We will return

Sorry for the long interruption in posts. It's been a long 2 weeks of sickness, first in Matthew and now me. Aren't adults too old to get ear infections that don't want to go away? When I feel a little better this week, I promise to find something to post about. Till then...

All about Matthew

I've put alot of pictures on of Matthew and said a little about what he is up to, but I haven't said any of his catch phrases for a long time. He says alot of, "Ok, go ahead" "Yeah, me think so" "Me no tired" "Not naptime, no not naptime." He has worked really hard on toilet training this last month. He has started being able to tell me the words on each pg of his favorite books. (Some of the books we just got in the last week or 2.) Mom informs me this is a pre reading skill. He threw his winter coat into the wet paint, the last day of painting, and now has yellow on it I can't get off. He has been very, very active and cooped up with all the bad weather. He can put a 24 piece puzzle together by himself. He is very into "2v" as he calls it. I have to work hard to limit his screen time everyday. The TV did me a favor by breaking today, so he is very limited! Thanks to our generous cousin, Tiffany, he has a ball deciding which pair of shoes to wear everyday. (Thanks Tiff, I love watching him have fun with it!) Matthew used to be an extremely picky eater, but he's really started opening up and eating more food. It is so much easier to cook now because 90% of it he'll eat. He has finally cut ties with his apple juice addiction and moved to milk. For a little boy that used to be such a picky eater, this child has never met a flavor of candy he didn't like! At school he loves to push a baby in a baby stroller. This may seem like an odd thing for him to do, but he goes to school with 4 boys and 9 girls. 2 of the boys are babies, barely starting to crawl, so it's the in thing to push babies right now. And the boys all fight for the strollers too!

I guess that about summons up where Matthew is right now. He does so many cute things everyday I haven't bothered to remember to post them. I think I have the winter blahs. It keeps getting super cold and snowing, then it melts and it's super muddy, then it snows, then melts, repeat for the last 2 months. I hope by April it will be better consistently nice and we can go outside and RUN daily. Not to mention, flowers! Anyone else have the winter blahs? If so, I'd love to hear how you beat them back and have fun and inspiration.

Dining room progress

Normally Matthew doesn't prime in his pullups, but his paint pants where in the washing machine.

Here we are working hard. Not long after this it got to be such a mess we had to give up and leave it to Dad.

Finished corner. I can't wait to get the baseboards and door trim up!

Where did January go?

I'm helping Daddy paint!

Matthew the Indian on his swing.

Caring for a baby at school.

Matthew pretending he IS a baby. I'm surprised he didn't break this poor bouncer.


Where did January go? Well, since the last time I posted, I've had severe heartburn for a week, Matthew and I got the 24hr flu, we've hung out with Phil, and Matthew went #2 on the toilet for the first time. It's been a week. This is the 1st time in a week I actually feel perky. The weather has taken a nosedive again, but I'm still waiting for spring and the beginning of flower season. I have seen the tips of bulbs coming up here and there. I planted some earlier varieties, so I have no idea when they will make their appearance this season.

Phil has been hard at work painting the dining room and he has decided that it's too yellow. I predicted this and believe that it will be ok. It is a soft enough yellow that it's not going to scream NEON and GLOW-IN-THE-DARK. I can't wait to see it all done, even if it is too yellow for me.

Disclaimer: This is NOT for the faint of heart, proeed with caution...

I've decided that you know you are a grown up Mom when: It's Saturday night and you are walking around in a shirt that has a salsa blot on it and your toddler has shot poop up his back and it's now on the carpet. Sigh, can I please pretend I'm getting ready to go out and I'm 21 again? Anyone?

We had an awesome day hanging out with one of my best friend's, Audrey, and her little guy, Alex. He and Matthew are exactly 2 weeks apart and boy did they feed off each other. And the result was that they cracked us up! We all rode to go eat together and it was so cute to see them both wearing their Spiderman sunglasses. I got a pic on Phil's phone, but he hasn't emailed it yet. The other best part of the day was BRIGHT SUNSHINE ALL DAY!!!! Practically the first time I've seen the sun in 2 weeks! Yea!

Happy Birthday Great MaMaw!!!

Today is my Grandmom's birthday. She was amazed to discover that she's still 92, instead of the 93 she thought she was turning. Time flies when your having fun, maybe she's had an extra lot of fun. Since Matthew and I are the only ones in the family without full time jobs, we were able to attend her birthday party. It was quite lovely. She had a good turn out of people and the cake was wonderful. I was wishing I had a piece to eat tonight! Matthew enjoyed talking to all the party goers and then having a rousing game of balloon volleyball with his "Great MaMaw." Happy Birthday Grandmom! Matthew and I are looking forward to next year's cake. :)

Gloomy weather = remodeling

Remodeling must be in the air everywhere. One of my favorite blogs was talking about remodeling the kitchen in their new house. Unfortunately, I have the pleasure to talk about the continuing efforts to finish off our dining room. Phil has a week vacation scheduled in about a month and I'm hoping that we'll have it done then, including the floor! Cross your fingers. We have only been working on this for 16 months!

For about the last week, we've had fog that last most, if not all, of the day.

At first it was really cool, now I'm dying for some warm sunshine.

Matthew has taken advantage of the warmer weather to play outside. He runs, jumps, and of course, kicks what's left of the snow.

Our new dining room color. What do you think. I think it will be bright and cheerful.

Goodbye strange hole, hello dining room.

Winter weather

Since the beginning of Dec. we've had over 20", which is really remarkable. We haven't had a winter like this since probably '74. Combine all the snow with 3 weeks of below freezing weather and then a week stuck below 0, with driving winds, and you have a recipe for disaster!

Now everyone knows when it rains, it pours, and boy did it around our house! Over half our pipes had froze up by Friday morning, so we left for my parents house till the spring thaw. Saturday morning a plumber stopped by to say one of the rentals had frozen and burst pipes. That was so really expensive so I figured ours would be too. Phil had just found out his car needed as many repairs as the pipes and would cost the same. And my favorite appliance broke, the washing machine. Yikes!

So Matthew and I stayed at my parents from Friday till Wednesday morning. Tuesday the pipes got fixed at our house for 1/10th the price of the rental pipes. Tonight Phil comes home and the repairman for the washer will come tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a simple fix too.

I took all of these pictures Monday. It started warming up Monday, but it was still below freezing. We also had heavy fog that stayed till 2 in the afternoon. So the fog coated the trees and bushes like heavy frost. It was really quite beautiful.

Anyone feel hearty enough to come spend the winter with us??? Any of you CA relatives? (I know you complain about it being cold at 50's. Think you can make it through -17 degrees?)

Another snow storm, below 0 temps, unforseen events, cabin fever, and still beauty

I thought he looked so cute, I made him sit down and let me take him photo.

We got hit by another arctic front yesterday, wind chills 20 to 30 below 0, temp below 0 over night. We had to drive 20 mph home yesterday in whiteout conditions. Drifting had already started across the road and our driveway again, but we made it in 20 mins. (Normal drive home 5 mins.) We got up this morning and the hot water pipe in the kitchen had froze up and the cold nearly. Yikes. Then when washing laundry, the washing machine broke down. After doing the dishes in the dish pan in the bathtub, I noticed that the drain pipe in the kitchen sink must be froze up too because the water won't drain. Isn't it always something???

Meanwhile to help keep cabin fever at bay, we blew alot of bubbles and played with all the toys we own. Not to mention jumping down our slide and on the couch when Mom isn't in the room.

And just when I thought the day had been rather a wreck, I looked out the window. I saw a rainbow, no way! Notice all the blowing drifting snow.

It came down on either side of the sun. Scratch that, Mom told me they made the news and they are actually double sundogs. People thought they were rainbows because they were unusually large.

It was so unexpected and beautiful.

I'm hoping it's the promise of a better day tomorrow. Tomorrow will be our second day of very low temps and nasty wind chill values and no school. Pray that cabin fever doesn't get the best of us! (Oh and that maybe spring can come on time and not in May! We need to see a little grass so we can run!)

New Year's and 4th Christmas

At the stroke of midnight I got a kiss and the lighting of the fireworks began! Matthew had a late nap and was able to make it to midnight with us. Scamp was still doing his best to attack the fireworks.

The only shot I managed to get of the chilly 3 minute firework display. I also tried to take pictures of the blue moon, but my camera is just not fancy enough for that. All I could get was a pinpoint in the sky.

Our first family photo of the new year. Having to smile was just too much for Matthew, so he cried instead. After this we all went to bed.

January 1st we had our final Christmas celebration. Matthew got this awesome new shirt that has his tractor on it.

Matthew got to "nap" with his Auntie.

We went and celebrated with Great Grandmom.

She's going to be 92 this month. What a grand old lady!