Our Visitors

YAY!  We had company!  :)

Last Wednesday, Carrie and her two kids, Shelby (1) and Brody (4), came up for a 5 day visit.  Since we stayed with them on our vacation to Destin last year, it was our turn to return the favor; we were so glad to have them!

Brody had never seen snow!  He was sooooo excited to get up here!  His agenda included building a snowman WITH a carrot  nose, making a snow "house" and drinking hot chocolate.  I'm proud to say we did all that, and then some!  

Thursday afternoon, after Max got home from school, we took the kids sledding.  They LOVED it, of course.  They ran the hill many times, had a snowball fight at the bottom, and we helped them build a big snowman.  

Carrie, ready to release Brody and Max!

Snowball fight!

Max and Brody with their snowman!

On Friday Carrie was being inducted into the SHS Athletic Hall of Fame during the boys varsity basketball game.  During the day we took the kids to my favorite place (ahem, not really) Bounce U, before heading up to the high school.  After the ceremony Chris, whom Carrie dubbed "The Baby Whisperer" due to his uncanny ability to get Shelby to sleep, was in charge of getting the kids to bed while Carrie and I met friends out for a late dinner and drinks.  It was so fun!  Carrie mentioned she had not been out to eat without children since her husband's birthday last September.  Dang!  

Rick Creager and Carrie, getting her award

Jen, Me, Amy and Carrie- long time friends!

Saturday we spent the day out in the snow again.  Building another snowman with a proper carrot nose, making a snow tunnel, drinking hot chocolate and just relaxing and eating while watching the Olympics and then Sunday, it was time for them to leave.  

SO SAD!!!!

We had a great weekend and Max is already missing his good buddy, Brody.  Our house is SO quiet now; I wish they'd come back!  Maybe this fall, Carrie???  ;)

Another Snow Day Means SLEDDING!

We ventured over to Sycamore Creek Country Club today.  WOW!  Steep hills!  Nicole, Shea and I just laughed and laughed each time the kids went zooming down and crashed waaaaaay at the bottom.  It was so fun, and funny!  It was a great time; the best part of all these snow days we've had for sure!

Max fell off!

There he is... center of the pic.... WAAAAY at the bottom!

Climbing back up!

Max, Hayden and Kenleigh "race"

Max and Myles kick up dust they are going so fast!

Kenleigh, Max and Hayden

uh... frostbitten cheeks?  Hot cocoa is in order!

Tomorrow Carrie and her kids come to stay for a long weekend.  Brody (age 4) has never seen snow.  Seriously, he is going to LOOOOOVE it here!!!!

Our Man-Boy... oh yea, and 9 more inches of snow.

At least today was a planned holiday from school.  Otherwise it for sure would have been canceled.  More snow.  DANG.  I was so excited to step into February a few weeks ago, now I'm not so sure.  How many more weeks till Spring?  Here's the view from our front door.  The sky is white because it's been snowing at a pace of 1-2" per hour since morning.

Lucky for us, the Olympics are on... and Max is OBSESSED!  Thanks to his Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games game, he is completely enthralled with all things Olympic.  It's great!  He booked it upstairs at 11am, ran to turn it on channel 2, then I heard "OH SHEW!  It's not 1 o'clock yet".  He thought he maybe had missed some of the games!  His favorite is skiing, but he is also a fan of the "ballet", better known as figure skating.  :)

In between events Max decided to learn a manly skill... how to shave.  My mom gave him a shaving kit that was Nathan's, then became Austin's and now belongs to Max.  Chris loaded the cup with shaving cream and Max went to town.  He shaved twice in fact.  :)  Then he made Chris shave and I had to be the judge to see who smelled better and who felt smoothest.  Max won.

It's only 4:21 now though... what to do, what to do?  I believe I hear RockBand calling our name!

Official Snow Count for Our Area This Winter: 28.9"

Another day, another 2 inches of snow...  and another day off school for Max.  

As promised, we attempted a snowman today; problem was, the snow that fell all morning was light and fluffy so it wasn't good "rolling-into-a-ball" snow.  We had to pack and pack and pack that stuff to make it stay.  Our snowman (again, named "Welcome by Max due to his outstretched arms) is fragile, wide and thin but hey, he works!!!  (Don't drive by and look cause I'm a little embarrassed; our neighbors made one yesterday and it's AWWWWWESOME!)

We had lots of fun out there and it wasn't hatefully cold with temps in the mid-20s!  Our next project... making Valentine cookies for our friends!  

Whoa!

TOO MUCH SNOW!!!!!

I needed to vent.

We are being dumped on AGAIN!!!  I feel so bad cause it's Valentine's week at school and all the cute projects are going to have to be postponed.  :)  BOO!  It literally has not stopped snowing for over 24 hours and it's still coming down.  It's lovely, but enough is enough.  Today I swept, mopped, cleaned all the toilets, dusted, read a magazine, read some of a book, made lunch, made dinner, put away clean laundry, talked on the phone, made Valentine's with Max, played RockBand, did two hours of work and STILL had lots of time leftover!  I guess the only thing left to do tomorrow is build a giant snowman; Max and I have a date to do just that in the morning.  Pictures to come...  

Growing Older?

Two nights ago Max and Chris were wrestling on our bed. Now we all know Max is a sensitive soul, right? So Chris stops for a minute and tells Max "When I'm an old man and your grown up, I'll always remember we wrestled together; it's my favorite time with you." (gee, wonder where that sensitive side comes from?)

About an hour later we got Max ready for bed, tucked him in, and shut the door. His new thing is to get out of bed, crack open his door and yell that he forgot to tell us something. So on this night it was no different... we hear the door crack open only this time he's BAWLING uncontrollably. Instead of telling him he was in trouble, like we do most nights when he gets up after being tucked in, we were worried so asked him to come out. He jumped on my lap and sobbed and sobbed and said "I don't want you guys to die!!! You're going to die before me and I'll be sooooo sad!"

Max is like his mommy... he lies in bed and THINKS! It's so bad. Why did he have to inherit my "crazy"? Obviously he was lying there thinking of when Chris talked about being older and blah, blah, blah and it got him all worked up about the fact that we will get old and die. :(

After several unsuccessful minutes of trying to calm him down, Chris walked him back to his room and put his hand on Max's head. Now this is the best part of the story... Max pushed his hand off and in a fit of saddened rage yelled "DON'T TOUCH ME, DYING PERSON!"

hahahahaha...