Northern Exposure

I'll just say it now, I'm not looking forward to winter. Yes, it looks white and clean and beautiful-but you can't feel -20 degrees in a photograph, or see how much time it takes to bundle up and carry kids to the car, or experience the feeling of it being April and still not warm enough to wear flip-flops. So these days I'm relishing the look of still slightly green grass, warm sunshine, and days when kids can go outside without layering on the clothes. I thought I'd put up a couple photos that show the contrast of our life. True, both seasons the kids obviously have fun-I just like the warmth I think. Of course, without cold weather there would be no hockey, and without hockey we'd have a sad little boy. So winter go ahead and come..I'll just retreat to my room when the days get long and cold and get lost in photos from last summer.

Trick-or-Treat!

Spiderman and Princess P from the PBS show Super Readers

The kids made an awesome haul with trick-or-treating this year. I'm officially candied out! Paige was able to re-use a flower girl dress from my brothers wedding and found all her other stuff in her dress up box. Nice cheap costume! Anson was determined to be spiderman but I refused to pay $50 for his costume. So I waited till last minute and got it super cheap. They had their class parties too so they got a couple uses out of thier costumes this year.

7 years!

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband of 7 years. I know to some its not very long. As we were told in church yesterday by an older couple, "still the puppy love stage". Well, maybe not quite. I can say I'm more in love then on our wedding day though. It's funny how it changes. Then it was such a new and exciting love, now it's become a more mature commited love. I wouldn't trade a day though. I Love You!

Breathing Again

After a week of the flu being in our house I was beginning to feel quite overwhelmed. I don't know if it was the kids needing to be indoors for a week, or me not getting out really for a week, or just the general dis-array that had overtaken the house-but I was feeling bogged down. Today everyone seems completely on the mend, and with Anson off to school and the girls napping I tackled the house. I feel like I can breath again now that the counter is clean, the TV screen is washed, the dish rack is unloaded, and the laundry is folded. The other night I had an "I feel like my mom" moment. I am NOT a night owl....AT ALL!!! She always was, staying up late into the night after we had gone to bed cause it was her time to "get stuff done". I've never had the desire to get something done that bad that it prohibits me from going to bed at a decent time...like 9. Now that we have Ava, things are changing a bit. She has some nights where she doesn't settle down to sleep until after 10 pm. A couple nights ago was one such night, I was waiting for her to fall asleep in her bed before I went to bed. I decided to do up some dishes while waiting. Then pack the kids lunch for the next day. Got Paigees costume ready. House quiet, baby sleeping. Man, I thought to myself, there's something to this working when people are in bed. So I proceeded to make my grocery list and do a few other things before I called it quits. And as I headed to bed I smiled and thought; mom, if you only knew what I just did you'd be laughing. Here are the pics you've been asking for from our not-so-recent mini-makeover. I still love the new color, furniture, and layout. My favorite part has to be the chalkboard cupboards. Makes for memorizing verses and making lists very convenient.

living room, before living room, after

kitchen, before kitchen, after

Catching Up

I haven't posted anything for awhile, so I thought a little update was in order. Ava is really starting to respond with smiles and little noises every now and then. Its so much fun to see her face light up when we start talking to her. She loves bathtime and Paige loves helping with it. Anson and Paige carved their pumpkins a couple weeks ago. They were HUGE! But they did a good job of cleaning all the seeds and meat out and then drew their own faces for me to cut out. We roasted the seeds and ate most of them hot. Yum! Everyone is getting over a bug that's been going around up here. Last week was rough with high fevers and body aches, this week it seems like sore throats and coughs are settling in. Last night was Anson's worse coughing night, as he sounded like a seal barking. This morning he said, "mom, I wish I had a regular cough, this one feels like its chopping my throat off". Which is funny, cause it sounds like it's chopping his throat off. Hopefully a couple more days of rest and we'll be over it completely. They must be feeling somewhat better though cause they're back to teasing and terrorizing, a sure sign of health in this house!

1 month today! (10 lbs 2 oz 22.5 inches)

New Recipe!

Last week I canned tomato sauce...2 weeks ago salsa. This week I'm trying this new recipe for canning Roasted Garlic and Tomato soup. Hope it turns out! Sure smells good.