baby, it's COLD outside

I cannot believe that I have let a whole week go by without a blog entry.  It's almost unprecedented.  It's not that we have been all that busy - more like nothing new and exciting to report.  As I am sure most of you already know - it has been seriously cold here this past week.  We have had temperatures well below zero, and if you factor in the windchill, it's almost inconceivable.  They cancelled school on Friday because the windchill brought temperatures to a -22.  Not good.  And to add insult to injury, we had MORE SNOW last night. We are expected to be in the twenties today, so I am thinking I am going to put my shorts on...just kidding.  Anyway - just thought I would share some pictures from the week:

(the above picture is Emily holding ice that we made by putting a cup of water on the patio - it froze completely in about two hours)
Paige getting ready to go out in the very cold and snowy weather.....she put on everything herself.  Notice in the picture below, she has on MY mittens.  She is too funny.
The girls helping Mommy out with some laundry.
Emily and Paige doing a puzzle together.
Paige with Emily's bunny.  She LOVES that thing.  She calls it Bunny Bunny.
She climbs up in her highchair by herself, and turns on the lights in the kitchen.  So helpful.
Paige watching Yo Gabba Gabba.  I was terrified of this show at first - but the music is catchy, and it has begun to grow on me.  If you ever get a chance to watch it, please do, and tell me what you think of Muno - the red, one-eyed character below....
OK, so it was three degrees when we went to pick up Grandma on Friday, but it was blue skies and sunny...we had to wear shades.

The snow in our backyard as of this morning......no camera trickery here, that's seventeen inches of accumulation over the past week or so.  Um, in case you are wondering, yeah, I am thinking that's ENOUGH.
Daddy teaching Paige to do some minor household repairs.
That's all for this past week.  Eric's birthday is tomorrow.  And then our nine year anniversary on Thursday.  Busy week again......have a great one!

a sledding we will go....

It snowed a ton yesterday and last night.  We think that it was at least eight inches.  So, in the spirit of making lemonade out of lemons - we went to our local sledding hill with our neighbors and good friends - the O'Bryans.  I don't know how I could have missed it, but I have driven past this hill lots of times and never noticed it.  Not anymore.

We had great fun.  It was a BEAUTIFUL day.  The sun was shining, and there was no wind chill. I was actually sweating in my two layers of clothes.  We were out for awhile before I even realized that I wasn't wearing my hat - and I didn't need it anyway.

Emily had more fun on the smaller hill, but was very brave and did a few runs on the big hill. Paige enjoyed the small hill very much.  So much, that every time we finished our run she cried because it was over.  We need to get another sled, one is not enough for this family of daredevils. 

oops....someone lost their boot......

Now I must go and rest my old bones - I am actually sore from all that FUN.

and again....

It is currently blizzarding outside...of course it's outside, that would be pretty bad if it were blizzarding inside right?  My house is very quiet because the baby is sleeping, and my other children are playing outside in the snow.  I was out there too not to long ago, but since I don't have the proper gear - snow pants and waterproof gloves - my time outside is limited.  Anywho, I am taking a moment to post some pictures from today.  Are ya sick of the snow pictures yet? Shockingly enough, I am not.  I figure, we live in a place that has some pretty crazy weather, why not enjoy it - make lemons out of lemonade, right?  Or snow cones out of a blizzard....
Okay, so I lied - not that you would ever know - but this picture of Paige is from a couple days ago.  She isn't in any pictures that I took so far today, and I feel guilty.  So, I thought I would slip this one in.  You would have probably never noticed that she is wearing the same outfit that I photographed her in the other day.  I can't believe that I told you.  Forget you ever knew.  This picture is from today.  :)
Emily really wanted me to take a picture of her with her doggies.  She got five new ones this Christmas and birthday, thanks to Tracy.  Yes, those little puppies are attached to their Mama dog.  Cute, yet a little strange at the same time.
Emily helping me shovel this afternoon.  I love the red cheeks.
Self-portrait of Eric and I.  I am thinking of doing one of these everyday for a year.  Wouldn't that be cute?

Below is a project that I started last Thursday.  I got the idea from another blog that I read. They have these magnet boards - sets of three - in various places around their house.  They are professional photographers with a couple kids, so they take TONS of photos.  They wanted a cool way to display them - so they got these boards at IKEA, and some small magnets - and now they have a instant photo gallery.  I thought it was such a great idea, so I gave it a try as well.  I bought nine boards last Thursday and Eric put them up on Saturday.  The only problem was that we could not find magnets with enough strength to hold up ONE photo.  So we did what any other person would do - go on Ebay.  Eric found these cute little 1/4 square inch magnets - 64 for $11.  Much better than the 80 Mighty Magnets that I found for $80.  So glad I waited for him to search on Ebay.  Anyway, I am going to be putting more photos on them, but I have to either print them out or go through the mounds of photos I already have - for now, they are currently displaying some of my favorite scrapbook layouts...which coincidentally contain some of my favorite photos.
This is above Emily's desk in our family room.  I thought that it would be cool to display some of her artwork here.  
These are in the hallway.
These are in my office/scrapbook room.  These will always pretty much have something scrapbook related on them.  I really like the way they turned out.  I love that these layouts that I have worked so hard on, are not shoved away in a book, but out so everyone can see them.

That's all for now.  Braving the snow later today to have dinner at my Mom's place.  Should be interesting.

this week

Like I said before - just another normal week around here....except, that Emily came home Monday from school with the "Star of the Week" backpack.  She was so excited.  I was so excited for her - until I saw the list of things that we had to do:

1.  Do at least three activities (with pictures or drawings) with Marvin the Monkey

2.  Write about the activities in the journal

3.  Complete a survey about the "star"

4.  Include pictures with the survey

5.  Find something that would fit in the front pocket of the backpack that begins with the letter "p", and fill out the mystery item form - the class tries to guess what's in the pocket

6.  Fill the estimation jar with something - Emily picked Mike and Ikes - and the students try and guess the number of things in the jar.

Usually, you would have the weekend to do all this because the students get the backpack on a Friday - but since the last Friday at school was a snow day - we got the backpack on a Monday, and only had a couple days to complete this.....it was a lot of work, but we did it.  Actually, Emily did most of it - she was very good.

Emily with Marvin

Paige feeding Marvin apples

More snow on Wednesday and Thursday morning

My little snackers sneaking into the pantry while I was cleaning up the mud room

Emily got her hair cut this morning - and got balloons for both her and Paige...

Have a great weekend - winter weather advisory for us today  - getting at least 4 inches of snow by tomorrow...oh goodie.

just another monday

It's finally here - Monday.  Nothing exciting, just waking up, having breakfast, getting ready for the day, and SCHOOL.  It feels like it has been months since we have done this whole routine.  The holidays are such a busy time, and I love it - but it sure is nice to be able to get back to a routine.

Have a great Monday everyone!

the fridge

Yesterday we braved the VERY cold elements with our friends the O'Bryans to have a little winter fun.  We went on a toboggan run in Oakland county called The Fridge.  And it was.  We had no idea that the wait would be so cold, or so long - almost an hour for a 40 second ride. The first time we weren't sitting correctly and Eric's shoe acted as a brake most of the way down. We only got up to twenty-three mph, and had to push off of the sides to get to the end.  The second time was so much better.  We got up to 31 mph and came to a screeching halt at the end. We would have liked to go a few more times, but none of us could feel our toes, legs, or hands. It's very bright and sunny today - it probably would have been a better day...oh well.

hello 2009

The first post of the 2009.  So exciting....a new year.  Such promise.  Here's to a year filled with positive energy.  It's about time...don't you think?

We had a lot of fun last night - fun that lasted well into today.  Paige stayed up to welcome 2009, as did Emily.  With eight kids running around, on time or near on time bedtimes for anyone was not an option.  And it was all good.  There was some very yummy food, good company, and a pretty hearty ski jump competition (on the Wii).n  Our friend Ginger had the high score of the evening, with 307 (that's meters)....she beat Eric....not an easy feat. In fact, he's practicing right now to beat her current high score of 329.

Some pictures:


My fashion plate husband - complete with Holland America boat slippers.  Lovely.
And this is what we did today - took down all the Christmas decorations.  Emily was a BIG help this year, even though she wasn't really keen on it at first.  But, in spite of that, everything is all packed away, and much better organized as well.

Happy 2009!