Rainy Clouds

     It's been a pretty dreary looking week. Pretty warm at the beginning of the week, but lots of overcast and rainy days. I thought it might be fun to make some artwork to reflect our weather.

 These boys are ready for art time!

 I started out with placing a large area of glue on the top of the page. I then let the boys place their cotton ball clouds to their hearts desire.

 Thoughtful consideration of cloud placement.

 Finn using his fingers to "pat pat" his cloud in place.

 Then it was time to make some rain! I used q tips for their brushes,perfect for a rain drop I thought, and 2 shades of blue/aqua for the rain color.

Rain making in action.

 The finished result- as you can see there was a heavy downpour in the right area of the page.

Finn had more of a scattered storm.

Tebowing

     This post might be a bit redundant for those of you who are my facebook friends, but I simply have to blog this- too adorable and need to share for those who aren't on facebook.

     I'm sure many of you have heard of Tim Tebow this year. The QB for the Denver Broncos who has been slammed every way by commentators for lacking skill, not being one of the better quarterbacks, not ready for the NFL,etc...Somehow, though Tebow and his team have overcome some obstacles and won some amazing games where football logic fails to explain.

     Tebow, being bold in his Christian faith, has never failed to stop giving praise and glory to God both on the field and off. In how Tim has taken a moment to pray or humble himself before God on the field, a new trend emerged-Tebowing. Similar to planking- laying like a plank of wood on various objects/locations and taking photos, Tebowing is the new "thing" to capture.

     Yesterday, the Broncos played the Pittsburgh Steelers in a playoff game. The Broncos ended up in the game basically by default, with another team losing last week, which placed them in the bracket. Yet again, the antics of criticism of Tebow and the Broncos remained for this game, how they didn't deserve to be there, it was a fluke, the Steelers could easily beat them...I'm sure the list could go on and on..

     It was an exciting game. For those of you who watched, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. To make it short, the Steelers tied the game up very late in the 4th quarter and forced OT. OT started and the Broncos won the toss, taking offense and hoping to score. First throw of OT, Tebow throws a long shot down the field and low and behold his receiver catches it and runs in for a touchdown! Unbelievable! Exciting! By our reaction at the Apedaile house, you'd think we were huge Broncos fans. We are actually 49er fans waiting our turn this coming Saturday. We are however big Tebow fans and so excited for another victory that seemed to come out of nowhere. Makes me wonder if God does care about things like outcomes of sporting events. Tebow threw for 316 yards yesterday...hmmm could that be a reference to John 3:16?

     All of this to say, we decided to teach JT how to "Tebow". After some modeling by sisters,John, and myself, this pose was captured.....

     Can't get much better than that I say! Love JT's Tebowing! 

Cookie Cutter Painting

     Now that the Christmas season is over and winter is settling in, I have been trying to brainstorm to come up with some ideas for art time with the boys. Since they are just 2- 2 1/2, the projects need to be simple and since I'm the person facilitating it, it needs to be simple and easy to clean up ;)

     Then it came to me! Use cookie cutters! Beautifully simple and fun to do! I happily searched through my cookie cutters for some craft time fun.

 I decided to use 4 shapes for the boys to choose from

 "Square Momma!"

 Besides prepping the table with newspaper, all that was needed was a paper plate with some paint (easy clean up), and then I let the boys dip and stamp to their hearts delight!

 JT's method was stamping the cookie cutter multiple times before re-dipping.

Little video of JT in action :)

 Finn started in the center with a star.

 Then the flower...

 Finn liked the stacked approach with the shapes being stamped on top of each other.

 Art time fun!

Though you don't get to see each shape individually, the boys created some cute artwork.

Headphones

     One of John's Christmas gifts was a pair of noise cancelling headphones to use on the frequent travel he's been doing for his work lately. John found out quickly that little ear buds can only go so far to drown out the sounds of an airplane. He has enjoyed his new gift quite a bit.

     This past weekend, JT had a chance to use Daddy's headphones. One night, we allowed him to watch a show on the laptop in the living room while we played some Kinect games as a family. JT really liked using the headphones. He looked so cute watching his little show, I had to snap a few photos.

 Laying on Thomas pillow pet, Taggie blanket keeping him warm- adorable!

 Love how his little hands are folded- so sweet!

Then, JT looked up and flashed the best smile! Thank you son!

New Year, New Smile

     2012 has entered on a quiet note- business as usual here at the Apedaile house. The return to work and school for all and back to the normal routine. There is one difference this new year, Lindsay is in the process of perfecting her smile. She is back in braces, just her lower teeth, for a short time.

     She had some extensive work several years ago, but her lower teeth have shifted quite a bit so now, Lindsay is back in braces for approximately 7 months.

 Lindsay's before photo

 Profile pic, she still has a bit of an overbite that will be improved during the course of treatment.

 We didn't need to post this picture, but we all cracked up when looking at the shadow it produced so, I thought I'd share it with you. It looks like she has monster teeth that are scary sharp- LOL!

 The T-shirt Lindsay received from her orthodontist- Dr. Cohen. The office has special incentives for the patients and if she wears her shirt to her appts, it will help her get some fun rewards.

 After the appt. Lower braces once again!

 She chose a pretty teal blue for her band color this visit. Lindsay is becoming familiar with the discomfort that new braces brings so she have been eating a fair amount of jello, pudding, ice cream or anything that is easy to chew and feels good to eat. I'll be posting her progress here on the blog as her treatment continues.

Christmas Eve

     Working a bit backwards on the blog to Christmas Eve(wanted to post Aunt Cathy's and Mom's gift posts ASAP) So on Christmas Eve, we started out our day by going to our church's Candlelight Christmas Eve service. We did take a few photos by the big tree inside the church, but they didn't turn out well, so here is the one we took at home using a tripod. Pretty nice looking family, if I do say so myself :)

     Later that evening, we started to prepare for some Christmas Eve festivities. We invited another transplant family we are friends with over to celebrate. Since neither one of our families could make it back to our home states for the holiday season, we thought it would be a lot of fun to celebrate together. A night of fun, games, and food was planned for us all to enjoy.

 John pulling out the freshly baked mini french bread sandwich loaves out of the oven. Oh so good!

 The spread was simple with a variety of deli meats...

 and cheeses....

 also different breads and toppings. The DiBenedetto Family also brought some delicious queso dip with chips, spinach dip in a bread bowl (Wonderful!) 

 The kids and I had made Pretzel Hugs

 and Rolo Turtles

     I didn't take a lot of photos of the night, as I wanted to enjoy our time visiting, but also didn't want to look like a freaky photog woman snapping pictures of randomness of our guests. Didn't want to scare off our friends too early-ha ha!

 I did snap some photos of the kids decorating the sugar cookies. Kids don't apply to me looking "nutty" in taking pictures.

 Quite the cookie decorating station!

 JT had fun joining the big kids- as well as eating frosting and sprinkles.

 3 out of the 4 DiBenedetto's- Amanda, Sal, and Monica

 Monica mixing pink frosting. She is a good friend to both Lindsay and Courtney. They all played on the Lady Bucs volleyball team this year and Monica has been in my Small Group at church for the past 3 years.

 Older sister Amanda mixing her favorite color -purple

 Sarah and her bell

 Doug's heart with S+D....awwww

 Amanda was the master decorator- she had beautiful cookies!

 Monica and her pink, brown, and sprinkle cookies

 Lindsay and Courtney about to devour their gingerbread men

 JT's stocking

Somewhere along the line, Monica and  Lindsay had a mini frosting fight. Sarah captured the moment for me, as we were talking with Cheryl and Sal by the fire. From the looks of Lindsay's smile, I'd say she won?

    We finished the night playing Taboo with everyone except JT. Sarah and Doug were the team champions with the Daddy group coming in last place. It was so much fun and we had a great time with our friends.While I know both of our families missed being with our families at Christmas, this was a wonderful alternative.

Christmas with Nanny

     JT was pleased to see yesterday when he got up from his nap to see more presents had arrived! The poor boy is coming to grips that presents are not the new daily thing- ha ha! He is still talking about opening presents. He will gain perspective in age, I pray, that it's not all about getting presents.

     I know my Mom was equally happy to hear that our package arrived on the 27th as she had mailed them from California on the 14th! she could have walked it here herself faster I suspect-LOL! It was nice to have an extended Christmas courtesy of my Mom.

JT ready to dive in!

Thomas!!! I love how JT announced at the end "It's Lindsay's turn now!"

 Up next, Lindsay!

Modeling her new shirt

 Courtney was next to open

Gel eyeliner! Mom and I hadn't heard about this product until our makeup expert,Courtney, taught us about it. Toward the end, you will be able to see JT talking about having hiccups and then faking them. Hiccups(his or ours) are some of his favorite things, he cracks up every time.

 Sarah's turn

Nanny proved to be a bit sneaky by using a brownie box to disguise her gift.

Water for Elephants DVD!

 My Turn!

I LOVE my new slippers! All of the girls declared they are quite fashionable for slippers and look like little furry boots. Loving wearing them around the house. Thanks Mom!

     John has a present to open, but since he is working out of town, he will open it when he returns. Thank you Mom for thinking of all of us and sending us such lovely presents. We love and miss you so much.