Monday, February 24, 2014

Ice Adventure

The warmer days were short-lived around here and it is back to negative temps tonight.  It has made for some very interesting adventures outside.  On Saturday we went outside and the 3 big kids immediately discovered a huge frozen "pond" in our front yard.  It was the weirdest thing to me; something one never encounters growing up in the tropics.  


So all the melting snow had created a huge puddle, which had then frozen across the top layer.  When the kids first walked on it, it held and they skated around on it.  But then it started to give, break apart, and they were then stomping in ice water.  In some places the ice would just bend under your feet but not break.  I found the whole experience completely bizarre.  Super fun, but bizarre.


Here is Blaise "skating".  He got so upset at me for holding on to him the entire time.  I finally let go so he would calm down.  He took about 2 steps and fell right into the water.  He wanted me to hold him after that.  I pulled up his snow pants and found his entire pants leg underneath soaked.  So I went up to the house and called for Shane to tag-team the ice adventure effort.


Simeon and Silas eventually made their way in but Lieren insisted on staying out longer.  She was really resistant to coming in when it was time, which is very uncharacteristic for her.  As I undressed her, I found her feet and hands completely dry.  Warm and dry.  No wonder she wanted to stay out!  The boys had stomped so much their socks were soaked when they came in.  But not our dainty girl...she stomped too but she must have figured out how to do it and keep the water out!

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Icicles to Puddles

We still have a LOT of snow on the ground here. And today is a bit dreary again. But yesterday was warmer and gorgeously sunny outside. Our icicles have turned to puddles so we went outside to soak it all in...

It was more fun than we've had in a long time and yes, the kids got completely dirty! I threw their snow stuff straight into the washer and the kids right into the bath. Their boots are still a bit damp this afternoon...they really got into those puddles!

 

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Not 1 but 2!

Silas lost his very loose tooth yesterday at breakfast. All of a sudden he looked at me and said, "What is this?!" And there it was...
Well, late this afternoon, I walked downstairs to discover all 4 children sitting together like this...
Their decision to snack on apples was a covert group effort, and was successful, I suppose. At least, I didn't know what they were doing till I walked in. If they were going to sneak anything out of the kitchen at least it was something healthier than their valentine candy. As they were finishing up, Silas commented that there was "something red on my apple!" And I knew right away he had lost tooth number 2!

It's a good thing we already told him he doesn't get as much cash for all his other teeth as he got for the first. And don't tell him but I had to borrow from last night's "tooth fairy" visit for tonight's!

 

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Today's Project and Topic of Conversation

I think these turned out way cute!

And in other news, someone has a loose tooth!

It is quite the exciting topic around here and none of the kids know quite what to think about Silas' bottom tooth being loose. They don't know what exactly is going to happen when it falls out and have had lots of ideas of where and when it might happen. I told Silas about the "tooth fairy" this morning so now he is quite intrigued by the idea that you get some kind of surprise just for loosing a tooth. All these little conversations have reminded me of just how fun "firsts" are.

 

Sunday, February 09, 2014

Icicles

We are dreaming of spring from inside today...

 

Sunday, February 02, 2014

Two Are Better

Our Blaisey is getting four teeth in right now. Which means two things: he has not been sleeping as well as usual (yawn!) and I totally let go of any plans I might have had to start decreasing how much he has that pacifier (oh, well!)

 

Sunday, January 05, 2014

Shared Moments

We are having a bit of winter weather here today...


That was church as we left early this afternoon.  Not surprising but attendance was down today.  Our children's director asked if I could stay for the second service to help in a children's class since many of the teachers couldn't make it to church.  I had 7 in the kindergarten class...and 3 of them were mine! (not kindergartners, of course, but I took the 3 little kids in with me).  So yes, attendance is down.

Anyhow, during the service, Shane and I were remembering that it was a day much like today 4 years ago when we visited Harvest during a trip up here from Kentucky.  It was snowy that day too.  We stayed to talk with our pastor and his wife for a bit after the service.  And a few months later, they asked Shane to talk to them about the high school ministry position here.  The rest is history!

Here is the snow today right outside our garage.  Shane thinks we've gotten about 6 inches so far.  It is still snowing and supposed to continue for a while.  Right now its 9 degrees.  Tonight the low is -18 and tomorrow the HIGH is -9.  Brrrrr.  We are not planning to go anywhere.


So while we're snuggled up here on the bed this afternoon, I was looking through some of my favorite shared moments over the past month or so...

So glad to have Papa here to visit.

Showing Nana the tree.

Mom and her girls at Thanksgiving.

Playing with Nana at the Children's Museum.

One Sunday after church.

Always so good to be together.

Playing at Silas' school before his Christmas program.

It took a village to decorate gingerbreads!

It definitely required 1:1 supervision.

They enjoyed the process, ate lots of the candy, and didn't care much for the actual gingerbread.

Reading one of our daily Christmas books.

Watching Silas play soccer.

He had such a good time this session and has really improved!

Hanging out at the top of the bleachers.

Last Sunday with Nana and Papa here.

A moment for the books...my parents checking in at the airport to fly overseas for the last time.  

Sometimes the picture I imagine in my head never happens.

Saying goodbye...loves and kisses.

Heading home in the snow after a night at church.

Love the hand-holding.

Crafts with Miss Natalie!  Love that she had an ornament even Blaise and his friend Layton could make.

Between crafts at Natalie's.

Patiently waiting for a Christmas gathering with Shane's mom and brother's  family.

Are they here yet?!?

Celebrating Christmas with Grandpa and Grandma.

Cousins! and Presents!

Helping Grandpa open a gift.

Lieren got a sweet ring from Grandma.

All ready to go on Christmas Eve.

Playing with Grandpa Mike.

Cousin play is so fun!

These sweet girls both got dress up stuff from each other...and promptly wanted to put it on!

Cousins again! and Presents again!

Our first outing after the sick Christmas...going to see the Festival of Lights.

The kids loved it, even Blaise.

This could generally have happened throughout the season.

Loved these shared moments all these weeks!