to bring 2 extra sleds.  I only had two, and since I had four boys with me, we were all extremely thankful he offered us the 2 extras.

Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6zW630Rm8I&list=UUlEiBflpzVOnuPlwMTh3iCQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF2QDn26FFk&list=UUlEiBflpzVOnuPlwMTh3iCQ

And this one is of them building a fire. Apparently Jon taught them early one morning before I woke up.  I was nervous.  It's really long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wpI8SBiLhg&list=UUlEiBflpzVOnuPlwMTh3iCQ

After sledding the 2nd day they wanted me to take them to Chick Fil A and Starbucks.  I said "How about Sonic (free) and then Starbucks?"  They compromised. 

Then somehow I got them to come inside and play indoors.  This only lasted for about 10 minutes, so please do not be mislead.  And I am still finding pieces to all the games randomly throughout the house. 

Hallie's dogs looking forlorne.  

 

 I spy Maggie ears...

 Jacob's fish tile he painted last year, hanging on the wall of the school.

 Gonzo singing "Rain, Rain, Go Away..."

 "Jacob get that gun out from under your bed."

"No Mom, that one stays under there. For protection."

 10 years old, still holds his mama's hand.  Just felt like I needed to document this.

 She's just a goofball.

 Flip video camera taped to the nerf gun to record the epic battle that was taking place.  Duh.

 Jacob is behind the door, that is Tristan in the blue.  They are ready to ambush Alex, except that Alex is on the other side of the pillow on the stairs (see that little bit of black?).  Not really sure how he managed to get there without them noticing, but I'm thinking Alex=1, Jacob & Tristan=0.

 Maggie typically takes over this pillow but this day Gonzo decided he wanted to give it a whirl.  Well, Maggie was not giving up without a fight.

 "I'm gonna precipitate."

 The birth of an addiction-vanilla bean frappacino with extra caramel drizzle.

Why is there a stick in your backpack?

"Because it's a good stick."