Finally, SUN!

The sun finally came out today. As I said in my last post I was bound and determined to get OUT in the sun for a bit. So, even though it was 20 degrees, we all bundled up and went outside for some much needed SUN! The snow was ice crusted with just a few inches of powder on top which made it excellent for sledding. My 3 yr old decided to take her swim tube and slide down the little hill with it. She tried various hills until she found the one that was just p e r f e c t. Here she is scoping out the lay of the land.

She found her hill! Look at her go! She loved this new found sled.
Meanwhile my other two decided to dig a tunnel. My 6yr old was so into it she knocked her hat off and did not even stop to put it back on. Cold? Nah. Not when you are 6 and sweating from straining to dig this massive tunnel her brother started.
Here they both are in front of their tunnel. My son is completely blocking it.
Below you can see my son in the tunnel. This was such fun for them. I remember doing the same when I was little. (Actually I was much much worse and would scope out the terrain to see if their were any roofs that I could climb up on and slide down. Yes, I was crazy, but in my defense I only had male cousins who were always coming up with one crazy thing or another.)

Below is a picture of my driveway. It is a lane really in which my house is all the way at the top of. My car will NOT make it up this hill and I have went through 2 sets of cables trying to make it to the house. Now I have officially given up and we walk from the bottom. You cannot see the bottom of the lane where my car is in this picture but the general area is if you look at the yellowish house and see those tree's beyond it at the bottom of the hill , that is where the end of our lane is. My car is just up from those tree's. That means I am definitely getting my exercise hiking up and down this lovely lane with all my children in tow. Now you know why I rarely leave the house when we have a bunch of snow. For my friend Melissa, this is the hill my oldest hikes up and down to get to the bus. Show it to your kids when they start to complain. :) I can just hear my kids now when they are older telling their children, "I used to have to walk half a mile to get to the bus and it was all uphill both ways!" :)

My 3yr old's reaction to winter doldrums

I woke up this morning to another blizzard. (My camera is about dead so I could not change the date reading without the batteries dying so pay no mind to the date).

Blustery winds, tons of snow, cold, all the joys of a snowstorm.


This did not cause me to jump for joy as I have been experiencing the winter blah's lately. I am so ready for warmer weather and SUNSHINE! The sun so rarely shines anymore and I really miss it. The grayness of the days seems to seep into my very being. The next sunny day, no matter how cold I am going to go outside and soak up all the sun I can! This, however, is NOT how my 3yr old responds to winter. She woke up and saw the snow and became very excited. She ran around the house looking out every window screaming, "SNOW!" She then found tons of mischief to get in. This post is dedicated to all the fun things I found her doing both today and other days this winter. But, mostly today.

Here she is holding a marker. She may look innocent enough, but I know by that devilish look that she has been up to something. Upon further inspection I discovered what it was.



Notice how she is carefully coloring her foot. How she is taking care to get even between her toes. She did not know I was taking her pic at this time.



Below is the end result of her coloring that she proudly displayed for me. I think she was going for a measles/chicken pox look with multiple colored nails to comple it. The big red toe looks a bit overdone if you ask me. That one looks like it came in contact with a hammer. :)
Below.
This is what I caught her doing this morning. Yes, that is my sugar canister. She apparently got up on the counter and I accidentally left it down this morning where as I usually have to put it up high in the cupboards because I know of her sugar addiction.
Later this morning I heard a weird noise coming from my kitchen. I walked in to find this.



I guess now you know the outcome of sugar shot and my 3yr old! Needless to say it is impossible to stay down when you have a goofy 3yr old running around the house. She delights my heart!



This is how our day ended. With my 9yr old son and his sister playing outside in the blustery cold. They loved sliding down hill in this crazy weather. They also pretended to be ice breakers since the snow has an ice crust below all this lovely new fallen snow due to ice rain/sleet that we had yesterday. They are looking forward to a day of sledding tomorrow. Oh the joys of youth!

Time with dad

My hubby arrived home amidst another winter storm. This has been the worst winter up here. Usually we get snow, but it lasts for a week then goes away. This winter we have had snow all of the winter except for 1 week. This would not be too bad except our 4-wheel drive truck will not start and my car will NOT make it up the hill to our house. This causes a lot of grumbling amongst the children because we have to walk down the drive to the bottom to get to the car. This is quite a walk. Unfortunately this lovely winter storm caused my hubby and I to miss out on some much needed alone time that we had planned. Instead we were snow bound for the whole time he was here. We did have one day of sunshine in which my son got to go out and have some daddy -son time bonding over his new BB gun that he got for Christmas. He also had lots of snuggle time with the girls. It was so nice having him home. I thought of holding him hostage and not letting him go back out, but I guess that was not an option. I keep hoping he will find something close to home where we could see him every weekend. That would be great. I guess we will have to keep looking. Below are some pics of his time here.


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Above is my 3yr old snuggling with daddy. They had lots of snuggle time this trip home.

Above is my son with his dad target practicing with the new BB gun my son got for Christmas.

Here is my son coming in for more BB's. He sooo enjoyed this time with his dad.

Winter Baseball and other fun and games

We had a warm up and all our snow melted. The sun stayed away, but it still was warm enough for everyone to get up and get moving outside again. First on the list was a game of baseball. Below is my youngest with my son's old football helmet on. Isn't she CUTE!



Here is my 6yr old running the bases after getting a hit.


We have had a bunch of boxes laying around our house and they are fun to play in. They have some bigger ones that they slept in one night with their sleeping bags, and then played UPS delivery man with the next day. One of the other favorite games was, "My goodness! What ever is in this box???"

"Oh my, it is a pretty little girl!"


We also had some beautiful artwork that was created using our new watercolors. My 6yr old loves to paint, draw, and color flowers. They are her favorite theme. I liked this one the best.



We are looking forward to many more creations as it is Valentines day soon. Plus the kids like to make pictures for their dad to take with him and he is coming home later this week. YEAH! We are looking forward to spending some much needed days with each other as a family. We cannot wait!

Special Delivery!

My neighbor called the other day to tell me that I had a package down at my mailbox. He asked if I wanted him to deliver it. I told him no that my son would be more than happy to walk down and retrieve it. He informed me that it was a pretty big box but I thought, "surely it cannot be that big," as I knew what we had coming in the mail, or so I thought. So, I assured him that my son would be fine and hung up. I then told my son about the package. He had developed an interest in delivering packages lately and takes his job seriously. He works hard to make sure all the packages are delivered on time. The whole motto of "rain or shine, sleet or snow" really is true when it comes to this boy. He trudged all the way down to the mailbox which was no easy thing. It is down the mountain lane and is quite a long walk. He retrieved the package and lugged it back up the snowy, slippery mountain lane to home. He was gone for quite a while so I decided to watch out the window for him. Imagine my surprise, not to mention guilty feeling when I spotted this...

I could NOT believe that he had brought that HUGE box all the way back up to the house! I could not believe that I had INSTRUCTED him to go and get that package. I guess my neighbor was not joking when he said it was a "big box". I felt pretty bad about all that hard work that my son had to do to get this monstrous thing to the house. The lane is slippery and snow covered and even though it was a warmer day, little had melted. It is quite a steep incline and it is all the way uphill to the house. He really astonished me. If it would have been me I would left it and came back home. Not him. He seriously wanted to get that huge box home and tear into it to see what was inside. Here he is again close up. Notice the red cheeks? That is not from the cold, but from the sheer exertion it took to get that thing here. I told him he was absolutely the cutest delivery boy I had ever seen and I praised his hard work in bringing it to the house. I still cannot believe it. I really did not think it was going to be this big a box. It was heavy too. He really amazed me.


Well, now that I shared my cute delivery boy story (along with confessing my less than stellar parenting moment) I will go on to share other events that have been happening. We have not been snowbound due to the fact that I finally got some cables to put on my car. Now we can get out and do some things. The only downside is that I have to constantly put those on and take them off after we get to a main road, then repeat the whole process when we come back home. The other day my darling hubby informed us that we would be able to have a surprise visit from him on his return trip. He was hoping to be able to come early in the evening, but his delivery was not until late and the company took FOREVER to unload him which made him even later so it ended up he finally got to the area around 3:30 am. Since he cannot bring his truck up the winding, narrow dirt roads to the house, he has to park his truck somewhere else and I go and get him. Needless to say that at around 4:00am I was taking the cables off my car down by the road surrounded by nothing but cold and lots of mountain nature and thinking about the coyote I had seen just a few days ago right in that area. I was hoping that a pack of them were not hungry enough to come and get me while I was freezing my fingers off with those cables! All went well and nothing came to eat me. (See sis, I told you there was nothing to worry about. I was like bait and nothing ate me!) The great news is that we were able to have my hubby home and I would gladly get up and get him at anytime day or night, rain or shine! It was well worth it! I enjoy those surprise visits and look forward to hopefully many more, along with his regular scheduled visits of course! ;) So keep em coming baby!

The kids have been keeping busy doing various things. Below is my 6yr old using her "computer" to type out her spelling words and other fun educational stuff. You can see all their schoolwork spread out around her. They had school even though the public schools were closed for a week. :)


Next is my youngest playing "peek a boo" with me using her binoculars. She kept doing this and saying, "I can't see you!" Goofy little girl!

Below is a picture of the Lego's that came in the mail for my children. As soon as they dumped them out I was reconsidering my logic in getting them. They get all over and no matter how hard you try you always miss some when you pick them up. They have been having fun with them though. They have been making many kinds of creations and I am happy I got them. Until I step on one barefoot that is. :)


Here are some of my sons Lego creations. He really was happy with them, he just did NOT want his picture taken. I told him after I took it that he looked mean. He smiled and said, "Good". Go figure.


We also made treats. My oldest had a friend over and they made a big snowman out of rice krispie treats. Here is my youngest with her part of the treat. It was almost as big as her head when she started, but she shared it with her siblings which was a good thing.

Snow, Snow, and more Snow

Apparently 2010 is going to be known for its frigid temperatures and lots of snow. This is all we have seen since the year began. Snow each day, very cold temps, and lots of wind. We have been in hibernation mode since I have yet to get to town to buy chains or cables for my tires. Normally we get some snow and it goes away a few days or at the most a week later. This year we have had snow for weeks and I don't think it is going to go away any time soon. I have been spending my days chopping wood for our stove as the pieces we had delivered are a bit big. I had been meaning to start on my fitness routine again anyways. At least I will have nice toned arms! :) My oldest picked on me and called me "Ma Bunyan" which I was not to fond of. Smart sassy girl! Teenagers, what can I say. At least we are warm! She is the first to complain about it being cold out and her being cold so I know she appreciates what I do. She never gripes about bringing in the wood and is always the first to ask me to start the fire. They all tend to help with the wood and my middle two seem like they think it is a big adventure. It was always a chore my sister and I had growing up and I really did not mind it either. But we had to bring it up from the cellar which meant lugging it up those pesky cellar stairs which was a bit tricky when you were little. Not to mention our cellar was the CREEPIEST place! You know how much kids just love dark spooky places. I was convinced some monster was going to jump out and get me so I would only bring up wood if my sister helped. If she was gone and I HAD to do it alone I remember I would always sing some Bible songs I had learned. That is the only thing that helped me get through the ordeal of going down their alone. I guess even back then I had faith, even if I did not really know it at the time.

I decided to take some outdoor pics so you all could see what we see each day. Below is a pic of the woods behind out house. It is back in these woods that the coyotes and other wild creatures like to hang out. They lurk about in these woods just waiting to snatch up my sister and eat her! At least that is how she acts whenever she comes for a visit! :)

Normally you can see the mountains beyond, but the snow makes them look like this.



And this.


The bigger kids did get out and enjoy the snow some. Here is my oldest pushing her friend down the hill. It just goes to show that you are never to old for sliding down hill.
Here she is again pushing my son down the hill. She just likes pushing everyone around. :)

Here she is posing with her friend.

Here they are after sliding down the hill. They had a blast doing this and I was glad to see them outside enjoying themselves instead of being stuck inside like we have been for days.
Here is my son after he helped me with the wood. He looks nice and warm doesn't he? :)
So we hope you all are enjoying the start of the new year in your area. We are enjoying ours to the best of our abilities. I have asked my hubby if he was planning on coming home anytime soon and whisking me away for a few days. A girl can have wishful thinking can't she?? I will just be glad to have him home for a longer time than part of a day! That is the hardest part of his job. I miss you dear! Come home soon! Stay safe! Love you!

Christmas Week in review

Our Christmas was a fun filled, no power, freezing rain day. We luckily had our trusty and much beloved wood stove in which I was able to cook our Christmas dinner on and we stayed nice and toasty! We had lots of quality fun time with each other. We baked cookies, played games, watched movies, had snowball fights, colored, you name it. We were even blessed in that my hubby was able to come home for a night. It was a week after Christmas so we had another ham dinner with him and he got to open his presents. I kidded with him saying, "Thanks for stopping by the Mountain House Bed and Breakfast, we hope you liked your stay!" I am looking forward to a much longer visit later in the month. The new year has started and the weather is frigid. A whopping 10 degrees with a wind chill of below zero. It is C O L D! We woke up this morning to more snow on top of what we already have. I don't think it is going to go away this year until spring. This is unusual in that normally it snows but is gone in a week. We have had this one for 3 weeks. We were not able to get down our driveway for over a week after the last snow. We really need a four wheel drive, but even the first few days they could not even get back up our hill. That is the fun of living in the mountains I guess. I do still like the snow though. The kids are looking forward to it warming up a bit so they can go outside and play. Until it warms up though I am afraid they are stuck inside.


Below is my oldest with my youngest watching a movie. This is who my youngest runs to when she is in trouble with me. :)

Below:
My youngest modeling some new sunglasses she received for Christmas.


Some opening of presents on Christmas day.

Were you ever this excited over a puzzle of the US?

Even Scooby was wore out from all the fun and bustle of the holidays! Here he is resting on my son. What's that they say about a boy and his dog? :)


I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed New Year! Another adventure has just begun!