The Blizzard of 2013

I do have more pictures than this, but it is really hard to capture just how much snow we received.  It was just over 3 feet..... the kids couldn't even walk around outside... we are very thankful for our plow guy, to CMP for doing whatever preventative work they have done over the past year b/c we didn't lose power, and that our flight to Florida doesn't leave until tomorrow!

Indoor Winter Fun

I am not really sure what I did before Pintrest for inexpensive and fantastic activities for the kids.  This water table has carried it's weight this winter as a great play table for the kids and the mess is contained to the porch;)  This particular Pintrest find is "moon sand".... 8 cups flour 1 cup baby oil..... hours of fun.  It molds like real sand, smells way better, makes your hands soft, plus when Ben and James eat it I don't care quite as much. The top picture is for you Uncle J-me.... the couch was obviously a hit, but we may need another when the next one comes.... :)  The middle pictures are of Benjamin one morning at breakfast.  He was so proud of himself for balancing his strawberry on the straw of his cup..... we just LOVE that smile!

Misc. January 2013

January has certainly flown by for us and I am not even really sure what there is to say about it other than it was COLD.  This was one of the coldest Januarys I can remember, especially here in Portland.  The kids handled it well and we got outside twice a day to walk Noah to school and pick him up, but it took a significant effort to get them bundled enough;) Other than that we largely stayed inside and tried to fight the cold with some fun activities. We are headed to Florida soon and can't wait some warm sunny weather and for Gabe to be around for a whole week!

Snowman

It recently snowed significantly, but it was really fluffy and light, so the kids have been pretty disappointed to not be able to build anything with the snow.  Today the temperature warmed up enough to make the snow sticky and the kids jumped on the opportunity to build with it.  Benjamin just loves playing in the snow so long as he can walk without falling.  This is the snowman who is "going for a hike with his walking stick" -per Noah and James.  Per usual James refused to pose for a picture, but Ben was more than happy to sit with Noah... he just loves his older brothers so much:)

Post Christmas Visit up North 2012

I am not even sure where to begin here!  There really wasn't much we didn't do during this trip and there weren't many people we didn't get to see. We stayed the first two nights with Grampy and Grammy Civiello, where the kids opened more presents and had so much fun playing with their new cardboard playhouse.... until Ben woke up... he thought that going in and out of the window was a great idea and that was the end of clubhouse fun;)  We got a huge snowstorm while we were there and were able to take full advantage of walking on the pond and snowmobiling.  We did even get James to get on this year which was very exciting!  Noah absolutely loved snowmobiling  this year and did so well driving solo around the figure 8 "track" daddy made for him on the pond.  James still refuses to try out the tractor, but one of Noah's favorite parts was plowing the road with Grampy.  Benjamin really loves playing out in the snow so long as he has a path to walk on;)

We spent the next two nights with Grandpa and Nannie, and for one night Aunt Amy and Trey stayed over too... thanks snowstorm #2 for keeping them with us;) The first day we spent "snowshoeing" and sliding in their yard. Day #2 brought a trip to Uncle Jon's farm where the kids did more sledding and all took a turn driving the Bobcat to plow the snow... after playing with the animals of course. Saturday afternoon we went to watch Mikayla's basketball game, went sledding with the Pelkey girls and had a fun pizza party with the whole family!  Thanks for coming everyone, it was so great to see you all!!

On this trip I think I actually took zero pictures, so thank you to Grammy, Nannie and Hillary for sharing yours!! 

Christmas 2012 and Orange Peeling

We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas this year. Gabe had some time off a few days before so we really felt like we got to spend lots of fun family time together... which, shockingly, makes for much happier kids and parents;) On Christmas Eve we spent the morning making some soups... including taking on Great Grammy Civiello's meatball soup "recipe" which turned out pretty great. Noah, James and I attended the Christmas Eve church service which is always a great family pageant event and to top it all off we were able to get a decent family picture in front of the tree!  The kids set out the milk and cookies for santa and excitedly went to bed.

Christmas morning we had some EXCITED boys.  Santa brought everything they wanted and more... Ben's first stop was the left over milk and cookies on the table from Santa.... I think him spilling the milk was just a distraction so he could eat the cookies while we got some paper towels... next year maybe we will ask Santa to eat all of the cookies;)  Present opening took what felt like an eternity given that they so badly wanted to play with each gift.  As always they received more than they needed, but loved it all. Thank you everyone!  They spent the rest of the day playing while Gabe and I took down and packed up all of the Christmas decorations... The neighbors were probably judging us for having our tree on the curb by 1pm, but oh well:)  We made a great lamb roast for dinner and finished packing for our trip north tomorrow!

The bottom picture is of James's new found use for all of the "picking" he does.  He loves to peel clementines and he is really good at it.  They are pretty juicy though and had gotten the juice in his eyes more than once... here is his solution... genius!