Ok so January went by quite quickly I took the boys to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks we went with some friends and took them to pizza ranch 1st it was quite a cheap evening as kids eat free at the pizza place on tuesdays and it's only $3 a person at the movies so cost a lot less than it usually would. Both boys loved the movie and Alfie also got the soundtrack for Christmas so he loves dancing round the house to their songs.
Josh has started with his swimming lessons again which he enjoys although so far this session he's only had 1 lesson as the weather has made it pretty difficult to go anywhere but he's got 1 on saturday fingers crossed.

Josh and Cody playing on the huge snowpile that the

snow ploughs have piled between us and next door.

The weathers been pretty terrible there's snow everywhere Josh isn't going to be finishing school when he should of done because he's had too many snow days so they now have to make at least 3 days up so far. I can't wait until all this snow has melted the boys love it but it's pretty impossible to get out the doors downstairs has snow half way up it and the gardens too deep to go into think Alfie would disappear completely if he went out the back lol.

The drive after Ben worked hard to shovel all the snow off it.

We have about 3 times that amount piled up alongside the drive now.

Josh also had a basketball clinic that was organised through the scouts. The day he was meant to go to it his swimming lesson got cancelled because the weather was so bad we'd had freezing rain then it snowed on top so the roads were quite dangerous to drive on. Anyway Ben took the boys and I decided I'd stay home and sort their clothes and toys out while they was away apparantly once he got to the interstate (motorway) the roads were fine and they were ok down in Sioux Falls so they had a really good day out and didn't get home till after 11 so I had 2 very tired boys the next day :-).

Joshua getting ready to start his display at school.

Josh did a basketball display at school also I did video it but haven't worked out how to put it on here yet although I did work out how to post pics so I'm getting there slowly.

Alfie keeps asking my when he can go to school maybe he's getting fed up of his mum for company anyway he asked if he could start pre-school or printer school as he calls it not sure he'll be too excited when he realises he has to learn and it isn't a play place he keeps asking what sort of slides they have there so maybe he's got a shock to his system coming next year :-)

I still can't get used to the fact he won't start school until he's nearly 6 I think he'll be driving me up the wall by this point especially as pre-school is only 2 afternoons per week it drives me daft that they don't have anything for kids Alfie's age here no toddler groups nothing. They do a reading morning at the library but everytime I take him to 1 of Joshua's reading nights at school he causes destruction so not sure that would be an option. Ben did take him to soccer classes in Madison which is at least 30mins away but he spent most of his time on his knees haha. I'll have to keep looking and hopefully come up with something to occupy him.

Alfie at the sledding hill.

Anyway that's all for now will try to update again as soon as possible.

xxxx

Christmas and New Year

Ben and Josh thinking they're clever with my new camera (not a clue which function he used)

Ok well this hasn't started as well as I thought it would but nevermind.

Anyway we all had a great Christmas, the boys were very excited for Santa to come Alfie is still asking when Santa's coming back, we did a Christmas message for them both which once I can work out how to put any pics/vids on here I'll try to post it. It was nice spending a relaxing day together and both boys loved trying out their new toys and deciding what to spend their money on so thankyou to everyone for the gifts and money xx.

The Boys got lots of great gifts Thanks xx

Christmas time is always tough as we all miss everyone back home and when friends are heading off to see family it does remind you how far you are from family/friends so that part is always hard I think I'll always get homesick around that time of year but I guess it's normal.

The break seemed really short this year Josh only got just over a week off school with how Christmas and New Year fell so before I knew it I had to get him back to school routine again.

Josh opening one of his gifts (thanks Sarah)

Alfie at Christmas.

New Year was pretty quiet we didn't go anywhere again a time you remember family we just watched a movie well Ben fell asleep lol and Alfie fell asleep just before midnight so he did very well so it was just me and Josh who was awake to see in the New Year once the movie finished we turned over to a channel that had fireworks and the countdown to midnight. 

I took the boys sledding quite a lot over the holidays which was lots of fun I had to get some snowpants and Alfie a balaclava as the snow kept getting in his face when we shot down the hill again there is some photos when I get them on here.

The boys sledding (before I got Alfie a balaclava).

We also managed the trip to Chucke Cheese which the boys loved me not as much as Ben was working and it's very noisy in there but the boys had fun which is the main thing. The only things we didn't manage was the movies and bowling however we did go to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks when that came out and hopefully we'll get to bowling for Josh's birthday.

I got a new camera for Christmas so I'm still trying to work out how to use it properly at the moment I just have it on automatic settings until I figure out how to use the fancy stuff.

I guess that's all for this time will update for January over the weekend as Josh is wanting to head out and watch the basketball at school so bye for now

xxxx