Where does Jesus live?

For the last few months Preston likes to talk about Jesus.  When he brings it up he always says that Jesus is in your heart.  He also likes me to sing songs to him.  I usually just sing the last few lines of "I'll Walk With You" to him and that makes him happy.

Preston also likes to talk about ANYTHING.  He wants to know why that car is green, where are we going, where does Target live, what would happen if Nana didn't go back to Ohio, etc, etc.  Sometimes I get tired of answering all his questions so I give simple answers. A favorite question of his is "What would happen if I went inside my stomach?".  My response is always, "You'd be inside your stomach." He asks this about once a day.

A few days ago he came up with a different question.  Out of the blue he asked me "What would happen if I went inside my heart?"  My response was "You'd be inside your heart."  He paused for a minute and then said, "Would I see Jesus there?"  

It took me a minute to figure out his logic.  It made me smile and then we had a discussion about how Jesus doesn't literally live in your heart.

Be careful what you wish for!

Andrew and Natasha have always had independence issues when it comes to getting things for themselves.  I've always said "I wish you could just get it yourself!"  Well, my wish came true in a way that I wasn't expecting. While I was in the other room fixing Natasha's hair I came back to this mess.  Adam wanted some cereal so he got a paper plate and cereal box all by himself and then poured the whole, just barely opened, box onto the plate.

He wanted it, he got it.  I should be happy right?

It's Pinewood Derby Time!

It was Andrew's first Pinewood Derby last night and he had a BLAST! He and Jason have been working on his car for the past three weeks.  He placed fourth overall but had two first places finishes and one third place finish in his heats.
Andrew did all the painting himself.
Go, Go, Goooooooooo!
Yeah! First place!
Andrew looking VERY happy after one of his first place finishes.
Adam and Daddy cheering on Andrew.
Andrew with his friends.
Congratulations Andrew on a fun and exciting Pinewood Derby!

Preston the Artist

I got Preston to sit with me today and work on some coloring.  He is so proud of himself that he can now write a P and an r for the first part of his name.  Today I showed him how to make a face and this was the result.  I was so excited for him because he has never done anything close to drawing a picture before. Yeah Preston!

Photo Book

This year I made two photo books as gifts for Christmas and they turned out awesome.  I made one of our camping trip to Yellowstone and Tetons and the other one was a year in review of everyday stuff. So when my mom was here I decided to help her make one of her recent trip to China.

She received the book after she got back to Ohio and she said it turned out great.  I had my dad take a picture of her with it so I could see the cover (since I won't be able to see the hard copy until this summer).  

A Morning of Canning

My friend Carrie reserved the canner from the storehouse this weekend and a few of us got together to dry pack can.  It went really fast and was fun too!  I didn't have my camera with me so I just used my phone (which is why the quality is not the best).

Michelle running the canner.
Me putting stuff in everyone's boxes.
Annie and Carrie putting the stuff in the cans.
All of our loot.  I ended up doing 75 lbs of flour, 50 lbs of sugar, and 50 lbs of rice.

Family Portraits

We finally did it.  It has been three years since our last family portrait.  We got these taken at Picture People and they all turned out awesome!  I was so happy too because taking pictures is so stressful.  Getting good ones makes it worth it.

Natasha and Polly

I absolutely love this picture!  Natasha and Polly are a perfect match for each other!

Nana and Papa come to visit

We were lucky to have Nana and Papa come visit us for Christmas.  The kids love it when they come.
Playing Uno on New Year's Eve.
One day Natasha decided to put on a performance for us.  She set everything up and told us all to come in (we had to give her a pretend ticket). She sang Part of Your World from the Little Mermaid and then she sang a made up song about being nice to your brothers and sisters (I wish she lived by her own lyrics).
Andrew and Adam after the performance.
I just had to put this picture in because it's hillarious!  

Playing with new toys

Andrew and Preston both got new scooters for Christmas.  We took advantage of this sunny day to play outside.
The pink scooter has officially been passed down.  Adam is REALLY good at riding a scooter.  No one else could do it so well so young.
Natasha got a dancing game for the playstation and I couldn't resist taking this picture of Jason dancing.  
Adam pretend shooting Andrew's Nerf gun. The thing is about as big as him!
This vacation there has been a lot of video game playing.  Between the new DS's, new dance game, and Jason's two new Playstation 3 games there hasn't been a lack of things to play.  One of the games Jason got was Little Big Planet and the kids just love it!  It is really fun and even Preston can somewhat do it. Adam thinks he's playing too but his controller isn't plugged in to anything. Hey, it makes him happy!

More Christmas

Grandma and Grandpa Behrmann gave all the kids these pop guns and they are a real favorite.  Even though they are dang loud I like them too because it's one of the only games all four of them play together without fighting.  They play really cute with them and Adam really gets into it too!
Andrew got two different lego things and he spent hours putting them together.
Both Preston and Andrew got storm trooper helmets.  They always play Clone Wars together and they really like the helmets.  Preston always wants to be Captain Rex.  
Natasha's Bindi doll. It says Extinct Stinks on her shirt and when you push a button on her stomach it says stuff in Bindi's voice.
Adam the car man.

Christmas morning

Here is everyone before they've opened their gifts from Santa.

Natasha asked for a talking parrot from Santa, and she got one!  She named her Polly and was so excited about her.
The highlight of the day for Andrew and Natasha was getting their Nintendo DS's.  They hadn't asked for them and it was the last present they got to open.  They were sooooo excited!  They were the hit of Christmas.
Adam and Preston playing with their new race track.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve the kids got to open one present from each other. They have a holiday store at school where they get to pick out gifts for family members and they come home wrapped all ready.  It's really cute to see what they get each other and it's a surprise to me too! Natasha opened these antler headbands and they were a big hit.  Natasha got Adam some green army men, Andrew got Preston a pack of cars, and Natasha got Andrew a package of plastic lizards.  The cute thing is that the next day Preston opened his gift from Andrew and it was the same army men that Adam got from Natasha and when Adam opened his gift from Andrew it was the same pack of cars that Preston got from Andrew.  They went shopping during their own classes so they didn't have any influence over each other and they ended up picking out the same stuff!

Gingerbread House

A few days before Christmas we decorated a gingerbread house for Family Home Evening.  The kids had a lot of fun.
After the decorating was all done Jason got a little crazy with the left over icing!