Snow in my village

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This was just after midnight on Friday night:

More snow had begun to fall.  And it was so beautiful, that without the flash, but only the natural reflective light coming from the snow and sky, I didn't need a flash at all.  Ambient glowing Gorgeousness. 

The next morning, we awoke to a snow covered landscape that Called to us all. 

We had to go outside and play! 

Even Me.  

I know, I know, I had no business going outside, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to take pretty snow pictures.  They are just some amongst my favorites.  

Hello, my name is Cathy, I have a terrible weakness for pictures of trees in snow...or dogs in snow...or my children in snow....or just snow in general.  

Christopher begins the great march out to play.  Grandma got him a snow shovel for the first snow of the season, and he's used it to shovel off the back stoop a couple times, he enjoys taking out into the yard to dig around a big. 

This trip out was extra awesome, because Daddy joined us!  

SNOWBALL FIGHT!  

Honestly, the snow didn't make very good snowballs, but that didn't stop my elder boyz from trying.  

Sam was the only sane one.  He stayed in.  He had No Desire Whatsoever to go outside and play.  He was perfectly content to watch from the window.  I probably should have joined him, but I can't resist getting outside in the thick of it.  

Seriously!?  How can you resist this?  

I can't.  Our 'new' yard has gorgeous trees, and when they are in bloom, in color, or dripping in snow, I just find God's beauty so awe-inspiring.  

Princess was just Inspired to run and be crazy.  That works too. 

Love my little snow covered Angel flower pot hanger.  

On the back line of our yard is a row of pine trees.  

So Beautiful, literally Dripping from the weight of the snow. 

My favorite from the day.  

Chris tried to sneak up on Prinny to bean her with a snowball.  But I told him No.  She still doesn't play very well, being abused makes her a little skitchy, throwing snowballs at her is not quite a good idea yet. 

So check out who he turned his sights on...that's right, he beaned me.  Right in the giant belly.  

Hard to miss. 

Best pic of him.  Mommy's Winter Baby. 

To the top of the sycamore.  

Meanwhile my elder boyz started rolling a snowball to the side of the house...and they just kept rolling it.  

That was supposed to be the head of the snowman, but it just kept getting bigger.  So they decided to make it them middle.  Teamwork!

What's going to work?  Teamwork! 

They put dried flowers and sticks on the face, but Chris came up and banged on the door (I was inside with Sam by this time) and asked first for a carrot for the nose.  Done. Then another trip, he wanted grapes for eyes.  Done.  Then he NEEDED a cap and scarf.  

So what snowman (person, since with this skirt and girly beret, it's a snowwoman, or snowperson) can't have gloves.  Reminded me of Laverne and Shirley with the random gloves on the stick.  

Christopher with his Masterpiece. *  

(This last pic was taken by Eric, as I was too exhausted, and had to sit on the floor in the front hall drooling and jealous peeking out the window, you can kind of see Prinny and I watching in the windows by the front door.) 

After the snow playing, I had a warm lunch and went down for naps.  When I woke up, Eric and I got a wild hair.  He had wanted to do one thing on his vacation, to go to the movies, specifically either the Hobbit or Les Miserables.  I was dying to go to the movies.  But I thought it might not be a possibility.  But Mom, Dad, and Aunt Teri swooped in to the rescue, volunteering to watch a couple sweetboys while Mommy and Daddy went on a date.  Sam didn't nap, but I'd gotten one, and we went and caught a matinee, out just in time for dinner.  And yes, the Hobbit is AWESOME!  

As an added bonus, Eric took me to dinner at our favorite thai place, Thai Lanna.  I got my pad thai and chicken on a stick, and it was Good.  I love that place.  And we hit it when there wasn't anyone there, we had the whole staff (who are excellent) to ourselves.  I didn't run out of water at all.  And that's a trick lately, given how much I drink.  I felt like a grownup.  Not like a gimpy girl on bedrest.  I felt like a woman out having a nice evening with her husband...almost (dare I say it?) Normal.  It's been so rare for us to have normal moments.  Most babysitting gigs we have are so I can run to the hospital, and we make the most of it, trying to catch dinner or lunch on the way home.  But we hadn't been on a date like that in I don't know how long.  Too long.  I was so Thankful to Mom, Dad, and Aunt Teri for banding together to borrow the boys for us.  Mom hasn't been feeling great, she's not 100% healthy yet.  Getting better, but not quite there yet.  So it really was a team effort. 

 

They even got Chris and Sam to sit together and be nice, watching tv at the same time.  Amazing. 

 But they say "It takes a village."  I am so Blessed by my village.  

Venturing out!

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Friday we had originally planned for Willman Christmas, but we had to bump it to Sunday afternoon.  However, for the first time all week, Karl and Erica were off, so they agreed to come this way to meet for lunch.  We wanted to do a Belated birthday celebrations.  Christopher's had been a week before, and Erica's is Boxing Day.  So we met at Ted's Montana Grill.   They do amazing things with buffalo meat, my favorite is their chili.  So Eric dropped me off at the door, and we were late enough, that all I had to do was walk in and sit down.  And poof!  There was Fam!

Mom got Erica a Birthday cookie that had bow tie rings in icing.  Guess who got their favorite colors?!

Still not quite "Out"

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Another day home and the only one of us to venture out of the house was Eric.  He dug us out, so that he could go to the store...well, Kroger.  We needed skim milk, and I was craving egg rolls. He also picked me up a blood pressure cuff!   Eric took Sam with him, as once he was awake, I couldn't handle him, I had no energy.  There's just something about Christmas time that makes me want Chinese Food!  But all day, I pretty much spent in bed.  I had gotten up and gotten swirly dizzy, so bad I had to lay on the floor and went back to bed.  It was kind of scary.  But at least I had Eric home to help me out.  Tried for a 2 nap day...that didn't work so well early on, but by 4 after my decent nap, I was able to venture downstairs for a bit.  First time all day.  And the sun was even peeping out!

Nice snow!

The "Blizzard" of 2012

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They started alerting us this past weekend.  A "Blizzard" was coming.  Due in Christmas Day night, or the day after.  Well, it started snowing in the morning on Boxing Day.  (Or Unboxing day, as we like to call it, as we seem to spend most of the day, opening up boxes of presents and trying to reorganize)  This was the snow at it's worst.  The Blizzard.  Not really a blizzard, a good winter storm though.   The wind was whipping pretty good.  I don't think I would have wanted to drive in it.  I'm Thankful I'm a Stay at Home Mom, that my husband's job theoretically can be done from home, no one is going to die if we don't make it to work...unlike my family members in the medical profession, who are really the only ones who should be out on the road.  

And I was very Grateful to be off, to not have anywhere that we needed to go, we stayed in.  We had groceries, perhaps not as much skim milk as I'd like, but I just take some whole and make cocoa. ;)  

But it was Pretty.  

Especially pretty to watch as it seemed no one else in our neighborhood was going anywhere either.  

Pretty woodpile.  

It looks like a lot prettier covered in snow, instead of an eyesore I've come to hate.  

1 Squirrel - Ah Ha Ha! 

When all the snowing was said and done, we probably had about 6 inches, not too bad at all.  

And we sure are Blessed that all we had to do was open the door and look, and remain safe, sound, warm, and cozy in our happy home.  

Merry Christmas!

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Yes!  Santa Came!  

The boys opening their first few presents.  

Oh yeah, Chris opens his very own Doc McStuffin's Doctor Bag! 

 Dr. Willman, reporting for Duty! 

Sam's theme for the day was Octonauts.  First he opened some of the characters: Tweak and Peso!  

One of the biggest hit gifts for Sam of the day was his own Octopod!  

These crazy brothers got each other Grabber Sticks.  Oh, they were a big hit too.  They've been grabbing everything And each other. 

See this historic occasion:  Both Boys - Playing Nicely.  Together.  At the same time.  

Of course, it didn't last, but it was nice for the few moments they played Octonauts with the Octopod.   

Boys watching trains.  Simple yet Sweet. 

We played hard all morning.  The boys were great.  And as it was such a late night, we all had Naps Around before heading to Oma and Opa's for Christmas Dinner.  In my exhausted and flighty way, I completely forgot to take either camera to my Dad's.  In normal circumstances, that's fine, he's usually a picture taking maniac, and he was.  But he's been busy and sick and hasn't been able to send me any of them.  That's OK. Let's just say the Spoiling of boys and girls was Epic.  The Food, as usual, was Wonderful.  And I learned that my body only can only travel for 30 minutes before getting very mad at me.  My father lives 35 minutes away.  

Otherwise, it was a Wonderful Christmas. Hope you all had Merry Christmases too! 

The Merriest of Christmas Eves

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On Christopher's last day of school, he told his teacher he was looking forward to one thing - Seeing Santa at the Children's Museum.  And Eric and I were like, Uh.....   We hadn't planned a trip to the Children's Museum.  Honestly, I thought we weren't going to make it to see Santa this year, since I wasn't able to take them without Eric's help, and he was disinclined to deal with the crowds.  Understandable, of course, but I still wanted to go.  Apparently, so did Chris.  But that was Friday when he requested it, and we had stuff planned the whole weekend....until Christmas Eve morning.  So we went.

I checked the Children's Museum chart and Santa was making appearances from 11-2, after which he had to head to the North Pole.  The museum opened at 10, so we headed there as early as we could, which meant we left the house at 10.  Still we waited in line for Santa.  Actually, Eric parked my wheelchair in the line, and I sat there, kind of inching, while the kids got to play.  

I had a couple of sweetboys stop by a couple times to help me with the wait.  

But Daddy took these pictures of the boys making cookies.  

Looks like in the coming years, I'm going to have some natural chefs to help me out with my Cookie Baking.

They even work pretty well together! 

They went for a giant game of Connect Four...also while I was waiting in line.  

Meanwhile, back in line...after half an hour, the line had condensed, Santa was waiting, we only waited about 15 more minutes once it started moving.  I'd gotten us a good spot in line.  And the boys were pretty patient, they loved playing I Spy with all the stuff on display.

Check this out.  No one is flipping out and crying (Sam!).  Last year, Sam flopped on the floor like a fish.  We weren't going to to pay for pictures, but they were offering a special Christmas deal on snowglobes.  So we ended up getting one of those - I know....suckers.  But my pictures turned out better than theirs.
Christopher was completely thrilled to see Santa, he was telling him that he wanted "Doc McStuffings thing and a blue a car".   At first Sam didn't care.

But then he decided that talking to Santa wasn't so bad.  Daddy helped prompt him to tell him what he wanted, "Fruit snacks".  

Now both boys weren't smiling at quite the same time, but I'll take Sam's smirk over the big flop of last year. 

Merry Christmas!  

After meeting Santa, Christopher said the other 1 thing he wanted to do (which I thought would be dinosaurs) was go "ice fishing".  So Both boys went Fishing! 

Chris AND Sam both caught some whoppers! 

I made them stop just a moment for some tree posing.  

They get so tired of me taking pictures of them, but with Cuteness like this how can I resist?!

Last stop at the Museum, the required picture by Bumblebee, who was all dressed up for a snowball fight.  

After the museum, we were starving, and for some reason I was craving Chinese, and the boys wanted french fries.  So we compromised and went to Applebee's.  I'm sure you're thinking, HOW is that like Chinese?  Well, they have these wonton taco things, that have some cabbage in them, they're pretty yummy. Plus who can resist their Oriental Chicken Salad. I sure can't.  Even the boys went to town on chicken fingers and fries.  Sam was so far gone, that he had a monster meltdown before eating, and it took us a while to get him to put some food in his face, sometimes he's like that.  Once he starts eating, he perks up and his mood will completely change.  I'm sad to say, he totally gets it from me.  There's a finite window of when we're hungry, and you just have to feed us, or deal with the wrath.  Sam's is worse than mine....I think.  

Since it was  Special Occasion - Christmas Eve, we decided to split a Triple Chocolate Meltdown.  

Best chocolate dessert ever. 

And these are My Children, because they agree!  

We went home and took naps.  Eric went to church early to direct the bell choir for the 5 oclock service.  When he got home we had a really exciting dinner of leftover pizza, before heading to church ourselves.  The boys behaved pretty well.  Christopher was so good, we let him light a candle.  Sam was not ready.  He's way to wiggly, as evidence by the blurriness of my picture of him.  Little wiggler was So not ready.  But he spent a crucial bit of the service playing with little Lars sitting in front of us.  Lars is almost 2, and Sam started hiding behind the pew, popping up and yelling, Happy Birthday!  Which Lars thought was hysterical, I had never seen the boys laugh so hard.  Granted it may have been distracting from the Prayers that were going on at the time, given that Christmas is a big Birthday party for Jesus, it kind of seemed appropriate in a silly distracting way.  But it made us all smile.   The music for the Service was Wonderful, my heart overflowed.  I had thought going to church for Christmas would be my 1 Thing to do that day, and I was perfectly ok with that, but as it turned out, I was given so much more, the museum, lunch, AND church with my boys.  It was a Wonderful day...plus my body held out.  During the service, Chris even sang along with me.  He now knows (or at least can read) the verses of Joy to the World, and some of Silent Night.  That was some big Joy for me, sitting between my sweetboys and singing together.  

When we came home, we let the boys open 1 present...just one.  They each chose gifts they had just received from Margaret, their favorite sitter, and a good friend from church.  They wanted to just keep playing rather than go to sleep.  

Daddy got the trains geared up before bed, and read The Polar Express, and the boys played with their trains for just a bit before bed.  Santa brings them a new car for their trains every year.  This year is the first year, no one tried to break or derail the trains.  Great Job!  

Just enjoying the trains go round.  

I love this pic.  

And then a reading of The Christmas Story and it's off to bed for my sweetboys.  

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!