Top Ten Posts of 2008 - #3

Here is another of my favorite posts, this time not so much due to the humor in it but because it depicts our children very happy and doing things they love to do!



I'm making the link bigger to try to help you out in case you have had a hard time finding it in previous posts! Just trying to help you out...

Top Ten Posts of 2008 - #4

In no real specific order, here is another of my favorite posts from the last year (or six months, if you want to be particular!) Here it is, one of the pics we have of every one of our boys over the years! Kids are so cute and funny, if you can get past the tired and crankiness they also display that seems to overwhelm the cuteness somedays!

Top ten posts of 2008 - #5

I've decided, with a bit of persuasion from Rhonda, to do a top ten list of my favorite blogs from this year. Actually, just the last six months, since it appears that I began the blog in July. It won't be a top ten, more likely a top 5, or less if i get to it less frequently, but here goes. My 5th most favorite blog of the year is found here. It only ranks at #5 since it is a pretty good knock on me, the author, but it was extremely funny so it had to make the list!

Merry Christmas!

On Christmas Eve we had a lot of fun. First we spent some more time working on our snow cave in my parent's front yard, and made some good progress on it! After that we had some hot chocolate and spent the evening at my parent's church. It was a pretty long service, about 2 hours, but the boys did great and it was a really enjoyable time for all of us. They had the kids all participate in recreating the manger scene, and our boys got to wear their shepherd's hat and staff (Sol, Thad, and Ez) and wise men's crown (EJ) during the service until it was their time to go up. It's an Anglican church and while it was a lot different than we are accustomed to, it was a really good time and the spirit of God was very evident.

After the service Garrett and Laurel, my brother and his wife, and Jesse and Jenna, my youngest brother and sister, were all around as we hung out together. Garrett has really taken to Thad and Jesse to Eli, and it was fun to capture some pics of them together. Both kids have a lot of similarities to their uncles, and that was pretty fun for us to watch!

And alas, Christmas morning came very happily! We spent the better part of 3 hours opening up mounds of gifts, with all my immediate family except my brother Braden, sister in law Carrie, and nieces Emma and Navia and nephew Kaleb, who live in Ottawa and weren't able to make it out this year. It was such a great time, and the kids were thrilled with all the gifts that they received! Sol got his much anticipated Bakugan's, Thad got his snowboard, Eli got a multitude of race cars and other toys, and Ez got plenty of the same - toys and trinkets to play with. They all got backpacks from their Canadian cousins, and lots of fun stuff from uncles and aunts!

There are a lot of photos here and I won't drive you nuts with explaining each one, but suffice it to say that we had a great time, and the quilt that consumed Rhonda's life (and mine to some extent) the last two months was a very big hit! I couldn't get a pic with mom in it today because she was tearing up too much, but suffice it to say that she was overwhelmed! Carrie made an amazing family tree picture with tons of old photos for mom and dad, so the two gifts combined to really make this an exciting day for mom! We all had a great time just hanging out together and playing games and watching Christmas movies! We went sledding this afternoon, as it was a bit warmer today, only about -10C, which I'd say is about 0F or so, but with the wind chill was likely more like -10F or so. Lots of fun for about an hour or so, and then we headed in for more hot chocolate!

So at the end of this mammoth posting, we Bailey's wish you all a wonderful Christmas, full of remembering the birth of our Lord the baby Jesus, and spending time with family and friends!

Winter Wonderland??

Well, this morning Z woke up a bit foul, I kinda think he's tired from a general lack of sleep that we've experienced on this trip so far! At least he and I have, I hung out till about 11 last night and was awoken by Z and Sol and Thad about 7 this morning, so spent some time watching Justice League with my boys until everyone else got up around 9!

However foul Z feels, his auntie Jenna can usually get him to be nicer, until it came to his older brothers getting to go out in the cold and snow and him not! He became upset, and as auntie Jenna was the only one in there with him, he just wouldn't settle down until dad said it was ok to get him in his warm clothes and come outside. Minus 25 or not, we got out for a little driveway sledding, snowball throwing, and snow fort building. Amazingly tho, we don't have quite enough snow piled up for a good fort yet, so I had to do some shoveling! It was definitely a good time tho, let's hope mom had fun during her afternoon of shopping!

To come: pics of the other activity auntie Jen had for us boys while mom and the grandparents were out!

Plan C...

We had been planning on going to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada for Christmas this year to celebrate with my (Dustin) family. Our boys had never had Christmas up there, and were quite excited to be able to this time! When we bought our van last summer we thought we'd probably drive up, as we had a reliable vehicle and buying it kinda drained us. Then last Tuesday, after some minor winter storms in St. Louis (and major ones not that far north of us) we thought we'd check into flying. 6 tickets was going to cost us about $6000 earlier in the fall, but we were able to get flights that were much cheaper, so decided to go that route. (6 tickets at any price is still expensive tho!)

So we were planning to drive (Plan A), then planning to fly out Saturday (Plan B) and then Minneapolis got hit by a major storm, and nobody was flying in there! As there was no way to re-route us, we ended up going home again on Saturday evening (thanks Mel for all the taxiing us around!). Plan C was to fly out at 6AM on Monday morning, and we were able to make it! It was a very early (3:30AM) morning, but we arrived in Regina at 11:30AM and have been able to spend lots of great time with family! We'll try to keep the pics coming, though most will likely be indoor pics because it's -27F, and feels like -42F! Hopefully and prayerfully it warms up so we can do some sledding and snow fort building!

The boys thought that flying was probably the greatest thing ever, so I guess we don't need to get them any gifts this year...:)

Christmas trees, leaves, and other stuff...

We headed out after church last week to get our Christmas tree from the usual place out near Lake St. Louis. Not as much snow this year as last, so we were able to see the trees a little better, but did not get to have as much fun playing in what little there was! No Steven W. there to pull the boys in the tree wagon either, which was missed by all! The boys still had a great time picking out a tree (a little smaller this year) and dragging it down, as you'll see in the video! It's now up and decorated, and we're enjoying it for the couple more weeks we have with it before we head off for a Canadian Christmas!

And yes, the tree did survive and is now decorated in our living room!

After the tree we headed over to B&L's place for birthday festivities for Jake and Mason! It was a crew, missing only one person this time, and we were 22 in number! Here is grandma with newest baby Colton:)

Our second video comes from today, where Sol and I headed out to try to clean up the leaves in the backyard. He decided that he should get to be the one with the blower this time, so who was I to argue? He had tons of fun with it and hopefully you will enjoy watching him:)

And last but not least, here are the boys playing in their kingdom, otherwise known as the kingdom of basement, where they can pretend laundry baskets are huge ships and brooms are paddles, and all the world is theirs to explore! Wasn't it nice when we were that imaginative?

Saturday Morning

Ezra and I are sitting at the computer right by our fire, and he wanted me to take a video of him to put on here. He loves the "my sad" video of him, so here's another performance, although I must admit it's not quite as entertaining! Happy Saturday to you all!

Thanksgiving Day Project

We spent some time today building stilts for the boys to play on. Rhonda found some plans for them and Sol and Thad decided that they wanted to build them, so we did it today. It was a pretty quick project, and thus kept their attention fairly well, and they were able to use them right away after! Enjoy the fun we had!

After that we went over to Rhonda's grandparents' home for some Thanksgiving dinner, and boy do they ever do the food up right! It's all my favorites, turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, more turkey and gravy, and pie for dessert! Then about 7:30PM it was time for a turkey sandwich! Does life get any better?

Working at the Lake

We spent last weekend working at the lake house. Our whole family went, as well as Paul and Sharon (whose house it is), Bruce and Jake and Mason, and another friend Pete. The purpose of the trip was to put in new windows and siding on the porch area, and we were successful! It was a lot of work, and it was pretty cold, but we got it done and have the pictures to prove it! The boys had a good time helping work, and being little "blacksmiths" with the fire we used to keep warm! Sol and Thad had fun with their cousins, they all watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers together, which resulted in some wrestling, and all in all they had a really good time!

Talking with Grandma and Grandpa

Thad, Eli, and Ezzie got to talk to Grandma and Grandpa Bailey on the phone tonite, and each one had a great time talking about what's going on in their lives, plans for our Christmas visit, and just whatever crazy stuff they had to say! It's nice to be able to connect like this, and while Thad talked the other two took the time to play!

One last note - tonight when I was reading to Thad and Eli, Thad asked me why geese fly south for the winter. I started telling him about how it gets cold and the geese head for warmer weather, about to pontificate about how Florida doesn't get very cold at all, when Eli pipes up with:
"No, it's because it's too far to walk!"
And this is what my life has become. Dad, now I can feel the pain I put you through! :)

Pumpkin Leaf Burner

Any of you that have boys know that Halloween and carving pumpkins are great fun for men big and small, but in our house we've established a new tradition. Pumpkin Leaf Burners. By the end of October we have plenty of leaves on the ground, and there're always a few days after Halloween when we still light up the jack-o-lantern on the front porch. Last year, or maybe the year before, we were playing on the porch and someone (I don't think it was me, but it could have been) put a few leaves in the top of it. The fire and fun was begun! This year it was much colder than what we normally do this in, so we had to really bundle up for it, but fun was once again had by all! Even Ezra got into it this time! Here are some pics for your enjoyment!

Halloween pics for Jenna

And the rest of you of course, she's just the one that was asking!

Sol (hockey player) and Thad (farmer) doing some building project

Eli (Superman) and Ezra (chef) playing in the bouncer with big sissy (don't ask, it's a long story)

Farmer Thaddeus

All the boys with Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Petrov

Earlier in the day I scored a basket in "Thaddieball"

Some recent fun we've had

I wanted to get some more pics up for you to view, trying to keep my blog at least a little bit interesting, so here are some recent pics we've taken. I think most are from today, Rhonda had Sol and Eli and Ez at home as Sol and Eli were sickly, so they did some playing around. Hope you like it!

I think this is Sol's lego house

This is Sol working on some reading - looks like a Lego magazine to me!

Eli loves to play outside, especially in the leaves with his cape on!

Ez was having fun in the leaves too with his cape, just like big brother!

My little guys throwing leaves on each other!

Getting the Pumpkin

We spent some time yesterday getting pumpkins for Halloween, and had lots of fun playing at the little pumpkin and vegetable farm near our house. Unlike many pumpkin farms, this one was free to play around in and our boys had a blast! They each got to pick out their own little pumpkin to paint at home, and we got a big one to carve as well! Here are some pictures for you to enjoy!
As I type I'm now sitting by our first wood fire at our home, we finally converted the fireplace back to wood from the non-working gas that it was! Paul and Sharon came over and Paul and I worked on it for a bit and got a new gas line for the dryer put in and also took out the gas line for the fireplace and got it all set up. Now I can type all nice and cozy like!

A picture is worth...

Most of you would likely agree that the answer to the above statement is "a thousand words" so I won't bore you with many this time, just some fun pictures of our family and the entertainment we bring each other!

Our two little batman's (batmen?)


Eli was Superman at his preschool Halloween party

Last week we went to Pizza Street for dinner and there was this crazy awesome balloon guy (yes, J & J, the same one we made fun of and then realized he probably makes more than all of us) and he created one Elmo and three pirates out of balloons for the boys!

Sol got a bee sting on our camping trip and his arm swelled up, and he wanted to share that with you!

Mom and her big boys reading about Wild Things - what a great mom!

I went biking with some friends and had an amazing blowout, tore up the rim even! I wish it was while I was doing some gnarly jump or something cool, but really I was stopping and hit a branch, and likely had too much air in the tire! Sounded like a gunshot, and I had to walk the bike out. Luckily, after getting the cash from my 30th birthday present (warranty on the mp3) and buying a new cheaper one, I had almost enough for the new rim, so my riding doesn't have to stop!