Snowy Days

I thought we were going to sneak by this winter without having to deal with a snow storm. I was wrong. But honestly, it hasn't been that bad. The rumor was that we were going to have a very heavy winter with all kinds of precipitation, so I planned ahead. I bought snowsuits. I bought proper snowshoes. I bought gloves that don't make your hands cold when they get wet.
And then we got spring all winter long. And I was totally ok with that. I loved it, to tell you the truth. But as I stood at our front door this afternoon, smelling the hot cocoa and soup on the stove top and watching the big, beautiful flakes just keep falling while Jason and the girls had a snowball fight in the front yard, I decided I was thankful that the snow came. I was thankful that we were able to use the snow clothes at least once. I was thankful that Jason felt well enough to go outside for a bit. I was thankful for a sweet, homey environment that our fun, old house seems to just keep on providing.
It was a good day and one that will make me grin when I think back on it.

The end of the year

There's no way I'm going to end the year with a blog post about homemade pop tarts. Instead, I'll finish out the year with a post recounting what's been going on with us the past week or so.

Nora has been VERY LOUD AND WHINY in the car as of late so I came up with the brilliant idea that Jason could drop me and Nora off in Little Rock at the air port and then pick us up in Nashville ten hours later. I contacted Dan to see if we could score a buddy pass and if there were any flights that looked promising. It was all set up and on Sunday, we took off.

Naps have to happen, even in airports.

Nora enjoying having a whole row of seats to herself.

I thought it was hilarious that no one sat beside us or even across the isle from us.

Looking out the window at the lights of St. Louis

We made it to Tennessee without any incidents (Other than Nora throwing up on the way home from the airport. Very high altitude and then too many curves make for one queasy tummy.) and settled in at Bebe and Bubba's house.

By Monday, everyone had arrived. Lily and Eily were so happy to see each other again!

On Christmas morning, we woke up and dove into the presents.  





On Thursday, Abi and I took the girls to the Discovery Museum to get out of the house and burn off some energy. (And to give Bebe and Bubba a little break. :)

Claire, the mechanic

This was her tire assistant, Nora.

Eily was in charge of fluids.

This was the largest turtle I've ever seen. Nora was impressed.

Digging for bones

Lily the explorer

Rock spreader

Having fun in the shadow room

Shadows from the above picture

Of course we had to experience a tornado before we left. :)

Then, on Friday, we traveled home. There weren't any flights at a good time so Nora and I made the trek home with the rest of the family. There had been a heavy snow in Arkansas while we were gone and the girls were very excited to get home and make a snowman.

All of our snow was melted. Boo.

But Nanny and Pappy had a lot of now left (still do, actually) and on Saturday afternoon we went to their house. Uncle Josh came over and he and Elaina and Claire made a great snowman for Nanny!

Then late Saturday night our realtor called to say someone wanted to look at the house Sunday afternoon. So I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and now we are just waiting to hear if the report is negative or positive.

Today, the last day of 2012 has been nice. We've picked up a little, we've done some laundry, we've worked on potty training and we've played with new toys. I'm enjoying the sound of the the girls playing together. Elaina and Claire are in the schoolroom creating a barbie town and Nora and Eily are on the couch reading books together. I'm so blessed to have my little family. 

We have snow! Real snow!! Able to play in it snow!!!

Yes, I call myself The Walrus. Why do you ask?

Remembering to be mellow

I finished the living room. Let's see a before picture again.

And another:

Now let's insert a picture of Eily for no particular reason.

Now, you have to ignore the boxes in the chairs. One is going to a PC show with me tomorrow and the other is a new cd player for the dining room and it just needs to be assembled. My living room always looks empty and non-welcoming in pictures but I promise it doesn't feel that way in real life. So just picture hominess. Thanks.

The next areas on the agenda are the hallway and the playroom. My mom has been over here twice when the playroom was destroyed and picked it up twice. One of those times was this morning and it already looks like this again. Oh well.

Can you tell they enjoy their playroom?

It is snowing here again. It's so calming.

Jason stayed out with Claire a bit longer than the rest of us so that she could model.

Deck the halls with cheerios and play-doh, fa, la, la, la, la....

Well. First things first. It snowed. I mean really, really snowed. This is the first you-can-play-in-it snow that Jason and I have ever shared together. It was so fun and if the girls weren't already sick we would have played in it for hours.

Second. My house is in its worst state of all times. It is just so messy. So, I fgured that at some point in your life you had let a room that you were responsible for just get away from you so therefore you wouldn't judge me too much for what I am about to do. I am going to share the disaster and then share the cleaned version. Please still love me. Please still come to my house. Please don't judge me.

I didn't take a before picture of the kitchen but here's the after shot.

Isn't it so nice and clean? It leaves you feeling so peaceful...but wait! No! Don't do that! Do not look to your right!

I told you not to. That still doesn't seem too bad, right? Let's look closer.

See. It get's worse the more you look.  But even that mess seems like something you could knock out rather quickly in a day. But then you turn around. *shudder* I can not believe I am showing you this.

Oh. My. Word.  How horrible is that? Never mind. Don't answer me. Look at the clothes waiting to be washed again. That's right. AGAIN.

These are almost all "clean." They were dumped on the living room couch on a day that I had devoted to laundry and then this and that got in the way and they never got folded. And then they got trampled on and sat on and burrowed in and rolled on. I decided the best way to tackle this situation is to rewash everything and fold the clothes AS THEY COME OUT. So far it's working. Back to the other messes. Look at Eily's area of the dining room. Blech.

Double blech.

It looks like I had swept this in a pile but I hadn't. There was just so much that it started to be a thick layer of grossness.

Even Pink Bear looked forlorn all cast aside in the rubble.

So yesterday I cleaned the kitchen and then today I cleaned the dining room. I mean some deep, deep cleaning.

Now these pictures I am more than happy to share. :)   (Notice these are all extra-large.)

Let's zoom in on the floor where all the laundy was earlier.

Ahhhhh. It feels good to be able to breathe again. Unfortunantly, we are about to turn to the left. Here we go again.

And this is where I start tonight. I have to go fold the rest of laundry and then start in on this, this terrible, awful situation.  Believe me, there will be after pictures posted very soon.

Hope you feel good about yourself now.


just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming...