Another Snow Day!

This makes four snows for this season, and not just light dustings either. For us, these have been REAL snows- the kind that totally cover the ground, are great for snowmen, and sledding.

Snow Days!

Not only did we have a white Christmas, but we have snow again!
Not certain what the final, official inch count is, but it looks like about 4 to 6 inches. A lot for us! Seems like it's been about 8 years since we have gotten this much.

While we have about a bazillion snow pictures, I'll try to just show a few of our favorites.

watching in wonderment as the snow swiftly falls

Oops, completely forgot those wreaths are still out there...

trying to dig out for a sanity run

More Natalie-isms

Natalie: "These are my dogs: Iffy, Sniffy, O-lie & Molly" (four stuffed dogs that sleep with her and get dragged all over the house)

"Can you help me to dance?"
Translation: Dance with me!

Natalie: "I've not never seen a girl like tha-at!" Said in a sweet, mommy-grown-up voice.
Not sure exactly what it means or what she heard before that she thinks she is saying, BUT...it is a supreme compliment. It took totally fixed hair, lipstick, painted nails, high heels and a dress to get this compliment. I'm not expecting to get it again anytime soon. So, if she says it to you, know you look WOW to her!

Natalie & Graham crawl into kitchen and come back a couple minutes later.
Natalie: "Graham smells like CAT FOOD!" peels of giggling
Mom: "What? Cat Food?! Graham! Natalie!" finger in G's mouth, fishing for piece
Natalie: really laughing now "No, no, it's not in his MOUTH! It's gone down, down, down into his belly!"

Natalie: "Oh Graham-y", patting G's belly before bedtime, "You've got a BIG puppy belly!"

At Hunan Manor for lunch on a Sunday with Uncle Matt, quiet music playing, subdued crowd:
Natalie: "Uncle Matt is a SASQUATCH!" giggling, shrieking, more giggling
Mom: in a low voice as people are starting to look "Natalie NO, NO, we don't say that! Be quiet! Talk quiet!"
Natalie: a little louder "Uncle Matt is a SASQUATCH!" giggling, shrieking, more loud giggling
Dad & Matt: cracking up
Dad: "NO Natalie!" hahahaha, more laughing by both
I get up to get food, thinking we have this under control, then from ACROSS THE ROOM, she starts it again! So, let this be a lesson to brothers who tease each other & call each other embarrassing names...it WILL come back to haunt you. And your wife. And it's usually in public! For the record, Natalie has no idea what a Sasquatch is.

In case you're wondering, Graham does many, many funny things, he just doesn't say anything yet (that we understand, anyways). I'm sure he's got a running list of what he wants to say when he is able to. I imagine we will then have many, many Graham-ism posts. Bear with us.

All through the house...

'Twas sometime around Christmas

And all through our house,
There were some creatures stirring,
at least it wasn't a mouse...


This year's Christmas decor...

Living Room


Kitchen



Natalie's Gingerbread Village


Foyer


Dining Room


Landing


Natalie's tree


Graham's tree


Not just dreaming of a white Christmas, that dream came true!



Hope you had a wonderful Christmas, best wishes for a happy, healthy New Year!

It's Been a While... Natalie-isms Part 3

Whoops, meant to post a long time ago, but have been so very busy just with life in general.
No pictures of house stuff this time, but here are a few more Natalie-isms:

Me: Come on, come on, get in the car Natalie!
Natalie: *twirling and dancing in front yard* I need to dance, I'm dancing now!
Me: Ok, enough dancing, in the car you go! *hoisting her into her seat and starting to buckle her*
Natalie: I need to DANCE! *making mean scrunchy face* Ooooh, you're the...mommy, you're the BIG BAD WOLF!!!
Me: *not even trying not to laugh* Well then you are the stinky little pig!
Natalie: *completely offended* Uh! Me?!? NO, I'm not a stinky little pig! *lots of giggles*

Natalie: pthbbbbt *blowing raspberries*
Graham: (now 6 months old) pthbbbbt
Both: *giggle giggle giggle squeal giggle*
Natalie: pthbbbbt
Graham: pthbbbbt
*and repeat for the duration of the car trip through town*

Natalie: Is our car new mommy?
Me: No, it's not new, we've had it a while.
Natalie: Papa's truck is new. (Papa drives a refinished 72 Chevy)
Me: No, his truck is old, it just has new paint.
Natalie: *thinking hard, gears grinding* We have an old truck too!
Me: Yes, we do, our truck is old.
Natalie: Our house is old.
Me: Yes, our house is very old.
Natalie: We need to make it new!

Our two fat, old cats will snarf down their food too quickly in the morning and then puke it up a few minutes later in some spot where we are sure to step. Natalie is the puke finder and will also keep us reminded until we clean it up. In her mind, "cat pewt" has priority over everything- even hungry baby brothers who need fed RIGHT THEN.
One such day, Natalie was eating her lunch and got up from the table before swallowing what was in her mouth. She comes into the kitchen to ask me something and accidentally drops a chunk of food out of her mouth onto the floor.
She looks down, then up at me and says in a matter-of-fact way... "Natalie pewt".

Beetles (as in VW cars)
Natalie: We have a beetle in our yard.
Natalie: Beetles are cars, but they are bugs too.
Natalie: Our beetle is a car but it's also a bug.

Natalie pulls a broken chip out of bag...
N: *disgustedly* Somebody nommed on this one!

Get the Picture?

It seems we haven't posted anything regarding the house in quite a while, but that does not mean we have not been doing things. Oh no, plenty of things have been going on at our house. When the new camera comes in I will get posts and pictures up of the following:

1. Natalie's Big Girl Room
   
2. Back Patio
   
3. Landscape Dream (what I wish we had out front and on the sides - this is on our 100 yr list, by the way)
4. Computer Room/Craft Room

But, you cannot post photos if you do not have them. And you cannot take those photos if your camera does not work...as neither of them do right now.

Chris's latest hobby is archery. Right now, he is into longbows- both making them and shooting them. He decided to film the arrows hitting the target, so he placed the camera on the top of the target. This was pretty cool as he filmed a few shots without any problems. It was pretty scary to see how fast the arrows fly at the target. Inevitably, one of them hit the camera and it crashed to the ground. The arrow pierced the camera and made a dent about 1/4 inch or more deep. At first he thought it would work with a new memory card, since that was the damaged part. After ordering a new card - NOPE, did not work. So we brought the old digital camera that we use at the office home. It does not work either! So no pictures until the new camera comes in. Bummer.

There Ought to be a Law...

I mean truly, there should be a law of nature that mommies and daddies who have little kids never get sick. Ever. There are no sick days when you have little ones to care for. Thank goodness this is just allergies, really being sick would REALLY stink. We have been really lucky this past year not to have been sick much. Speaking of laws, below is a list of items that I wish could be passed into some sort of natural law (of course, nobody asked me!):

1. Mommies & daddies never get sick- at least not when their kids are small or dependant upon them.
2. You get a bonus gift of multiple hours of sleep when you have a new baby. Maybe hours of rest could be like a bank account, but only in your head. So instead of having a deficit and bouncing sleep checks when your baby is born, you have a whole savings account to fall back on.
3. Only three rainy days at a time. You get a sunny day with nice weather before it rains again.
4. The same sort of thing with two year olds - only three grumpy hours at a time, then one hour of total cooperation and smiles.
   
5. Mute buttons, or at least volume controls - this goes for children, dogs, lawn mowers, construction at 7am in the morning across the street when you've been up 20 times during the night with new baby. And thunder, yes thunder should be muted when little ones are sleeping. Especially for the ones who are afraid of thunder!
6. And gravity - gravity needs to have exemptions and exceptions. I mean really, it's great to keep us firmly planted, but does it really need to pull so hard on anything besides our feet and inanimate objects? NO, I don't think so.
   

Please feel free to add to this list, maybe we can start some sort of petition?