Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday, Ethan requested Green Eggs for breakfast with green milk (we're not ham-for-breakfast type of people at our house, so we also had bacon - not green). 

It was crazy "Who Hair" day at school, also in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday.  We almost had a meltdown this morning when we couldn't find this crazy white wig that Elliott had his heart set on wearing for the occasion.  Lucky for everyone, it was found deep down in the costume box.

And this guy pretty much has "who hair" every day.  Come to mention it, he usually wears "who socks" too.  Maybe he really is a "Who".   Hmmmmm....

found this week

1.  This room from Isabella & Max Rooms.  Stumbled upon it in a blog and the wheels are turning.  I've had a similar concept brewing for a few months now for the playroom, and I'm liking much of how this turned out.

2.  This post from I'm an Organizing Junkie resonated very deeply with me.  It's all about why she goes against the grain and chooses not to be busy all the time, including her feelings about it as well as others' perceptions of it.   



3.  This guy in his shorts and snowboots on one of our 60 degree days this week (the snowboots were necessary since all the snow had not melted yet, of course)

4.  New thoughts on being BOLD.  Andy Stanley's new series (well, I don't know how new it is, since I listen to the podcasts while I'm at the gym and this was the first week almost all year that I've been able to go to the gym) is about what church was intended to be, based on Acts.  Yesterday I listened to the 2nd session called Big Prayers (find it here under the Big Church series of messages).  Talked about praying boldly for things that we normally do not pray for......always good stuff in those podcasts.


5.  Yet more evidence that the God-inspired word in Proverbs that says to ".....guard your heart" is actually very good advice - go figure :)

6.  Pictures from Brian's cell phone......haven't heard about this picture with the gorilla so I'm wondering what that story is. 

And isn't he so sweet to send this to me when he took the boys sledding?

7.  A lot of peace lately from reading this book "I Quit!"  I'm on the very last chapter and think I will even re-read some of it.  I'm sure it's not for everyone, but it was definitely for me at just the right time.

8.  That I liked the first half of the Daniel study better than the second half.

9.  The desire to wear my skinny jeans with my flats.  I usually wear them with my boots and somehow feel more comfortable that way, but it was warmer this week and I decided on this.  It was fun being a little crazy like that.  Of course, there was still a long t-shirt and a cardigan to hide what needed to be - I'm not that crazy :)

10.  Excitement when one of the college-aged girls in our small group honestly looked shocked tonight after I said I would be 36 in March.  And then said I looked more like 26.  Thank you Paige - I love you girl!!


11.  This scene out my window this afternoon.  We have some really awesome neighbors, and this is very often what the weekends and summer evenings are like on our street.  The kids played outside all afternoon - it was close to 70 degrees today.

12.  Two gray hairs.  Enough said.

13.  Body Pump class at the gym.  It felt really good to work myself so hard.  I was so sore for days afterward - knew I would be since I used to do that class every week, but had forgotten just how sore.


14.  These camera strap covers from SheyB.  Mine is getting pretty worn now so I'm looking for a new one, but can't decide between the two of these......

Wild Thang!

or On the Double (Pink)

15.  That I really enjoyed impromptu chats I had with friends this week in the car rider line, volunteering at church, at the grocery store, in the cul-de-sac.  And that I was really craving some time with girlfriends, that I need to plan better for that.

grafitti artists

Finally we are thawing out.  I even actually saw grass today - and a lot of it!  It was so "warm" (in the 50s) that the boys went straight outside with no jackets to play with their friends as soon as they finished cleaning their rooms this morning.  They did still wear their snow boots since it was yuck mud and slush out. 

After I finished cleaning my part of the house I came down to the office and opened the blinds and I was both amused and amazed at the same time at what I saw:

The snow was so hard that they were able to write on it  with some sidewalk chalk that had been left out in the frozen tundra for the past 3 weeks.  I was actually quite impressed with all of their creativity.

It's difficult to see because the sun was creeping into the patio area, but it says "Sup yo!!", "Wat Zup", "Get Out" and "Luke Rocks".   I don't know who all was out there, but I'm pretty sure the boys that live at our house did the "Get out" and I'm thinking the rest came from their friends.....took me a few moments to read "Sup yo!!"

It made me happy to see this....



numbers of the week

30 - hours of CE that I completed this week.

9.8 - inches of snow we got on Wednesday night.

5 - snow days we have had so far

4 - days I've felt like crawling back into bed because of some kind of cold/virus/flu/sinus infection - whatever it is

24, 465 - photos and images I transferred over from my dying computer to Brian's computer this week

2 - days Ethan has been at school in the past 2 weeks with the combination of snow days, sick days and a scheduled 4 day weekend

7 - maximum inches of more snow we should expect by the end of Monday, according to the weatherman.

80 - degrees I wish it were outside

-2 - degress it was outside this morning

25 - times I have to turn the laptop on/off for it to actually power up (this varies, but this is the minimum)

4 - days behind I am on my Bible study

29 - the amount of money Elliott needs to buy the game he wants - I've heard this several times in the past 24 hours.

3 - the version of Lightroom that is sitting on my desk that I'm itching to install

2 - baskets that Ethan made in his first basketball game today.

367 - miles driven on Wednesday to Illinois and back

5 - cost of a "ticket" to eat lunch with Grandma and Ms. Ruth and Ms. Viola - unplanned and totally worth it

12 - coveted cookies from Crystal that Mom and Dad sent home with me.

3 - cookies I ate on the way home....shhhh!

1 - soda I've had in the past 2 weeks.  My head was killing me - I caved!

15 - weeks left to journal about for Project 365 from 2009!

in a blink

I was inspired by a blog that I follow to do this year-end review of our life this year. I haven't scrapbooked a single photo from this year, but I love that we at least have this. Can't believe how fast it has gone.

Happy New Year from The Weilers!!!

crosby dreams of christmas white

Those were some of the lyrics to a song the boys sang at church Christmas Eve, and appropriately so since we got a few inches of snow Christmas Eve - yay for a white Christmas!

The Christmas Eve service was so good.   Our church is apparently full of incredibly talented people, and I'm so glad that they share their talents with us.  Our favorites were the "rock star" (dubbed by us) God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Elliott is still singing it to himself) and the rendition of Little Drummer Boy by 3 very talented middle schoolers who serenaded us with the violin, drum and wonderful singing voice.  It was the perfect start to our evening.

After church, we went home to have fondue for dinner and get ready for bed.  It was about 8:00 by now and the kids were already crazy.  Here's some advice - don't plan to have fondue after your Christmas Eve service.  It takes too long and makes a long night extremely longer.

By the time we finished eating (yes, I was the last one standing with the fondue and am still kicking myself for throwing the rest out instead of saving it for snacking the next day), it was close to 10:00 and I literally thought we would pull our hair out trying to get the boys to get to sleep.  We're sleeping in the tent.  We're not sleeping in the tent.  We want the light on.  I can't sleep.  I forgot my Bakugans.  Where is Santa now?  What time can we get up?  I don't think I'm ever going to get to sleep......and on and on.

But they did finally go to sleep.....only to wake up at 1:45 and hang out with all the lights on in Elliott's room like it was 1:45 in the afternoon.  Not knowing about this since I sleep like a rock, I didn't really understand why Brian was so mad when Elliott came into our room around 3:30.  Then again at 6:45 he made an appearance and I was so relieved that he just happily turned around and went back to his room when I told him just 15 more minutes. 

And the rest of the day looked like this:

See how Ethan looks pretty sleepy still?  He obviously thought it was a great idea to actually go back to bed and SLEEP the rest of the night and actually was a bit grumpy when Elliott woke him up at 7.

Excited about the iPod

Yes.....Bakugans!!!

Loves this new game from Nana and PaPa

Ethan may be written out of the will for this one.  Thanks to Aunt Beth and Uncle Rick and Nana and PaPa for the awesome Gators attire!

Elliott......still on his dad's good side.

Snacking on cookies all afternoon.  PaPa actually made these peanut butter ones and sent them to us!

Playing in the snow, of course.

Elliott finished this ADAT in one afternoon of course.  He always asks us to help, but he's so fast at finding the pieces and putting them together that we basically just sit there and talk to him while he builds.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas wherever you are and whomever you spent it with!!

3 Christmases down, 1 to go

Christmas #1:  The HOSSELTON Christmas. 

For some reason, I have NO (zero, none, zilch, nada) pictures from this gathering.  I don't know why.  If anyone has some, maybe they can let me know :)

BUT.....the most awesome news came out of that Christmas celebration with my dad's side of our family.  My cousin, Lindsey, and her husband, Rob, announced that they were expecting!!  And then we just found out a few days ago that they are expecting twins.  So incredibly happy for them!  We know a bit about what it's like to be on a journey waiting for God's timing in giving you a child, and we are so so so SO HAPPY for you guys!!!!

Christmas #2:  The JENKINS Christmas

Well, I have plenty of pictures from this one, but mostly of the kids and Santa - although there are a few more if you look on my facebook page.

 Avery and Bentley having a little chat with Santa.  Avery was SO excited to show him her Matilda DVD.  She showed it to him as soon as he got in the door and about 10 times after that.  So cute!

 Ben.....not so sure about the big guy.

 Obviously Ethan is still contemplating just exactly what is on his list.

 Is it just me or does Elliott look almost too big to be sitting there on Santa's lap??  Santa might have been thinking that after he sat down :)

 Brady is definitely sure about Santa.....that he wants no part of him!  Such a funny picture.

Christmas #3:  The HOSSELTON Christmas

This one was my sisters and parents and our families.  Tons of pictures of course, but I spared you and only put my favorites on here.  THE favorite is the tug of war that Ben and Eli had over that Elmo DVD (that Eli didn't care anything about until Ben got his hands on it by the way).  I can't believe we caught that on film.  See the post below for the picture.

 Erin and Ryan sent the boys on a treasure hunt, complete with maps of the house and clues.  They LOVED this - and it was a bonus that they found $20 at the end of the hunt.  It was hard to keep up with them, too!

 How much cuter could this kid be?  He wanted a cookie and then licked all the red icing off of it (of course).  Look how happy he is to get all that sugar!

Cutest boys ever.

So we are home now for the duration of Christmas break and very happy about that.  Especially now that we're supposed to get some snow tomorrow.  The boys are supposed to be in the Christmas Eve service at church tomorrow night, so I'll be bummed if we're not able to do that.  But the laundry is almost done, the house is about as clean as it is going to be, one more batch of cookies to bake, no more runs to Walmart (yay!), just a few presents to wrap, and a lot of fun and relaxing to do with all my guys.  So looking forward to that!