Teething

Tyler may not be a thumb sucker, but his hands are spending a lot of time in his mouth lately.  Too bad the Orajel does not work and our favorite go to teething remedy, Hyland Teething Tablets, are no longer sold.  Of course, I had to find out the teething tablets were recalled and off the market after Claire decided they were candy two weeks ago and ate the whole bottle.

On the move

Too bad the weekend comes to an end tomorrow.  We had so much fun playing outside with all the toys that have been buried in our garage the last few months.  Maybe we'll get lucky and next weekend will be just as beautiful.

Temps in the high 60s

Beautiful, non-coat weather, day 2.   Absolutely loving the springtime weather in January (while it lasts)!

Swinging

When it's sunny and temperatures are in the 60s, you better believe we're going outside.  When Tyler used the swing last fall, he hated it.   I guess his opinion has changed!

Quiet time

While Grace played with three other neighborhood girls in the playroom this afternoon, Claire opted for some quiet time in Mom and Dad's bed (while watching Dora of course).

Clean up

I had such grand intentions to make this donation pile bigger today.  But alas, school was delayed 2 1/2 hours for RAIN!  We had been hearing for a week that the storm heading our way was "hard to predict" and snow accumulations could be anywhere from 1-2 inches or 6-10 inches depending on the direction of the low pressure system coming from the Gulf.  So of course, at 2pm yesterday they decided to delay the opening of school today and, of course, we awoke to snow that looked just like our sandy brown bermuda grass.

Ice Cream

Unlike Grandma's, we don't keep ice cream (or cones) in our house.  So today Claire had to improvise.

Cars

Playing cars with Mommy (and her camera)!

DS

Mario Kart DS and severely chapped lips. . . where is spring????

Writing

Friday night Claire wrote her name for the first time by herself.  And Saturday morning, Grace decided to write Claire a little note:  "Dear Claire I am so mad at you and I am nev (never) gowe (going) to let you see Laura('s) pone (pony) game."  Claire's response to Grace's note: "I don't like that.  Throw it away."

Delayed opening

In our neck of the woods, when there is 1 inch of snow overnight, school gets delayed by two hours.  Of course, everyone was up even earlier than normal (i.e., 6am), so there was plenty of time to play before heading to the bus stop at 9:30.

Lunchtime ritual

Now that the girls are back in school this week, Tyler and I are enjoying more quality time together.  Like this quality moment right after lunch.  Or as my husband would call it, a little gastrocolic reflex :)

Do over

Today was one of those days that just started off on the wrong footing.  Let's see. . . Tyler was up multiple times during the night because his top molars are popping through (actually noticed them for the first time on the 17th).  Then within an hour of being at school this morning, Claire decided it would be fun to fall into a chair and give herself a shiner.  Here's to hoping tomorrow starts off a little smoother!

Bunk beds

Busy day around here because we're finally back to school and back to our activities (Grace had dance today too)!  So here's a picture of our latest furniture purchase. . . bunkbeds!  The girls love their new beds (and so does Tyler who showed us this weekend that we have to keep the door closed at all times because he climbed up to the top bunk with no problem at all)!

Togetherness

After ten days at home, thank goodness the girls are finally back to school tomorrow.  As Claire's face shows, we've all had a little too much togetherness lately. . . though Tyler may miss having his sisters around to feed him all day :)

Did you hear the good news?

Bears won! I guess we'll be sporting this shirt again next weekend when we play the Packers!

Human jungle gym

When Daddy is home, climbing on him is a must.

Comfortable?

Maybe Einstein videos look better from this angle?

The annoying little brother

Tyler has already figured out how to annoy each of his sisters.  The simple act of climbing onto Claire's new bed always results in her crying, "I don't want Tyler on my bed!"  One day, the girls will eventually learn to close their bedroom door.

Christmas Eve

I've gone back and forth as to whether I even wanted to put our Christmas pictures on the blog since 3 out of 5 of us were really sick. . . and our pictures show it!  But, even though Mike wants to completely forget this Christmas, I don't!

Unfortunately, the two who got hit the worst with the stomach virus were the two most looking forward to Christmas.  Claire started feeling lousy the night of the 23rd and exactly 24 hours, on Christmas Eve night, it all started downhill for Grace too.  After washing three sets of Claire's sheets on the 23rd, we forced Grace to stay up and watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas.   

Poor thing felt so bad she was determined to sleep anyway she could. . .

Thankfully our little guy never got as sick as the girls and was in good spirits on Christmas Eve.  He enjoyed watching the Grinch with the rest of us and for the first time showed us that he actually can wave goodbye.  Stubborn little guy won't do it for us when we want him to, but when Santa waved goodbye in the movie, Tyler promptly waved right back at him. 

Claire, on the other hand was still recuperating from the night before and was content to just stay quiet on the chair and watch the movie as well. 

Finally, by 9pm, all was finally quiet and the vomiting was past us.  Since the girls were too sick to bake cookies for Santa this year, Mom and Dad found what they could so Santa would not go hungry at our house.

And here is what he left. . .

Yet another snow day

We're a little stir crazy as it was our 3rd day out of school this week.  And lucky us, we're home from school again tomorrow.  The girls stayed in their pajamas all day, not interested in playing in the snow anymore.  Tyler and I, on the other hand, had to get outside a couple of times for our own sanity.

Sledding

It may be another 10+ years before we experience another snowfall like this, so we had to find something to go sledding on today.

First snow

Tyler missed our Christmas snowfall because he was sick.  Fortunately, he gets to partake in the 7 inches that fell here overnight

More snow...

All week they were predicting quite a snowfall for our area, and they were actually right this time.  When we went to bed last night, it was just starting to snow, and when we woke up this morning, here is what we saw.

I took the ruler out with me this morning.  In most spots, I measured 6 inches, in some spots 7.  And apparently we had "thundersnow" last night.  Unfortunately, none in our house saw (or heard) the thunder and lightning show as we were all sound asleep at 10pm. 

I'm not sure if we'll make it outside to play today.  The girls only want to go out with Daddy, and of course, he is on call.  So Mike left for the hospital an hour ago.  What is typically a 20 minute drive took him 45 minutes today.  When I asked him how the drive was over the mountain, he said "interesting."  Needlesstosay, he saw multiple cars off the road and one car the other direction spun out and was blocking traffic.  Hope his drive home this afternoon is a little better.  Thankfully one of his partners who lives close to the hospital has agreed to cover his call tonight.

Daddy's girl

Right now Claire is our one child who wants Daddy to do everything for her.  Daddy must give her a bath, brush her teeth, read to her at night. . . and of course, play with her (even while he sleeps).

Clean out day

Mike and I spent a good portion of this afternoon cleaning out.  We made tons of progress and have a lot of trash and donation bags ready to leave this house.  To Tyler's pleasure, we did not clean out any toys this time around.

So sick

I was so thrilled to get a call at 8:30 this morning from the elementary school clinic.  When told Grace was complaining of a tummy ache and had a temperature of 99 degrees, I'm sure the nurse loved me when I asked, "So you want me to come pick her up?"  Let's just say my motherly instincts were dead on this time.  The first thing Grace asked me when I saw her was, "Can I eat my snack in the car?"  And when I took her temperature at home and throughout the day, it was always 98 degrees.  Needlesstosay, Grace got a free day to play!

Learning young

Wouldn't Daddy be proud to know his son took an interest in his Fortune magazine today.  Though Tyler's interest = shredding the stock picks all over the floor.  Hope Daddy was finished reading this magazine!

Healthy breakfast

Mornings are rough when Mom won't fill Claire's bowl "full" of pretzels and goldfish.  Maybe one day my kids will learn, "If you eat what is in there, you can always get more."  And just a side note. . . even though this picture was taken at 8am, Claire did eat a bowl of oatmeal first!

Typical lunch

Bread, cheese, and turkey on the floor.   All smiles and clapping because Mom finally got the grapes washed and cut!

Snuggling with Daddy

We love Daddy's half day off from work.  And Daddy loves when his little guy snuggles with him!

Picture Blog

A couple of blogs that I read simply post a picture a day.  Because I've been slacking in blogging lately and I want to do a better job of regularly posting pictures of the kids, I thought about changing this blog to that concept.  But since I enjoy this blog, I ultimately decided to keep it as is and start something new.  So on the side, you can find a link to my new picture blog.  I highly doubt by the end of the year, I'll have 365 images, but I'm going to try to my best to post one picture as often as I can.  And hopefully I'll get back to posting on this blog 2-3 times a week.   But for right now, the picture blog is definitely still a work in progress!

Einstein

A quiet house. . . the girls were at the movie theater with Grandma seeing Tangled (and Daddy was working). 

A little snack. .  . Veggie Straws, his favorite. 

A walker. . . yes, we've mastered walking (first 5 or so steps happened on December 15 and right after Christmas, he decided he could walk through the house, but we're a side step walker right now). 

And Baby Einstein. . . our favorite DVD!

Computer Gals

This picture shows what has been an almost daily occurrence in our house over Christmas break.  Every morning Grace loves to play her computer games and Claire loves to watch.  All looks calm in this picture, but that usually does not last for long. . . at some point I usually hear, "Mom, Tyler is pulling on the mouse!"