Hey Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Rach, Aunt Brenda, Uncle Jeremy, isaac, kira

I haven't totally figured out how to use this new camera yet so sorry for the bumpiness and commentary!

I LOVE these legs!!!

After church yesterday, I went to finally catch some zzzzzs. Tim and the kids went to a local park to go sledding! Then after resting they went swimming. This is how we do winter swimming. Style....it is all about style! We are a croc family. We run from the car to the pool in 10-20 degrees like this! Oh, I need to document this...Conner has now graduated to only one bubble. He might be swimming on his own by the end of the summer! So exciting!! He loves the water!

French fries and pizzas

This is what Kaitlyn does when she goes skiing. French fries are when you have your skiis straight and parralell and pizzas are what you do to slow down! That is what we call them at least! What an awesome day! We got to the ski place a little after they opened and stayed til the lifts stopped running. We are going to have so much fun as the kids get older. Kaitlyn is a better skier than I am. She takes the lifts up and tells me to follow her that she knows I am not that good and then she proceeds to give me pointers. Tim should be proud...he taught her everything she knows! Conner is just learning this year and he definitely is doing better than Kaitlyn did when she started so it shouldn't be long. I was certain I had Rhabdomylosis the next day. My legs hurt so much that I almost fell down the stairs. Crazy! We had such a great time and I am totally in awe at Kaitlyn coming down some really tall mountains like she had been skiing forever! I can't wait to go again!

Snow Fun

Sorry so many pictures! i just love them all! What a great afternoon of sledding, igloos and just plain old winter fun!

MY igloo

So let me start by saying that these pictures do NOT do my igloo justice. I had posted pics from an igloo before but that was made at our next door neighbor's and they did all the work. This is our baby and it is going to be huge! I just started carving it out yesterday. My goal is for it to tunnel over to our neighbor's igloo. I want to have some sneak attacks! It was funny because Conner was helping out and went in to carve some off for me and he literally shaved a small piece off and announces " almost there!" Funny kid! After I picked Kaitlyn up from school we stayed out side for several hours playing in the white stuff! It was a beautiful day! Can i just say......My igloo rocks!!! Forget about snowmen this is my new found joy!! My back is quite sore today but we are off to a family day of skiing before I head off to a night of work! I really will be sore this time tomorrow!

It's been awhile....

since we had seen N and V! We hadn't been over to there house since before Christmas. Boy do they have a lot of cool toys! The funniest game was the Just Dance on their Wii. The kids were a riot!

flatbeds and guess who

This is one of Tim's old trucks. Look how much this flatbed can carry. Conner just loads it up and can play for quite some time with it! This Guess Who game has become one of their favorites. Conner is really good at it! It is fun to watch them play.

School work

Tim made K's lunch the other day. How cool would it be to find a note from your daddy. Tim is head over heels for these kids....it is so precious! I love watching him with them.
Kaitlyn's handwriting is improving each week. She is just a sponge right now soaking up everything! She has educated me on a few things....I can only imagine what it will be like in a couple years!

Volunterring

I had to privilege of going into K's school and helping out at table time. I really enjoy this. I love seeing all the kids and watching them interact with each other. These kids are ALL very sweet!! I stayed a little bit for indoor recess. The kids were more than happy to stop for a picture.....cute! Above is a pic of Leah and Kaitlyn. They sit next to each other and Leah goes to Sunday School with K. K always comes home with new stories about Leah and her family. I end up emailing her mom to get the whole story. Cute!

sharing

Samantha with many silly bands!

Memories

Conner's big cousin, Isaac, use to wear this shirt! I think they both were so handsome in it! Isaac is 10 years old now and big C is 3, almost 4! I wish they lived closer so we could play with them. My two LOVE and I mean absolutely LOVE Isaac!

Tea Party

Kaitlyn and Emma had a tea party in their enormous fort. Notice the pinkie finger up. They had mini hot dogs, cheese, crackers and juice for tea. They had such a great time together!

Below Zero

This is how I sent Kaitlyn to school this morning!

Out to dinner

We met Kaitlyn's friend Emma and her family for an early dinner at a local Irish pub. Yep we were at an Irish pub with a Kaitlyn, Conner, Liam and Emma. They fit right in with those names. We all had great time. Kids are so funny! I love listening to their conversations.

Check this out....

Okay, I know you Californians are enjoying some warmth. We are not! Today is suppose to be the coldest in two years( I heard that somewhere) It is -4 degrees right now with a windchill bringing it to -22! Wowser, that is cold! We went exploring by the beach after church yesterday and I thought this was a cool picture! Look at these icebergs! This is just a marsh near the beach. I would hate to fall into that water. I was actually on a hunt for some guys ice fishing. It really is a cool picture but we were driving too fast and I wasn't quick enough.

Bouldering

Have you ever been? Bouldering? We didn't have time to take their belay test so we just went bouldering which seems harder than just climbing up. Kaitlyn was whining about not wanting to do it when we were paying to get in. Of course she is the one that really got into it. We try to explain to her that daddy always picks fun things for us to do. She is just a very hesitant girl but once she starts something, she usually loves it! The kids loved to climb as high as they could and then just push off and fall onto the cushions. Conner would climb a whole foot up just so he could jump backwards and land on a soft cushion. Fun times!

Artist

I will start by showing you Conner's work. You probably have to double click on his to see it because he uses the crayons and holds them the right way but he is very gentle with them. This is our family! We had a parent teacher conference for his 3 yr old preschool ( funny i think). His teachers raved about him and how kind, smart, and precious he is! We already knew that but both Tim and I were glowing with pride. We said we better enjoy these reports because we doubt they will always be like this! He is a really good kid!
Here is Kaitlyn's little man.
This is the reason I did this post-- for this picture. Kaitlyn made it for me while I was taking a nap after work. She LOVES doing crafts and makes up her own whenever she can. If you look closely at this picture, you can see the details. She informed me it was a picture of me cleaning the bathroom. I think there is a frown on my face. The toilet,the sink,the soap dispenser is all there. Then she even wrote out Dial (the soap). I like how she even drew the tile on the floor. I just LOVE this picture!

Late night

So we did end up going skiing. We have a hook up......we NEVER have a hook up but we have for the last 2 years. Our babysitter works at the ski place in our town so she gets us our free tickets!! Thanks, Rachel!
So Conner and I went to take pictures and get some video! That as you can see didn't work out very well. For starters, I am a wimp and it was 21 degrees out! I had to take my hand out of my glove to get the pictures. Then for some reason I didn't know how to get the light on for the video and i was too cold to try to figure it out. Kaitlyn did awesome! She took the lift up tons of times and went down some diamonds with Tim. She just follows right behind Tim and does what he does. It is so cute to watch!
Conner decided just to climb this tree tonight!

snow day #54

Yep another snow day! I worked last night and came out of the hospital to tons of snow.....again. At least I didn't get plowed in! Always an adventure! We started our igloo today. We will hopefully start digging it out tomorrow. I think we got another 8 inches of the white stuff. The street by our house was exceptionally fast today! I am speed! I think we have skiing in our future tonight! We have embraced New England!

mini vacation

We have been having a mini vacation around here. Wednesday and Thursday were snow days (tons of snow), friday was half day, Monday was MLK day, yesterday was another snow day and we are back to school today!! We are suppose to get another storm on Friday!! Last night we took the kids to see the Chronicles of Narnia. The kids watched the entire thing. Our little guys are getting older! I am trying to enjoy every stage of this adventure!
Conner and I went errand running today! First it was a hair cut and then to a bunch of stores. We had to pick up a new filter for the fridge at Sears. I pulled into the parking spot and the lady in the car next to me was glaring a nasty glare at me. Perplexed I gave her a big smile in return. On our walk into the store Conner and I were talking about how mean some people can be and how some people are just not happy with their life. Conner gave me a gentle reminder. "Mommy, that just means some people need us to tell them that God loves them!" Thanks for that reminder big C!!