Tongues

I have noticed the last couple of times that Natalie uses her tongue to color. She can always be found looking like this when she is coloring. It is adorable.

Last night you asked me to color with you. You found an activity book with a page for each number up to 19. You were bound to color each page before bedtime. I love your determination and desire to do a job good. You love to do school work and ask for homework when the boys are doing theirs. And you love to be busy. I hope you always aim high for yourself.

Winter Wonderland

Many of you know I grew up in a state that gets very cold in the winter. I love the snow- for a time. Then I am ready for it to be gone. Well, moving here we thought we would never see snow. And for the last 4 years that we have lived here it has snowed every winter, and this winter it came twice (maybe three-my kids are hoping!) Last week our kids went to school on Mon and then Tuesday morning we woke up and everything was frozen. Our streets were complete sheets of ice. Needless to say school was CANCELED!!! I don't think I saw any disappointments on their faces. We did so many things last week and none of them involved errands, cleaning or schedules.

Our kids ice skated on the street. Evan declared himself pretty good after a couple minutes!

Zach opted for skating on the ice in a more compact mode. That really can't be too comfortable.

Then we ventured out back to use the hill, which was also frozen solid. No matter where we went it was slick. Our fence door was even froze shut. That is how it was for Tues, Wed and Thur. And each of those days we had no school. At this point Natalie was ready for some preschool. She wasn't as thrilled to have school canceled. We wanted friends to come over, but 2 problems: 1- the roads were very icy and still weren't cleared 2-all her friends happened to get sick the week we were out. Lucky for me none of my kids got sick.

Then we woke up Friday morning to this

Approximately 4 inches of snow. Which covered up all the ice and made the roads even more fun to venture on. But at this point I was going crazy and we were running out of the essentials. Two other girls and I (all needing groceries) braved the roads, going no faster than 30 and went to town. It was good to get out, but the roads are safer in states like Idaho with weather like this.

Friday we did some more fun outside. And Dad even got to join us. See how he is holding onto the fence? It was so slippery he couldn't stand up on the hill. But it made for some fun sled rides!!!

Even Dad thought so. Thank goodness for Little Tyke toys, since we don't have sled. I know once I invest in one it won't snow here.

We had a blast together all week. My kids were not ready to go back to school this morning. It was a fun break. I love spending time with my kids and hope that they will always remember our fun memories. Thanks for the memories Zach, Evan and Natalie.

Preschool Is The Best!!

Natalie absolutely loves preschool. She asks me every day if there is preschool. I wish I had the courage to do it every day! She has started wanting to write other words besides her own name. This is what she drew for the family the other day. What a cutie!

She loves all the stuff we do in preschool. Monday we talked about Groundhog Day coming up. We made groundhog tunnels and we popped in and out to see if we saw our shadows. After school Natalie played in her groundhog tunnel for hours. She even wanted to sleep in it that night. She finally relented to taking a box in her room and she was going to sleep in that. After about 30 min she called me into her room to tell me she was too big of a groundhog and she slept in her bed. I love the imagination of a child. She told me the other day that she didn't want to go to kindergarten she wanted to stay in preschool forever. I am glad she loves it so much. But I do need to get her excited for kindergarten.

Mixed Emotions

Seeing this in your driveway has such mixed emotions. How can looking at this truck make you happy and sad at the same time? My little family has moved many times and each time we were excited to begin a new adventure in a new land, yet so sad to leave family and friends behind. This particular truck brought many smiles for my family. My sister and her family moved to Texas!!! We are so excited to have family some what close. They are about 2 hours away. Close enough to spend holidays and see them fairly frequently. But I do know there were many tears shed as they left other family and friends to begin their new adventure here.

But my kids are so excited to have them closer!!! We helped them move in and then we went back 2 days later to help put stuff together and spend time together. I hope they enjoy living here as much as we have.