The snow is melting

The snow is almost all gone and Anna is very sad about that. She sat in the window seat and prayed "God please don't ever let the snow melt. Ever again." I'm not sure how I can explain that whole reality to a 3 1/2 year old! :)

Quickly melting away...we can see the sandbox again!

We took a quick bike ride...the wind was whipping around and pretty cold, so we didn't stay out long. And this boy was not happy to come inside. Again...shocking, I know.

He decided to climb on for a ride...backward.

Anna and Daddy played a quick game of soccer...

...sort of! She missed the ball more often than not! :)

Meanwhile, Jacob thought we should fire up the grill!

A girl and her dolls

Anna brought out a bunch of dolls this afternoon and played "house". It was mostly quiet, only because she was putting them to sleep. She kept saying shhhhh! to Jacob. He didn't seem to take notice. Shocking, I know. At one point, she informed me (as she sat on the couch rocking one of the babies) that she had all of those babies in her tummy and she was the mommy. Yikes!

These are only about half of the babies this child owns! It's crazy. But there's not one of them that she would be willing to give up!

She was dancing with her baby :)

Trying very hard not to smile...


Ohhh, couldn't hold it in!



And the tongue :)

Jacob's funny :)

How's this for post number 3 in one sitting???

My Montage 3/30/09

Red

Go check it out. Tomorrow (technically today) is the day to mail them out. Our babies deserve it.

The Red Envelope Project and here

Tough Choice

If you recall my post (and I'm too lazy to go find it and link to it!!) about a big decision--buying a house--we were facing...we've decided. It's been so hard, mostly because our heads and our hearts were warring with each other. Our hearts were in the right place. The extra (and I mean extra!) room would have been perfect for our family's calling to minister to college kids, etc. But it's just not the right time, financially, for us to take on a bigger house and all the bills that come with it. There were too many "if-then's" that were out of our control. So, we had a little pity party tonight ;) We ate at the newly opened Quizno's in town and went over and got some DQ. haha (that was Aaron's idea by the way...the pity party). We sat up last night for a long time (again) talking. We kinda agreed, without actually saying it out loud, that we shouldn't do it. When we finally went to bed, I just said "God, make me feel it in my bones that this is what we should do." I emailed my parents (since they never actually out-right said what they thought we should do) and begged them to just tell me what to do! And I about fell out of my chair when Dad emailed back and actually told me what he thought! But seriously, it really did help. And I promise we won't hold it against you Dad...except when you come stay with us and have to sleep on the living room floor!!! haha God used that email to hit it home...I felt it in my bones. And Aaron very sadly agreed. We're sad because it seems like this was a one-shot chance, but we know without a doubt that we're doing the right thing. We are going to make so much progress financially staying in this house longer. And God can do anything and we're confident that in the future, when we're financially ready to buy another house, He will provide the perfect one for our family! The interest rates probably won't be at 4% anymore, but that's okay! :) So, thank you for praying for us. It was hard!

Now, for some pictures!!! :)

The weather has been absolutely beautiful! 50s!! The snow is melting pretty quickly, but there's still a lot left! Our little snow man is almost gone, though. Anna kept checking on him today! This is my garden...or what you can see of it! And the little turtle sandbox is somewhere under all that snow! :)

Our driveway was really bad b/c the snow drifted. Aaron & I (okay, okay...I spent an hour!) spent all day Sunday shoveling. He had to be able to get out and go to work today!

A nice path to the carport...it comes up to mid-shin on me. Today, the path is completely free of snow.

Aaron working hard! The snow was very wet, so it was so so heavy to shovel! Made for good snowman-making, though!

So strange to look up from all that snow and see green buds on the trees!

I'm like my Dad...when I start a project, I like to get it finished quickly. Painting cabinets with 2 kids at home all day....doesn't equal finishing quickly!!! I finally got half of the upper cabinets completely done (minus the inside...haven't decided if I'm doing that or not). Having the window painted white makes a HUGE difference...makes it so much brighter. That's going to take about 10 coats b/c the primer was in the shed, which was snowed under (well, the path to it is anyway!). So I've come to realize that this project is going to take a long time...I mostly get the painting done on the weekends when Daddy is home to keep the kids out of the way. I can't get much done after they're in bed b/c I have to do my computer work then. It looks great, though. And will look really good when I finish and get the trim painted and put up (after Aaron gets it for me, of course!).

This is her new favorite thing to do...draw on her chore chart! Shows how much we use that! Whoops. She has to keep the chair moved away from there when she's done, though b/c Jacob likes to climb up and eat the magnets (eww!).

He really loves playing in the sink. He stood up there for a good 30 minutes or more the other day. Just playing with a medicine dropper and maybe the brush. No water running.

People always comment on how blonde his hair is getting. It's true...in most lights he looks like he's lost the red. But I keep telling people it's still there. Here's a picture to prove it! I did nothing but make the picture black & white except for his hair. Don't tell me that doesn't still have red in it! :) And this is how he tends to watch TV. RIGHT UP CLOSE...wonder where he gets that???? I had to remove the Lego box from the room, because he'd climb up on it and push the buttons on the satellite and DVD player (he, of course, figured out how to open the DVD player). He was not happy when I did that!

He's so ornery (and yes, there were several days that he just stayed in pj's all day!). At his 18 month check up last week, the doctor said "He likes his yellow vegetables, I see" HA! I've been noticing that his nose is always orange-ish in the pics....not such a bad thing, I suppose. He should have super eyes from all the beta carotene (??) he eats! :)

Well, now. That was a wordy post! Good grief. Night!

Video

Here's the video of the kids playing. I still can't get it to post directly to my blog...

My Montage 3/28/09

Fun in the Snow! *updated*

*Updated*

I found some more pictures :) Jacob doesn't have any snow stuff, so I just left his foot-y pj's on, put wind pants over them, and put a pair of Anna's tennis shoes on him! He didn't care, as long as he got to go outside! He was very helpful in putting his hat, coat, and gloves on...he knew he was finally going outside!

Well, I bundled them up and let them have a blast in the snow (thanks for reminding me what's important Papa;))! Jacob LOVED it. I'm working on getting the video clips together. They had a lot of fun and were NOT HAPPY to be taken inside after over an hour of playing outside! It really wasn't all that cold out, either. The snow is very wet, so it was perfect for snowman-building! Anna & I decided Papa needs to come visit and help us make a really good snowman! :)

Jacob didn't actually help much with the snowman, but he thought it was pretty cool! (He's waving to a car driving by.)
Jacob: Whoops...sister, I might have broken his arm...
Anna: Oh Jacob!

This is her face right after she throws a snowball at you! :)

He is in heaven! He didn't care about being wet and cold. He had so much fun and I literally had to drag him, kicking and screaming, into the house!

That's all for now...a video soon to follow :)

CRAZY Spring Storm!

Oh. My. Goodness. This is one crazy storm! I thought maybe they'd "over forcasted" this storm because by 11am, there was hardly any snow on the ground. Well, an hour later it hit hard! I don't know if it's still snowing, but it's certainly still blowing hard. We're in a blizzard warning! We've probably got close to 10" on the ground. So, needless to say we stayed inside (and in our jammies!) all day and probably will all weekend!

A bit of attitude from the J-man! Goodness!!

Mama, do NOT interrupt my relaxing lunch time with your picture taking!

Anna decided to join in on the lounging...except it wasn't quite as easy for her to get her long legs up there! haha

This was yesterday. He loves his computer :)

She wore her fancy dress, Cinderella shoes, and tiara all day yesterday. And she carried her camera around taking pictures. Actually, Jacob would pick it up, hand it to her, and look at her smiling, waiting for his picture to be taken!!

I turn my back for 2 seconds and this is what he does!!! I guess he wanted to check out the paychecks and make sure everything added up?! :)

During her rummaging, she found her BIG puzzle. I put the outside together and she put all the middle pieces in. She did really good and was very proud of herself!

And now the snow storm pictures!

This was at around 11:30 am. (Notice the flower pot to the left of the sidewalk)



This is how hard it's been blowing...the snow was piled up clear to the front door! It never gets more than a foot, at the most, onto the porch. (this was around 4pm)

This is around 5pm.

See the lump? That's the flower pot in the first picture.



Here's a video...I thought maybe you'd be able to see how hard it was snowing and blowing but I don't think it worked. And while I cracked open the door, Jacob tried to sneak out! He's been desperate all day to get outside!!

Video

Anna loves popsicles. And we ran out. Uh oh! Yesterday, Aaron promised they would go to the store and get one. Well, time slipped away and the store closed. So at bath time, when she was dragging her feet, I might have bribed her with the promise of a posicle. ahem Sooo after her bath, Aaron ran over to CMart and got her a HUGE popsicle. The problem? Jacob is old enough now to understand that sister is getting something and he's not! Whoops!!! Man, the look on his face when he saw Aaron give Anna that popsicle. When he realized that there was nothing else for HIM, he got a little sad. So Daddy saved the day and dished up some ice cream! Anna was also nice enough to share her popsicle. Probably not the best bedtime snack, but oh well! :)

Whew

Whew. It's been a long week already! Here are a bunch of pictures :)

Last weekend we had visitors...Grandpa & Grandma!! The kids got some very special Easter baskets (I still haven't gotten a picture of Jacob with his).

Grandma made Anna this one and it came with a cute little bunny (that's actually a cover for eggs!). Anna loves both of them.
Jacob inherited his Daddy's Easter basket. He was too busy watching Dora to pose with the basket. He about took his diaper off, too. Great. That's just what I need---him to figure out how to remove his diaper!!! He is growing up, though :( Last night I went in to cover him up before I went to bed b/c he was up for an HOUR after Aaron put him to bed. He just laid in there and played (he has a Dora "see and say" thing in his crib). And it was very cold last night. Anyway, I go in there and he had put the blanket on himself! Such a big boy, it almost made me cry! He's not a baby anymore :(

We had a late night last night. A friend from college stopped by for supper on her way through on a support trip. It was great to visit with her and be encouraged (I thought it was supposed to be the other way around?!). Anyway, the kids got to bed super late (which is fine), so we had a lazy day today. A new movie came in the mail and Anna requested popcorn and a drink for the viewing of "The Wonderful Land of Ha's". They snuggled in chair quite nicely for about half of the movie, then lost interest:) Jacob's pink eye is gone, Anna got it just a tiny bit but hers is cleared up too. She just still has horrible allergies. Can't seem to get those cleared up.

Today she spent most of the morning digging through her closet and the toy box, finding all sorts of "treasures"! Needless to say their bedroom is one big mess, but she had fun and I had fun seeing what she came up with for dress up!

This was last week when it was still nice outside. Jacob loves to ride on Anna's bike...although that requires someone to push him!


Big sister happily obliges!

So fun, these two kiddos :)

And the project I have insanely started today....

Painting the kitchen cabinets! It hasn't been too bad so far, but that's only because they're all out of the reach of little hands! I've got all the coats on the outside of the upper doors, so tomorrow I'll have to figure out how to take them down and paint the insides of the doors and the facing. Monday Anna & I got the bedroom and bathroom doors painted white, finally and Aaron got a door knob on Jacob's door temporarily (that door will have to be replaced).

I'm going to paint the window and sill white this time instead of leaving it the dark wood. We'll probably take out the over hang above there as well. Open it up a bit more up there.

Here's my question...should I paint the insides of the cabinets, too? (This is all with the thought of eventually, possibly, maybe, trying to sell this house)

Oh, and update on my mom...she saw the ENT doctor today and her throat looks great--he could see the vocal chords without a scope! Her family doctor diagnosed her with polymyalgia rheumatica, so she is on a small dose of steroids to help with that which in turn helps with the throat swelling. She is feeling pretty good (I think it was the cross-country grandkids visiting trip!). We all appreciate your prayers for her. She still has days of not feeling good--from the c-diff still we think--but more good than bad days anymore. Praise God! :)

Alright, off to work on the queue.