First Snow of the Season

On Saturday it snowed... and snowed and snowed and snowed. Well, it seemed like a lot to this Georgia girl. I'd say all in all it was about 4 inches. It was a peaceful winter wonderland when we peeked out of our windows on Saturday morning. Jeff and I thought it looked better from inside the warm house, but Lucas had other ideas. So we bundled up in our not-so-warm snow clothes and went out for the first time that day... it was so pretty.


See what I mean? Bags on the shoes... not too cool.

The first time we went out it was still snowing heavy, wet flakes and it was COLD.

Lucas loved it until his hands and feet got cold (about 45 min), but Ellen didn't seem to think it was that big of a deal at all...

Everything was WHITE!

Even Tyson was enjoying playing with the neighbor's dog...

Then Finn, Will and Ele came outside for a while. Lucas liked having his buddy to play with him...

The second time we went out was with our friends Marie, Olivier and Tikki. By this time the flakes had turned into something a little less solid and it seemed to be getting colder. Lucas lasted about 30 min this time around.

The THIRD time we enjoyed the snow that day was later in the afternoon when Kelly and Lincoln paid us a visit. By that time some of our neighbors had gathered in the street and it was a lot more festive. We didn't have a sled, but Mr. Craig had bought a plastic pail... which didn't really work that well, but good enough for these two kiddos...

This time I bundled Ellen up and didn't let her touch the snow. She didn't mind.

Cute little stinkers.

Mr. Craig's ride...

It didn't slide unless we pulled it, but like I said, good enough for the boys.

Mr. Craig kept trying though...

Hug break with Ms. Kelly!

Ahhhhh. This is how the first snow day ended. Bliss.

The second morning of snow was BEAUTIFUL. The skies were blue, the air was crisp and the snow had frozen a little so that we could enjoy sledding on it. We waited until Ellen was sleeping and then went out for about 2 hours. It was SO MUCH FUN!

Here is Jeff sledding on our neighbors disk sled.

And here is Will trying to get Emma to be his snow dog... didn't really work out for him.

I think this is Jeff and Lucas... Tyson loved chasing them down the hill.

See? He was in heaven.

Our neighbor, Gretchen, was so nice to push and pull Lucas on the sleds...

Later that afternoon we met Lincoln and fam at the park to check out the hills there. It was starting to melt, but was good enough for these two guys...

The Lady Bird made it out for this one... still not a huge fan, but so cute : )

They were acting so silly!

It got to the point where they'd make it half way down the hill and then dive of and fall-slide the rest of the way down the hill. Lucas' face was bleeding and he didn't even notice.

By the third day, we were all over the snow. The schools were closed, however, so we had Lincoln over for an afternoon play date. These two are such great friends... I love them together!

This was SO funny. They wanted to watch t.v., so I said they could watch the Chinese Education tape that SaSa got us. Teaches kids some basic Chinese words. After a few of the words were spoken they were tickled. Then after each word, like the Chinese word for "apple", they'd repeat the word and then die laughing together. So freakin cute.

Today, Wednesday marked day 5 of the snow and the schools are still closed. Tomorrow they are delayed 2 hours, which means we'll keep Lucas home again. We're having fun spending more time together, are getting cabin fever. We hear it's supposed to snow again this wknd... so maybe more fun soon.

15 Month Check-Up

The bird went in for her 15 month nurse visit yesterday. It wasn't a wellness visit, just a quick visit to give her a couple of vaccines. We did a weight check. She had all of her clothes on, even her shoes, so it wasn't completely accurate. The scale teetered between the high 19s and low 20s, but Janet said she'd guess about 19 1/2 lbs if she were still with no clothes. Which means the lady is BARELY on the chart. I was surprised because she seems so big to me lately, but she is only wearing 12 month clothes, which means she's probably the size of an 11-12 month old.

We love our teeny lady bird!

Punished

LB pushed the limits the other night by ignoring me when I told him not to pull a comforter around the house because it was dangerous AND he went upstairs and disturbed Ellen's bedtime routine after I asked him not to. His punishment is a week of no t.v. This may sound harsh, but he was displaying the "Mr. Hyde" side of his personality that night and took it too far. Anyway, I love this punishment. I kind of dread it too because I know there will be ZERO breaks for me this week, but I also love it because Lucas is pretty cool to hang out with and it gives us even more time together. It's getting to him though because the kid LOVES him some t.v. Here is a conversation we've had daily this week.

Lucas: "Mommy, when I say I want to watch t.v. I don't want you to say "no". Okay?

Me: "Well, you aren't allowed to watch t.v. this week because it's your punishment for not listening to me."

Lucas: "Mommy, tomorrow when I say I want to watch Wow, Wow, Wubzy, I want you to say "YES!" Okay? I just want to watch ONE show."

The Autrys in January

Carol and the kids visited us in late January. I realized when I was uploading the pics that they also visited the same date last year!

Who Knew?

That you could make playdough at home? Lucas had to make it for his preschool class to enjoy in January. We chose the recipe that includes Kool-Aid. It smelled good and the colors were lovely.

Just like her big brother...

Ellen surprised me the this week by climbing up in the chair next to Lucas to tell me that she wanted some Cheerios too. Every day I'm thinking to myself what a little kid she is becoming. It seems she is growing up faster because she's following Lucas's lead...

Trend Setter

The rest of the visit...

While Bryan, Ang and Wesley were here we stayed outside as much as we could so that we could enjoy the 70 degree warm front. It made me happy when the evening of the first night Wesley said that he wanted to do tomorrow EXACTLY what we had done that day : )

There was something about Bryan that Ellen was all about. She adored him and went to him just about every chance she got. She even reached for him after she had hit her head and was upset... she never wants to leave my arms, but she wanted Bryan to comfort her instead of me... amazing.

Wesley and Lucas

Wesley is here! Bryan and Angela drove up for the long weekend and we've enjoyed their company so much. I'll recap the wknd tomorrow, but for now here are some cute pics of the two cuz'es.

Dinner at Finn's

We were invited next door for dinner a few nights ago. It was really nice to just have to walk across the driveway and not load the kids up in the car. We said we were crazy not to do that more often... it was a nice way to spend a Sunday evening.

Silly Kids

Shall I dare say it? "It is getting easier." I'm sure tomorrow I'll report back that both kids were up all night and threw tantrums all day. But it IS getting easier. Ellen doesn't need as much physical care, so we can enjoy playing and being silly more and more these days. Both of them have such silly personalities. Actually, Ellen is a nut, but I'd say Lucas's dominant personality trait is still "serious." But when we are acting silly he's the craziest of all with his funny faces, funny voices, karate moves, and imaginary scenes. I think Ellen knows she's cute and hams it up whenever she can. Nobody is a stranger to her and if her smiles were money we'd be rich by now. Her thing this week is to bring us hats or glasses and ask for us to put them on her so that she can run and show another family member what she's wearing.

Should I be worried?

Scene: Driving home from preschool today.

Me: "Lucas, we're going to Whole Foods after lunch and you can have a cupcake (small bite sized one) as a treat."

Lucas: "I don't want a cupcake."

Me: "Why not, sweetie?

Lucas: "It has too much sugar... I just want to go home and clean the house."


HAHA - what a stinker.

So, let me explain. Wednesday is our house cleaning day and Lucas enjoys helping, as I've blogged about before. As for the sugar, he had a little bit of whipped cream on some waffles for breakfast about a month ago, and just so happened to get a little virus and throw up at school that day. He associated the throwing up with the whipped cream, so now he really believes me when I tell him that desserts have too much sugar.

Vasoline Heads

I left them alone for 2 minutes...