Winter Wonderland/Sickness

With 102.5 degree temperatures, midnight trips to Wee Care, screaming for hours on end and many sleepless nights in a row I am about at my wits end. We have been really sick around our house for about 5 days now. I am just grateful that I haven't gotten sick yet. I would like to have healthy kids before I get this wonderful germ.

Aren't those cheeks just sad??

Today we woke to lots and lots of snow. It started sometime in the night and hasn't stopped yet (4 pm). Dallin and I went out and tried to snow blow. But apparently I am lacking in the ability to get a snow blower to work... So we shoveled.

The thing about shoveling at this point in the season is that we have these HUGE mountains on either side of our driveway. So in order to clear the snow OFF the driveway you have to throw it on top of these enormous mountains. My 5 year old is really tall for his age. But here he posed for me.

Don't you love the boots?? I love that kid! I figure that since I am a fair weathered runner that this is my punishment of getting a workout.

Maggie was upset that she couldn't come out and help since she was only in a diaper. I told her to go get some clothes on and this is what she came out in.

Not gonna fly, baby... She got to stay in.

When we went out to take the pictures of Dallin in front of the snow mountains this is what I saw. How discouraging is that??

Didn't I just shovel????!!!

Here are some pictures of our backyard.

Won't it be nice when we can use this again??

And I can't wait to get this set up...

This was a 1 this afternoon.


This is at 4 this afternoon...

I'm thinking the birds aren't thrilled with us right now.

I just liked this picture...

This is what greeted me when I came in from shoveling. YAE!! She is finally sleeping!

Why can't she do this at night?

Dallin's Green Belt!

Scott stayed home from work this morning to attend a very important event for Dallin. He had his belt test and he advanced to his green belt in Tiny Tigers Karate (3-5 yr olds). This means he only has one more belt and then he will advance to the 6 yr old class called Little Dragons.


It was so fun to see him today. This was the first time that he tested with his kamas.

Don't ya love the tongue sticking out??? He's gonna bite it off one of these days...

When Sensei Jeff was giving him his green belt he says, "You have come a loooong way, Dallin. The first day you came into our dojo you wanted to be called Luke Skywalker. Now you could kick Luke Skywalker's butt!" It was so funny because I had totally forgotten that!

Our very first day when Sensei Shelly asked Dallin his name he said, "Luke." Just like his name really was. She said, "Well Luke, it is nice to meet you." I had to intervine and tell her his name was really Dallin... He just was wanting to be Luke Skywalker...

Anyway - Congrats little buddy! I love you!

My DVD is skipping!

We are having a cold day and I had a chicken carcass in the fridge. So I decided to make a pot of chicken noodle soup for dinner. I put on a show for Maggie. I am in the kitchen cutting and cooking and singing along to the movie...

If you know my daughter - you will be able to guess what show it is...


Mamma Mia! of course!! So I am having a grand time singing in the kitchen (except for when the movie skips... I am going to have to buy another one. It's only been 2 months!!!). I got to a stopping point and went into the living room and this is what I found...

I thought it was a little quiet. It's 5:20 pm. Should I wake my sleeping baby?? I think maybe not. Like her snow boots and skirt??? She is tons more opinionated about her clothing that Dallin EVER was!!!!!

And so... are the days... of our lives....

You ever had a day that just... well - it's just a day?? That would be today. We have had beautiful weather. The snow was almost melted... The kids were playing outside... Then this morning came.

Of course it's a busy morning. I have a job interview for some part time work, Dallin had karate and then I had to take the van in to see what it would be worth as a trade in. So I get up earlier than I have gotten up in a while to get ready. Scott comes in and says that it snowed. He goes out and shovels my side of the driveway before work.

I get in my heels and skirt and it is snowing. I mean coming down hard! Drop the kids at a friend's house. Go back to get Dallin. Barely get to karate. Go to the dealer. Get home. Finally, I pull into the driveway and my garage door doesn't go up. This isn't good.

So I figured out how to open the garage door pulling this red thing...


I got the door open and the van got stuck in the driveway...

Great....

I decided I had better change and get a fire going so we don't freeze. So I tromp out to the side of the house...


Get the wood brought into the garage....

Sorry Scott... It's not as neat as you would do it.

And then see a power company truck. I guess he was looking to see if lights were on.

They weren't....

So I get the fire going....

And think - this could be a fun day! No computer - No tv - No game cube! I even thought we could make mac and cheese on top of our fireplace stove!

Next it's time to dig out the van so I can get it into the garage... but before that I decided to give my kid a camera... He gets into taking pictures!




This one was Maggie's picture...

My kids and I are in the front yard shoveling and shoveling and shoveling. There haven't been any snowplows go down our street. So I am not cussing yet since my hard work isn't being negated by their throwing it BACK on my driveway.

We have in the past gotten hate mail from the postmaster general.... He says we don't keep our mailbox clear enough for the mailman truck to get to it. So I figure after the 1 hour spent on HALF of the driveway I would try to dig out the mailbox...

Didn't happen....

When we got back in, the power was back on and the kids wanted to watch a movie!!!! Heaven forbid the power be out for 3 hours so they can't have electronics on!!!!

So they had a picnic in the basement and watched Atlantis....

Despite how much I HATE snow - It really is beautiful!

I love how it clings to the branches of the trees!

And hangs off our bird bath...

Happy snow day everyone!!

Bed Pics

Since I really don't have that much to blog about - or maybe I am just so sleep deprived that I don't have the energy to blog about anything - I am going to post a few cute pics..

This was Maggie the other night. She was mad that we put her to bed. She was crying and knocking on her door. We have a knob protector on it so she can't open her door from the inside. Scott and I were talking and quite suddenly she stopped crying and knocking. We looked at each other and wondered if we ought to check. We did - and this is what we saw...

This is an older picture of Dallin. Last summer I believe. HE WAS NOT TIRED!! He stated very clearly that he was NOT going to take a nap... This is what I found.

Have a good week!

Hair and other stuff

My friend Lasca is very good about doing hair. Her daughter's hair is always done just right. My daughter's hair on the other hand.... Well - let's just say I cut it so I could actually get it brushed.

She straightened Maggie's hair yesterday and it was ADORABLE!!! So we did it again today.

Isn't it great??

She is such a poser!

Then the other stuff:

Today during the sacrament at church, Dallin leans over to me and says, "Mom - farts and burps are made from bubbles!" Needless to say - I have not sufficiently taught my son to be thinking of Jesus during the sacrament....

Then while he was drawing on his whiteboard during church he asked me what he should draw. I said a house. He drew and narrated for me... "That's the roof. That's the bricks. The house kind of looks like a sandwich. Sorry." Then he was drawing the windows and he says, "The windows look like a sandwich too." Do you think I need to feed my kid before church???

New Bedrooms

Since I can't sleep tonight I decided I would get up and do something productive. So I am getting a blog entry done.

We have been working on the bedrooms in our house since last May. I took on the project of Maggie's room first. Painting the stripes absolutely sucked. But I tell ya - I LOVE how it turned out. We couldn't decide between white or purple for the chairrail. The popular vote was white... But I just couldn't do it. I went with the purple and think it turned out great!

Then there was the issue of bed sheets/comforters. Finally today we got Maggie's bought. Since she has become a pro at getting out of her crib this is perfect timing. Fun bed sheets and take down her crib!!! I love Ross - A gorgeous satin comforter with the dark purple on one side and light purple on the other side for $13!

Don't ya LOVE our curtains! Yes - I have blankets over the windows. I will get to the curtains. I promise!

Now what Maggie bed would be complete without a Do-wa buleenkee??



And look at these adorable sheets we found at Ross for $6! They match the butterflies on her walls!


A few weeks ago I found this camoflauge comforter for Dallin at Ross. They had camo sheets tonight - but I figured he already had Superman and car sheets. So he was fine in that department. The camo matches the paint and stickers we put on his walls.

This is our bed. I got this blanket somewhere - can't remember now. But it works well with our green accent wall that Scott painted.

So now I feel almost complete with our bedrooms.... I really need to get curtains made for all of our rooms... Is remodeling EVER done???

Scott did a ton while we were in Arkansas and Indiana. There will be a post on that coming soon. It's just never ending!! But it's fun too!