Brendan loves pretending to play a guitar when listening to music. Lately, he uses a small tennis racket and runs around, pretending to jam. He also "sings" (moves his mouth to his own words) into his pretend microphone. It's pretty amusing to watch. We had to tape him doing this because he could be famous one day, and we could say, "This is how it all started..." :)
We've been fortunate to make some good friends already in Montevideo. We definitely consider Gregg and Kristin good friends, and their two girls Shaylee (5 years) and Calli (3 years) get along great with Brendan and Megan. We've gotten together for a picnic, a few suppers, and even an adults only card night. Above is a picture of Brendan and Calli playing while Gregg and Brad chat (Kristin and I were making Christmas cookies in the kitchen.)
Brendan showing off his snowman picture (the cotton ball part is his artwork.)
The snow has been piling up around here lately. Brendan looked out our back window at the deck (above) and exclaimed, "Gosh, that looks like towers growing on top of the deck!" Megan points out the window at the snow, makes an excited squeal, shakes her head and says "Brrrr!"
Megan, peering out the back window at all the snow.
Mmmm....the best part of making cookies!
Brendan, running around after bathtime, pretending to be Superman.
Brendan, helping with the Christmas cookies. 
We had a little mishap between Brendan, Megan, and a belt. Brendan found an old belt (the kind with the metal loops that slip together) and decided that he wanted to play cowboy with it. He started swinging the belt around like a lasso and he clocked Megan right on the forehead. We ended up with two screaming kids...Brendan, because he felt so bad, and Megan, because she had a bleeding goose-egg the size of a real egg. We had to steri-strip it because it looked like it was going to burst the skin. She's one tough kid though...a few minutes later and she was fine. Above is a picture of her on the day before we took the steri-strips off.
Megan, helping with the Christmas cookies.
Megan is starting to get to the point where she can hold her own against Brendan. This was the first time they were wrestling around together. They both thought it was great, and I just held my breath and hoped nobody would end up crying (they weren't really wrestling that hard...more like rolling around together.)
Mmmmm...fresh sugar cookies. Megan became the instant best friend of whomever would share with her (of course mommy gave in.)
Brad, who doesn't usually like sweets, was all about the sugar cookies. I think he had four that night. And more the next day, with coffee.
The sugar cookies that made it past the onslaught of hungry Koosmann's. We didn't even end up frosting them, because we liked them so much
We had to call in the plow truck (the husband of a co-worker of Brad's, who lives right across the highway...how convenient!) because of a massive snow we had. The kids stood, noses to the door, watching the entire time the truck was pushing the snow...
...and then Brendan decided he had to plow some snow too. He decided he needed to clear all the snow out of the living room...
...and Megan had to help too. Thank goodness they cleared all the snow out of the living room. Now we can walk in it again! :)
Grandma and Grandpa came over for supper one night, and the kids got some playtime in. Above, Grandma is reading Brendan's tractor book to two captivated kiddos.
We visited SantaLand with Gene and Mary on a whim one afternoon. Above, Megan and Grandpa are enjoying the North Pole section of SantaLand.
My mom came to visit us for a couple of days and we got another massive dump of snow. I grabbed the camera and headed outside to check and see if we needed another plowing (which we did.)
The sun, clouds, and snow created one of the most beautiful winter skies I've ever seen. The sunlight was glowing behind a light haze of snow clouds. The picture doesn't do the sky justice. It was amazing.
Nona kept up with a very vigorous play schedule, set by Brendan. (Megan didn't really care what they were doing, as long as she was included.) Mom was (rightfully) exhausted after a couple days, and I enjoyed the adult conversation and some guilt-free time working in our office. 
Brad and the kids, enjoying some quiet reading time.
One Saturday morning, Brendan decided he wanted some quiet book time, so he grabbed a book off of our bookshelf, climbed into our bed, and sat like this for over five minutes (which doesn't sound like much, but that's an incredibly long time for a 3 1/2-year-old with a book with no pictures.) I especially love that the book is upside down!
One snowy evening we decided to watch Charlie Brown's Christmas together as a family. Not five minutes into it, this is what our family time looked like!
I made blueberry muffins one morning, and little miss eater here powered through two whole muffins before Brendan even finished one.
Both kids have really been enjoying dinosaurs lately. Megan loves mimicking whatever Brendan does with his toys, so she has the dinosaurs roar at each other, and they stomp towards each other and smash each other. It's quite entertaining to watch my 14-month-old actually playing with toys...even if it's just acting out what she sees others do.
We haven't been able to spend much time outside, due to the cold and wind, so one afternoon we hauled up the watertable and filled it with snow (which we've done several times since this picture.) The kids played and played and played...until the snow turned to water and they (and the kitchen) were soaked.
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