Finally some snow!

We have had a pretty snowless Winter so far here in my neck of the woods. We finally had some snow stick on the ground and Abby was rarin' to go play in it. I made her wait until after school, but she pretty much came in the door and went straight for her snow clothes. Sophie, of course, wanted to go play as well. We don't have quite as much gear for Sophie as we do for Abby, but she didn't complain.


Abby wanted to make a snow angel - so down she went. I think she did it a couple of times. I don't really like laying in the snow, so I didn't join her. I even saw Sophie trying to imitate Abby. It pretty much consisted of her laying down and kicking her feet for a couple of seconds, then getting back up. I'm not sure she really got the point yet . . .


Abby tried to throw snowballs at Sophie, but I nipped that in the bud. I told her it was okay to throw them at Po, however. He's pretty quick in the snow, though. He leaps through the gigantic snow drifts like a pro. I think Abby got close to hitting him once, but that's about it. Abby was chasing him around saying "I'm gonna get you Po!" and Sophie toddled after with her own version "I go getchoo!". They were both pretty excited.


Sophie decided it was a good idea to play with her pool floatie in the snow. At least it made for a cute picture. Abby later filled it with snow and made a snow cupcake. I'm not sure how that makes a cupcake, but I don't usually question Abby's unusual statements.

After letting Po back in from going potty this morning, I decided it was time for a haircut for the dog. What do you think? Look at those legs!!

Happy Late Birthday Sophie

Sophie turned 2 on Saturday and we had a little party for her that day, Monday, and we'll have another one this Sunday. We like to spread birthdays out around here. Honestly, she had a pretty crappy birthday on Saturday because I had to work ALL day. (I really mean all day.)

She really loved getting new toys and having all the attention focused on her for her party. She even did her VERY best to blow out the two candles on her cake. I think she might have had a little help, but don't most kids get help from all their friends and siblings that are close enough to blow?


Sophie is a wonderful blessing in my life. She is so sweet and caring sometimes, and other times she'll glare at you and give you her best stink eye. She's hilarious. She has just started giving me impromptu kisses and hugs. I love it when she shows me she loves me. Neither of my children started out particularly cuddly - just too independent - so it's nice when they have gotten older and actually show they need me.

I think Sophie is turning into a pretty typical two year old already. (Honestly, she started that phase pretty early.) She fake cries all the time, she throws herself on the floor when she's been offended. She takes off her diaper at night. She even backtalks when I chastise her. She's fabulous! I'm so glad I've been blessed to care for this wonderful little spirit. I think she's really smart and funny. She tells knock-knock jokes without end and is talking so much. She loves to take care of her babies - it helps her lay down at night if she thinks she's putting her babies to bed too. I love my little Sophie!

Disaster Area Part 2

I broke up my disaster posts for the weak-hearted. Or maybe for those that don't like to read long things. I hope it helped. My next disaster area is more out of my way - but MUCH larger. Here are some pictures. And, yes, that is a sledgehammer sticking out of the wall.

I'm excited that Tom is finally taking some action on the garage conversion. I'm tired of having a useless room in my garage when I could be parking there. It's just a gigantic mess and I'm not sure how quickly it will get cleaned up. We found someone that wanted a bunch of the old insulation, so that was nice, but nobody seems to want our busted up drywall . . .

The girls (mostly Abby) decided to have a picnic outside while Tom worked on the garage. Who wants a picnic when it's 40 degrees outside????? At least it made for a fun picture. After a few minutes I made them come in. Sophie was getting into the construction - not a great place for a curious toddler.


I'm hoping I can get another post really soon out of the *fixed* version of our disasters. (It may, however, end up being a post of the snow covering our disaster instead . . . )

Disaster Area Part 1

So, I haven't posted for a while. I couldn't think of anything particularly noteworthy. I thought of something big today, though. We've been making some home improvements. Or at least that is what they are intended to be in the end. We had AJ and JoAnna come over and paint the girls rooms. Tom and I don't particularly enjoy painting, so the only way we figured it would get done would be to pay somebody to do it for us. AJ and JoAnna were the willing suckers.

Here is a before picture from Sophie's room:



It was a really cool castle room with matching heavy drapes and all the fixin's. However, we don't have any boy children. So, we painted over the castle and now it's glass green. It looks kind of minty, but you can't really tell from the picture. I still need to hang things on the walls and figure out some sort of window thingy, but I'm excited to put

Here is an after picture, it's much brighter and will be a lot more hospitable to a new baby:


Abby's room, however is not finished yet. The paint is all done and brightened it up in there a bunch too. It was a fairly dark purple before and I got kind of annoyed with it after a year. Here's what her room looks like now. It's all pink, so I didn't bother trying to capture a panorama.


The problem here, is that we are getting new carpet some time soon. So, this is what the living room looks like as I'm typing:

I'm hoping to get my living room back sometime this week, but it kind of depends on us finding time to go pick out carpet and get the installers to come. Wish me luck! There won't be any Christmas at our house until we can get all this stuff put away.

Tagged by Laura

So, Laura tagged me 3 weeks ago. I guess I'll finally post my version - I hope it isn't too painful. I am going to try to list 6 unspectacular quirks about myself.

1. Most days I don't bother fixing my hair. If I use a brush before putting my hair up, then I feel like I've accomplished something. You know I'm going all out if my hair looks like I used the hair dryer on it. It sure is a good thing I wasn't born with totally nappy hair!

2. I don't like to call people on the phone. I'm always afraid they don't really want to hear from me. This tends to include the pizza guy, the utility company, people at work, and the people I'm supposed to be visiting teaching . . . I wouldn't recommend this quirk to anybody

3. I ask too many questions. Those of you that know me have probably already figured this out. I wonder about a lot of different things. I suppose I should just travel around with an encyclopedia so I can look things up instead of asking whoever is around me. At least the encyclopedia won't get mad at me.

4. I've been wearing the same CTR ring since the 8th grade. It's been pretty bent out of shape, but I still wear it daily.

5. I don't like to play with dolls. This mostly includes Barbies, but just about any doll is no good. They are okay for dressing up on occasion, but I really just don't enjoy dolls. I never did as a kid (ask my sister) and I still don't (ask my daughter).

6. I'm a total spazz when it comes to playing basketball. I wasn't ever any good as a kid. I just always watched the clock and waited for the buzzer to go off. (Not to mention the part where I don't get the ball into the basket.) During college I developed an amazing game plan where I run all over the court. I didn't really contribute that much, but at least I was doing something. I still play like this and I'm still completely awful. You know my ward YW basketball program is bad when you hear that I was the coach last year.

I'm not really into tagging people, cause that might make them feel like they are obligated to post something. So, if you like this one, go ahead and pretend like you were tagged. Sorry to make you read all this stuff about me. It was pretty random. :)