Sledding Pictures!

As promised, here are some pictures from our sledding adventure Tuesday. We didn't get very many because the supposedly fully charged camera battery was dead, and Dan's Blackberry doesn't zoom enough for action shots, so I mostly had to take stills, and how many pics of my kids posing in snow gear does a person need??

Emily Grace, the little snow princess!


Jared, LOVING his warm new down jacket.


Connor, complete with blood encrusted lips after managing to bite his lip after a rough landing. Did it slow him down, though? NO!!!


Emily not bothering with a sled


Connor was extremely independent about the whole process of sledding, and wasn't waiting for anyone to get him situated, or for getting help shoving off; he just totally took care of himself. At one point, while we were helping Em and J, Connor pushed himself and was heading right for a jump at the bottom of the hill (the one place we'd had the kids AVOID). I panicked briefly, watching my child fly down the hill and go airborn, but he landed, came to a stop, and was laughing hysterically begging to do it again. It wasn't a huge jump by any means, but he definately caught a good foot or two high of air, and then landed several feet out. I ran down the hill with Dan's Blackberry to try to get a picture of his additional turns. Here he is, halfway launched off the jump:


Dan tried to get a better one and managed to get him airborn (can you see the shadow underneath him?)


I know, I know, we're terrible parents for letting him do that over and over again. I'm sure his little spine is jarred out of alignment, but if you'd have heard how hard he was laughing, you'd have let him do it, too! It was sooooo funny!!!

We had a great time, and I can't wait to do it again. I'm hopeful to go back at least one more time this winter. The kids really enjoyed the snow (something we don't get a lot of in our city), and I really enjoyed the time spent together as a family, with nothing else to focus on but each other and having fun. It was great!

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Leah who was very faithful at updating her blog daily. Until one day, all three of her children were old enough to be in school on some level or another, and to be in activities of one kind or another, and she found herself lacking as much time. She tried her very best, and managed to at least update Monday through Friday, and the readers were pleased. But then, a funny thing happened. Her husband took two weeks off from work, and he frowned upon any computer usage that took away from potential family time, and poor Leah found herself without any time at all to keep her blog updated. Short of skipping sleep, maybe?

But alas, her husband went out visiting with his brother, the children were asleep, the preschool newsletter was complete (as much as can be done until people bother to turn in their submissions, which were due SEVERAL DAYS AGO) and she found just enough time to do one blog post before heading back to soak in a hot bathtub filled with her new Sensaria bath salts, while reading Eclipse (for the 2nd time). Her muscles are tired and sore after a day of sledding/tubing with her family in the mountains all day.

THE END

PS If you're hoping for sledding pics, you'll have to wait! The camera we charged up all night and took with us, somehow still had a dead battery when we arrived at our destination. We used Dan's Blackberry, but they'll be poor quality, and I have to wait for him to have time to email them to me. Just know that we had a GREAT time!

Exciting Night!

If my kids weren't excited enough about SANTA coming to visit us Christmas Eve, Emily added to the excitement by losing a tooth and getting a visit from the Toothfairy on Christmas Eve as well. It was a pretty exciting night, and she enjoyed getting to pose with her stocking AND her tooth pillow on Christmas day!

What's all that flapping and squawking?

It's ME the last few weeks, running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, preparing for the holidays while fulfilling my regular responsibilities. And from the extra loud flapping and squawking sounds, it appears I'm not alone!

I'm babysitting J's little "girlfriend" today and we plan to see a movie this morning to help break up the day a bit. Should be fun!

Happy holiday crunch time everyone. I've finished shopping and finished wrapping, and just need to work on one last thing for my SIL and I'm DONE. WOO HOO!

XOXO

For my niece-to-be

I wanted to give my niece-to-be a Christmas present, even though she's not born yet. I just thought it would be fun. I also wanted it to be something a little bit unique and meaningful. Because I had made a Build-a-Bear bear for all three of my kids as "to-be's", I thought it would be fun to continue the tradition. To make it more personal and meaningful, I knit a hat for the baby, and in the same yarn, knit a sweater for the bear. The sweater is a tad "baggy" in the front because I was doing it without a pattern (first time I've ever done that!), but overall, it came together very nicely. I didn't think to take a picture before gifting it all (we celebrated with my family last Thursday), so you can't see the flower on the hat very well, but you get the main idea. I cropped the pic way down so you could see the bear a bit better (it WAS a pic of Alisa and Ali opening it):


I stuck the hat on the bear's head for gifting purposes, but the hat IS meant for the baby's head. Our celebration got moved up an entire week and messed up my time-frame for completing the knitting, so I did take the bear back in order to knit a flower to attach to the front of the sweater, which will match the flower attached to the little hat. I'm excited to see the baby posing in her little hat next to her new bear friend!

Seconds, anyone?

I made Connor mac n' cheese for lunch last week, and while he was happily munching down his lunch and watching PBS cartoons, I sat down at the computer to pay some bills and do some work on the preschool newsletter I'm in charge of.

Apparently, Connor decided he was ready for seconds, because suddenly I heard him proudly announce, "I can get more all by myself; you don't even have to get up!"


And sure enough, there he was, happily serving himself more mac n' cheese. He did a pretty good job, too! Thankfully, the burner and pot were well cooled off by this point... We've since had a reminder chat about being anywhere near the stove without checking with mommy first! But I have to admit, I was pretty proud of him for taking care of himself that way. And a little sad to see that he's old enough to be doing it. Rather bittersweet!

I SAID SMILE!!

I wanted to get a good picture of the kids last night, so I could FINALLY insert it into the photocard template I'd created, upload it for printing, and get the cards back home/addressed/sent out. I made sure the kids were fed, relaxed, and all that other good stuff needed to ensure better succes, then I grabbed my camera and got to work.

Smile!


Not too bad, now let's do one and make sure everyone has their eyes open!



Well... I really need to see a REAL smile on everyone, okay? (passed around some tickles, made some funny faces...)



Come on guys, scoot closer and pretend you actually like each other! And don't tip your head up so high, okay?



woah, wait a minute! What's going on here, let's try that again...



Ha ha guys. Do you have it out of your system now? Let's try again.



No bug eyes, please? Just smile nice, don't cross your eyes, don't bug your eyes, don't wiggle your eyebrows (and yes, all this was happening), sit in the spot where I put you (they were like jack-in-boxes!). Can you do that, PLEASE??



HEY! What happened to REAL smiles and open eyes???



I'm over HERE!!!! And I said no bug eyes.



That's right Connor, I SAID SMILE! Good job listening to your mommy!

I debated long and hard between #1 and #6, finally deciding on #1. I'd rather have the squinty-eyed laughing Jared pic over the crazy bug-eyed pic of Emily.