Lots of Snow!

It started snowing at 8:00am on Saturday and didn't stop until around 8:00pm. As cars were driving past our house Saturday morning Aliza said that they were running away from the blizzard. It wasn't a real blizzard, but it is about as much of a blizzard as we will see in this area.

Jeremy and the children headed out to play about 11am Saturday morning. Josiah refused mittens and come in about 5 minutes after he went out.

Catching snowflakes on her tongue.

Sunday morning we had just about 9.5 inches with plenty of higher drifts. The snow was very powdery, but it was fun to walk around in.

Josiah did not like it at all. Today the hat did not stay on either. He couldn't walk because the snow came up to his knees.
It took Jeremy a long time to uncover our cars. This evening we thought we would try to get out to the road. It didn't work. For the time being we are officially snowed in!

Sheats Cousins Playdate

The 3 biggest cousins were admiring the littlest cousin's latest achievement--sitting up. I realized that they were all sitting in close proximity so I grabbed the camera. Meghan somehow convinced them all to look at the same time! She tried her hardest to convince Josiah and Caleb to take their hands out of their mouths, but who cares! I love it.

Gideon got tired so Aliza read him a bedtime story and sang him a lullaby--or two. (See video below)

I'm not quite sure how Meghan and I missed this. I know we heard Josiah getting something out of the pantry and I know I saw him with the bag of Doritos. He was snacking all morning today. Somehow that led to an all out Dorito party. They ate every last morsel of Doritos and loved every second of it.


Aliza was trying so hard to be gently and sing nicely to Gideon.

One of THOSE Days

When Aliza woke up at for the day at 5:30am, I was pretty sure it was going to be one of those days. I was optimistic for about an hour when she played happily in her room singing "I've got the peace that passes understanding...down in my heart. Where?....." It deteriorated though into mischief, a short nap, not being able to play nicely with Josiah, and finally an all out screaming fit at bedtime.

Janell, this is what they were up to while I was having such a normal, uninterrupted conversation with you. These canisters have been within their reach since they were born and apparently Aliza can finally open them. Josiah came to me with white hands and upon investigation I found this.


The white sugar and the brown sugar--open with 4 hands playing in them like sand. Both had sugar around their mouths and Aliza had sugar in her hair.

Now the canisters are tucked away on a high shelf in the new pantry. The pantry is hardly safe since they both can open the child lock. Maybe a padlock will be in order!

More Rain

It poured all morning. Every time I looked out the window the puddles were bigger. I think these are the biggest puddles yet. Of course our ground is so saturated that we are flooding very quickly. It was above 60 degrees this afternoon so we went out to play in the puddles. There were lots of puddles to choose from. I was happy that, for the most part, they avoided the ditch. The water in the ditch came up to their knees at the deepest part. I had boots on, but I really did not want to have to rescue them! They ended up being outside for almost 2 hours--and Josiah still cried when it was dark and time to come inside.

For those who know our yard, this is beside the swing set where the old chicken house used to be.

Behind the swingset. Josiah pulled that wagon the whole time he was outside.

Josiah in about the deepest part of the ditch beside our driveway.

Now I hear rain beating on our window again!!!

"Worth It" Moments

I made this little mini album of pictures of Josiah this summer. I used the poem "What Are Little Boys Made Of?" for journalling and added lots of neat coordinating embellishments. I didn't exactly mean to leave it where Josiah could find it, but I did and he found it. He LOVED it. He sat right down and looked carefully at every picture and every page. It was so sweet and he had no idea that he made his Mommy feel really good!

Josiah's pacifier now stays in his bed. He can have it at naptime and bedtime. It was a very easy transition. Now he talks a lot more! Duh!!! His favorite treat when we go grocery shopping is John Deere fruit snacks. On the back of the box is a picture of a farm with various tractors and animals. On Friday he came up to me pointing at a certain tractor and I was sure he was saying "lawnmower." Yup, he was pointing to a lawnmower! What a boy! Today while he was watching his John Deere DVD he was repeating the various model types. But for Hi....he still waves.


My mother-in-law captured this incredible moment at church last night. Aliza is praying. Hands folded, eyes squeezed shut. Recently she told me that Jesus lives in her heart (pointing to her stomach area) and eats the crumbs in her tummy! We've been working on memorizing some Bible verses. She gave herself away on how quickly she can memorize this weekend when she immediately picked up on a bedbug poem that Grandma Karen taught her!

Busy

While I was busily picking up toys in the living room, my children were busy emptying the contents of the junk drawer onto the kitchen floor! They are so very, very helpful.

Yes, I stood on the kitchen counter to take this picture. No other angle did it justice!

Kitchen Pantry

Since our home remodeling project is on hold indefinitely, I'm making a few improvements to our house. The first was a kitchen pantry. We gave away the kitchen table and bought a stock pantry from Lowe's. Today was construction day. It took Jeremy just over an hour to put it together, but I think I might have worked harder than him--keeping the children out of his way!

It started with dancing on the boards and deteriorated from there. Ultimately Josiah started crying uncontrollably saying, Daaaaaddy, Daaaaaddy, Daaaaddy.... Jeremy had to stop and hold him and then we realized that we had hurt his feelings by leaving him out. He wanted, maybe needed, to help. So we told him to stand right next to Daddy, gave him nails to hold, and then he was a happy little man.



I'm going to be able to put a lot in that pantry. A whole shelf has already been dedicated to the cereal that had been stored on top of the refrigerator and the 4 large bottles of apple juice that I buy every week are also now tucked behind doors! Behind doors!!?? What a novel idea for my kitchen (all of my upper cabinets have never had doors).

Guess What Today Is!?

It is one year since I started potty training Aliza! Yes, folks, it's true. I've been at it for a year and the task is not completed yet. But we are making progress. In fact, since about Christmas Aliza has woken up dry in the morning and after naps. Huge progress! We have one more big hurdle to cross--pooping in the potty. She does not have any qualms about pooping in pull-ups or in her panties. She has informed me, though, that she will be big enough to poop in the potty when she is 4. (Maybe the reason behind yesterday's conversation about not wanting to grow up?) When the current package of pull-ups is gone there will be no more. Maybe by next year (but hopefully before) I'll be able to report that indeed Aliza is fully potty trained. This Mommy is sure hoping that will be before I start potty training the next one. lol.

Don't Want to Grow Up

Tonight Aliza got this sad little look on her face and said, "Mommy, I don't want to grow up. I want to keep my number because 3 is my favorite number." About an hour later she called me and said, "Mommy, can you ask Daddy if I don't want to grow up and if I can keep my number?"

Jeremy looked at me like what in the world am I supposed to say to that? I told her that Daddy said ok, but that she might find out that being 4 is a lot of fun and 4 might be her new favorite number.

Her birthday is still about 2 months away!

(Shhhh...she might be a little bit like her Mom!)

In MY House

These are in my house! I can hardly believe it. I still have to look twice when I see them in the laundry room. This is the washer and dryer that we had priced for our "new" house when we remodeled. When that project got postponed I jokingly told Jeremy that I wanted them for Christmas. He said, "No appliances for Christmas presents" until he found an ad for a sale at a local appliance store. Buy a washer, get a dryer free--on the exact model (Whirlpool Duet) we had on our dream list. He actually called the store to make sure the offer was legitimate! It was and he immediately went and ordered one.

Thank you, Jeremy, for making me feel so special! Merry Christmas to me!

Miracles do Happen!

This makes my heart sing. My children are currently playing together in Aliza's room with her Christmas toys, happily!!! Maybe Aliza is trying to avoid bed time a bit, but I don't care! Josiah is just eating up the opportunity because he has wanted so badly to go into her room and she hasn't let him. Now he gets to check out all the toys.

Starting Off the Year

This begins my 3rd year of blogging. I was thinking about how to blog, what to blog etc. and I decided that this is just my life journal. I'm not trying to be some sort of internet personality, it's just me and where I'm at right now in my life. Yup, you'll hear a whole bunch about my children this year because that is where I'm at!

Here goes!!

We had a lovely 3 day New Year's weekend at home. It is an extremely rare occasion that we have a 3 day weekend at home. We usually grab those extra days as excuses to visit Jeremy's parents. It was windy and freezing cold. The wind chill was -2 and -4 at night. On Saturday we lost electricity from 10:45-2:30pm. We were thankful for our propane insert. The heat goes straight upstairs. When nap time rolled around I was happy to hop under the covers.

So given that it was a holiday week and quite cold I spent lots of time playing and cuddling with Aliza and Josiah. One afternoon Aliza woke up a good 1.5 hours before Josiah did. She likes to watch NickJr.com these days so I sat on the couch (with a book) beside her. I had my arm around her and she was all cuddled into me. Out of the blue she looked up at me and said, "I love you Mommy. Mommy, you are the best Mommy in the world. And Mommy you are my best friend in the whole world." That was the best. I still smile thinking about it.

That morning Josiah woke up calling, "Mommy, Mommy!" I got up and brought him over to our bed and he proceeded to look at me and say Mommy and point to Jeremy and say Daddy. I've been hearing Mommy ever since. Josiah has generally bypassed saying the "easy" words. He said Grandma, umbrella, yellow, and backhoe before he said Mommy and I still can't get him to say Hi.

In the last couple weeks Aliza has developed the ability to tell stories. The facts are straight, but the time frame is way off. Things that happened yesterday she'll say happened last year. This ability has led to even more constant chatter and more complicated directing and demands than we had before. By suppertime last week I had had enough. I just wanted her to eat. I told Aliza to be quiet. She promptly said, "But Mommy if I be quiet my teeth will want to keep talking." Without missing a beat those teeth kept talking.