Advent Calendar 2010 part 2

5 days left: We made footprint/handprint reindeer. Wil thought painting with his feet was the most fun he'd ever had!

6 Days left, so we made a gingerbread house. Wil refused to decorate, instead he stuffed the candies into his mouth like a chipmunk and then went crazy on his sugar high. Leo loved it. Our house made it about 5 minutes before it collasped and was thrown away - but it was fun while it lasted!

7 days left, we went to Walmart to choose tags off of their Salvation Army Tree. Leo chose a 5 year old boy and bought him a Zhu Zhu Pet with battle armor and some new clothes (A Star Wars to Glow Wars (as Leo calls Star Wars Clone Wars) shirt of course!) Wil chose a 20 month old boy and got him a camera (since Wil loves his camera from Grandma Stewart so much) and some clothes. They were sooooo cute taking them up to Customer Service! The lady behind the counter said, "Thank you!" and they both screamed "Merry Christmas!" Very proud moment!

With 8 days left, we took some bread to the park to give the ducks a winter feast! The boys ended up having so much fun, mostly throwing leaves at me! They also watched a fisherman catch some trout and ran around like maniacs, the usual!

The boys both LOVE this statue of Cesar Chavez........

With 9 days left, we made each person in our family a penguin picture ornament. We were really touched when Leo asked if he could make Shane the dog an ornament and also our cousin, Matt, an ornament. Matt's been staying with us for a while, and the boys just love him!

2010 Advent Calendar Activities

a bootleg of Leo's preschool picture


Decorating the Christmas Tree


The boys pretending to be Santa

Wil loves his Elmo camera from Grandma Stewart

Our Advent Calendar and following events.....I was a little late getting it started, so we are counting down the 15 days of Christmas. The boys decorated the envelopes. They are so cute! You can see on the left side, Leo made our family in Gingerbread Men on one envelope and in cookies (including Shane the dog) on the bottom left :-) We also ran out of red envelopes, so Leo made day 15 with a dinosaur envelope!

Leo wakes up every morning, comes down the stairs, and heads right for the envelope!

Day 15: Pile into the car to see Christmas lights at Glendale Glitters!

Day 14: Make Christmas Cookies

Day 13: "Jingle" your neighbors by delivering some of your Christmas Cookies

Day 12: Curl up on the couch and watch TV, which morphed into Minute to Win it Game Night

Day 11: Dance and sing Christmas carols together

Day 10: Zoo Lights! Dancing Trees here we come!

Day 10: Zoo lights! Dancing Trees, here we come!

Leo pretending to be a dancing tree. Wil on the Merry Go Round

Wil really enjoyed his 3D glasses!

Day 1 was watching Rudolph on TV, but it turned into Minute to Win it Game Night

Glendale Glitters is a little town nearby that decorates their entire town with Christmas Lights. The boys had a BLAST running around like crazy maniacs in a field. Did they notice the lights, not sure. But they had fun!

We decorated Christmas cookies for Day 14, then on Day 13 we "jingled" our neighbors. If said neighbors are reading this, please ignore this part :-) We posted a message on our treats asking them to pay the favor forward by delivering treats to their neighbors. Then, Leo's favorite part, we knocked on their doors, left the treats in front, and ran!!!!

From Day 11, Dance and Sing Christmas Songs together. Leo is singing "Hey Duckbills" from his Dinosaur Night Before Christmas CD

Minute to Win it Game Night -I got the closest, so I posted my video. It was my partner's fault!


Hard to see, but this is Leo and Dad riding the Polar Slide at Zoo Lights

MORE TO COME! Merry Christmas!

sorry everyone.....

Sorry, I am a bad blogger.......this is my attempt to catch up!





Leo has been absolutely fascinated with anything science lately. We've been spending our time at the science center, aquarium, and the Challenger Space Center as much as possible. The first picture is Leo at the aquarium. He insisted we bring the camera to take a picture of the jellyfish. Alex is not a fan of jellyfish. Their see-through bodies give him the willies. So Leo wanted a picture to scare him with! The boys LOVE the aquarium! We spent 4 hours there last week! Leo and Wil both really like the sea horses. We learned so many interesting facts!

Here is Leo dressed up as an astronaut at the Challenger Space Center. Wil let us stick his head in the board for a quick pic too!

Leo and Wil in their Chippewa gear! (Thanks Kupers!)

Well, after a year of nagging, we finally found a karate class for Leo. He is the picture of cute in his Gi. He is very good at it - the class actually holds his attention the entire hour - but he says he hates it....

Leo so proud that he was going golfing with his dad. He picked out his "golf shirt" for the occasion. He's been really into daddy lately. He will only wear his sports shirts that are "like daddy's" lately. So I'm pretty embarrassed when he wears the same clothes every other day since he only has 3 sports shirts. Then, on the weekend, he makes Alex wear his too so they match. It's pretty cute. But if anyone has size 5 Lions, Red Wings, Central MI, Cardinals, etc. shirts laying around, send them our way!!!

For my birthday, Alex took Leo to Walmart and he picked out this "beautiful" necklace. Leo was so proud (as seen in picture) and woke me up for the next 3 mornings at 6 am to "Put it on!!!"

Wil is pure daredevil! He loves to climb, run, jump, anything he can! The video is a couple months old, but it was a preview of what he's moved on to now. We enrolled him at The Little Gym to try to give him an outlet. He hangs from the bars, he jumps off the tops of mats, he flips. It's really pretty amazing. He's in a class that he is young for, but he keeps up with all the big kids. We're really really proud of our little monkey!

This is Leo riding a 2 wheeler! He's doing just great!

Wil LOVES the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse TV show - well, really only the end for the "Hot Dog" Song. He begs me all day to watch just the song on YouTube. I mean all day long. It's pretty cute, even though I've seen him do this 1,000 times :-) PS, if you notice, Wil always has one shoe on, one shoe off. We don't know why....

Leo quotes

Had to write down some recent Leo quotes.......

I'm all full on love now, thanks anyway!


Wil had been awake all night, so I was sleeping on the couch with him. Leo came and woke me up with a big hug and said, "I'll take care of Wil, Mommy! You take my blankie and relax, I'll take care of him." Such a sweet boy!


What did you have for dinner, Leo? "Carrots, so I can see real good."


Leo went to a liquor class with my mom at her restaurant. He was sitting quietly coloring while the speaker was talking. From what we hear, suddenly, Leo raises his hand and asks "What does intoxication mean?" While everyone laughed at his question, Leo later told me that he was very upset because they never answered his question (and neither did I!)

Leo: Mom, come here, quick. There is a ton of gargage under there?
Me: under where?
Leo: HA HA, I just made you say underwear!!!


Tonight, we found Leo asleep behind the headboard of his bed, wedged in tightly between the wall and his bed!

We recently discovered that Leo really has a knack for math. He's doing great at combinations to 6 - so if we say, "There were 6 pieces of candy, we ate 3. How many are left?" He's got it covered, and quickly :-) He also plays "The Hiding Game" very well - which is an assessment I used to do at school. With 6 cubes, you cover some of the cubes and Leo has to guess how many are hiding. We're pretty proud of this little whiz!

Why I love my boys

Why do I love Wil?

Well, for starters, tonight he went to bed by himself. He just plopped right down, without a whimper and went to sleep - on MY night, it wasn't even daddy's! Plus, he did it at naptime too, and slept for 3 hours!

Seriously though, I love the way he LOVES his shoes! Each morning, he wakes up, goes right to the shoe box and puts on his shoes.......by himself! Then, he will usually bring me my shoes (which I hate to wear in the house, but I do it for him......until I nonconsciencly kick them off somewhere). Next, Leo's shoes to him, which Leo really hates. Then, he usually takes his shoes off to swap them for a pair of daddy's or a different pair of his. Today, when I put him down for a nap, I took his shoes off. He cried, so I put them in his crib with him. When I checked on him, he was sleeping in baby position, butt in the air, wearing his shoes! I love this kid!

He loves to sit in his booster seat and buckle the straps. Then, he screams because he cannot undo them, so I have to walk over and undo them, repeat, repeat, repeat! AAAAHHHH!

Oh my goodness does this boy love dogs and horses! He is fascinated and jumps up and down if he sees ANYTHING with a dog or horse on it!

The giggles that come out of this baby's mouth when he is playing with his brother!!!! They chase each other around and around, laughing the whole time. Also, Leo enjoys dumping water over Wil's head in the bathtub. It freaks him out everytime, but once he knows it's Leo, all is funny again! It's really priceless!

Side note, other things Wil is doing by the end of his 16th month: jumping, dancing, (I MUST get video of this, it is pure Shaffer form!) defending himself against his brother with shrill screams, "NO's," "MINE's", and pushes, kissing with his mouth closed (Finally!) complete with a smooch sound, and still always smiling! He also climbs everything at the playground and can do things Leo wasn't at 2! Maybe he's our little athelete! He is really so smart!

Why do I love Leo?

This kid is a crack up! The other evening at the playground, he marched right up to a little girl and said, "Hi. I'm Leo. What's you're name? Well, we're gonna be friends now, come on." He took her by the hand and they played so nice for 45 minutes! He's a slick little guy. I pray that he uses his slickness to become a successful business man, and not a gangster!

Leo is suddenly very interested in knights. I bought him a shield and helmet to dress up with. Smart mom skipped the sword....I'm slowly learning :-) I let daddy make him a sword though. So he comes home and dresses up and pronounces "I'm a knight. I only come at night, I'm nocturnal!" Then yesterday he says after he takes off his costume, "Now I'm just a son. Get it, I was a knight, now I'm a sun and I'm you're son. Ah ha!!!" (Part of what makes it so funny is how funny HE thinks he is!" So today, we made him some armor. We had a blast together, creating it with care. He is so cute!

I took Leo to Trader Joes where they have kid shopping carts. Oh what fun! He was a crack up at the check out stand. He says "Good afternoon, ladies. I'm here to check out." "Thank you ever so much. Glad to see ya today!" Too funny! He also insisted on buying the ladies at Alex's bank some flowers, then he insisted he buy me some too (awwww!) Then, when we pulled up, I accedently went to the wrong door and didn't realize it. Leo peers into the window and says, "Hey, where are my ladies? This is the wrong place!" Oh, Mr. Smooth!

Today he told me he really wants a new toothbrush. A really girly looking one with flowers and junk! When I asked why he wanted a girly one if he is a boy he said, "because I like flowers!" Well, ok then!

Best story lately happened at a friend's party. Just so happened to be all friends from our church. Alex was sitting playing cards with some guys and Leo pops over to say he wants to play. Alex tells him that he cannot play because he doesn't know the rules, to which Leo replies that he does know the rules. Then, someone asks Leo, "Well, then, how many cards do you need to play?" Leo says, "Well, I would GUESS the same amount as my dad [insert sarcasm here]." So Leo weasled his way onto dad's lap to play. Then, as Alex discards, Leo screams "Damn it!" Sigh......

Things Leo is doing at 4 years old: Making us crack up every single day, testing our patience every day, testing the rules everyday, reading, reading, reading! I cannot believe how many words this kid recognizes from out of nowhere! Today he read "moon, dinosaur, and off" compeletly out of context, just randomly! He is really so smart!

SO PROUD

I've had a lot of proud moments as Leo's mom, but today was one of my favorites. We went to see Arizona Rick - the Balloon-making Cowboy at the library. Arizona Rick tells the kids exactly how he wants them to act in order to be a volunteer. During the performance, Leo was disappointed that he wasn't chosen, but handled it well. Then, Arizona Rick said he was looking for the "Best kid in the audience to wear his favorite hat." There were tons of "Me me me!" kids - but our Leo sat criss-cross apple sauce and quietly raised his hand and was chosen!!! He was so proud! Then, he sat very still as the show went on and Arizona Rick made him a GIANT chicken hat! When Leo wears it, he and the hat are taller than me!

I was so proud of how well-behaved Leo was and that he was rewarded for it! No one has described Leo as the "best kid in the audience" well, ever! Maybe 4 is going to be better than 3!

Way to go, big boy Leo! Love you kiddo!

San Diego

Finally, after years of planning, the Shaffers and Spencers actually made a decision and went on a trip together!!! We had a great time in San Diego! We rented a house near Wind and Sea Beach. Although the weather didn't quite cooperate with our beach plans, we found a few things to keep us busy.....

Monday - Sea World Tuesday - San Diego Zoo Wednesday - Legoland Thursday- The beach Friday - Disneyland Saturday - Touring the USS Midway and the Beach. What a week!

Alex and I were so proud of our boys - they were very good. Actually, all of the kids were great! The boys had so much fun playing with Ashley and Andrew! Leo keeps talking about how he misses his dragon baby, Aka, Ashley! We don't know why he calls her that!

Also, Leo was able to ride almost all of the rollercoasters during our trip! He and Ashley were addicted! We were so proud of our brave kiddos! Space Mountain was Leo's favorite. It was the roughest coaster we went on, and since it's in the complete dark, I couldn't tell if he liked it or not. When we came back to the loading dock, Leo's face was pure white and blank. I asked him if he liked it and he just looked at me, then clapped as hard as he could! He LOVED IT!

Wil loved looking at all of the animals! He sure is our animal lover! He was in awe at Seaworld and the zoo! There was a show at SeaWorld called "Pet's Rule" where dogs, cats, ducks and even a pig perform. Wil starred and starred, screaming "Daaaww" (dog). He was so cute. Then, at the Disney parade, he danced his booty off (see previous post for a video!)

USS Midway

"It's a small world, after all. It's a small world, after, all. It's a small world, after all. It's a small, small world!" Repeat, repeat, repeat!

Me, kicking butt at a fake game show

Mickey Mouse :-)

The kids at the Disneyland parade!

How cute is he?!?!?

Seal Beach!

Hanging out at "home"

Leo and his dragon baby

Mini-NYC

The boys, especially Wil, LOVED this train - they rode it over and over and over!

LEGOLAND

Ashley almost won this hula hoop contest - she is a true hula-champ!

I've waited my entire life to see Giant Pandas. It was simply amazing!

We love this picture because we have a similar picture from our trip to Boston in October

Riding the Elmo ride

Leo loved touching the sea stars!

Leo and Ashley were so excited to sit in the splash zone for the Shamu Show. Key words are "were so excited." The weather was not very warm, and we had two very grumpy, wet kids. We thought it was pretty funny because, although we were in the splash zone too, we didn't get very wet :-)