The Blizzard

The drift outside our back door was almost as tall as E

Another view of that drift

X sitting on the sidewalk...this wasn't even the deepest part

The kids 'helping' me shovel...X had lost his mitten again.  He was almost done with this adventure.

E digging for 'fairy wands' in the backyard

X wondering why I keep plopping him in snowbanks and taking pictures when he just wants to go inside.

The amount of snow that my angels of mercy shoveled to allow me to get the car out.

The front view after shoveling.

E sliding down her 'sledding hill'

Once Jut came home from Haiti, he declared that the kids needed as snow fort.  So, he set out to build them one.

E inside the fort.

X at 15 months

X turned 15 months old on Wednesday. We celebrated by watching the snow fall and blow. In the afternoon, we ventured out to do some shoveling. However, X only likes the snow for about 10 minutes. Once his mitten comes off the first time, it is a downward spiral of unhappiness. Luckily one of the neighbors took pity on him and took him inside for a bit while E played outside and I shoveled a bit more.

My little guy has 11 teeth now...I'm waiting for the last molar on the bottom to come in. Its right at the surface but hasn't popped yet. His eye teeth are close the surface too. Poor little guy gets a dose of tylenol every time he goes to sleep. His mouth has to hurt, but he's dealing with all those pesky teeth very well.

I'm amazed by his vocabulary. E didn't talk much until she was almost 2. X talks all the time. He says "Bye", "Momma", "Daddy", "Baby", "Kitty", "Please", "Potty", "More" (he signs that too), "Up", "Ball"

X is a climber. He crawled on to the couch for the first time yesterday. Climbing up on the stepstool to the kitchen sink is his favorite place to explore. He'd play in the sink all day, if I'd let him. But, things are getting moved higher because he's learning how to reach things even though his legs aren't very long.

X loves to be a romping, stomping dinosaur. He bends his knees and stomps all over the place. It is adorable. His favorite time to be a romping, stomping dinosaur is when he's naked. I think the kid is impervious to cold. He'll run around naked as long as I'll let him...he makes me cold just watching him.

He also enjoys dressing up in a tutu or as a fairy because he idolized E. E got dress-up clothes for Christmas and X has to do everything that E does...so if she's dressing up, so is he. It is really funny to watch him stomp around in a tutu.

Reading is one of his favorite activities. He grabs a book, walks close to you, turns around and backs up until he backs into your legs and then plops down into your lap. He loves The Big Red Barn and the Little People Day on the Farm book.

Building with blocks is his favorite 'alone' activity. He amazes me with the number of blocks that he can stack before his tower falls (He can probably do about 8 blocks on average). I'm glad that we got him more blocks for Christmas because he as so much fun playing with all of his blocks.

Feeding him is still a challenge. His allergies aren't getting better as far as I can determine. Eczema is a constant battle at our house. But, we keep plugging away trying to keep on top of it.

The New 'Do

It was time again for E to get her haircut. It has been time for awhile now. The mullet was getting out of control. I should have gotten it done prior to Christmas because she's pretty shaggy in all the pictures, but I wasn't on the ball. A couple weeks ago, she said to me, "Mom call the Z* Salon. I need my hair out of my eyes!" So, I called and got her an appointment.

We had a great time walking to the salon. The snow was gently falling and we caught snowflakes on our tongues, identified foot tracks and just had some mother/daughter time. She hopped right up in the chair and did a great job sitting mostly still while she was getting her haircut.

After Bev was finished cutting her hair, E got her first 'styling'. Bev blew her hair dry and then used the curling iron on it. E was in 7th heaven. She LOVED it. She loves all that girly stuff.  I, however, wondered where on earth my baby went! She looked so grown up with it styled.  Bev saved some of her hair to take home and show her dad. She got almost 3 inches cut off the back! I didn't know she had that much hair!

Once my hair was done, E and I finished our morning out at the bakery with a donut. We were even kind enough to bring one home for Jut. It was a very fun morning!

Please say it isn't so...

I'm sure that this isn't my little guy on Christmas day sporting a lovely tutu.  His mother would never dress him up in his sister's tutu...nor would his father allow it!  I'm sure G'pa isn't holding him in this picture showing off said tutu.

In the next picture, he's not wearing it again.  Mothers don't let their little boys dress up in tutus even if E got lots of dress up clothes for Christmas and he begs to have some put on him.  Little boys don't dress up as fairies or ballerinas...certainly not my little guy.  His dad won't even allow him to have a doll. 


The kids don't have hours of fun dressed up as fairies and ballerinas running the circle of our house.  Pumpkin, the cat, doesn't get in on the action chasing them both...Well, really E runs and Pumpkin loves all E's ribbons on her fairy crown and wand...so she chases the ribbons.  X just loves all the commotion and chases them both.  Life hasn't been interesting at all since Christmas.


Did it just get worse?  Is that my little man running around with not just a tutu but a fairy top as well?  He's a cross between Silvermist and a ballerina? Oh no.  Who would do that to a little guy?  And he's wearing a necklace.  Oh, say it isn't so.  This mom wouldn't do that to her little guy.



Okay, maybe pictures don't lie...maybe I do have a little guy that begs to be dressed up like his big sis.  But, he's so adorable, who can resist...

Christmas Cookies

I'm taking a bit too long to get all my Christmas blogs up. You'd think something new was keeping me busy...but its just the same two adorable munchkins.

Last year, E got to make Christmas cookies with G'ma (last year's post).  She wanted to do it again this year.  So, E got to make Christmas cookies with G'ma twice over the holidays. She made them with G'ma and Aunt Stacey over Thanksgiving weekend. Then she had a 'day off' with G'ma and G'pa right before Christmas and made another batch. She had a great time with her 'day off'. She got to sleep with the Christmas tree, watch movies, make a blackcap pie, and who knows what all else...she wore G'ma out. G'ma called E a 'slave driver' because the girl knew what was on the 'to do' list and was made sure that it all got done.

X and I crashed the cookie making. I helped E frost and decorate the cookies but forgot to take a picture of the finished products, which is a shame because they were definitely lovely...lots of frosting, red hots and sprinkles. E made Santa a couple special cookies. Santa loved all the red hots.

See you later...

I'm not going anywhere but a dear friend of ours, Lindsey, is heading off to Th*ia*land today with the peace corps.

At camp this summer, E became her shadow. She wanted to do everything with "Hindsey". I got placed in the second fiddle category. First time that E preferred someone over me. Bummed me out a bit (because I don't like this whole growing up thing sometimes) but E couldn't have chosen a nicer person. 

E's love for L continued to grow when we got home from camp. L is our (only) "date night" sitter and E loves when she comes over! They build wheelie towers and bookshelves and who knows what other fun things. X loves her, too and will toddle over to her and reach out his arms.

We've been prepping E for the last month that L is leaving. E knows she won't see her again until she's six. On Sunday, L surprised E with a present. She made E a Strawberry Shortcake backpack and stuffed it with a few goodies. It made E's day. The leaving is hard for E to understand but she does love presents! :)

The cool thing is that E is excited to make L cards and sent them to her...and she likes to pray for her too. I don't think much is cutier than E's precious prayers.

We will miss L being a constant in our weekly lives...but we wish her all the best and are excited to hear about her newest adventures with the Lord!

December Crafts

I started out wanting to make a gingerbread house from scratch with E. My mom convinced me to try a kit with her first, as I have never made a gingerbread house before. So, I decided to do a train kit so that we could then still make our house. However the experience proved once again that moms know best. E and I had a blast putting it all together...but one premade train was enough fun for me. Maybe I'll be more ambitious next year. The premade stuff was yuck-o to eat. When the train went to its 'time tunnel', it looked almost the same as it does in the picture. E didn't particularly like any of the candies and the gingerbread was unpalatable.

Our Christmas Countdown. Every day we took a candy cane off of the tree and replaced it with a 'bulb' from the calendar. We had a little piece of the Christmas story to read each day too. It worked great for E to countdown the days until Christmas...and it made a nice decoration for the wall. :) Hopefully, I'll remember to take a picture of the finished product before we take it down.

The calendar of 'bulbs'...we replaced the bulb on the calendar with a little book containing a portion of the Christmas story.

Our final crafty thing was a family affair...We made reindeer out of our hand and foot prints. Jut was none to excited about the entire business, but the kids had fun with it. The girls have multi-colored faces and the boys were boring with black faces, but I think the boys look more like reindeer. Oh well. That what happens when little girls get to have some artistic freedoms! :)