This past weekend Nick took Cullen up to the North Woods to spend some time with Nick's Dad and his brothers. Cullen enjoyed his time playing in the snow and with Mac the dog.

Here Cullen is with his Grandpa John.

King of...

The Neighborhood Watch Committee

Fun with Family

This past weekend the cousins came to celebrate the holiday weekend. The kids had a great time together (I wish I had more good pictures). Cullen and Campbell were two peas in a pod.

The Dad's all stayed up WAY too late the first night together, the result of that was...
Here the cousins are during their "pj party".
One of these cousins is not as happy as the others:)
All the kids slept in one room except the little guy, Jace. At one point I walked into the room to hear Cullen yelling, "Let's get this party started," when they were suppose to be going to sleep. I never left the room again after that until all of them were asleep (it only took about 20 minutes).

Cullen's Camera

Cullen made himself a camera about a month ago, it consists of a long magnet (from one of his toys) and a large nut. He pulls his camera out often to "take pictures." The most entertaining thing about the camera is when Cullen says, "say cheese" everyone poses for the picture. It really doesn't even matter that people know it's fake.

Yesterday during lunch Nick was flexing for his "pictures." When Cullen set the camera down I picked it up and continued talking with Nick, we really were not paying any attention to the boys. I looked at Cullen because he was saying "cheese", he had taken his shirt off and was posing so I could take a pictures of him. I snapped a few pictures with Cullen's camera before grabbing my own...

I'd say like father, like son only Nick had his shirt on and Cullen appears to have moves of his own.

Ice Skating

We took advantage of the beautiful weather today by heading to a park to ice skate. The boys started out a little hesitant.

But it wasn't long until Geremu told me, "Me no need your help, you go away Mom." Geremu fell down a LOT but he always got up again...

Cullen's theme was slow and easy, this is typical of him until he feels more comfortable.
Cullen may have enjoyed watching Geremu more then actually ice skating.
Geremu had a great time, the kid just never gives-up.
At one point he said, "Mom, me a great skater!"
He certainly is not lacking confidence:) With his determination he will be a great skater.

Oh Christmas Tree

This year Nick let Cullen pick the Christmas tree out. Nick informed me that Cullen picked out the first tree he spotted, it was all about speed and not appearance. Next year we will know better and have the boys look around before they decides on a tree. We have a tree that has character, when the boys first decorated it all the ornaments were on the lower 2-3 feet of the tree. Every night I grab a few ornaments and move them up to try and balance the tree out a little.

I have learned that some battles are not worth the fight. The tree is one such battle, I don't stop the boys from playing with it, I have bigger fish to fry. We have pretty much lost most of the pine needles on the lower part of the tree for one reason or another. At one point this holiday season Cullen called for Nick to "come find me". Cullen was found in the middle of the tree he crawled under all the lights and up and was hiding. When Nick walked in the room Cullen yelled, "I'm in here" then proceeded to thrust his arms out waving, pine needles were flying everywhere.

I can not wait to get this tree out of the house, I have to use the shop vac every day to clean-up. Nick's family is coming to celebrate Christmas later this week. The tree will remain up until the last guest leaves then it will be the first thing out the door.

In other news, this morning Cullen and Geremu helped to make their own pancakes. You might notice that Cullen's teeth have a reddish tint to them, this is what happens when you lick the cap of the red food coloring...

We've Got a Puker

We ended up leaving my parents house late last night to make the journey home after Cullen threw up. Here is our parting picture...You might recall a similar picture last year of my sisters family after her son puked. This is Cullen's 3rd time in the past 2 months sick like this, he throws up once (clementines) and that is sort of the end of it. Last night after he got sick I asked him how he felt and he said, "I feel like I shouldn't ever eat clementines again." He was also really worried about his "favorite sweater" that has since been washed and is as good as new.

This morning the boys have been busy playing with their new gifts. Cullen got this Crayola Model Magic set from Santa and we had a great time playing with it. I'm going to HIGHLY recommend this for those of you with young kids, it's so much fun. Sort of like a mix between Play-dough and Moon Sand but more fun and not messy at all, can you even imagine this?

It's magic and amazing!

The boys also broke out the new Science Kit, this was also entertaining until Geremu spilled all the colored water. We still have an additional 8 experiments that we will have to break out on a night with nothing else going on.