sugar with a little bit of cookie

hayden has always loved going to grandma's around christmas time to help make the sugar cookies. last year i left talan behind figuring he'd be more trouble than help. i figured the same would go for this year, but decided to bring him along anyway. jessica also came along for the fun while dave and justin went and did guy stuff, or something like that.
hayden had a great time helping to cut the cookies out and decorate them. i believe he did a much better job this year than in years past. and at first, talan was doing a great job with just putting little bits of sprinkles on the cookies until he realized more is way better (and i agree!)
hayden helped out for a good half of it before deciding he wanted to go play. talan was up and down the whole time, which meant a whole lot of hand washing.
eventually he was allowed to help cut the cookies out of the dough which lead to dough on his fingers which lead to him licking his fingers which lead to more hand washing.
in the end, the cookies turned out great (totally to my liking...soft and tons of sprinkles. mom's, not so much.) and we can't wait to go over and eat more of them!!!



talan's new "smile":


talan's first pan of cookies:
hayden's first pan:



hayden picking out the one with the most sprinkles. he totally stole the one i wanted:

time for talan's cookie break:


talan back to work:
some of the finished product:

28 weeks and some odd days

so i haven't really taken any pictures of me and my belly because, well, i don't like having my picture taken. but i figure it will be nice to see down the road. so i asked hayden to take a few pictures the other day.
things are going well still. just a few aches and pains, but nothing major. i had an appointment the other day which included the glucose test. i never got a call about it, so i assume everything is just fine. this time, in 3 weeks, i gained just over 2 pounds. which still really only puts me at a little over 12 pounds. not too shabby.
my next appointment is in 3 weeks...i guess i'm already to that point, where appointments are coming closer together now. scary!
i continue feeling the baby move A TON. actually, while listening to the heartbeat at my appointment, my dr. said...wow, you've got a rambunxious one in there. the heart rate was between about 154 and 157 i believe...still nowhere close to what hayden was, but apparently plenty active! that's what happens in my womb i guess. hayden did tell us years ago that the "upslide" in my tummy was a lot of fun. apparently i have an amusement park inside of me and the babies take full advantage.
hayden has been able to feel and see my stomach move and he actually seems very interested in it. he thinks it's pretty cool. and i do too. talan, on the other hand, could never sit still long enough to see the baby move.
the baby is actually quite a little jerk when it comes to moving. it can be moving like crazy and then when i tell dave or hayden to look or feel it, it stops.
so enjoy these 28 week photos. i'll try to take some on a more regular basis. blah.

christmas with the howards. belgian waffle style.

we have tried to celebrate christmas with the howard family every year but the past several haven't really worked out. between kids getting sick and bad snow storms we don't have the best track record.
this year, however, worked out perfectly. we decided to celebrate christmas belgian waffle style. so we packed up the waffle maker, bacon, sausage, and waffle fixin's and headed to fenton for an early christmas.
while melanie and i were busy in the kitchen, the kids (mostly talan) were busy making a huge mess of the playroom.
breakfast turned out GREAT and it was something even the kids all seemed to love. chadd kept asking why we don't do this every week so we may just have to make it happen more often.
after breakfast we cleaned up the kitchen and the playroom and got ready to watch the kids open their gifts. hayden got a new mr. men book "mr rush" and a new game for the computer. talan got a new bear book and a puzzle. he has become quite interested in puzzles lately and has put that one together at least 5 times a day EVERY day since he has gotten it.
hayden and talan gave lorelei an olivia book and a little people truck which talan wanted to play with since we bought it. and ashton got a magnetic icoaster just like hayden got for christmas last year.
hayden and ashton went up to ashton's room to start playing with the icoaster while we tried to prevent talan from making another huge mess downstairs.
we waited and made room for the delicious apple pie that melanie made and then headed to mongolian bbq to meet up with jessica and justin for dinner.
it proved to be quite the delicious howard christmas.
thanks for hosting and for the great gifts, guys! we love you!!

talan, lorelei, ashton and hayden:
present opening time!:



talan likes michigan football. the guys were watching football on tv so i have no idea what is on behind talan:
angel and dave taking a nap:

our trip to see santa

jenn and rainah decided to come our way so that the family could celebrate dave's birthday and also to go see the one and only santa at 12 oaks mall.
in years past we've tried to go first thing in the morning while other kids are in school. and when hayden was in kindergarten, we tried to go in the afternoon to stay clear of the crowds. this year was a little trickier since hayden is in school from 9am until 4pm...not getting home until after 4:30! we decided that as soon as hayden got home we would go over.
upon further research, we realized santa took his break from 5-6, so i decided i would pick hayden up from school early so we could skip the crowds. when checking him out i simply put "appointment" for the reason he was leaving early. seeing santa and not waiting in lines is that important, right?!
it was FREEZING out and super windy, so it was a pretty big pain having to carry talan into hayden's school and then getting them both in and out of the car to see santa. but it was worth it, of course. he is the best!
hayden had written another letter to santa telling him what he wanted. while writing it, he forgot everything that he wanted so i was there to help him out. once he got rolling, he just started looking around and writing things down that he saw. here is what this years letter read:

dear santa

i want zhu zhu pets, some toy story toys, a webkinz, hot wheels, a lulu cat, wii games, video games, computer games, board games, a new cup, and new legos.
i have been a good boy.
have a merry christmas and love hayden skiver

yes, the cup was the part that he started looking around and writing any old thing down.
there was no line to see santa so we were able to take our time heading over to him, talking with him and taking pictures.
talan recently came down with a cold which meant his horrible old man smokers cough was back. luckily he didn't cough at all while he was with santa, but the official photo does show some snot so that's pretty awesome.
both hayden and talan happily walked right over to santa and sat on his lap. they both did great looking at the many cameras that were there to capture the moment. after the photo session was done, they got off of his lap and he asked talan what he wanted for christmas. talan then started jumping around, kicking his legs in the air and saying "lots of toys!" over and over again.
santa then took hayden's letter and read it and asked him some questions before giving them both a little present and then sending them on their way while rainah hopped up on his lap next.
they all did great this year and we even got a few good pictures of the 3 cousins. a christmas miracle!
a few days later we mailed a copy of hayden's letter to santa to the "north pole" and just days after that, hayden got a letter back from santa in his mailbox. he was SO excited to see a letter came to him all the way from the north pole. and even more excited to read that he was on the "good list." we did have to have a talk about the fact that his name could still be moved over to the naughty list if he wasn't a good boy up until christmas! hayden has told him "i sure hope i don't get any engine coal in my stocking!"

hayden and rainah:
i eventually let talan out of his stroller and he wanted in on the photo session. weird:


driving the polar express:
the adults least favorite part since the photos with santa end up looking like the kids have dandruff. but i think it's probably the kids most favorite part:
sitting on santa's lap at last. talan had been asking to do this for weeks:
asking talan what he wanted for christmas. "lot's of toys!":
reading hayden's list:
are you SURE you've been a good boy?!:
present time:
rainah's turn. she kept making these crazy, scary faces:
love this one:

dave's 35th birthday

dave turned 35 today. what better way to celebrate than to go to the henry ford museum and check out some legos!
dave and the boys were supposed to go a few weeks ago but the hayden ended up getting sick so they had to postpone. which worked out great since this actually gave dave something fun to do on his actual birthday. we already had his birthday dance bash and the family won't be coming over until wednesday to celebrate, so nothing was really planned on his actual birthday.
dave's parents met us there and got us in to the museum and we headed right for the castle lego exhibit. immediately talan wanted out of his stroller but we kept him in for a little bit so we could look around. i eventually caved and let him out. and then i proceeded to chase him around in circles for the next half hour or so. that kid has NO attention span. he would play with one thing for about 10 seconds and then run to the next. this continued on and on and on.
dave and hayden went around exploring together at what i can only assume was a much more easy going pace.
dave's parents left after a bit and we decided to try to walk around the museum for a bit. the boys slowly started to unravel as talan missed his nap and hayden just likes to not listen. so we decided we better head out.
it wasn't a big surprise that they both fell asleep pretty quickly once they got in the car. dave decided on papa john's pizza for dinner so we headed to pick it up and then home to eat.
hayden was thrilled that we ate dinner so early so that he had "lot's of time to play" before bedtime. after cleaning up the basement, the three boys sat down at the train table, which is usually used as a lego table, and built all sorts of things.
it was a long and busy day, but i think all of us ended up having a lot of fun.
happy 35th birthday, dave! we love you!!!!


hayden LOVED the maze:
and talan LOVED the windmill:


he would run over and stand next to things like he wanted his picture taken, but then he'd never look at the camera. seconds later, he'd be off to the next thing:
this might have been talan's favorite part. when you lift the keys, it would make groaning sounds and lights would flash:
building with the giant legos:




hayden trying to build a wall and knock it down:



caught!:




they didn't quite get the concept of this tv thing. talan would move to far from the green screen so we couldn't see him on the tv. hayden just got shy and weird. and people kept pressing buttons so they couldn't just rock out to a song:
dave doing some teaching. and the boys actually seemed interested. i was glad i had my camera...that kept me interested:


the boys:
hayden seeing how much power he could generate:
he got up to 1:
dave got up to at least 10:
hayden refused to have his picture taken in front of the wiener mobile because he had tears in his eyes as we were leaving early after a non-listening episode:
talan the hot dog. from what dave tells me, the last time they were there, talan HATED it. this time, he liked it but only stayed in long enough for this picture:
and he's off to something new:
here, talan was taking a bite out of hayden the hot dog: