It's COLD!

Current temperature (at noon) is -22F with a wind chill of -46F! I am not leaving the house again today!

Yesterday's cold weather activity was painting. :)

Keeping Warm

The "warm" days are over for a while and the cold is here. Right now, at almost 8 pm, it is -11F (-24C) outside with a wind chill that makes it feel like -39F! Tomorrow's high will be -8F (-22C) with a 60% chance of snow. I have no plans to leave the house except to drive Gracie to school and home again. :)

The kids under a blanket to watch "A Bug's Life" earlier this week.


Gracie was dressed up as a mermaid this week and I pointed out that I could see her belly when she wore it. Her response was "that is why I wear it, so everyone can see how beautiful my belly button is". Of course, after that response, Bradley had to pull up his shirt and show off his beautiful belly button too.

Here is the mermaid costume and beautiful belly button. :)


Snack time. Pretzels for Bradley and pear for Gracie.
Aren't they cute?


Sometime Friday night our heat went out, so when we woke up Sat morning it had dropped 12 degrees! We called the landlord who got someone out to fix it late Sat afternoon, but until then we all huddled in the living room by the fire.

Daddy and Gracie both play on laptops in front of the fire.


After looking and researching for months, Doug finally found the TV he wanted for the price he wanted, so we got a new 42" TV this weekend.

Bradley "helps" Doug put together the new TV stand.


New TV and stand (and Will Smith). :)

More pictures... (are you tired of them yet?)

Here are some pictures from yesterday.

We didn't stay outside too long b/c we got cold, but the kids had a blast while we were out there. This was the most snow we've ever had on the ground, so there was a lot to play with.




This one was too cute. He weighs almost as much as she does, so he had a hard time staying in her lap, but it was cute while it lasted.


My sister got a lot of good pics while we were in Texas, so with her permission, I'm posting several of them here.

12/21 at the hotel in San Antonio


12/21 before we left, Doug helped my dad fix the banister and the kids "helped" too.

12/23 My dad with the kids at the park.

12/23 at church in front of the poinsettias

12/28 Doug napping and cuddling with Gracie.

12/30 Gracie and Grace hold hands while riding home from the park.

1/1 Playing pinochle. Gracie helped Ticia...

and Bradley helped me.

In Mourning

The Packers lost. I just knew they were going to the Superbowl. I am in shock.

I am rooting for the Giants in the Superbowl. Mainly b/c I hate the Patriots and would love to see their undefeated season end. I would also like to see Eli Manning win since I can't imagine what it must be like to be the son of Archie and younger brother of Peyton.

Snow!

We really haven't had too much snow this winter, so far. We have been pleasantly surprised at how little we have gotten. Well, yesterday it snowed off and on all day. I shoveled at noon and then again at 6, not knowing either time that we were due for more. When we woke up this morning, we had gotten more overnight than we did yesterday. This was the first time we had a snowfall of more than an inch or so. It is nice b/c all the old snow was dirty and now everything looks pretty again. We are supposed to get more tonight and over the weekend, so we'll see how much we end up with when it is done.

The view out the front door.


The backyard.


Gracie loves to make snow angels.


Bradley says "cheese" now every time he sees the camera.

Gracie likes to eat the snow.

We use sand toys to play in the snow, so we built two 'castles' and three ducks. :)

What else are you going to do when you can't build snowmen or throw snowballs?

What a difference a day makes

Yesterday, it got up to 5C (41F) and was beautiful. The kids and I walked over to the park in the afternoon and were comfortable playing without hats or gloves.

Bradley can climb up all by himself now!

I love her expression in this one.

Today, it was -8C (18F) and we all froze walking to school (even though we all had gloves on and the kids had their hats on). -8C is usually not that cold, but the wind was brutal. It was so cold that Gracie was crying when we were about halfway there. At that point, we couldn't turn around, so we had to keep going. I think I might go pick her up in the car.

It is only supposed to get up to -4C (24F) today, so no trips to the park today.

I've been a slacker...

I haven't posted with pics in a while, so here are some from the last week or so.

Doug & kiddos playing with the new Geo Trax set.


We have some toys in the basement so the kids can run around down there and we don't have to go outside when it is cold.
Gracie slides down the slide. She is way too big for it anymore, but try telling her that.


Bradley follows Gracie around the basement.


Bradley riding his new Diego trike.

We went to Ikea this weekend and got two new bookcases. One for the living room and one for the playroom to contain all the kids' toys.

They enjoyed playing in it while it was being put together.

GO PACKERS!!!!!

More playing...

Here is the mostly finished one in the living room. They were out of the glass doors that we will put on the bottom (covering the bottom two shelves) and we are waiting on some pictures that we took while we were home to fill the empty shelves.

The empty boxes provided hours of entertainment...

The kids playing Hullabaloo.

We are back into the swing of things again. The weather has been really mild for this time of year. It is supposed to get up to 5C (41F) today! When I talked to my dad on Saturday, he said they were having beautiful weather in Houston (72 for a high, 40s for a low). I told him we were also having "beautiful" weather b/c it got up to 3C (38F) on Sat and was sunny. I guess it is all relative. :)

My turn

When we first moved into this house, I posted about my boys falling on the stairs. Doug's fall was quite hilarious to me at the time (and actually still is when I think about it). Well, yesterday was my turn. I ate it. And I was in serious pain from landing hard on my back. Today I feel like I have bit hit by a truck. My neck and back hurt still. In light of this, I want to apologize for making fun of my husband when he fell. I did ask him if he was ok before I started laughing though. And he said he was fine. I, on the other hand, didn't move for several minutes and had tears in my eyes. The kids were very alarmed and came over to ask if I was ok and give me hugs. It was very sweet.

Christmas at home

Santa came while we were in Texas!



Gracie loves the My Little Ponies that Santa brought!


Santa brought Bradley play-doh!


Both kids check out their loot from Santa.

Gracie opens a new book.

Bradley looks at a new book.

Bradley really got into opening this new trike!

Gracie checks out her new Dora lego set.

Daddy assembles the new Diego tricycle.