Oil Heat

Michael and I were both unfamiliar with oil heating when we bought our house, but feel like we are learning lots about owning a house with oil heat.  Last week we learned an important rule- make sure the guage on your tank works so that you know when you are about to run out of fuel!  Our heat went out at night (which also happened to be one of the coldest nights this winter) and we woke up to the house being 50 degrees and dropping.  In the middle of the night we brought Weston in bed with us and we all stayed cozy under the covers, but when it got time to get out of bed it sure was cold!  Weston and Eli had no problem keeping on their winter hats and layers until the oil man could come and fill the tank.  I usually don't let the boys watch TV, except for 1/2 hour while I make lunch, but that morning I turned on some cartoons so they would sit on the couch under blankets.  Overall, I think they enjoyed having no heat until later morning:)

Luckily that was the only day Weston had to experience being cold inside the house, but I think he has a new appreciation for winter clothing after experiencing his first Wisconsin winter.  At the beginning of winter he wasn't to fond of his winter apparel, but lately he has liked putting on his boots, hat, and mittens.  When cousin Gianna was visiting he couldn't get enough of her boots and mittens either:)  Actually, most of the time Weston would wear one boot and Gianna would wear the other. 

Toddler Activity #2- Piggy Bank

This is a simple activity that has been one of Weston's favorites and he has yet to get sick of it.

Activity: Piggy Bank

Materials:

-clear disposable tupperware container with a slit cut in the lid (I put some tape on the sides of the slit so that it wasn't sharp and made the slit easier to see)

-poker chips

Skill/concept development:

fine motor development

hand/eye coordination

counting

Extension: The poker chips also make a great dump and fill material with cups.  Both Eli and Weston enjoy filling up a cup with the chips and then pouring them out.  Weston also really enjoys dumping them back and forth between two cups. 

If your container is big enough, you can also use an old deck of playing cards to put in the bank.  I found that this created a little more of a challenge.

Nesting

So, apparently I am "nesting." I don't remember doing this when I was pregnant with Weston, but I have these incredible urges to get things done before Vance gets here! Although his arrival is probably still at least seven weeks away, I feel like we are going to run out of time! I am tired most of the time, but somehow there is still some motivation to get things done. Here are some of our latest projects that we have intended to do since we moved in and have gotten done in the last two weeks.

1. Michael finally finished painting my paintings for the living room! No more empty wall space waiting to be filled above our couch- yeah! The the paintings symbolize the Trinity. (The pictures are not really crooked hanging on the wall- I am just a bad picture taker.)

2. We finally found and purchased a van to accommodate our growing family. We have been searching for one in our limited budget since we moved and we feel like it was worth the wait because we got a great deal on a good van:) Here is a picture of what my van looks like, but isn't a picture of my actual van. When I sat down to do this post I realized I had yet to take a picture of my van, and since it was dark and cold outside I decided this internet picture would have to do. It is a silver 1999 Chrysler Town and Country.

3. We painted Weston and, soon to be, Vance's room blue. Then, I wanted the same thing on the walls that we had in Weston's room in Texas. This time, however, we omitted the clouds. Michael wasn't too fond of them to begin with and I decided it would be too much on the wall space that we have now. We also added Vance's name to a plane:)

4. I made some valances for the windows in the boys' room. I wanted something similar to the bedding that is currently on the crib, but wasn't having much luck finding what I wanted. Then I thought, why not not just cut off that parts of the bed skirt that nobody sees and create great matching window treatments.

5. I finally got all of my photo albums updated. I only had to get almost 500 pictures printed to catch up! This means that I also finished updating Weston's album, which hadn't been updated since he was three months old.

In addition to these projects, I am also currently working on making a valance for the living room window. Then the only other big project I want to get done is painting our living room trim white. Oh, and ideally I would like to get Michael and my bedroom painted, but I think that may be a little too ambitious.

Michael's to do list is a little different than mine. Here is what he has felt an urging to do-

building a snowman with Weston:) I had a great time watching from the window:)

Merry Christmas!

Okay, so I have been a blog slacker lately, but I have good excuses! One, there was so much to do to get ready for Christmas; two, our internet was down for a couple days after Christmas; three, we still had lots of visiting/visitors the week after Christmas; and four, Weston got his first case of the stomach flu that he so lovingly passed onto me! In fact, I am still recovering as I sit here typing this, but at least now I have some time:).

Okay, with that off my chest, where do I begin? Our Christmas was busy, but nice. We had Santa come to our house on Christmas Eve morning and Weston was pretty clueless about the whole thing. One of my best presents, however, came that morning when I learned I passed the glucose screening test! I failed that test when I was pregnant with Weston and was sure the same thing would happen again. Needless to say, I was NOT looking forward to another 3 hour glucose test. However, the nurse called that morning to give me the good news and I was very happy:) (Oh, sometimes it is the simple things when you are a tired, uncomfortable pregnant woman.) After our little family celebration, we enjoyed seeing lots of extended family and didn't let the weather ruin our plans. We did, however, have to do some rearranging of celebrations, but in the end it all worked out. Christmas Eve evening we went to mass and then to my Grandma Luebke's house. Then Christmas Day, we started off at my parents house, then headed over to my Grandma Thompson's house, and finally ended the day in Necedah with Mike's family (I forgot my camera for the last two celebrations). Weston got lots of presents, but by the end he really didn't care about opening them. He was content with the first thing he opened. Next year, however, I am sure will be a different story.

Grandma Luebke's House

Christmas morning at Mom and Dad's house

After Christmas we got to see our friend Susan, who now lives in New York where she is a canidate to enter the Fransican Sisters of the Renewal (I think that is right). She seemed so happy and it was wonderful to see her! (Sorry, no pictures.) Andrea, Andy, and Gianna came back for the visit and Andrea and Gianna then stayed with us for a few days. Then, as they left Beth came back into town. I enjoy having my sisters around so much that everyday I wish they both lived in LaCrosse! At least, however, we aren't as far apart as we used to be:) Knowing how much I love having sisters, makes me very glad Weston will have a brother soon (only two months to go), and I truely believe one of the best gifts you can give your children is siblings.

Our New Years was nice, but us LaVoys are not big New Year celebration people and we were all sleeping at my parents house (where we went to bring in the New Year) before the ball dropped. In fact, I was out with Weston by 10:30pm. I will blame it on being pregnant, but I don't know what Michael's excuse was- oh, that's right, he is one hard working guy and he is taking care of a tired pregnant wife and a very energetic toddler!

Finally, Weston seems to be exploding in his use of language and he now tries to repeat lots of things that we say. Michael and I love his little voice! Here is a video of him saying "baby" for one of the first times. He loves to point out real babies to us and pictures of them on things and in books. What a great word association to know when he meets his new baby brother:)

Oh, and one more video just for fun. Before I started taping Eli was laughing at Weston everytime Weston threw the slinky down. When Eli stopped laughing out loud, Weston felt the need to fill in with his fake laugh.

Toddler Activity #1- Bowling

Alright, here is my first toddler activity post! My goal is to provide you with inexpensive activity ideas for a toddler- one who is not yet a preschooler, but one that has more skills than an infant!

Activity: Toddler Bowling


Materials:
plastic bottles (I used various sizes, but they can all be the same size)
rubber ball

Examples of words to introduce/emphasise: roll, ball, up and down

Skill/concept development:
hand-eye coordination
gross motor development
cause and affect

Tips from doing the activity:
1) Let your toddler explore the bottles first. This is a fun activity in and of itself! Weston and Eli enjoyed hearing the sound the bottles made when they hit the floor.

2) I found it easiest to have two adults- one to set up the "pins" and one to guide the toddler in standing back and rolling (or throwing) the ball.
3) Let your toddler guide the activity. If they have fun running up to the bottles and throwing the ball at them from 6 inches away- let them:) If they find it easier to kick the ball- let them:)

4) Have them experiment with different ways to knock down the pins- i.e. with their hands, feet, pushing a box, etc...
5) Don't forget to get excited and clap when they knock the pins down!

Extension: With an advanced/older toddler you can count how many pins he/she knocked down and how many are left standing. "One, two, three are up; one, two, three, four, five are down!"

Finally, this is what happens when Daddy joins in the fun- human bowling:)

Oh, The Weather Outside Is Frightful, But The Cookies Are So Delightful

Let it snow, let is snow, let it snow! After living in Texas for the last four winters,winter isn't holding anything back for our first winter back in Wisconsin. I know the snow is going to get old very fast, but for now I am enjoying it:) Michael, however, probably isn't as thrilled since he has to be the one to shovel. We woke up to this beautiful sight this morning and Michael got to put our $2 garage sale find to good use.

Weston and I watched from inside, but I am sure Weston was wishing he was outside with Daddy in the snow.

Weston did, however, get to experience playing in the snow last Friday when we got a light dusting. Another garage sale find (the snowsuit) was put to good use. Now, we just need to get him some boots to complete the ensemble. The boots will have to be too big though, because I have discovered they don't make winter boots in his size. The smallest size they make is a 5 and Weston is in a 3/almost size 4.

Last weekend Weston and I also got together with some of the girls on my mom's side of the family to bake Christmas cookies:) Weston hung around for a couple hours, but then I had Mike come pick him up because I didn't get a single thing done while he was there (imagine that)! We ended up making nine different kinds of cookies.

My Mom, Aunt Barb, Aunt Jessie, and Gianna hard at work.

These are just the sugar cookies we made.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas cookie making is decorating the sugar cookies, so I brought along my trusty hot pink caboodle (that I have had since who knows when) that stores all my decorating materials. Well, on the way home Michael put the caboodle on the back of the car while he loaded Weston into the car and then forgot about it. Needless to say the caboodle didn't arrive home with us and I only discovered I was missing it when Andrea walked in carrying my broken caboodle:( It turns out that they found my caboodle and all my decorating supplies laying all over the road when they were driving to our house. Andrea recognized it and they pulled over to gather up the pieces. They managed to save a good portion of the items and things didn't look that bad considering it had been run over. However, I have to say goodbye to my caboodle and I have to start recollecting some of my decorating supplies.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

The Christmas season is in full swing here at the LaVoy house. We spent the last two weekends putting up our Christmas stuff. Two weekends ago we decided to do the outside Christmas lights while the weather was still nice (don't worry, though, we didn't turn them on until after Thanksgiving). Weston had a blast getting to be outside ALL afternoon and threw a fit when he had to come inside to eat supper. Weston also made the process go a little bit slower because of all his "help," but we wouldn't have it any other way:)

Opps, did I dump all those clips out?

Not the best picture of the end result, but you get the idea.

Then, this past weekend we went and cut down our Christmas tree with Grandpa and Grandma Thompson. We felt like we were back in Texas because the weather was so nice. The weather turned out to be a blessing because we ended up having to go to two different tree farms when we couldn't find anything we liked at the first one. The first place was up on a huge hill and when we got to the top we found a pretty view, but not so nice trees.

Where are all the good trees?

We were successful at the second place and Weston even got to see a little snow on the ground.

Later that night we attempted to decorate the tree with Weston, but this was quite a challenge, so Michael and I decorated it ourselves the next day. Weston did, however, get to put the first ornament on the tree.

Since then that ornament and about five others at any given time are on the floor. He enjoys pulling the ornaments off the tree and I have given up trying to put them back on. I just wait until he is sleeping and then put them back up. The following morning, however, he is back at it. I am waiting for the novelty will wear off, just like with all other new activities, but this has yet to happen.

I also spent Sunday putting up the rest of our Christmas decorations inside. I always enjoy doing this and love how the house looks when all the decor is up:) My bathroom is decorated in Santas, the living room in poinsettias, and the kitchen in snowmen.

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving (I forgot my camera the whole day, so I don't have any pictures from ours) and we look forward to seeing many of you this Christmas!