Andrew

This handsome guy usually HATES to wear button down shirts.

In fact he usually refuses to wear them.

And you would NEVER persuade him to wear a tie.

Those things are too tight around the neck.

But isn't he handsome?!

Silly faces and all!

Twins First Band Concert

Our saxophone playing son and our

clarinet playing daughter

just played in their first ever band concert.

We are so proud of them!

I wasn't sure what to expect from a fourth grade band.

They actually sounded fairly good.

Hopefully we will have many more years of band concerts ahead of us!

Happy Fourth Birthday!

Ouch!

A couple of "humor in real life" stories.  I want to record these for my children to read some day.  I'm not sure that they would be funny to anyone else... or if anyone else even reads the blog.  LOL.

OUCH!
We recently took a quick weekend trip to PA, and on the way home we stopped to visit with my college roommate and her family.  Her youngest daughter is about 2 years younger than Nathan, and she and Nathan struggled a bit to get along.

My friend and I were sitting on the sofa talking a few feet away from the kids, when Nathan exclaimed, "Ouch!".  We looked over and asked what was wrong and Nathan exclaimed, "Ouch!" again.  We got up and walked over asking what was wrong, but couldn't see anything.  Nathan again said, "Ouch!" and my friend asked him if she were pinching his finger in the boat. 

Nathan replied, "No, she hurt my feelings!"

Nathan, you are adorable!

AIRPLANES
Today I took all four children with me to the hair salon.  They were remarkably well behaved, if I do say so myself!  :)  I try to avoid bringing them with me most of the time, but today I had no choice. We had made a trip to the library shortly before the appointment and they all were glad to have new books to read. 

Nathan decided to show his book to the hair stylist.  He had picked out a book about airplanes at the library (from the older kids section).  The stylist said, "Do you like airplane books just like your brother Andrew?"  Nathan replied, "Well, actually, Andrew prefers helicopter books!"  :)

ROOMATES
Hutch picked up a few things at the grocery store for me last week.  He almost never goes grocery shopping and our oldest son commented on this during this particular trip (he was with him at the store).  Hutch talked about his batchelor days and cooking food for himself.  He told Andrew that someday he would live on his own and would do grocery shopping and prepare his own food.  He asked Andrew what he thought about that.  Andrew replied, "I'm not worried.  I'm going to live with Alex and he is going to do all the cooking!"  :)  I guess Andrew plans on living with his brother and is counting on Alex continuing to be passionate about cooking.

Spring

Look what the kids discovered in our yard a few days ago!  The snow is melting and they found a patch of bare ground by the house.  My tulips are growing!  I love how observant my kids are.

The twins turned ten on Tuesday (more about that soon) and requested a trip to the greenhouse.  I love, love, love, seeing all the beautiful flowers and had fun playing with my camera.

I can't wait to see flowers in bloom in our own yard!

Mud Room, Pretty Please

Oh how I wish we had a mud room...

I am tired of gloves and boots and scarves lying all over our living room floor.

And oh so tired of the snow and ice and mud being tracked through the house.

I am really not a fan of wet socks, and of chaos.

Trying to figure out how to be thankful for the wet, cold, mess, noise and chaos of life at the moment.  If it were gone I'm sure I'd miss it.

Trying to focus on the smiling faces of my children with their requests for hot chocolate, to listen to the enthusiastic reports of how long they managed to stand on the snow board, and to bundle up myself and go out to share in the joy of their snow creations, forts, and trails.

Someone needs to remind me not to complain about the heat this summer!!  :)

Snow, Snow, And More Snow

The snow has been beautiful, but there has been a lot of it!

I read we had 40.5 inches of snow in January and that we have had 14.5 inches so far in February, with more snow forecast later in the week.

The shrubs are pretty much completely covered.

This is the view out our sliding glass door on the back porch.  Our grill is hiding somewhere under there!

Snow piled up in front of the garage door (door to the back yard)

The kid's climbing structure.

The trampoline.

Swing Set - The kids have been using the snowboard on the slide!

Daddy and Grandma trying to get some of the snow off of the roof!

Alex

Our little monkey, Alex, has loved tree climbing in the snow.

He's also been willing to pose for the camera.....

Sort of!

I love how happy he has been outside.

He's been trying to persuade me to let them jump off the roof into the snow.... um, that's a definite no!

Little Snow Man

This little man

absolutely loves the snow!

He likes going mountain climbing, as he calls it.

He likes to go digging for ice with his shovel

and this is what he thinks of my picture taking!

The snow piles are nearly twice as tall as he is, but it doesn't slow him down much!

You can see how high the snow piles are in comparison to Elizabeth.

Such a serious face!