Multiple Snow and Ice Days

The snow that came on Sunday night and during the day on Monday doesn't want to leave. The temps haven't wanted to get much above freezing for the majority of the week this week which has turned our schedules upside down. The kids have been out of school ALL week this week - this added onto what was to be a 4 day weekend coming up and well - you can imagine!

We've done a whole lot of NOTHING this week - the kids have been in their pjs more than they've been in regular clothes and I've accomplished nothing. We've done a lot of playing, watching tv way more than we should, eating entirely too much food and basically very little else.  Keeping up with laundry and cooking dinner has been about all I've done other than deal with 4 stir crazy kids on a daily basis. To say that I'm ready for school to go back would be an understatement at this point. If we make it through another five days it will be a minor miracle!

What's on David's feet? Well he had already been to work this morning and had been out in the snow for 4 + hrs - by the time he got home his boots were soaking wet so he put plastic bags with duct tape on his feet. This was during his hour long break before he had to head out again for more calls. Funny guy!

On the other hand the kids played in the snow Monday and then we didn't go back out again until yesterday. Yesterday was complicated though - after all the snow fell on Monday it was followed by sleet and freezing rain. I'll post about that in a separate post otherwise this might be the longest post in history!

 No makeup at all but I adore this picture of Allie and I!!!!!

 David insisted I let him pull me down the hill on the sled! I was covered in snow when I got done - usually I use my camera as my excuse to not get wet :(

Next week I believe will be endless cleaning and getting back on track because ZERO of that is getting done right now.

My World is Complete

There are still days that I have to pinch myself. I never EVER thought I would have this. I could sit and watch her dance, sleep, play with her baby dolls, do puzzles day in and out for the rest of my life and not have gotten enough. I love absolutely every single thing about her - don't get me wrong I love my boys but I'm smitten with my little girl. You see it never entered my thought process that she was a possibility. After three boys it just wasn't an option - even the doctors told me - it was 90/10. And now I have a pink bedroom with a little girl that has the cutest little pucker ever when she wants a kiss. These are the things I want to remember for the rest of my life - I want to remember her as I put her to sleep tonight - the way she held my hand and closed her beautiful blue eyes. The way she insisted she sleep with her pillow pet propped up and her lamb underneath her. I ADORE this little girl!!!!!

Christmas 2010

I've decided what my new year's resolutions are going to be. I have two this year - I'm sure I need many more but for starters I'm going to keep up with my blog. I love the connection I have developed with so many people and I miss that when I'm not blogging and regularly keeping up with everyone elses. I'm also going to dig into my camera. I've had it for a little over a year now and have yet to sit down and really LEARN about it. I got some wonderful gifts for my camera for Christmas and I'm so excited to learn about all the ins and outs of getting better pictures of everything.

I am so behind in blogging but instead of getting even further behind I'm going to write about Christmas and then I will just have to fill in the spots I missed down the road. That's one good thing about doing my 365 album - I have those daily pictures so I can still remember the small things I'm not wanting to forget - that's one of my most favorite projects EVER! If you're not doing one you should totally look into it.

Christmas was fabulous this year - we had a wonderful time with our family and the kids were very happy I think. I love Christmas - there is just this vibe in the air that is contagious. I can't get enough of it. We went to my dad's on Christmas Eve and had our annual spaghetti dinner followed by the kids "little" surprise that night. Each Christmas Eve Nendny and Papa get the kids a little "sursey" and we always give them new pjs for Christmas Eve night and a book.

 Caleb was very unhappy with almost every present he received and bless his heart he let everyone know it. This little boy wanted a flashlight more than anything in the world and he was getting one (or two) on Christmas morning so I told Nendny to wait and she did but he wasn't happy about it. You can see it in his face here - I felt horrible but love the capture.

Allie wasn't interested in sitting for the picture but I got a pretty good one of the boys.

I finally got Allie to sit for me when we got home in her new pjs - loving the gown :)

Christmas Eve was a LATE night - I'm talking like 3:30 late. I think it could be the latest one we've experienced yet. I don't ever do any wrapping until Christmas Eve - one reason is I have a very hard time finding the time to wrap with four kids around and by the time they are in bed I have so much other stuff to do that wrapping falls by the wayside. I am thinking I may try and wrap some beforehand for the very first time next year - I say that every year though so we shall see.

Christmas Eve or morning at this time before we went to bed.

Lucas was the first one up on Christmas morning followed by Jacob and then Allie. Caleb was last and the most anticipated I think :) He took FOREVER to wake up - it was close to 9:30 before he actually crawled out of bed despite my repeated attempts to wake him up. We ate sausage and gravy biscuits for breakfast and then dove into our gifts. Christmas morning is a process at our house - it takes a while and it's not rushed. We open one gift at a time rotating around the room.

 Right after Caleb got his police car - he was in shock for about 5 minutes when he walked out almost like he couldn't believe that a police car that he could ACTUALLY drive was sitting in his living room. His response to me was "See Mommy I told you Santa could BUILD one!"

I was very blessed this Christmas - I got a new Keurig - which is sooo cool! If you haven't seen one it's almost a show just to watch it brew a cup of coffee. My goal now is to find someplace around town that sells the tea k cups so I can have tea at night. I also got a new baking stone so I can throw away my ratty pans for my oven. Funny the things we find exciting as we get older :) And I got goodies for my camera too - so fun! I got an external flash which I am very very excited about and  new 50 mm lens. I'm still learning the lens - I'm sure I'll be doing that for some time to come. I have the Nikon D60 and therefore the lens has to be operated in Manual mode. That's something I need to work on a lot but I'm excited to learn!

 And this my friends - this is immediately after I received my external flash - the different is like night and day and it's pure love! I'm head over heels!

 All of these wrapped gifts are the ones that Allie didn't get to on Christmas morning. She opened gifts for the next two mornings before she finished them all. She would open a couple and then play with something and then open a few more and play some more. Funny girl!!!

 Overall we enjoyed the day with family and didn't want it to end - until it was time to hit the bed which we did hard!

Double Digits

I'm going all the way back to October for this post :) See what happens when you're on top of things behind. Lucas is getting harder and harder to buy for as he gets older. This year was no exception. Both kids decided to have their meals at home for their birthdays instead of going out to eat - shock of the century! Lucas wanted spaghetti and Nendny and Papa came over to celebrate with us.

He was estatic to get money like his brother did - I think if he didn't then we'd still be hearing about it 10 years from now.

I love this look! Priceless!

 Have you ever seen a kid so excited over a Scrabble game?

 His grandmother gave him baseball gloves and hid money in the fingertips - funny when he tried to put them on and couldn't get his fingers to go in. Took him a good five minutes to dig all of the money out.

Then he got more books to read and an MP3 player that I still haven't figured out how to load songs onto. I am thinking we should have gotten an easier one to operate. I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg on one since it was his first one and he's 10 but I can't seem to figure out how to get songs loaded onto the one that we got. I might have to break down and actually read the directions.

Goofballs

Lately everytime I try to take some pictures of Allie she starts goofing off. When I ask her to smile I get this cheesy grin followed by CCHHHHHEEEEESSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEE along with the silliest face ever! Her tongue is almost always sticking out and add Caleb to the mix and well it's just pure craziness! Guess I'll have these crazy pictures to remind me of this stage but I sure wish I could get a good one every now and then :)

See that tiny patch of freckles on her nose? One of my most favorite things about her - I just think it's the cutest thing!!!!!