Snow Day!

We've had a lot more snow this year than last year. Most of it melts away by the afternoon, so it's not really too bothersome for us. The kids love it - they want to build a snowman every time it snows. Today was great -- it wasn't too cold and the snow was just perfect for rolling snowballs, it was so sticky. Here's our morning in pictures.

Me: Kathryn, you need to put on pants, boots, a hat, gloves, and coat before you go outside.

Kathryn: I don't need pants!

Me: Okay, go ahead and go outside.

Approximately 2 minutes later...

Kathryn: MOM...I need pants!

Now she's ready to play in the snow. She is wearing boots but insisted on having the plastic bags too.

Joseph was also stubborn about wearing a coat. To his credit, it was probably near 40 degrees, so not as cold as it looks. After 20 minutes or so he decided a coat might be nice. He is wearing gloves though.

They are shoveling the backyard. We have to put that snow shovel to use somehow. I bought it in early January because I got tired of having 3 inches of packed snow on my front walk throughout November and December. Then, just as I predicted (Murphy's law!) we haven't had any major snow that lasted more than a few hours since then.

Rolling the snowball. They made this one all on their own.

Getting....hard....to....push...

I helped them stack the top two, then we decorated him. Joseph went inside right before this because his toes were cold and wet. He didn't wear his boots.

Kathryn went in when we started the snowman and found a warm corner where she could read some books. She wore underwear this morning, but it was a disaster. She refuses to actually use the toilet, even though she knows that's what is supposed to happen and that she will be rewarded well for doing it. I did borrow some plastic underwear/diaper covers, so at least she isn't getting our carpet dirty anymore. Today, she told me that she would use the potty "when I am grown up".

Back inside and getting ready for lunch. They wanted carrots for a snack! (How cool is that?) Then Joseph and Sarah wanted to peel and slice them, like they've been doing at school. So, I let them and we used the carrots to make a nice soup.

Less than 2 hours after finishing the snowman, this was the scene in the backyard.

I told you it was a "warm" day.

And what has our baby been up to lately? He was napping during our adventures in the backyard this morning. Yesterday he managed to get into the bathroom and play his favorite game: unroll as much toilet paper as possible before Mom or Sarah finds him. Then, proceed to shred it or eat it.

He is really fast and crawls all around the house. He is very strong and stable on his feet too. I have seen him standing up without holding onto anything for support for a few seconds at a time. He's an extremely curious and determined baby. He wants to explore everything and isn't easily distracted. (If he wants to pull on the laptop cord, putting him in another room with a flashy toy won't help. He crawls right back to the laptop as fast as he can.)

This was the snow yesterday afternoon. I know, it's not much compared to Utah, but I surprised at how it was coming down (hard to tell in the picture) in the afternoon in late February. Last year we had snow fall two times.

Braids and Dinosaurs

Here's a random picture of baby David, whom we've decided to call Davey for a few weeks just to see how it works. Joseph will call him Davey, but Sarah and Kathryn still just call him "Baby", Baby-Boo, or Baby David. Baby is actually fairly close to Davey, especially when Kathryn says it. He will respond to any of the above variations. One of those 4 top teeth that have been teasing us this past month has finally broken through the skin. Hopefully the other 3 are close...teething=cranky baby and nasty diapers.

 BRAIDS!

This is the first time that I braided Kathryn's hair and it turned out much better than I anticipated. She was really excited about it and held very still for me to do it. I wasn't worrying too much about making it look perfect because it was bedtime and I knew it would fall out overnight anyway, but I wanted to see if her hair was long enough--and it was!

She loved how it turned out and wore them all day the next day even though the sides were falling out.

 Of course, Sarah wanted braids too. She has awesome hair - it's thick but still soft. I still can't get over how dark it is now! See that little tuft of hair sticking straight up on the top of her head? That's where she cut her own bangs a few weeks ago. Sigh. She cut them at all different lengths and I had to go back and fix it as well as I could. She looks cute though.

Sorry this is fuzzy. Kathryn is wearing Wranglers and Justin brand cowboy boots. She is saying "I'm a cowboy girl!" Thanks Grandpa- We love the pants and boots.

Dinosaur Hunt

The older kids started studying dinosaurs at school recently, so they have been obsessed with them. We checked out some books on dinosaurs from the library to learn more. Joseph got some dinosaur stickers from Grandma Carol for Valentine's day. He spent the next two days searching his library books so he could identify each different dino sticker. Then he made a sheet with all the dino stickers and their names underneath. On Saturday, they convinced David to take them to the backyard to search for dinosaur bones. These toothbrushes are their tools for cleaning the bones when they find them.

As you may have guessed, they didn't find any dinosaur bones, so they decided to make their own replica out of rocks. David used my hot glue gun to put this guy together. It's a triceratops, just in case you couldn't tell. =) Joseph took his book out and checked the picture often to make sure everything was exactly right.

He got a little worried when the triceratops only had one horn on the top of his head ("It's a profile!" says David), but Joseph insisted that TRIceratops were supposed to have three horns. In the end, he accepted the idea that the other horn must be "lost" still.

Our Valentine's Day

Today the kids and I made cookies together to share with their preschool class. We made a few extras to share with our friends too.

For lunch we had heart-shaped PB&J sandwiches.

Then we cut Joseph's hair for the first time in months. (Look again at the picture of him with the cookies for a "before" shot). He sure looks a lot more like David with his hair short!

After school we took some cookies to our friends, then we played dinosaurs and the kids hid in their cave (aka under Daddy's desk).

After dinner (left over Lasagna), everyone got to eat a piece of candy from their Valentine's boxes. Sarah shared with Kathryn.

Yummy chocolate!

Hope you had a fun Valentine's day too!

Hooray for Baby! Happy Valentine's Day

This week our sweet baby David learned how to clap! He looks so cute and happy when he does it. The other kids like to encourage him by saying "Yay!!" and clapping too. He watched his first episodes of Baby Signing Time, so I'm hoping that he'll start using a little sign language soon. At dinner he signed "milk" when I gave Kathryn a cup of juice. It's a start. =)

Kathryn didn't do anything new this week. She is feeling well again and with the weather warming up, I'm thinking about starting potty training with her. We've talked about it a lot and she can tell me all about what she is supposed to do. She says "If I go poo in the potty, then I'll get a treat!" and "No poo-poo in my diaper, just in the potty." However, she has never really liked or wanted to sit on the toilet. Any ideas?

Joseph is really excited about Valentine's day coming up. At school they made little mailboxes out of half-gallon square milk containers. At home he made valentines for each classmate and is working on a map of Africa to give to his teacher. He wanted to stay up late tonight to finish the map because he's worried he won't have enough time in the morning to finish. He gets his work ethic from his dad, I guess.

Sarah is also very excited about the Valentine's day party that she will have at school. She has been talking about all the candy she might get, but then she tells me that she doesn't want to eat any sugar because it "makes her sick". She has been going to bed on time and sleeping so well at night. She has been really very pleasant recently - happy and helpful, and much more obedient. She has matured a lot recently and I can't believe she is almost 5 years old!

This week we made some cute cards to send to our grandparents. We haven't mailed them yet, but we will tomorrow. Better late than never, right? The kids sure love all their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Sarah and Joseph always want to mail their little projects to one or another of them. Sarah wants to move to Utah so she can see her cousins everyday. She is such a social butterfly! Joseph says he wants to live at this house forever, because this is "where our swing set is", and I don't think he likes to move.

We love all of our wonderful family and friends and hope you have a fun Valentine's day!