A new year's resolution for another "mommy blogger" friend is two posts a week. Mine? Not so lofty. I have sat down a few times to work on a certain upcoming birthday post, but mostly I've just not been in the mood. I rarely check my blog lists anymore. There is one "professional" mom blogger I still check, but it is more like a train wreck and I can't look away. Kind of like Teen Mom 2 and Tori and Dean. I'm not proud.
We've only been back to school for one full week and then there was this four day week and guess what? Next week, another four day week. These kids have lots of breaks from school in the winter. I think it is pretty much torture for the parents. My plan for our day off last Monday was just to hang out and play at home. Nathan had a friend sleep over and by 10 AM, I could tell we were going to have to do more than just hang out. Outside was not an option--melted snow = soggy mess. (When did these kids become so high-maintenance?) Hannah was invited to go roller skating with her friend Kate so we all tagged along.
Speaking of Hannah's friend Kate...her mom is embracing her inner photographer now that she is a full time stay at home mom and look what she did
Apparently Hannah was quite the model for this little photo shoot. Like any good model she loves to be told she's "fabulous".
We are having quite the mild winter. This was maybe the second time we've had snow pants out. From the looks of tonight's weather, we should have a chance to use them again tomorrow. Of course, it will have to warm up past the 16 degrees it is now before I'll be out there. I'm just hoping that these crazy people think that 2-4 inches is enough to cancel an 8:15 AM basketball game. I don't wanna get up at 6:30 in the morning and in 10 degree weather to shovel snow for a nine year old's basketball game. How does my husband manage to plan his trips so perfectly around the snow fall? We are glad that Daddy is enjoying some time in Vegas--all work and no play make Joe a dull boy. While driving home from preschool this afternoon, Sarah asked if Daddy could do something tonight. I reminded her that he's out of town for a little while. "I miss Daddy!"
I said, "I know, but Daddy needs some time with his friends too". Incredulously she asked, "Daddy has friends?!" Hard to believe that we actually used to be people before parents.
I think our daddy must be running for father of the year. In between his trips last week and this, he completed a promised project quite in advance to the upcoming princess birthday party.
One cardboard castle as requested by the resident princess fan. Still waiting to be decorated by the craft lovers in the family. I'm dreading the inevitable mess and trying to figure out how I can move the masterpiece away from the nicest furniture we own before it becomes even more of a masterpiece. She's so happy. He's a good dad. I have moved up a tiny bit in their eyes since purchasing and allowing the use of glitter in the basement. Sarah came upstairs this afternoon after starting yet another craft and said, "Mom, that glitter you bought really is messy". Yes, I know. (Gritted teeth) I just hope the next owners of our home love sparkly carpet.
Speaking of homes, our first Michigan home is for sale again. It has all the signs of a foreclosure which makes me sad. Of course, any foreclosure makes me sad. Interestingly, Nathan's best friend, Josh, lives exactly half a block away from our old house. How much more convenient life would have been if we had ended up keeping that house...for Nathan anyway. I used to drive by for memory's sake, but now I'm back and forth dropping off and picking up boys.
I can't believe she's almost 5. She's funny, this one. They squeezed in some more snow time before it all turned into a soggy mess--eating and drawing with icicles before we all went swimming at the gym.
Some people choose to eat icicles inside. Play-offs were on, ya know.
Christmas feels like so long ago and I've never really posted any Christmas pictures at all. Maybe because pictures look more like summer? It wasn't. This crazy child spent the most time in the 60-something degree pool.
She actually jumped in.
Then back to the hot tub.
Like Yeh yeh, like granddaughter.
I think I mentioned we failed epically on the picture taking with the Holland side of the family. Here is the tiny bit of sad photographic evidence that we did have a good time. Beautiful day at the San Antonio Zoo. In my memory, it was not as cold as Sarah thought...or as warm as Hannah and Nathan thought. However, I'm sure it was warmer than the pool.
And more evidence--with an extra TSE in the mix.
There are more pictures uploaded...I just haven't made the time to go through them all and pick out the good ones.
I even uploaded the ones from Nathan's ipod. The weather was so nice one day when we were back from Texas before school started that we headed out to the zoo for an hour or so. We mostly went to see if the polar bears would be more entertaining than our last visits in the summer and at first we thought not, but one of the trainers gave this one (apparently he's new) a block of ice--which is apparently the most fun thing ever if one is a polar bear.
Nathan got some pretty good pictures. I was hanging back trying to make sure all of the kids could see. We had a really nice afternoon at the zoo.
And because I have already declared myself a slacker, I might as well be a random slacker so I will continue with this very ADD post. Here is our first ever family shot at The Tower. Note how thrilled two of our children appear in this picture--even at this distance, Hannah's body language is fairly obvious.
This we'll call the "before" picture. "Before" this trip to Austin became the "worst day" of Hannah's life. Note the blue camera case in her hands. At this point, she was posing nicely for Daddy's camera with the promise that she could then take some pictures of us with the "kid" camera. Daddy didn't choose his battles well that day and the result was the above photo.
And later...
This sulky one.
She came around.
I was excited to at least see a version of west Texas. It has been a while, Paisano Pete, old friend.
Well, their home version of Wipe Out has gotten out of hand and because it appears that I will have to get up at some ridiculous hour to remove the snow from our driveway and then wake them up earlier than they even have to get up on school days, bed time duty begins. Time for pjs and returning the "icy foot bridge" (aka pillows) to their rightful places. I remain the only family member not in love with Wipe Out. Our home has become infested with phrases I could live without. For example this afternoon at the library Sarah called out rather loudly: "Hey Nathan! Are we gonna play big balls when we get home later? I love big balls!" Wrong. Just wrong.
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