All Since the Snow Storm!

Here is the semi quick low down on the happenings here!!The night of the big snow Jake thought it would be fun to throw a ball at the light on the ceiling in Fern's room. The light broke, and glass rained down on him. He came out with blood down his face and all over his hands! Needless to say I was a bit frantic trying to get the bleeding to stop, worrying about us being snowed in to boot! Thankfully it slowed and a neighbor had some butterfly bandages, and another neighbor with 4wheel drive played courier. So here is Jake all bandaged up, notice the blood on his shirt! BOYS!!!
The next morning we went out to enjoy the snow, we had 5 inches!!
Fern found it quite hard to walk in all her gear, so she mostly sat and ate. She LOVES to eat snow, she is perfectly happy to stay inside if her daddy will go out and bring her a little snow or ice! :)
Our hilly backyard makes for great sledding!!
Here is Hunter, Jake, & Riley playing in the back yard, they had a great time!
Fern enjoyed sledding this year, last year it was not a highlight! At first she only wanted to ride with Mama, but then...
she wanted to ride in the little blue sled all by herself!! She was too cute, I thought I had gotten a video of it, but ended up with a video of nothing! OOppss!!

Then this week we had a fun outing!!

We all went to Riley's Cub Scout Pack meeting, here he is with all the scouts.
Here is Riley getting his Bobcat award! The 3 short ones with orange bandannas make up the Tiger den, they were all too cute!

Here is Fern just the other day, she is wearing the hat Grandma & Grandpa H. brought her from Russia, she was TOO cute in it!! And her new favorite sweater/jacket it is a hand-me-down a friend brought us last week and Fern LOVES it. When we go out I do not have to fight her to put it on, which is a MAJOR accomplishment!!! It is really warm too, I want one!! :)


And just a fun photo of Fern today, she was nursing and watching a show. Riley took this picture! And yes we are STILL nursing! :)

I hope you all are enjoying the Christmas Season, the kids and I ran to Barnes and noble today to get a couple books for the new school term coming up, plus a new journal for me; we drove past the mall boy an I glad I am not there! I hope you are not ether!! Actually I have not been there in MONTHS!!! Thank goodness!!

Changes!

Well I got crazy and was playing with blogs, all of them! Our schooling blog is the most noticeable, but this one is much more colorful with the addition of my Mexican Sunflower I grew this summer.

Another addition is a little banner over there on the side, I am usually a quiet person when it comes to politics, but I feel I need to be a little more vocal, a bit more proactive. So that is why I added Ron Paul's banner to my blog, he could truly take the oath to uphold and protect our Constitution. I hope this election you all will research out and listen to the candidates. I want to continue to enjoy my liberty with my family!

For All of You in California!

So this morning well before we were expecting the expected storm, we were enjoying the company of some good friends when I happened to walk past the kitchen and shrieked, "It's snowing!!" So we bundled up her kids and got them on their way! So our day was a bit changed but I documented the snow throughout the daylight hours and here it is!! At least it is now pretty along with the cold!

Here is about 30 min after it started snowing, about 10:30am.

This is at noon, about 2 hours after it started.

At 1:30 just as the boys were going out to play, it turned a bit to ice, and kept falling! But now when you opened the door you got pelleted in the face!!!

Here is Riley out in our "wilderness", he played for a good long time and enjoyed his pioneering!

Jake had to trudge diligently through the snow to get the sled to a good spot, but he made it, and we found out some good info, Jake can not hold it long enough to get his snow gear off!

And at 4:15 just before it got dark I got one last video, BBUURRRR!

Here are my foot prints out front from leaping though the snow to fetch the mail.

And our warm welcoming home from the mail box, I would have left the mail for the night but there was a lovely holiday package sitting on top of the box from Grandma! Thanks Grandma!! When I was out getting the package the mailman was just up the street and he was stuck! But thankfully he was able to maneuver out of the drift and continue on "through sleet, or snow or rain"! It is now after 6pm and it is still coming down well, and the radar shows that it will be a few more hours of this. We are also expecting a "Nor'easter" (more) this weekend, so I am hoping for clear roads tomorrow to get out and pick up our farm box I was suppose to get today! :) If you are wondering where Fern was though this, she was cozy in bed for part and cozy in Mama's arms for the rest!

Hope you are all warm and toasty (especially the one who is in Calif. and not here to shovel my drive, and warm my bed)! Love ya!

What Do You Do In The Wintertime?

To me winter is the perfect time for reading and sewing, I may love the outdoors but I just can not play long in 10-30 degree weather!! Yes I am a cold wimp living in New England! :)

So I am an avid library goer, you will RARELY find a time when we do not have a load of books borrowed, but every once in a while I get an itch for a new book of my very own. If you have been to our house you maybe laughing seeing as we are not short on books "of my very own", but I still get it! :) So this time I indulged myself and took a whole whopping $7 out of my budget and splurged!! Barnes and Noble have a great line of inexpensive paperback classics. Who's classics list it is I have no clue, as the definition of a classic is a book you would read more than once and still enjoy it. But I digress, so I bought myself my own copy of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. What a lovely book, their descriptions of home are the most pleasant I could imagine, I would move there tomorrow! I am trying to read it more slowly and "savor" it longer, I do not get to do that with library books- there is always the due date looming over my head, plus the dreaded fine!!!! Another thing that is fun about it this time is that it takes place in Concord, New Hampshire which is not all that far from here. Through the whole book they make reference to the book "Pilgrim's Promise", it is am allegory of getting through the trials of life and making it to heaven, I have recently heard a few homeschool moms make reference to reading it, and so I think it will have to be on my "to read" list this year. Jake is all about Franklin books, when ever we go to the library he makes a bee line strait to where they are! I found a couple at the library sale for $.50, they are a treasure! Riley enjoys the Color Kitten's Grandma J. bought that for him and it is a treasure! Fern loves her Owl Babies book I bought her, when I read it I change the 3 owl manes to Riley, Jake, & Fern, she has been longer to warm up to being read to than the boys did, but now she is often found "reading" or singing to her baby dolls! :) Dan, well he enjoys his corporate pilot magazine, the Liahonia in German, and he is working on a homeschool book I asked him to read, but it is hard to get him fired up about a book. But I am slowly working on him! :)

And if I could ever get my sweet little one to sleep early, or if she were just not permanently attached to my hair I would be at the sewing machine. Here are a couple great FREE patterns I am longing to try, when budget and little ones allow. I am overly ambitious and dreadfully lazy, so if you feel so inclined they would also be great homemade gifts for our family! :) Maybe I should pick up my crochet hook and try to make something too, we'll see after the hussel of Christmas toy making is over!

So to the tune of "What do you do in the summertime?" (I can only hear John Bytheway's version in my head right now!!)

What do you do in the Wintertime?

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Some Christmas fun!!

Here was our house last night, our first accumulating snow! If you look closely you can see our Christmas tree in the window!! The white blobs in the picture is falling snow and the cloud is Dan exhaling!
Here are the guys earlier this week at the Christmas tree farm near our house! We found a good one! As we got there it started snowing, but it did not show up on many of the photos. :(
It is only a 10 min ride to the farm but Fern fell asleep, so here is what she did while we found a tree! :)
Jake thought we should not "kill" the tree, but he smiled for me anyway! :)Here is part of the farm, it is just on a couples property. When Dan and I were first married we decided we would like to do this someday, we have now also added a pumpkin patch to the farm! :) Here is Riley and Dad going to the barn to return the saw, Riley is now quite the helper he stayed outside and helped Dad get the three on the van!Jake had different plans! :) I joined him soon after snapping this shot!! The heater never felt so heavenly!Just so you do not think it is all Christmas-y around here, here are our two "karate-ers" as they put it! Don't mind the mess behind them Dan spent the entire day baking! His Mama's granola for breakfast, 4 loaves of bread, and 2 pizzas!! Our house was toasty and our tummys VERY happy! :)

A Slew of December Pictures!!

I know I have been MIA, but Christmas is quickly approaching, Dan has been home and we have been busy. This will be a continuing theme (maybe not the Dan being around) through this month so do not expect too many post! Here is some fun that has been had! The Munchies under their new lap quilts!
Our VERY proud Tiger Cub in his new shirt & book! It looks like he will earn his Bobcat this month and receive it at the Pack Meeting on the 19th of this month!
And Riley and I just this last Saturday, we went and saw the Nutcracker together, it was his first Ballet! Mama had a great time and Riley enjoyed it in retrospect! :)

Here is Riley busting a move to his favorite song on our new Veggie Tales Christmas CD!

Jake needed a turn too!!

And Fern, not dancing but having fun to her Christmas music!

If you need new pictures more quickly than I can get them up then I would suggest coming over and watching my children for a few hours so that I can get caught up on things and then have time for the slow loading blogger! :) Love ya Mary! When should I expect you???

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well here we are Thanksgiving evening, enjoying movies under new warm lap blankets Grandma J. sent us!! Here is our Thanksgiving table set and ready to enjoy! We had harvest pot pie, cranberry stuffing, candied sweet potatoes, steamed brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, relish trays and grape juice!We are all stuffed, except Jake only ate the brussel sprouts! :)

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We just got home last night from Pennsylvania! It was a last minute decision, when we heard Dan had a couple days off FOR SURE!! :) So we piled in the van and headed west! We got as far as Scranton, PA, and then had to get a hotel, it had been snowing for a couple hours was getting dark and much colder. So they boys got lucky and they got to jump on the bed and watch cartoons during dinner! :)

In the morning we woke up to 3-4 inch. of snow, and then headed out!

The trees looked like a fairytale!!

By the time we got close to Donna and Jody's the snow was all gone, much to the boys dismay as they had planned to play in it!

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Here are a couple fun pictures, there will be more to come!

Jake and Ben found out that they are not only cousins but great pals too! It was so fun to see them enjoy each other so much!

Here are the 3 sillys who connect us all together, Dan, Donna, and Doug.

Then a few more of us, Anthony took this photo for us. All of the "big" kids were downstairs watching a movie, but I have to say we were having much more fun enjoying each others company and conversation!

So Happy Thanksgiving, I hope yours was blessed!

Happy Birthday (again) Jake!

We celebrated Jake's birthday on the night of the 8th, Jake's birthday is the 9th but Dan was leaving EARLY on the 9th so gifts and pizza with tater tots was in order.Here is Jake grabbing the gifts! The best thing about the toy store here is that they have free gift wrapping!! Yea, especially if you know me! :)
Jake's new dinosaurs, he opened them and said, "I wanted dinosaurs for my birthday!!!" :) Good mom moment! :)
Jake also got a book, he is very much into pirates so he got Port Side Pirates!
Here is the happy guy! He has been completely convinced that he is already 4 ever since Aunt Mary and Grandma had the party for he and Fern, but now he is official! 4, wow I can not believe it!

For a few more fun pictures and a couple videos go check out our schooling blog. You will get to see what Riley learned today!! It is exciting!!! :)

For Ryan!

While we were in Calif. we all tried to get Fern to show Ryan her muscles, because it is the cutest thing you have ever seen!! Well last night she was in the right mood!!

So here is strong Fern!

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After Fern was so cute that then the boys decided to join in, so here are a couple snaps of them!!

Strong man Jake!

IS that Popeye or Riley?

So there are my super strong kids, but they were quite impressed when I pulled out my mommy muscles!! :)

So Ryan there you are how do you like Fern's muscles??

Califonia Girls!

Here are a few more pictures from our California fun!! Here is Grandma with her arms full of grand-daughters!


Here is Mary, Novella, Mom, & Me off to the rehearsal/family dinner the night before Nancy & Josh's wedding. (That was why we went to Calif. all the other fun is just bonus fun!)
I can not believe I am posting this! This is what the kids did with all the flowers they picked for me at the park. :)
Cute Fern at the park!
Then Fern wanted a flower in her hair, how sweet is she!!
Look at those LASHES!!!

We are all enjoying Petunia, she is slowly getting use to us. :) We are playing inside today it is 43 outside with HIGH winds as hurricane Noel pass by. The boys tried to play outside for a bit, bit almost froze to death!! :) But I do have to run out to the farm today for our CSA box, burrrrr!!

Smiles, Leaves, Smiles, & Petunia!

Well we are finally getting out of our funk, so we had some fun yesterday!! After Dan's laborious work...
Two little boys had an idea!
JUMP!!
ROLL!
Now those are very genuine smiles!!

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Then as time makes you ready to go again we took a trip to the Connecticut Humane Society. And I have to say it was the nicest animal shelter I have ever been to! They even had nice soft music playing while we looked at the animals, plus they do not euthanize an animals!
And we found a cat who is now apart of our family!!
Here is Petunia!

Not happy to have been on a 45 min. car ride!
And here she is hiding between the dryer and the wall. She is about a year old, very soft, and very loving. She even likes the kids, when they are not running!! :)

We deiced not to change her name because it suits us well, plus it is one our favorite characters from Veggie Tales, Petunia Rhubarb!