Photo 365: 1/10/11 - 1/16/11

1/10: Mackenzie's first swim lesson. She loved it. She was so excited to finally be big enough to take lessons. The girls lessons are back to back, so we're there from 7 - 8:30 by the time we shower them and get them in their PJs.


1/11: Playing the Cat in the Hat game Emma got for Christmas. I put my camera on the floor and set the timer.


1/12: I knew when I left this morning without snowblowing I was going to get stuck in the driveway. And I did. So I had to snowblow around my car, move it in to the garage, then finish the driveway.


1/13: We met my mom at the mall so the girls could use their Disney Store gift cards she gave them for Christmas. It was so fun watching them check everything out. Emma kept asking, "can I get this?" and if I said she could but only that and then there'd be nothing left, she'd put the item back. She wanted to be sure she could get two things. Their final purchases were exactly the same, of course - princess art kits in a zip around case and stickers. They were so excited.

1/14: Poor Ryan, already being dressed up in tutu skirts. And he's already perfected the, "Are you serious?" look.

1/15: Date night. We went out to dinner with my workout girls and spouses. Twenty-two of us in all, which meant we needed a room to ourselves. It was fun to hang out, chat, eat and then play a few games before heading home.

1/16: Shelby and Angie stayed the night after babysitting for us, so we took them to lunch after church. Not that we need an excuse to go to Bob Evans, we go so often after church that the girls expect us to go to "the pancake place" every Sunday.

Ten on Tuesday

1. When will the snow stop? Depending on who is reporting it we either have 19.5 inches, 20 inches or 2 feet. Or, to put it simply, a lot. And it was still snowing tonight, albeit lightly. Thankfully, Michael fixed the snowblower that broke when I was using it last week. I took this picture Monday morning. Lots of snow. Lots of wind. And it just kept coming.


2. Saturday was Breakfast with Santa. I don't think we'll get a family picture with all of us looking at the camera until Mackenzie outgrows the put-my-fingers-in-my-mouth phase. But I still like it.

3. Snow days are still fun. Michael has had two so far this week.

4. I took Christmas card photos after church Sunday. Not bad for only 10 minutes worth of pictures. It'll work. Ryan's not smiling. It was too much work keeping Mackenzie in place and making sure Emma wasn't dropping him or strangling him to try and get him to smile. Of course, I could've done it when Michael wasn't outside snowblowing and had him try and get Ryan to smile but I wanted to get it over with.

5. And tonight I picked up my cards. Now to address them all.

6. I love The Sing-Off. But Nicole is the Paula of this show. I want to fast-forward when she comes on.

7. One benefit to living on a hill? You can make your sidewalk into a toboggan chute. Michael and the girls were sliding down the sidewalk yesterday. I didn't get any pictures because the wind was blowing the snow everywhere, but I did watch them go down once.

8. Christmas shopping is done except for two presents. One I know just have to pick up. The other I'm stumped.

9. The girls are really in to Charlie Brown right now. Tonight we watched "All I want for Christmas is a dog, Charlie Brown." They giggled a lot and shouted Snoopy! when he came on the screen. I laughed at Rerun in the bicycle seat that was over the rear tire, yet three feet behind his mother, ya know, so you only hear her, rather than see her. I wish I knew how to type out how the Charlie Brown adults sound.

10. I wish I could have all my house clean at the same time, all the time. Yet what usually happens is I get the basement, kitchen and upstairs cleaned and the family room becomes a mess. Clean that, and the girls room is a disaster zone. And so on and so forth.

Snow Days

We've had a crazy amount of snow over the last three days. Monday was a snow day for both Michael and Emma. Which included the girls playing outside twice while Michael cleared the driveway.

Please note the car coming in to the frame on the left. I've mentioned before how cars get stuck coming up our road every winter. It's entertainment. This one never made it. He had to turn around and head back down the hill.


See, turning around in our neighbor's driveway. Hi Beth.


No snow day Tuesday. By late afternoon the snow had stopped and we went to Emma's program at school. But then it started again. And it didn't stop until late this afternoon. I cleared the driveway Tuesday at 1 and at 1 today there was another 7 inches or so on it. Then the snowblower broke. So that's great.

Emma and Mackenzie got to play with Bree and Ava all day today. Rather than have her mom drive in to watch them in the cruddy weather, they came here. They played in the snow while I snowblowed, we worked on making a fort (but I was pretty much done with that after three rows), played play-doh and babies and more. Good times for the girls.

Here's our deck Monday morning around 10:

And today (Wednesday) about noon.

It's snowing right now. More snow expected Thursday morning, and Friday and then a huge storm Sunday and Monday. Because what we really need is more snow. :)