Beautiful Winter

Well, our family missed the big snow here in December because we had already headed down to Florida, but we are fortunate enough that it snowed big again. I think we got about 12-14" here at our house. It snowed all day yesterday and into the night. The kids had a blast of course...and I took some shots this morning when taking Elsa out for her morning walk.

You can hardly see their faces on account of how cold it was and with the snow in front of the camera. In between Eric and Bay is their friend, Carson.Leah, trudging her sled back up the hill.

And on another note, I got to finish the cushion cover for Eric's chair. He loves it now, and will love it even more when he gets it into his new room!

January Birthdays

Eric and I share birthdays 1 day apart from each other, (I actually went into labor with him on my birthday, but that is another story!) so it is always a fun week when our birthdays roll around! Leah and Eric baked me a cake and then each of them decorated a third of it. I took a cooking class at our local kitchen store and my mom, brother and 2 friends joined me for the class. It was a superb way to spend my birthday...and it was one of the best classes I have taken.

Eric had a great day as well. I can't believe he is 11 years old! He opened half of his presents in the morning, and the rest at dinner when my parents came over.
I'm not sure who's more excited in this picture, Eric or Leah!

Shortly after breakfast, Eric and Bay took their bows and arrows outside to practice with Eric's present, a free-standing target! This is a big deal for them...no more trying to find a place to tack up the paper target anymore. And this can be left outside, which is a bonus because they always forget to bring stuff in anyways!

Eric and his Gramps

Eric chose lasagna, salad and bread for dinner with an ice-cream cake (that I usually make in the summer) for dessert. Yummy!

It's the little things...

One of the benefits of living near my parents is that the kids have a wonderfully close relationship with their grandparents. One of the ways that this relationship is fostered is through one-on-one breakfast dates. Either Granni or Gramps will take one kid at a time out to breakfast, and they cycle through the kids so each kid gets a turn. This has become something they each look forward to, but there is something else that really touches my heart as their mom.

While each kid cherishes the alone time, each one always comes back with something for the siblings left at home eating oatmeal with mom. It might be a half of a bagel, or a pack of hash browns, or an extra pancake. Whatever, it is almost like they don't want their siblings to be left out. It doesn't matter that each one always gets a turn, but they always, and I mean always, bring something back.

It is this sibling love that touches my heart.

It looks like a room...

Dennis and I hung the ceiling drywall yesterday. If you have never hung ceiling drywall, count yourself lucky. We had to tag team each other toward the end with the drilling of the screws. By the last few peices of drywall, the drill gun started to feel like a lead weight. Wow that was exhausting to say the least.

not sure what all of the spots are in this picture. maybe reflection from the flash off all of the dust particles?

Today Dennis and my dad hung the drywall on the walls. Tomorrow they will start mudding. I got a break from downstairs and was happy to be upstairs doing some cleaning...cleaned the dining room hutch, the computer desk and the refrigerator...very satisfying...:)

Look...I actually have shelves in my fridge!

I always forget to take the "before" shot, but just imagine a mess of papers, notebooks, books and the daily stuff of life keeping this area from being remotely useful.

The pocket door from the outside. Still waiting for drywall on the outside of the room.

And the pocket door from the inside looking out of the room.

Little Artists

Eric has enjoyed his watercolor set he got for Christmas and has graced the empty wall above the piano with some of his new creations. I also love the frames...they are antique frames that I recycled, and I think they look lovely surrounding his artwork!

Leah also is constantly drawing...I framed one of my favorites to hang in the school room.

Meanwhile, Bay is doing cartwheels and handstands throughout the house. Not much artwork from him, but lots of entertainment!

Swim Meet
On Sunday night, I swam in a Masters swim meet up the road. This is the second meet I have done since getting back into swimming. Several of my girlfriends whom I swim with swam in the meet, as well as my brother, Andy. Dennis and the kids came along, and so did my parents. We had a great time, though my muscles are yelling at me today!

Very nice pool
I swam the 50 backstroke...took almost a second off my time and came in 2nd in my heat. That's me in the pink cap.

I also swam the 200 IM. If you are not a swimmer, this means that there are 2 lengths of each stroke (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle). I am all the way at the far end of the picture in the pink cap again. Andy raced against me, and though I give him grief about it, it is fun to race against my brother, something you never get to do in US swimming...in Masters swimming, the events are mixed, meaning guys/girls compete and across all age groups (ages 18-90+). Though both of us were exhausted, the 200 was fun to swim, and Andy took 2 seconds off his time (I did not have a previous time in this event)

Here is Andy swimming is 100 free with me yelling at him from the sidelines. He took time off and I am pretty sure it is because I wouldn't leave him alone!

Afterwards we all went out to eat at Famous Dave's...then came home and collapsed in bed. It has been a busy and fun weekend, now back to school and routine!

Progress

Saturday was spent working on the basement...pretty much the entire day. Dennis and I got lots done, all of the walls up, electrical done, pocket door in, and the insulation hung. Dennis got some help from Leah on one of the outlets.

She was proud to tell her brothers at dinner that she got an electricity lesson with daddy. She could tell them that black wires are hot and white are neutral. And, never touch any wires unless you are helping your daddy and he is sitting right there with you!!!

More Basement Remodeling

Since being back from our Christmas trip, the kids were really hoping to get some snow...they were not disappointed! We got about 3 inches last week and they had a blast playing in it. Since it has been so cold, there is still some snow on the ground, and the creek is frozen over with a light layer of snow on top of it, so it feels very much like winter. Not to worry, we are cozy and warm inside with the woodstove and I am very content! Winter is by far my most favorite season of all!

So we have started on the next big project here at our house (though there are others that have been started and not finished), but we are anxious to get the kids' bedroom re-arrangement finished. We are turning a corner of the basment into Eric's room. Eventually we will add a window along the left wall, but for now, we are just trying to get the room built and get him into it.

The kids' toys have all been shoved to one little tiny corner to make room for construction supplies. We will still keep a large rectangle down here for toys, ping-pong and a couch/tv.This is the space where the room will be. We will be insulating the concrete walls as well which will help with temperature control.
So far the studs along the walls are up and the bulkhead around the hvac duct is up and a closet is framed in. Dennis still has one free-standing wall to build and is putting in a pocket door. Then electrical wiring, insulation and drywall. Exciting!!!

December Camping Tour

Post #4

Probably my most favorite day of the whole trip was the day that we went to Sanibel Island. We brought our bikes along on this trip for this very reason...to bike around the Island and are so glad we did it! It was a peaceful, restful day filled with things our nuclear family unit loves to do together. We started out riding in the Ding Darling Nature Preserve. Elsa even got to go along with us for the whole day...she is doing very well learning to walk/run alongside my bike. There were tons of birds and other wildlife, but the highlight of the time here was seeing alligators, close up and in person! We probably biked about 4.5 miles, not a whole lot, but it was beautiful and we took our time and stopped to see lots of things along the way.

We ate lunch at a restaurant recommended by our friends Sara and Ryan, Cheeburger Cheeburger, in the little town on the island. It was good, and since the milkshakes were recommended, we got those too. The menu for the milkshakes included every flavor literally imaginable, probably 100flavors listed. Eric could read and decide for himself, and Leah already knew what she wanted without looking at the choices, but Bay wanted to know what his choices were. He could have sat there and read it himself, but it would have taken him an hour, so told him i was going to read it to him only ONE time and he would have to listen carefully and stop me when i got to one that sounded good. So, I read through the ENTIRE menu, all 100 of them, (all listed in alphabetical order). When I got to the last one...V for Vanilla and he still hadn't said which one he wanted, I said, "Bay, which flavor do you want?" he said, of course, "Vanilla!" We all got a good laugh out of that!

Lastly, we visited Bowman's Beach on the Island and had a fabulous impromptu time. It is amazing how the beaches are so different all along the gulf coast. The first one we visited was calm water, chilly water, wide flat beach, and tons of shells. Bowman's Beach was totally the opposite...the water was rough but much warmer, no shells and a much sharper drop-off at the surf line. Anyways, the kids had no bathing suits, but we took off our shoes and let them play in the waves. Bay got soaked all the way up to his hat. Elsa had a blast letting the waves chase her and then she would attack the foam. The sun was sinking in the sky as we were there, so the pictures captured our mood very well. It was a great end to a great day.

December Camping Tour

Post #3

Have you ever seen a banana tree? I had not, so when we went to visit a friend of my cousin, they had some growing at their house. Can you see the little bananas growing above the little purple flowers? Too bad they weren't yet ripe, that would have been neat to eat a FRESH banana!

Christmas Eve night, we spent some quality family time in the camper setting up our own tiny tree and tiny ornaments, listened to Christmas music from the ipod through the camper stereo, strung multi-color lights and hung the stockings on the bathroom door with care :) The kids were excited to say the least. It didn't matter to them that we only brought stockings with us (no other gifts), it was pure Christmas excitement.

Christmas morning proved to be special even 1000 miles from home. We read the story of Jesus' birth from Luke, ate leftover stale doughnuts, and the kids opened their stockings. Even after we got home and the kids opened their regular presents from Granni & Gramps and us, Bay's favorite gift was still the mini bowling set he got in his stocking! Go figure :)

Heather's cousin, Laura, was a magnificent hostess! She was up every morning with her husband, Kevin, cooking up something different for breakfast, fresh fruit out, fresh squeezed orange juice, coffee...we had such a good time visiting and catching up. Some time ago, our kids began calling her Aunt Laura because she has endeared herself to them so much like an aunt (even though she's my cousin). Needless to say, we felt very much at home with them and are so thankful for their hospitality.