Our little daredevil

Last night at adventure class Xander got to walk a tightrope. I looked up and there he was, halfway across the room.

He was the first kid up there of course, and took right off. I shouldn't have been surprised...he's been playing on the highest playground equipment since he could walk. You can't really tell from the photo but the rope was a good 5 1/2 - 6 feet off the ground. Once he got to the end he just turned around and came back.

He almost looked bored, like he couldn't believe it wasn't any more challenging. Hopefully he doesn't leave us to join the circus.

My computer's back!

I'm so excited to have my computer back from the shop, but now I have to try and condense what I was going to blog about so it's not so overwhelming. Jason was letting me use his computer but the blog program only lets you upload photos from a URL or from the computer you're on, and I didn't want to download things to his computer and then go back and delete them later. Too time consuming. So I took a little blog hiatus.

Let's see....I discovered the icicles hanging off the house the day after I made snow ice cream. They're right over the AC unit so I left them there. Figured there's no one walking around back there that could get impaled if they fell.

Jordis is finally fitting in to her Raggedy Ann outfit. My step-mom bought it for her, I think last Christmas, and she couldn't wear it. The skirt is actually still too big but if I don't put her in it soon the shirt will be too small, so I folded it down a little. She wouldn't pose for me so I bribed her by letting her stand on the sofa with her shoes on. I didn't know how long she'd wear the hat but she still had it on after church. I was impressed.

Xan likes rockin' out on his new guitar.

Pretty winter morning.

The kids love playing Wii Fit.

Jordis goes shopping.

Posing with the bird at Red Robin after Jason took us out to dinner.

Big storm. Blew a ridge vent off the roof and left us with a big hole, but we've gotten it fixed now.

Xander loves his new winter coat. And I love that I got an amazing deal on it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Welcome to our spa and salon, Jason will be your stylist.

I think that's it. Not much going on with us. Hope you're all enjoying the end of winter. Or what I hope is the end of winter.

Ugh, sick

I started a new blog post the other day but haven't been able to finish it. Xander came home from school with a note that said a child in his class had strep, and not 30 minutes later Jason got up and said his throat hurt. He went to work, but came home two hours in, then spent almost 18 hours in bed. Straight. I actually went up and put my hand under his nose at one point to see if he was breathing, kind of like you do when your baby has slept longer than usual. Don't lie, all of you with kids have done that. At least with the first-born.

Yesterday, after I'd come down with it, my Superman claimed an almost-victory of his illness. He mastered new skills on the Wii Fit, took care of the kids for me the rest of the day, and went to work.

Currently, he's here....

The little marroon sign is hard to see, but yes, it's our closest urgent care. Close, by the way, is an understatement. We don't even have one in our own city. We have a hospital, and lots of physicians who are not taking new patients in one of the fastest growing counties in the country, but no urgent care. No, you're not sensing any frustration from me. Never.

Anyway, he tried to get me to go along since we have the same symptoms, however I've had sore throats way worse than this before, and I also don't want to drag the kids with us because that would be. so. BAD. Plus they say (don't you always wonder who "they" are?) you're more likely to get sick at the doctor's office, so the rest of us are staying home. I'm going to wait and see what he has before I subject myself to any doctor visits.

At any rate, I think the wireless card in my laptop may be broken yet again, for the second time in the past two years. So my computer may be out of commission and I'll be relegated to using Jason's upon his permission, which probably means maybe no blogging for awhile. After he reads this blog though, my guess is that chances of computer sharing will probably be nada.

Muah, love you hottie!

Snow ice cream

Our snow ice cream was a success! Though I discovered that saving extra snow for another try in a few days doesn't work so well. I had a second container of snow (with the lid on, of course) sitting outside in a snowpile, to use when we ate the first batch of ice cream. I tried to use it today and it just wouldn't come together, so it must have to be fluffy, un-compacted snow.

First you mix vanilla and sugar.

Next you dump in the snow...

...then mix it together really well. I used a wooden spoon, not sure if you can use an mixer or not. Add some milk to get it to stick together, then chocolate chips for some fun.

Yum!

Snowy week!

We've had so much snow this week. This is a tree that I love, and every week when I pass it on my way to church I tell myself I need to pull over and take a picture of it. I planned on doing it Sunday and then it snowed during church so I had to stop for sure. The kids had no interest or understanding of why anyone would stop in the middle of the road and get out of the car to photograph a tree, but trees speak to me for some reason. If you've been to my house in the past year think about what's above my mantel.

We had planned on grilling steak that night and by golly Jason was going to be sure we did, even though it was only about 16 degrees. We let the kids play in the snow during the grilling. I promised to get their sled out of the crawl space if they would stand together and take a few pictures.


Then they gave each other rides.
On Tuesday we got a little more snow, but I didn't really feel that the 2-hour school delay was necessary for what looked like less than 2 inches of snow. When I was a kid we never closed school for that measley amount of snow. There was no such thing as a delay. You either had so much snow that there was no school, or you went on time.

Today school was closed. It started snowing last night, then we got ice, then it snowed on top of that all morning. The news says we only got about 6 inches here, but I think it looks like more. Maybe we just got 6 inches today and it's resting on the snow from yesterday and Sunday. Not sure. But today I took the kids out to play for awhile. Jordis was apprehensive at first but she wasn't heavy enough to really sink through all the snow and ice, so she had a blast once I got her into the yard. She had snot running down her face and everything and didn't care. Xander made a snow angel and I brought them out some little bottles of colored water to color the snow. A squirt bottle would have worked better but I didn't have one, so I need to remember to pick up a few because they really liked the colored snow.




I scooped up some fresh, clean snow when we first went out and I'm hoping to make snow ice cream after dinner. I've never tried it so hopefully it turns out okay.

January's almost over

I'm SO looking forward to February so I can focus on Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras. This month has been kind of lazy because it has been so cold. Global warming my booty. Last Friday after dinner I went to a friend's house for a spa party and this was what the thermometer said in the Jeep.

When I went outside my nose hairs were freezing. Later that night when Jason was at work he said it eventually got down to -23. That's without the wind chill mind you. Yesterday it reached 50 and I was out without a coat and had actually contemplated wearing flip flops. I quit wearing gloves earlier in the week when it was in the 20's. Too hot for such nonsense, ha-ha.

Comfort food is one of our joys this time of year, so the kids and I attempted to make our own hot pretzels. For whatever reason I couldn't get the dough to rise. I'm thinking maybe my water was too hot and I killed the yeast. Or maybe it was the fact that I chose to make them on the coldest day of the year. But oddly enough they still turned out, so I'll keep the recipe. Might try cinnamon sugar, too.

Xander has been taking a sports adventure class thanks to our MRDD funding. He really likes it and lately they've been skateboarding. I'm hoping this class will help him with spatial awareness and coordination.

Jordis has been my little helper around the house while Xander's at school. She loves to do anything that makes her a "big girl." Remember, she's 2 going on 12.

Yesterday we went to the nursing home to deliver the snowflakes we've been making. Jason's parents gave me some old coffee filters when they got a new coffee maker, and then I quit drinking coffee at home. Always trying to find ways to be less wasteful it occurred to me that they would make great snowflakes, so the kids colored some with markers and then I cut them out.

They're getting much more comfortable being there, so I'm happy about that. Yesterday they led the way and I didn't have to drag them behind me.

And finally, one of the things I like about January is clearance sales on winter items. I got Jordis this adorable dress for about $4 and it was normally a ridiculous $32, so I was pretty excited about that.

I can't pass up a good deal on something I know we'll use. If I can find Xander a new winter coat in the next week or two I'll be golden.

Our weekend visitor

Xander came home from school Thursday with a big purple bag, and inside I found this...
There was also a notebook that stated our new houseguest was named Lily, and we were to document how she spent the weekend with us. Bubba was very interested in Lily.

Lily went to Xander's sports adventure class with him, and they came home and fell asleep in our bed waiting for Jordis and I to come home from somewhere else.


Jordis was kind enough to share her doll highchair so Lily could join us at the table for meals.

It was REALLY cold (as in below 0 degrees) over the weekend, so I thought Lily would be much warmer in this lovely Ohio State cheerleading outfit. It didn't prohibit her at all from participating in fun activities.

I was even nice and let her change clothes. Afterall, she is pretty furry, and once the temperatures climbed into the sweltering teens I thought maybe something sleeveless might be more comfortable.

We took Lily to have a late Christmas celebration with some friends, and she also played Geo Trax in Xander's room.


Today Lily had to go back to school. We had a fun weekend!