Outside at our house today...

It's probably just as well that Christmas Vacation started on Monday this week - I'm sure even if it hadn't, the district wouldn't have been able to get my kids to school as we've had snow every day this week! MUCH SNOW!

Today I sent a few of the kids out to the mailbox with some last minute cards and they never came back. When I looked outside, Melanie was sitting on top of a huge snowball - no gloves, no snow bibs. UGH! I called everyone in, did the "bundle up" routine and sent them back out! They had a blast! We sure love being out here in the woods this year - there is no way the kids would ever have had this much fun on our lot in town!

Jason and the boys started making huge snowballs to use as walls for their snow fort.





Not to be outdone - Maddie and Maggie went off to make their own snow ball - unfortunately, I think it's still over on the side of the house - it became to big and heavy to budge all the way back to the fort!



I had to take this picture upstairs from my bedroom window - Malorie and Melanie hung out with Maddie and Maggie, but stayed so close to the house this was the only shot I got of them!





I tried to take a picture of the snow -- but it was harder than it sounds! I just couldn't get it to focus! So here's a picture of the tree, really to show you the snow through the windows behind it!

Jacob's Pack Meeting

I'm not entirely sure why they had us brave the horrid roads last night for this Pack Meeting. I know that regardless of advancement, Packs are encouraged to hold these monthly meetings - but not one single boy, from any of the dens, received any awards this month. Oh they still had a blast playing the games - but the boring old, worried about driving in the snow mom in me didn't get it!

In this game the boys balanced pennies on a ruler and had to reach out and try to dump them into a giant jug.



And here, the boys were flipping pancakes that were "hard as rocks" and tied to a plate. I'm not entirely sure of the purpose of this activity, but the boys had fun doing it!



I didn't get any pictures of the Pinata *shudder* - I hate them with a passion. Something about blindfolding a kid and giving him a bat to swing around a room full of children who are anticipating the candy that will fall...I was too busy breathing into a brown paper bag to get any pictures of that activity!

Camera Surprises

Apparently while Brandon was out with the kids in the snow this weekend, he smuggled the camera outside for a while too. I found these on the camera's memory while uploading pictures of Jacob's pack meeting (which I'll add later).

There must have been over 50 pictures from Saturday! Brandon and I are totally different photographers. I'm the anticipator. I'll sit with the camera focused on one of the kids for several minutes, just knowing that "any second" they'll give me the perfect look. Brandon is more of a quick-click. He's more about being part of the fun and action than capturing it in a picture...guess we make a good pair. I'm not about to waddle myself outside for a snow fight with the kids this year - but I'd love nothing more than to catch it on "film". I enjoy being a watcher! Don't get me wrong, Brandon takes great pictures - we just have totally different styles and it's funny to me!

So, all of that to say this...here are the four "in focus" pictures from the ones taken on Saturday. The other 45 or so were blurs of Megan's purple coat possibly jumping, maybe falling off the deck. A blur of white, which was possibly Madilyn throwing an armful of snow, maybe being hit by one...etc etc.

It was just fun to see. There was no doubt - burry or not - that everyone had a blast with dad that day!!

Boys and trucks!

Joseph (20 months) has been glued to the window for the last half hour.



Randy the road guy showed up today to (hopefully) finish our drive way.



The ground is frozen solid, so when Randy is leveling close to the house we can feel the floor shaking - it's kind of cool - kind of creepy!

Catching Up

Boy we've been busy! It's hard to believe that two weeks from today it'll all be over! The gifts will have been wrapped and then ripped to shreds. All of the shopping will be a thing of the past (Yeah Amazon.com). Santa will have come and gone - ahhhhhh, it's sounding better and better as I type!

Madilyn had her band concert last night - the younger kids had a primary activity. Brandon and I had to divide and conquer, and this is what we ended up with....really jerky video of Madilyn's concert b/c Brandon had Joseph...and really "lacking detail" pictures of the others b/c I took them with my cell phone. We try!

Madilyn is the flute with dark hair, glasses and her bangs parted to the side.





The primary kids were divided in to groups - here are Malorie and Jacob in the cookie decorating group.






Megan, Melanie & Malorie making little gift boxes. They wrote down the different ways they show love to their friends and family and put it in the box...then at the end of the activity, all of the kids gave the gift to the baby Jesus in the Nativity.



Here's Jared making his gift box (end of the table NOT wearing a coat).



And we finally broke down and busted out the decorations this weekend. It's nice to have it done, but I sure hate doing it!

Christmas Concert

Jacob had his Christmas Concert last night. It was a short little program and he did a great job.



He was selected to be the "Secret Soloist" - the band director randomly picks a band member to play a solo during the concert and the kids have no idea who it's going to be until she picks during the concert.

All boy -

You know they're truly exhausted when they'll lay down on the floor, in the middle of the day, cover themselves with a blanket and go to sleep!



Joseph is a go-go-go kid! He keeps up with the big kids and holds his own! He'll play until the last dog is dead - but then he will snuggle up with his mommy! Maybe he's not ALL boy just yet!



He spent this morning with Aunt Kandi making trips to the yard barn with garbage. I picked him up just before lunch and he fell asleep before we got home - a 2 mile drive! :)

The weather has been just crazy here! Several inches of snow Saturday and Sunday - a good 36 solid hours of rain Sunday and Monday - and today while I was in town, the temp was 57! Man! It's crazy!

A small pregnancy update. I went in to town for my weekly progesterone injection today (ouch, and one more ouch). I got the results to our "old lady" testing and everything looks great - the odds for Down's was 1 in 20,000. Neural Tube Defect was 1 in 8,100 and the risk of Trisomy 18 was less than 1 in 100 (cutoff is 100, so that is the best score you can get). We really had no reason to think we were at risk for any of these - other than the fact that I'm getting up there, so these results are a huge relief!

24 Hours

Looking out our window today is like being in a totally different place than yesterday.

Yesterday and Saturday we had beautiful fluffy snow - today, holy cow! It has been raining for about 15 hours straight. It's crazy!

Here's a picture out the same door that I took the pictures of Brandon pulling the kids in the sled. Today they'd need a canoe!






Here's Maddie slopping her way to the bus!

Snow Play

After all the work of cutting, loading and delivering wood, dad made time for some snow play!






The snow today (Sunday) was amazing...this video doesn't really show how spectacular it really was!

The weekend!

Finally! A nice, quiet Saturday morning! There is no place we have to be, all day long! It feels like it's been MONTHS since we've had a weekend all to ourselves!

After breakfast this morning, Brandon and the kids bundled up and went outside. It hasn't snowed as much as our weatherman has threatened it would, but there is still enough to get good and cold in!

Brandon and the kids spent an hour or so chopping wood and loading it into the truck to take to his brother's house.






Look at all of these helpers!





Here's a shot of our stairway, just for grandma.



The view out the bedroom window at the foot of our bed...



And the view out the window at the side of the bed...(they look very similar, I know...LOL)



I love the view out this window - it's above our front door. I took this from upstairs.

Happy Birthday, Megan!

Our little Muff turned 9 today!

Since we had the blog last year when her birthday came, I feel kind of obligated to put up some different baby pictures...and of course, Maggie was our last pre-digital baby so I'm going to have to scan! Ugh!

Ok, this is the picture from last year, I confess!



3 months:



Here she is now (albeit blurry)!



She is indeed a joy! She's loving Polly Pockets and Tinkerbell at the moment! It's hard to believe that "9 years ago right now..." I was holding our brand new Megan!

She laughed this morning when I told her it was snowing the day she was born, just like it is today! She's so easily amused! :)

Busy Monday

Our little girl is STILL a girl, no question! And she's doing great. She's measuring several days ahead, which is good (She was 18 weeks and 2 days and measured 19 weeks.). Everything looks and measures perfectly. We couldn't ask for anything better! Our doctor's appointment was uneventful - we all sorta sat in the room looking at each other not knowing what to talk about - no hematomas, no contractions, no worries to speak of - very NOT normal for us! It was GREAT!!



Two profile shots - I'd try to point features out to you but, well, she has none! In the bottom picture though, you can see her right arm laying across her chest. Above (to the left) of her arm is her chin and nose and forehead...if that helps any.




We go back in 4 weeks for our next appointment (by the way, 4 weeks from yesterday is Christmas Eve...our receptionist was kind enough to point that out to us).

In other news, we got our first snow last night. Of course the kids were thrilled! All I could think about was the pile of studded snow tires sitting in my basement, NOT on my van and the trip I need to make to Wal*Mart to finish up Megan's birthday shopping today!

(I realize that for the first 30 seconds of this video, you see nothing but black - and after that, it doesn't get much better...but you can hear the kids and you do get to see an occasional glimps of snow.)


I do have to admit, it is beautiful out here when it snows! If I could just figure out a way to stay in my home until Spring, I'd be set! (View this morning from our living room windows.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent yesterday at Uncle Dave and Aunt Raye's house and it was wonderful. The house was packed with family and food. We suffered through the "Thankfuls" and then enjoyed hours of food and fun. We played games, the kids played outside where it was freezing cold - then came inside where it was packed with people and very hot! Just how I remember it as a kid! :)


On your mark...


Get set...




Go!


Uncle Dave and his ROLLS! My Thanksgiving dinner consisted of 2 rolls - that's all! No turkey, no potatoes, just uncle Dave rolls...they're HUGE by the way! :)


Joseph started out the day a little shy - there were SO MANY PEOPLE! But he warmed up to everyone and soon made his rounds throughout the house...working up quite a thirst!




Here's the fam! I had to break the picture up into a couple of shots - and there were still some people in the kitchen who didn't make it into the pictures. We sure had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year...we hope you did, too!

It's hard to see, but Joseph is playing with a little red laser pen light. He's chasing it around and smacking it like a bug! My favorite thing to do now is to shine the light/dot on Brandon's nose and wait for Joseph to notice it!

KISS -

Keep It Simple, Stupid! I've found that the most effective way to get through to my children is to speak simply and directly to them. They don't often get long, drawn out answers to their questions. They get what answers their question without making it more confusing! It works for us! They seem to appreciate not having to wonder if they're missing something. We're going to try this theory out in our blog today. It's going to go something like this...

Yes! Yes, we know how this happens!
No! No, this wasn't an accident!

I figure those two answers should just about cover the most common questions out there! :)



We'd like to introduce, "Baby M". She is due to join our family April 27th. By our own standard, we're almost half way there. We like to be optimistic and day dream about a baby that arrives on it's due date - but we're also realistic and we are preparing for another early arrival.

We're almost 17 weeks along now and so far everything has been smooth sailing. I'm tired, fat and grouchy - if you didn't know I was pregnant you wouldn't know anything was different from any other day! Actually, I'm feeling much better. We seem to be past (or at least passing) the morning sickness phase which is a blessing! I actually haven't even seen my doctor yet, if you can believe that. I've been in for a few ultra sounds and an exam by (I don't know what she is, really...she's not a real doctor, but she can do exams and check-ups) "Jan". My nurse is taking good care of me! Brandon and I are starting to wonder if she isn't maybe pulling a Norman Bates! It could very well be that she has my doctor propped up in his office simply for looks and that she is really calling all the shots! It's all good with me until it's time for this baby to arrive - then we know how possessive I get about my doctor doing the honors!

We truly hope that no one is offended by finding out our good news via our blog. If you consider the size of my family - added to the size of Brandon's family - throw in several handfuls of close friends...there is just no way we could personally let everyone know - at least not before the baby came.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Lee...

I realized last month, when the anniversary of my own grandmother's passing came and went, that I didn't so much want "one more day" with my loved ones who had died anymore. Apparently I'm an all or nothing kind of girl! I couldn't stand having to say good-bye AGAIN!! Now I'm a little more content with "memories"! Luckily for our family, we have MANY, WONDERFUL memories of Grandpa Lee! Today would be his 66th birthday! Our family went to a buffet breakfast/lunch yesterday, in his honor (One of Grandpa's favorite restaurants). Of course nothing is the same as it would be to have him here with us, but it is nice to be able to keep his memory alive in our family and do fun little things like this with the kids.



When we got home yesterday (Veteran's Day, no work - no school) we got a few odds and ends done around the house. We actually hung our first, official picture on the wall! Yes, we've been here 5 1/2 months - no, we didn't have anything hung on the wall until last night! It's amazing how "homey" photos, prints, paintings and other artsy/fartsy (sorry, that was one of my grandma's sayings) things make a home! The very first picture we hung was the picture/collage I made (with enormous help from a few online friends) of Grandpa Lee for Brandon's Christmas gift last year! We slid the frame up and down on the wall trying to decide the most perfect place to put it - and finally Brandon said, "Right here, this is where I can look right into his eyes." Well, *sniff* there just isn't much you say after that!



There isn't much we wouldn't give to have Grandpa back! Of course we know that he's always near by and we know we'll see him again - but the wait sucks (sorry,that's one of my sayings). I miss him like I would my own dad. I can't even put in to words how much Brandon misses his father. My children talk about grandpa a lot and we sometimes cry together still. We want them to know that it's ok to be sad - heaven knows I'm sitting here with tears streaming down my face - I can hardly expect more from my children. We are blessed to be part of Grandpa's family!



Clicking this text will open the video that we made for Grandpa's birthday a couple of years ago.

Brothers

Yesterday (and today) Jason stayed home from school. Yesterday he had an appointment with the orthodontist. In preparation for braces, the doctor put spacers between Jason's molars...so he's home today w/ ice packs and Motrin.

But, yesterday afternoon, Jason felt ok and since there was only an hour left of school after his appointment, I just brought him home with me. The little girlies were gone, playing at their cousin's house, so it was just Jason and Joseph. I was in the kitchen and could here Joseph laughing and laughing - finally, Jason came in and said, "Hey mom, I taught Joseph how to play football." So here are a few short videos of the brothers being cute!