Ice Skating

Richard had been on a business trip for a few days, and got back on Friday (which is early day) so we decided to take the kids ice skating. They even had a pair for Brinley, who loved being pushed around the rink.

Playing in the "Snow"

We have had a crazy winter this year. It seems to me to be extra cold this winter. In the past few years, we would get a snow storm, and then the next few days would be warm enough to melt the snow. But not this year, we keep getting one storm after the other and I am about sick of it.

A few days ago, it actually warmed up to about 30 degrees, and so the snow was getting a little slushy. We have empty lots on both sides of our house, one of them has mounds of dirt. Sam and Maddie have been wanting to try to go sledding on them for a while. Parker, Zach, and Sam were playing and were totally hyper, so I sent them outside. They started to slide down the hill, in just their clothes (no sled) and pretty soon the snow was gone. Did that stop them? OF COURSE NOT!

Sam finally stopped because he said the mud on his face felt like make-up. Even though they had coats and gloves, and long sleeve shirts on, they still had layers of mud caked on their arms. Everything was covered. Me being the mean aunt/mom wouldn't let them come in until they rolled in the snow to wash some of the mud off....then they had to strip down to their tighty-whiteies (which were brown with mud) on the front porch. I did a massive load of muddy laundry, and we all survived, even Parker who had to wear a pair of scrubs I had...how embarrassing.

Brinley and Max

We all loved having Jess and Jon and their family come to visit for so long. We had a blast with them. Brinley really had a lot of fun. Jess's boys taught her she could climb on the table and counter tops (we're still grateful for this). On their last night here, the adults went to dinner and then had a little party for the kids afterwards. Here are a few pictures from that.

Brinley loves to shake her booty...especially if everyone is watching!

Brinley was always wanting to give Max loves. She's going for the kill...taking after her dad already!

'And Max is taking after his dad already too...

The Crazy Life With Zach and Sam

I am quickly realizing I'm a terrible blogger. The kids have been off track again, and getting them to leave me alone to post a few pictures is nearly impossible. If I am on the computer, they think they need to be on it playing. After the constant nagging, I finally give in. So Jess, I'm sorry don't keep this as up to date as you do, or as you'd like!

January was a fun and a bit slower of a month than December, thankfully. I'll catch up on January later, but today inspired to load my new pictures because of Zach and Sam.

I was working in the den for awhile this afternoon, Sam had Zach over to play and they were down in the basement playing soccer with a fun over sized soccer set Sam got for Christmas from Alex (thanks Alex). Sam came running up in a frantic scream yelling that Zach was stuck. I listened for a minute and heard Zach's freak out scream which is 1 pitch below the noise only dogs can hear. Let me back up just a minute, my parents have moved out of their house and into an apartment, so we have a bunch of their boxes down in the basement. The kids know that they are not to touch the boxes. However, I guess in the mind of 2 six year old boys, looking for a lost bouncy ball does not count as touching the boxes. I guess Zach shimmied his way up the tower of boxes, and slid down the back (I'm still not sure how he did this), didn't find the ball, or his way out. So this is how I found him.... (look closely, he's back there)...

After I made sure he wasn't hurt, I had to get the camera....and laugh. WE got him out by pulling on his arms, and taking a few layers of skin off his stomach. I don't think he'll be doing that again (then again, it's Zach and Sam they probably will).

Mom and Dad, I promise nothing got broken, boxes are not even out of place. I don't know how he managed but everything is just fine! We'll cordon of the boxes tonight