Snow Good!

We are getting a ton of snow! So I decided it would be fun (and yummy!) to make snow ice cream. It's so easy & I found a recipe using what I had!
1 gallon snow (set a bowl out to catch it)
1 c sugar
1 Tbs vanilla
2 c milk
Add milk until it's the desired consistancy.

And there you have it!
It got 6 thumbs up! :)

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Quick...Catch Up!

While I have a computer with access to the pictures on my camera, I'll catch up a bit!

The kids were excited to put the tree up, but their excitement quickly fizzled when it wasn't immediately time to put the ornaments on. But we (I) got it done and the kids, especially Isaac, love to look at the pretty lights.

Anna was having a hard time going to sleep one night. I was in the middle of who knows what so she climbed up and snuggled with Isaac. She really is asleep in this picture! It melted my heart when I walked into my room and saw them.

This boy likes to be snuggled up tight when he's tired.

This was just shy of two weeks after Isaac was born.

Jacob was SO proud to hold Isaac for this picture! My 3 beautiful blessings!

Daddy's love

Big sister, the big helper! She LOVES to feed (and burp! she's so proud that she can burp him) Isaac.

Isaac also loves his swing.

Since we won't be able to make it up to Iowa during Christmas break, we decided to make a quick trip this weekend. They really go all out with the decorations. And it's been a long time since we've been up here! AND THERE'S SNOW!!!! :) Practically as soon as the kids were up this morning they were asking to go outside. So we spent 30+ minutes getting them bundled up and out they went!

"Snow" much fun!

Anna wrote this "story" all on her own! She did such a great job!!!

We got a lot of snow the end of last week. It was actually not freezing cold out Monday afternoon, so the kids had a blast playing. Well, Jacob had a blast eating! :)

MOM! Look at this hoooge snowball!!!

He found a little pan in the snow and decided it was perfect for eating snow!

I've fallen and I can't get up!!! :)

Fun in the...SNOW!

Today, the wind finally quit so the kids got to play in the snow!!! Jacob was ECSTATIC! As soon as he woke up from his nap, I asked if he wanted to go play in the snow. He said (well, yelled is more accurate!) "Yeah!!!" and went straight to the door. As soon as his boots (THANK YOU Kim, for letting us borrow them! They're perfect!) were on, he wanted OUT! So as soon as I got him dressed, I let him outside. He went straight to the closest pile and plopped down and started eating! haha

Mmmmm...tasty!

But once Anna got out there, he saw how fun it was to run around in the snow instead of just eating it! :)

Or better yet, eating it and playing in it!!!

Big sister...she knows all the great things to do in the snow! SNOW ANGELS!!

Any undisturbed spot of snow, she would yell and run to make a snow angel. She said "Mama, you're going to have all sorts of snow angels!"

He still thinks eating snow is the best.

Anna saw the snow covered sand box and said "HEY! I wanna go slide down that hill!!" Poor Kansas girl...don't tell Daddy she thinks that's a hill...she probably thinks a real hill is a mountain!

She's had enough....Mama, it's cooooooold! By the time the sun started setting, it started getting pretty chilly. And their gloves weren't exactly "playing in the snow" gloves!

Yesterday, the kids "helped" me make cookies for Seth's birthday supper. This was the first time Jacob had been awake during cookie-making and he was delighted to be in on it!! He kept saying "more! more!" I was lucky to get 3 dozen out of the 6 dozen cookie recipe!!

Anna's an old pro at licking the beaters! :)

I knew they were too quiet for too long!!! I'd let Anna play with the tub of water in the bathroom and I knew Jacob was in there with her but I had no idea this is what they were doing! Jacob does NOT like having his hair combed, but he was letting her comb it for like 5 minutes! He was having a grand ol' time getting soaked from head to toe! And Anna was helping by fixing his hair...because of course she had to get his hair wet to comb it! He had water dripping down his face. But he didn't care one bit. Of course, it wasn't long after I took these pictures that he decided to dump the whole tub out. ON THE FLOOR! Oh well. It'll dry. They had fun! :)

It's cold.

I guess when Aaron asks why I haven't posted recently, it's time for a new post! It's bitterly cold here this week. The 1-3" of snow we were supposed to get was more like 6". So we've pretty much stayed home. It's a big pain to bundle the kids up and go somewhere. We did run to Lyons yesterday though. It wasn't quite as cold. The kids have pretty much stayed in their jammies all day, every day this week! They just look so warm and cozy, I hate to change them.

A huge change from last year is that Anna actually likes the snow! She wants to go play in it. So the other day after Jacob was down for his nap, we went outside. I had the intention of shoveling the front walk while she played. After we got all bundled up and outside, I remembered we don't have a snow shovel. There was NO WAY I was using the stupid spade shovel we have to clear the walk!!! I spotted a broom and thought I'd give that a try. It actually worked--the snow was very light and dry, so it was easy to sweep the sidewalk. ha. But on our trip to Lyons, I made sure to buy a snow shovel! It was a little quicker shoveling the back sidewalk with a snow shovel instead of a broom! So while I swept, Anna played and played. We tried to make a snowman, but the snow was too dry to even make snowballs. She even made a couple of snow angels! Of course, I forgot the camera, so I have no pictures of that.

This is Jacob's favorite spot in the house. He shoves everything off except the lamp and sometimes the phone base and climbs on. He either plays with the dangly things on the lamp or pushes buttons on the phone (and gets in trouble for it, but he doesn't care) or just sits there. He's a strange child sometimes! Anna likes to join him sometimes. Hey, we're stuck in this tiny house day in and day out, I let them do what they want! ;-)

When Jacob woke up from his nap today, he didn't want to get out of the crib! So I brought the computer in there and worked while he dove around and played. He probably stayed in there for 15 min. (with a dirty diaper, no less!)


I rearranged things a little. Since Anna has claimed the couch as her bed, I took the toddler bed down just before Thanksgiving, that way I could put the twin mattress that had no home in its place. Well, it was just in the way, so I moved it out, took the toy box from the living room to the kids' room and moved a rocking chair that never got used from our bedroom to the living room. It's much nicer. And maybe this way the toys will stay a little more contained to their bedroom instead of all over the living room. I put the kitchen set against the wall where Anna's bed was and put the toy box against the window where the kitchen set used to be (that's mostly for the family that knows how the room looks...). It's better. There's more room to play and the living room feels more like a living room instead of a play room!

Jake & baby Anna came over to play the other day (I don't even remember what day it was...how bad is that?!). They are very close and it is so sweet to see. I smelled a dirty diaper, so I asked baby Anna if she was poopy. She started crying (for some reason, she does NOT like having someone other than Mom or Dad change her diaper) and ran straight for Jake, who held her in his lap without hesitation! It was so precious. She sat like this for a long time, sucking her fingers. And Jake didn't mind one bit. He would just alternate between hugging her and playing around her!

Time to finish baths. Aaron is working late tonight doing inventory :( Anyone else watching Million $ Password? I like that game.

Surprise Trip to Iowa :)

So we took a surprise trip to Iowa this weekend. Dad always puts up all sorts of lights up outside and Mom does the same on the inside. Life got busy and they hadn't had the time or the energy to get it done. Well, when Dad said "They're just not going to get put up this year" I said NO WAY ;) So we decided to go surprise them and help with getting decorations up! They didn't have a CLUE we were coming! It was great. I even called Mom a couple times on the way up, pretending that we were going to town to go Christmas shopping, asking questions about what she'd gotten people or what she thought I should get someone. Anyway, we got there about 8:30 I think Friday night. I sent Anna up to ring the doorbell while I hid behind the porch railing. When he opened the door, she said "suhpiiiize!!!" :) I forgot that the door opens the wrong way to get a good picture, but I could see Dad walk up to the door and he didn't have a clue who was there. He said he thought it was Girl Scouts selling cookies! haha

I think it took several seconds for Dad to realize it was Anna!

We left right after lunch, so Aaron had to make a delivery on the way. The door barely fit and the way we had to angle it, Anna couldn't see the TV screen (heaven forbid!!). So Jacob watched Dora on the TV (I actually don't think he ever even noticed the door!) and Anna watched The Tangerine Bear on my laptop! HA It was only an hour from home to where we dropped the door off. They are spoiled!

There was a leak that Anna & I discovered in the bathroom, so she helped Papa fix it! When I found the water, I told her to go tell Papa that there was water all over the floor. She RUNS out the door, frantically hollering "Papa! Papa! Dhere's watah all ober the bafroom!!!!!!" It was cute. I walked by the first time w/out my camera and Anna even had a little plumber's crack goin' on! ha

A complete switch from last year, Anna LOVES playing in the snow now! She begged and begged to go play in the snow. So we bundled her up and she went out and played around while Dad & Aaron got all the lights down and ready to go. Did I mention that it didn't get above 20 degrees all weekend? And that doesn't factor in the wind chill! Poor guys nearly froze to death! But they got all the lights on the garage and roof up (about 1/3 of what usually goes up!).

When she got too cold (or too bored from not having anyone play with her!), she came in and helped decorate the tree. She did a great job. She had the most fun getting ornaments, climbing up the step ladder, and handing them to me:)

My camera is not very good with night scenes :( Mom & Dad got a bunch of LED lights this year to add. They are so pretty and brilliantly bright! The gold ones on the tree are the new ones. The purple ones are regular lights.


In case you couldn't tell, Mom's color theme for the living room is purple and gold :)

And then Saturday evening after a DELICIOUS supper of Famous Dave's, Aaron & I went Christmas shopping while Papa & Binga babysat! We got it ALL done!!!!!

For unforeseen reasons, we ended up leaving quite late. Anticipating a horrendous trip the last 3 hrs., I let them open a Christmas present early...
A new Veggie Tales movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
I have to say, they did amazing on the trip home. We didn't get home until 11pm, Anna never slept, Jacob only slept for 30 min, and we only stopped once! It's a 7 hr. drive with stopping once for 30 min. And of course when we got home, they caught a 2nd wind and were up for another hour! At least they were happy, and they went to bed very easily and slept pretty late. Whew!

Any time there's a dishwasher open, this boy high-tails it over and climbs aboard! He is just completely fascinated with the wheels and seeing how the racks go in and out. Isn't he just so cute?? :D