Happy Birthday to my Hubby!

Last week was Vim's birthday. His day was started with breakfast in bed, cards, and presents. We celebrated by having Mexican food with our good friends the Allen's. I made the cake and I am not baker by any means. The thing about baking that gets me upset is that you have a vision for how something will turn out and no matter how hard I try it looks like a 4 year old did it. I just don't have enough patients or a steady enough hand...oh well- at least the effort and love was put into it.

I don't know why, but it never gets old to see someone get sung too by all the waiters in a Mexican restaurant with a sombrero on!

Happy Birthday babe- I love you!

(Haha--got to love this picture of Matt!)

One Word- Willie

A couple weekends ago we saw Willie Nelson in one of the coolest venues I have ever been to. The stage is in the middle and it slowly rotates. There are seats all around it and there is not a bad seat in the house. We had third row tickets-- and the walkway to the stage was right next to us--eek! It was probably the best concert I have ever been too. He sang for over 2 hours straight. He was so close he would make eye contact and wave or smile at you. It was awesome. We went with our friends Shannon and Taylor. I some how left

my camera in the car so my sweet husband ran back out to get it. And even though the pictures aren't great--it was well worth his trip. One of the strange things that happened was people kept giving him hats to put on and even a scarf. They would walk up to the stage and try to get his attention. Then, being a good sport he would put the hat on for a few minutes and then throw it out into the audience. I didn't know why the audience members thought Willie wanted to wear their stuff. I really thought people must be quite full of themselves to have the gall to ask Willie to wear their old hats.

THanks Willie for a great concert, even at the age of 76!

We Are Walking!

You might have noticed in the last post the HUGE black mark on Vimmer's head...You might have thought that his momma just had not bathed him very well but the truth is that he had a head on collision with the coffee table! It was ugly and my head hurt for him! He has been letting go and taking 2 or so steps and then falling down for a couple weeks now but he really took off last Thursday. He was almost too sure of himself. He would stand up and just let go without having complete balance. Well it paid off because he will go 15-20 steps in a row without falling now. It is so funny how he is walking---his arms are straight up in the air!
William didn't walk till a week before his 1st birthday so Vimmer is 2 months early compared to William. But I guess William didn't have a big brother he was trying to keep up with everyday. I caught him on video for one of his shorter walks.

When the Cats Away, The Mice Will Play!

Dad went hunting last weekend so we had a fun filled weekend. It started on Friday when I picked William up from school. It was cold and rainy, so we headed to Starbucks for a hot chocolate and coffee. I have never taken William for hot chocolate before so it was a real treat! Then we had pizza and watched Mary Poppins that night. William got to sleep in the bed with me---he was super excited about this. For breakfast Saturday morning we had homemade waffles...Yum! For lunch we went to Chick-Fil-A and then we headed to the new museum down the road. We had been before but still checked out the frogs and giant dinosaur bones,

the frozen ice wall...

But they had added a new feature to the museum. The GyroExtreme. And William HAD to try it out. I glad he is so outgoing and not affraid of much.

I did something like it when I was younger but I know for sure I would be loosing my lunch if I tried it now. That evening Bics (Vim's mom) came and stayed with us. This was a real treat for me since she bathed and put the kiddos to bed for me! It was a fun weekend and I enjoyed the special time with my boys and I very much enjoyed when daddy returned Sunday!

Boy Bonding Time

While all the boys were in town, they took off to Bay City for some boy bonding time. The back of the suburban was loaded up with so many guns, ammo, targets, and men that I thought the tail pipe was going to drag as they pulled away-- HA!

Hmm, if I am not mistaken, that is my gun they are using!

A few days before, Vim and William hit the ice for a little ice skating. I stayed with Vimmer and made some after Christmas returns. I was so impressed with how good William did on ice skates. This was his 3rd time to go and he was doing turns.

Happy New Year (only 12 days late)!

My middle sister, Shannon, and her husband through a New Year's Eve party at my parents house while they were in town. Almost all of my Dad's side of the family came in town and we did a joint New Years and Christmas celebration. Here are all the cousins (we are only missing Amanda and Luke) with Mimi.

Us!

My parents and sisters.

My sweet cousin Anna. Everytime we get together we have to take a picture together...it's a tradition.

Vim and William getting down on the dance floor. Showing off the infamous move!

And then we pulled Rock Band out! Have I mentioned how much I love rock band??

I get to channel my inner rocker!

The later it got, the crazier it got. We had unexpected guest show up...

She made her rounds to all the guests. Wishing them all a Happy New Year.

And my dear sweet Mimi puts up with all of our shanangins!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Time Part 4...The Final Post

Christmas at the Youngs...We went to my parents house for a couple days after the 25th to celebrate Christmas with them. My sister and her husband were in from Bosnia, so it was a really special treat to have all the family together. Instead of doing stockings for everyone, my mom does 'family' stockings. So each family gets a stocking filled with little treats for everyone---a family movie, snack, candy, something small for the kids, etc.

We open presents in the morning and in the Young house, the tradition has always been to wait at the top of the stairs for a family picture before going down to see the tree. This tradition goes all the way back to my Mom's side of the family and when we were little all the cousins had to wait on the stairs for a picture. I know it sounds tortuous, but it really isn't that bad. It is called suspense. Oh, and no one is allowed to see the tree till we are all 'released' from the top of the stairs.

Those huge white pvc pipe things in the picture are potato guns. All the big boys got one. And they went through about 3 bags of potatoes, limes, cucumbers, and whatever else they could find to shoot off (including a dirty diaper--gross, I know).

William and Bear relaxing together.

This was funny. Vim got this book at our Home Team white elephant gift exchange. He passed it on to my brother-in-law....Can you see the title? "How to Murder Your Mother-In-Law"

Vim got a head messager from my baby sister Samantha. And Vimmer made the funniest reactions when we would put it on his head. He didn't know how to respond!

And of course, what would Christmas be like with out a gun!

We (the boys and occationally me) had a huge nerf war. There were darts everywhere! I am sure my mom will be finding darts for the next few months in odd places. Some people needed a little nap after all the excitment.

The "Young" (and formally Young) girls.

This outfit was Williams. It was one of the first outfits I bought when I was pregnant with him. Well, I have a picture of Wiliam in it on Christmas Eve sitting in Bear and Gigi's yard with baby Jesus. So I had to recreate the moment and put Vimmer in the same outfit. The PJs were a little snug since it was about a size too small but it worked!

A friendly game of Wii Tennis between the Brother-In-Laws. Look for more Wii game snap shots to come...we rocked it out this year- if you know what I mean.

Christmas Time Part 3

More of Christmas Morning...Now that I have the rest of our pictures off of my husband's camera I can finish the Christmas posts. Bare with me, I have at least 2 more posts to do. Can you tell we spread Christmas out over 2 weeks?

I am not sure why, but Vimmer loves eating paper. He would (and has) shreaded a wipe and chewed on it when we have let him. So when it came to wrapping paper, he had no problem testing it out too! What can I say? He loves to eat...it doesn't matter what he is eating, just so long as he is doing it.

Once again... he loves to eat. He found the box of Cheerios and was trying desperatly to get into them.

Within the last month or so he has become a big daddy's boy. He loves to be with Daddy. It is so sweet to see how excited he is when he sees his daddy coming. He is trying to help his Daddy set up the new Wii.

William and Pops playing golf (of course--Pop's favorite game). I think they played for 3 hours that morning. Not something we are going to make a habit of but it was Christmas morning!

And all went well, except for one minor inncident. We went to Vim's cousin's house for a party Christmas night and Vimmer was bit by thier little dog! Mama bear was not happy--- but I must say I handled it much better then most would. Thank God it didn't get his eye and it was just a minor scratch.

Christmas Time Part 2

Christmas Morning---our tree lights decided to short out in one spot. You can kind of see it if you look to the left of the middle. I didn't have time to change them out since they went out a few days before Christmas. Next year we will fix them.

Santa brought the family a Wii, William Heeleys, and Vimmer a fun light up toy. I thought it was sweet that William's first comment was how much his brother was going to love his toy, instead of focusing on what he got. Right after I turned off the video William realized that he didn't just get new shoes, but the shoes were Heeley's. He was very excited. I know, the kids are sooo annoying at the mall and grocery store, wheeling around, zooming past you, trying to knock you over. I promise I won't let William become one of THOSE kids. He has been asking for these darn shoes since he was 3.

William's 'Happy Birthday Jesus' cake. I thought I had a cake mix but ended up only having a brownie mix. So we did brownies with chocolate icing and they ended up REALLY yummy!

Bics and Vimmer watching Pops and William play golf on the Wii. Don't they look sweet and cuddly?!

More to come.