More snow

Earlier in this week our kind Creator saw it fit to dump another 8 inches of snow. Even though some of us were less than thrilled to see it, it was quite possibly the perfect snowfall. Lots of thick heavy packing snow, perfect for playing in. So out we went, all 4 of us. Together we built a snowman, snow angels, snow castles, and we turned the steps off the back porch into a sledding hill (which was a sheer delight to the young ‘uns.) I didn’t get many pictures that day (too busy playing!) but here are a few.


In other news, do you remember a few weeks back when Alex was complaining that his schoolwork was too easy? Well I changed things up a little bit with his reading to make it a little more of a challenge. Now every week he gets a new word list with 20 words, half of them are easy and the other half are a little tougher. The kid is completely devouring everything I throw at him. He can’t get enough. I think it’s safe to say that he’s going to love reading – not sure where he got that from!

Warning: creative minds at work

In case you weren’t quite sure what you are looking at, the top picture is a family of monsters, a mommy, daddy, baby and pet. The girls made this lovely family during our art time. Alex is holding his creation. Not sure weather it is a whale, a car or a flower vase. It sort of evolved as he made it. I think he finally decided it was a vase. If you’re around little ones on a regular basis, I highly recommend throwing them a pile of garbage to see what they’ll do with it.

Happy Valentines day

Yes, it's a day early, but who cares.

Alex was invited to a little Valentine party with the children from Capable Kids (the center for children with Autism). So of course we had to make some little Valentines to pass out. I don't know where I saw the idea to use a photo as a valentine, but I"m sure by now every scrapbooker in America has done the same thing. Not so original, I know. But it's cute, so there.

So happy Valentines day, a day early.

Celebration

So this weekend was one of celebration in our house. First and foremost, Jory’s birthday (which is actually today – but who’s counting right?) Jory and I had a dinner date on Friday, then took the kids to a movie on Saturday. We went to see the new Veggie Tale movie – The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. Which was very cute, despite the fact that there were no Biblical references (slightly disappointing).
The other major event of the weekend was Annie (finally) filling up her dry diaper chart. She’s been working on this chart since September, so it was a pretty big deal. So for her reward we all went out for dinner and ice cream sundaes.
In other news, yesterday it was bitterly cold (9 degrees was our high!) with wind gusts up to 40 mph. So after church we came in and hunkered down next to the fireplace. Then attempted to balance productivity with warmth.

On snow days

So last night I went to bed anticipating a winter storm complete with snow and wind and all things wintry. Excited about the possibility of no school tomorrow - just like I was a kid. Excited about staying at home in my jammies, next to a roaring fire in the fireplace. (Wondering why that prospect is so exciting, as I can do it whenever I want.) Wondering if I’m robbing my kids of that anticipation by not allowing for snow days. But then it wouldn’t be the same for them anyway now would it. They’re allowed to stay home in their jammies everyday, school isn’t a monstrous beast that eats up 6 hours of their day. Frankly if I “cancelled” school, I’m not 100% sure that Alex would even notice. It certainly wouldn’t be a celebration, as it was when I was a kid. So in the end, I decide not to celebrate the fact that we aren’t learning today (which we probably will be doing later on anyway) I think we will be out celebrating the fact that snow is fun, and we have an awesome God who gives us fun things (like 6 inches of snow while we’re sleeping)

Random life update

Lately Annie has taken to making my bed in the morning. When I’m doing my morning “get ready for the day” routine, she’ll come and close the bathroom door and tell me not to peek. When I come out my bed is nice and tidy. Too bad she refuses to pick up any toys during clean up time.
We’re having the official birthday shindig this weekend. No real theme, just little girl goodness. I’m making and decorating a great big cookie cake later today.
The girls are big enough to go to the Tuesday night kids program at church now. You know what that means? Jory and I can be kid free for a whole hour and a half every week (and we don’t have to pay anyone either) sweet. Classic Café anyone?
Tomorrow is going to be an insane swirl of story hour, Alex’s class, Cathy coming and a pizza party/movie night at the church. Which means one thing: my kids won’t have time to destroy the house.
Life is good
Oh, and I gave Alex a few sentences to read for his school work yesterday. He says “Mom, these are too easy, next time give me something harder”. Famous last words.

4 Years Old

Guess which members of our family celebrated their birthday over the weekend?? That’s right, my babies are 4!! We had a fun birthday weekend that included a yummy birthday lunch at Cici’s pizza, and a trip to the huge downtown library. We also had our small family party where we decorated cupcakes and received some new toys.

Update

So Christmas vacation is over and life has hit me full force. Plus the whole new year, trying to be a better person thing – my resolutions don’t really include keeping up with the ol’ blog. I’ve spent most of my free time learning how to use my new camera. I found an online class (for free – yahoo!) where the instructor posts a “lesson” and an “assignment” and you can write in with questions. So I’ve been trying to keep up with that. And taking lots of random pictures. I think I’ll post some of my random practice shots on my flickr account if you want to see them. Can’t be cluttering up the ol’ blog with random pictures of branches and water droplets and other weird stuff now can we.
In other news the girls birthday is coming up on Sunday. I can’t believe they will be 4 already. It also means that I have to take their 4 years photos soon. No more pictures of sticks for a while I guess.

Part 2

Jory finally convinced my camera to be friends with my computer. So here's Miss Annie with the Santa hat. She gets two, because I couldn't pick.

Thankful

Oh how I love thee Canon Digital Rebel. Let me count the ways. Taking the Santa baby photos and getting 6 good ones of each kid as opposed to uh… 2 good and a bunch of mediocre ones. I wish I had more time to post pics, but such is life right. I’m going to be very thankful when my camera and my computer learn how to communicate properly. (pics of annie to come!)
Christmas break has come and gone. After 7 days off, it’s time to start up again. Refreshed, renewed, and excited to learn again. Thankful for some time to scrapbook, clean house, and work ahead on my school stuff.
Also topping my thankful list today is facebook. Not a new member, been around for a while, but still so thankful when a new little friend pops up. Recently a lot of VA beach people have shown up: Yvette, Lindsay, Josh… so thankful for you guys. Sorry I forgot you existed.

Santa Baby

I finally figured out how to connect my new camera to the computer. So here's Alex and Louisa playing "Santa Baby"

Holly Jolly

Christmas has come and gone. We had a very merry Christmas indeed. The kids got way too many toys – legos, trains, books, and some clothes. I got a slick new camera (a digital rebel – yahoo!) that I don’t really have any idea how to use, but that’s ok. One of these days I’ll figure out how to upload pics and share some of the ones I’ve taken.
We are enjoying our Christmas vacation from school. I’m having fun remembering all the things I used to do in my free time before school took over my life. (Including updating my blog!)
Hope you all had a merry Christmas.

Snow Angels and notes.

Yesterday we went out to try out our new winter boots (which I purchased just in time!) We had fun shoveling the snow into a big pile (trash cans make pretty good shovels when you're five!) having a snowball fight, and of course making snow angels.

So I have some notes on life to share. Yesterday when we were praying over our dinner Alex says his wonderfully inspiring prayer, and then it was Louisa's turn and she says "help mommy to not be dead." Nice. This morning Alex and I were practicing his memory verse for his kids program, and the girls chimed right in. Apparently they both memorized as we were coaching Alex. I wonder if Ms. Stacey will give them credit for it.

Adventures in Peterson-land

It was a good weekend in our house. On Friday, we went to Jory’s office Christmas party. This year it was held at the zoo, and the kids were all invited. The lady who planned the party did a great job. She planned a separate (and very appropriate!) menu for the kids, had Christmas movies, coloring books and gifts all ready for them. We grown ups managed quite well eating grown up food and chatting it up. After dinner we went out and saw the Christmas light displays that were set up all over the zoo. They were absolutely gorgeous.
Saturday the kids and I went to the Christmas tree farm to help my parents pick out a Christmas tree. We had a lovely little outing with just enough snow, some hot chocolate, and a visit to the petting zoo, where my kids got a kick out of the rabbits. Then we quickly headed home before the “blizzard” started.
Sunday we stayed home from church because services were cancelled. We were predicted to get between 8-13 inches of snow with winds gusting to 50 mph. Well we got 6 inches of snow (which is a perfect amount if you ask me) with little to no winds. Not quite a blizzard, but a fun little storm indeed. Plus I was pretty darned productive since I wasn’t at church until 2 pm.

My darling daughters.

Yesterday was one of those “what did I do to deserve this?” days. My girls, they just kill me. One minute they’re happily playing, the next minute they’re destroying something. So here’s a brief description of my day yesterday. (Jory – feel free to add anything I might have forgotten – kay?) So yesterday morning they found and opened a toy that had been purchased as a gift for Papa P (who likes to keep his “toys” new in package). So gift is no longer in mint condition (sorry Papa). Then around lunchtime they stole a big cookie from the pantry and proceeded to lie about it. (Even though the evidence was all over their faces). Mid afternoon saw a water fight in their bedroom. And finally around bed time (after being chewed out by their father for the Papa incident, and refusing to eat a bite of dinner) they stole some chocolate covered pretzels. I let Jory handle that one.
Stop laughing. It’s not funny.

Holly Jolly

So yesterday I woke up with a migraine. The yucky kind that made me sick to my stomach. Blech. I pretty much got nothing done (except some marvelous naps!) I had a hard time just letting myself rest. I’m sure most of you can relate to the “I can’t put life on hold to be sick! I have so much to do!” thoughts. If nothing else, I was reminded how wonderful my kids are. They can be so sweet and thoughtful when they want to be. It was almost worth being sick just to have them take care of me.
In other news, yesterday Alex went to a nursing home with his group from church. I didn’t go, but I hear he was a riot. He’s never been a shy kid, but apparently he went out of his way to socialize with the old folks. Somehow I’m not all that surprised.

HI!

Remember me? It’s been a while since I updated this thing. I don’t really have a good excuse, just working on school stuff. But it’s time for an update.
First of all, IT’S SNOWING! We don’t always get a good snow in December, so I’m thrilled. Ready to call it a snow day, and let the kids go sledding all day. But I won’t. We might have to build a fire in the fireplace though.
So, last night I had a date with Louisa. She filled up her second chart for having dry diapers at night, so I took her out for a night on the town. We went out for ice cream and a trip to Wal-Mart. Big time excitement when you’re three.
Still working on Christmas projects. The house is pretty much decorated. I love having lights up around the house, so sparkly. Today I’m working on the Christmas cards. I think I have everything all set up to put them together, I just need to address them and off they go.
School is going well. Just as soon as I feel like I know what I’m doing, I make another trip to the public library and come home with a stack of resource materials to go through. One of these days I’m just going to have to say enough is enough. I probably have enough stuff here for all of kindergarten and half of first grade. But today is not that day. So I’m off to pour over some test prep materials for our state proficiency tests.

Seeking normalcy

We had a great trip out to Missouri for Thanksgiving. The Peterson clan converged from four different states. The last time Jory was able to get together with both brothers and his parents was about 3 years ago, so it was time. So we had lots of fun. Thanksgiving was very yummy, we ate our dinner at Jake and Sarah’s. The highlights include an adventure down to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, (mainly so Vangie and I could say that we’d been to Arkansas) and a trip into downtown Branson (which is a really bad idea at 7 pm on a Friday night). Grandma had fun playing with all four (soon to be five!) of her grandkids, who were excellent the entire time. We spent a few nights in an Irish bed and breakfast, which turned out to be wonderful, despite our initial concerns. We did some shopping, and some Jeepin’. Played a few rounds of Cattan, and explored a civil war battlefield.

So of course we have a few pictures. This is Arkansas

The city hall from Carthage, MO

And Louisa at the Carthage battlefield.

Outing

Yesterday the kids were driving me crazy (what else is new?) so I decided to take the kids on a little outing. Nothing major, just a little trip to the park to check out our favorite trail and the play ground (which was covered with lady bugs!). Here we were on the trail, of course the kids hammed it up a little for me...

Weekend adventures.

On Friday, my mom, brother and I took Alex to see his first play. We went to see Frog and Toad are Friends, based on the series of books by Arnold Lobel. It was a small community theatre type production, but we had a blast. The whole thing was very silly and kid friendly. Alex loved it.
Saturday was a busy day of trying to knock stuff off an overflowing to do list. Props to Jory who took over most of the parenting / child care responsibilities so I could do my thing. I wouldn’t say I knocked out half my list, but it was pretty close.
On Sunday it was my first time as the “head” of the special needs group at church, which had potential to be frightening, but we managed just fine. After church my mom and I took the girls out for a date. We had a yummy lunch and some girl time. Lots of fun. Now we’re gearing up for another week of insanity.