Merry Christmas!

Another Christmas card option...enjoy!

Winter Fun

A few more Montana firsts - Doug and Will built the perfect snowman and thanks to the McAuliffe family for the fun snowman kit. It was put to good use. Also, ever tried to ride a trike in the snow? Here's Jack, trying pretty hard.

Check out the Loot!

Will received so many nice gifts and really enjoyed opening all his presents. Thanks again to everyone for making his day so special!

A Sea of Blue Goo

This story comes courtesy of Jack...
We've had a couple of days to reflect on the mess and what a pain it was to clean up, so I think I'm ready to tell this story with a smile on my face. Jack is mischievous, more so than his older brother which means I need to watch him like a hawk. The other day Will and I were both upstairs and Jack had gone downstairs to play. I was cleaning, but I would still hear Jack on the monitor and it sounded like he was playing in Will's big bucket of toys. I swear I heard him dump them all out. Then I hear Jack say "I've made a big mess. I'm cleaning it up." Of course I thought he was referring to the toys. Then I hear him say again, "I'm cleaning it up, with a towel." Of course there is no reason to clean up toys with a towel so I ran downstairs to see what kind of damage had been done.
Jack had poured an entire container of liquid (blue) laundry detergent all over the laundry room floor. Because there was so much a lot of it had traveled into the boys bath and of course under the washer and dryer. What a mess!! I cleaned everything I could reach. When Doug walked in the door the first thing he said was, "it smells good in here," I promptly escorted him to the mess and he went to work moving and cleaning under the washer and dryer. Between the two of us it took over an hour to clean up all the blue goo.
I've read dozens of stories/emails about the "creative" and sometimes naughty things boys do. So here's number one on the Peppmeier list. Hope you enjoyed the tale and will always make sure your soap is WAY-out-of-reach of little hands.

Will Turns Four!

What a fun day we've had! The table was loaded with gifts (as you can see) and Will was a great sport waiting until Doug got home from work to start opening them. Jack was at school today so Will and I baked and decorated cupcakes. We watched the movie Elf and started decorating the Christmas tree.

As the person who probably spends the most time with Will, I really shouldn't be surprised that four years have flown by. Wow, so this is what four looks like. I'm seeing glimpses of a sweet little boy who loves to help out and on occassion has great manners. Three has been a year of learning, developing independence and the daily temper tanturm. Right now Will loves going to school and asks everyday if he can go (he only goes two days a week, half day). His creative play is pretty amazing. There are a lot of trips via train, plane and auto. Will's interaction with Jack is great and even though they fight they play together really well and are good friends. The snow has created another fun form of entertainment - Will loves using the snow shovel, climbing through piles and making snow angels. He keeps asking Doug when he gets to go skiing. I'm pretty sure he'll get to try out the mountain at least once this year.

We are so thankful and blessed to have such a healthy, smart and fun child. Thank you to all our family and friends for making Will's birthday so special. We missed celebrating with you in person!

Our First Snow Storm

Don't worry we'll get a grip soon enough and stop all the postings about snow. We're still getting used to it. All weekend it snowed! From Friday night to Saturday it snowed 5 inches (per the measurement we took, first picture) and continued snowing through late Sunday night. The first two times Doug went out to shovel the driveway he came back and exclaimed "I LOVE it here!" Last night when he came in from shoveling the driveway he told me he needed a snow blower...that didn't take long : )

Also, Will is much more into the snow than Jack. Jack ususally is telling us he's "freezing" even before he gets outside. The snow is beautiful - Jack mentioned the other day that the "snow was too white" not sure what that means, but he's right it's very white. Also, it's very light and powdery unlike the snow in Oregon. That makes it pretty easy to shovel.

Somehow this picture was left out of our last post. A picture of the four of us tends to be rare so I wanted to make sure and post it. While visiting for Thanksgiving we spent some time at my mom's house. Friday night we walked over to see the lighting of the Christmas tree. It was so cold we decided we didn't need to see it after all!

Thanksgiving 2007

Chis & Mick's beautiful "cabin" in Prineville where we celebrated Thanksgiving

Will & Jack helping Grandma stuff the turkey

Marcus, Gus, Molly & Penny - who all behaved perfectly during dinner


The entire Peppmeier family
Sara, Jason, Chris, Kelly, Steve, Stacey, Matt, Mick, (the back of) Will, Caleb & (the back of) Jack
(Doug took the picture)



The grandkids (including Sara and Jason's "babies")