Catch up: December

And December. A wonderful, busy month. This is the second year of our 8 years of marriage that we had our own Christmas tree...we were always traveling in the past, or didn't have the money for a fake one. (FLASHBACK STORY: You may ask, "Why not buy a real one?" Well, when Paul was a child, he and his family went to cut down their own Christmas tree. They brought it home, set it up, and once in was warm inside their home, hundreds of spider egg sacks hatched, with thousands of tiny spiders inside. Paul was traumatized by the cloud of spiders in his living room, and swore, at the age of 7 or 8, to NEVER have a real tree in his own house.)

 The girls LOVED decorating it, since the one other time we had a tree they were too small to help.

 The girls did ballet...

 ...and Anna filled my phone with selfies.

Niels got his first haircut. I was just about to whip out my scissors to clear up a few rough spots when Paul said, "Na, we'll just use the trimmers." We immediately regretted it. With his hair, he lost his curls, and his baby-ness. It took me about 3 weeks before I wasn't sad every time I looked at him. I'm used to it now, and am feeling the need to trim it again...just not so short this time.

Best purchase of the year: the snow-blower. This was its inaugural use, but I used it probably a dozen times over the winter. We have a 3 car garage, therefore a wide driveway, and there was no way I could have shoveled it 7 months pregnant with as much snow as we got this winter.

 Paul liked trying to bury the kids more than anything.

 We started a new Christmas Eve tradition: Chinese take-out for dinner (and mac-n-cheese) for the kids. Everyone was pretty happy about it, despite Niels' grouchy face

 Christmas  morning lacked a lot of photos...suffice it to say, everyone was too spoiled, but very happy.

 I made the easiest, and one of the best, apple pies I've ever made...

 ...the girls played with their Frozen castle constantly...

...and Anna and Niels helped themselves to cookies whenever they pleased. This, by the way, is how Niels smiles when you ask him to smile for the camera. I love him. (And don't you agree that his baby-ness went away with his long curly locks?)

February came and went...

How has February past already? Not that I am complaining - Paul has been on a month of internal medicine, being on call every 4 days with no Saturdays or Sundays off. So I am glad that this month is 3 days shorter than the other ones. Here's a little of what we've been up to...

Okay, looking at this picture I forgot that Paul did have one Saturday off, during which we went to Home Depot for an ice spreader. It happened to also be the free craft day. The girls had a blast building their own Valentine holder. They can't wait for this Saturday - going back to see what the St. Patrick's Day craft is :)

Disaster struck. We have had 5 or 6 decent sized snow storms this winter and it finally caught up to us. Apparently the gutters around our entry way were rather clogged, not allowing all the melting snow to drain properly. So when the melted snow froze again at night, it back up UNDER the shingles. Something called ice damming. Then when it melted, it entered our entry way. This has made me VERY ready for spring so we can get a new roof, a snow and ice shield, and repair whatever damage has been done in the attic (possible mold, etc.) It also damaged the electrical circuit to the front of our house, so we don't have any light in the entry way or kitchen. Gratefully, our kitchen outlets are on a different circuit, so I can still cook dinner.

Paul had Valentine's day off, so as the extremist that he is, he created quite a party for the girls. Between Party City and WalMart, we had flowers, balloons, heart-shaped pasta, and red velvet cupcakes. He even bought a kit to make chocolate covered Oreos. The girls loved it, and I was glad that his day off we were able to do something fun with the girls.

 Anna sneaked Oreos all day. Every time I saw her, she looked something like this.

I took them to see Disney on Ice...of course, they were in heaven. Paul later took them to the circus...sorry, no pics.

With the cold, snowy weather, we really stay home most days and try to stay warm. Niels loves the dishwasher - standing and taking all the silverware out that he can, and banging all the dishes together. My chubby boy is nuts, but I love him.

Despite our leak, I love all the snow! I just need a snowblower so it doesn't take me more than an hour to clear our driveway (it has been snowing for the last 24 hours...I'm going to have to shovel again.)

Typical silliness...Anna was "ice skating" on wet wipes.

 

And we whipped out our St. Patrick's Day decor...the girls are already planning our trap!

 Anna has joined Hattie in the creativity department. Here she wrote her name...right letters, wrong order. (Couldn't get the images to upload in the right direction)

And here are her first stick figures :) Love the huge grins.

And to conclude the post, I just wanted to highlight my very annoying "new baby growth" hair. Anyone else hate this as much as I do? Getting tired of trying to tame it down every day!

First snowfall

I still have a few more catch-up posts to do, but I wanted to post this while it was fresh. Since snow is rare in West Texas (usually we have about 3 snowfalls a year) it's a big deal. The girls couldn't wait to go outside this morning. Anna was wandering around the house with her Santa hat and scarf on, as well as her pajamas and a princess dress, while she waited for me to get ready. Hattie said that it must be Christmastime if snow is falling and made me turn on "Let it Snow."

Snow

Last Tuesday we got snow! This is probably the 4th or 5th time we've had snow this year. Of course it was gone by the end of the day - typical for Lubbock. So we knew we had to take advantage of it while it was there. Hattie's friend Juliet came over and they had a party out there. Sadly, neither of them have very good snow clothes since snow isn't super common here, but they certainly didn't care about their freezing feet and bums.

Hattie would have stayed out there all day if I would have let her. For the rest of the day, whenever she saw the snow she would shout, "It's snowing!"

A moment to vent

Here in Lubbock we get an occasional snowstorm. Typically, it snows an inch or two and by the end of the day it has melted away. Apparently during Christmas while we were in Oregon, they got about 7 inches, the most they had received in about 12 years. Because Lubbockites aren't used to snow, when it does snow, even just a few inches, it's like the world stops. Schools close, kids are sent home, worship services are canceled. For one thing, they don't have much snow removal equipment, so if the snow happens to stay overnight, the next day the roads are horrible. But since it is so ridiculously flat here, it's not like you are driving up and down any dangerous hills. It's just a little icy.

Today I am particularly frustrated because Paul was supposed to have a test this morning. But because of the snow, the Health Sciences Center is closed. There's maybe an inch and a half of snow out there! Now the test will be Monday, so instead of having a nice, relaxing, stress-free weekend, Paul will still be studying all day today and tomorrow. Lame. Paul was already at school this morning when they decided to cancel it, so it's not like the roads are so horrible that our little Mazda couldn't make it (especially considering the number of trucks and SUVs in Texas).

Now I know that icy roads are plenty dangerous, but it's just so extreme! I think I remember having 2 snow days in my entire lifetime, and that was when we had 2+ feet outside, not 2 inches. Grrr...I'm just sad that my weekend is ruined!

Snow fun in Ontario

Here are a few pictures missing from our trip to Ontario. I misplaced my camera for a few days, so these were taken on my mom's camera.

It snowed about 7 inches on New Years Eve. Hattie absolutely LOVED the snow. She was out there for a few hours, I'd guess. We first went outside to collect the chicken eggs, hence the ice cream bucket for carrying them back. My uncle Len and I spent at least an hour shoveling the driveway before Paul ever started building his masterpiece snowman.

Hattie kept calling him Frosty

And she loved getting buried. It was a lot of fun and we were glad to have a good amount of snow, since in Lubbock we usually only get an inch or two. And of course, here's our little Anna Banana. She's such a good babe.

Enjoy the long weekend

We certainly will...we are leaving tonight at 10:30 (yes, that's p.m.) to drive up to Preston, Idaho for the Iverson Family SnowFest. Hattie will meet her great-grandparents and many second cousins and many of her dad's cousins. But it'll be a real vacation, full of skiing, snowmobiling, sledding, board games, and the like. Both of Paul's parents are flying out for the event, which is a rarity since traveling with Daniel is difficult, so we are glad to be spoiled by them bringing him along. So happy President's Day to everyone!

Wait...I almost forgot Valentine's Day. Since we are leaving tonight for Preston, our Valentine's day will be pretty calm...I must say that leftovers are awesome - it's clean-out-the-fridge-before-vacation night at our house! How romantic...we'll be sure to light some candles.

Here are some highlights of our outing on Tuesday...we will miss skiing in Utah!

Am I really ready to live in FLAT Lubbock?

Probably not.

On Marrying a Dame

So, inspired by Melanie's "On becoming an Iverson" and knowingly risking the reader's exposure to just how weird I really am, I share the following:

Since getting married...

1. I have learned to ski - I know that many of our readers don't know this but my skiing prowess is impressive. My skill progression followed something along the lines of these pictures.

Day 1: The "snow plow"

Day 2: "Parallel"

Day 3: Minuscule 250 ft. cliffs while doing back flips...I am awesome!

As you can clearly see from the pictures, my skiing is improving. I may be exaggerating but the jury is still out on that.


2. My inner child has been unleashed - I don't know where or when it happened, but I lost my adult self. I don't know what happened to him. One day he just up and left.

So, since I have lost my adult self, I have no recourse but to allow my inner child free reign on my personality. One word...Scary! To give you a glimpse, I believe that a good representation of my inner child is something like this guy...


I don't know what that means. I can't even whistle!

And they're going to let me be a doctor?

3. I have become a board game fanatic! Melanie introduced me to the wonderful world of foreign-made games with Settlers of Catan. She didn't realize what she had done. I am now a member of the BoardGameGeek community and, although she sometimes rolls her eyes, Melanie has been pulled in as well. We have almost had to contemplate working boardgames into our budget.

My current game collection is composed of the following:

Settlers of Catan
Cities and Knights
Munchkin
Mille Bornes
Killer Bunnies
War of the Ring
The Pillars of the Earth
The Farming Game
Imperial
Citadels
Space Dealer
A Game of Thrones
Alhambra
Bang!
San Juan
Puerto Rico
Goa

Many of these games we have received as gifts and the rest we have purchased. Believe it or not, we actually do play all of them. Next on the wish list: Shogun and Twilight Imperium.

4.

This is a Finger-Jointed Cruiser!

Ice ice baby

These are the icicles hanging over our front porch. I'm always scared to walk underneath.

The long one on the far right can touch my chin when I stand by it.

These were the icicles last year at my office at Head Start.