Real Snow

It snowed....for REAL. The crazy snow-preppers are feeling so vindicated for buying ALL the groceries. Do people truly not already have enough food to keep them and their offspring alive for 48 hours? You don't have a can of soup and some oatmeal packets? Luckily I worked a shift at Hy-Vee the day before weather arrived. It was busier that Thanksgiving and Christmas combined. 

We declined to go out and shovel until it was done. Maybe a mistake, considering it took us an hour and a half to dig out the driveway. But it was the most delightful snow day. Church was cancelled and we made good food and watched movies. Absolutely worth the end of day shoveling workout. 

Our darling friend Faith invited us over to take part in her families sledding tradition. I am not well-known for my adventurousness or my willingness to be chilly, but even I went down a few times! It was super fun!

Laney was the dark horse and went down first and frequent. Everly got brave after Mark offered a "major award" for the brave ones. AJ refused to go down, so Mark and I expressed our indifference and went inside for cocoa. We've been around this parenting block before. 

What do you know? I looked out the window and spied her flying down the hill. By the time we left, she was getting a running start and leaping onto the sled face first. 

The perfect hill!

Janitorial

We had an unexpectedly good time cleaning the church building this morning. 

My job was to move the vacuum chord a little with my toe when I thought it was encroaching on Mark's path. 

Crucial.

Vital. 

Indispensable. 

Easter Egg Artists

Last year I kept seeing these egg spinners advertised for decorating eggs. They looked so fun! But they were kinda pricy. So I watched the after-Easter sales and I found these Dino themed ones for a couple bucks apiece! 

No dye, no vinegar...it was genius. And luckily I have an extensive permanent marker collection from my Hy-Vee doodling days. 

Laney will alwasys find a way to make Ninja Turtles. 

Aren't they pretty?? I love the saturated ones. 

Megan went full art student on hers. Mini portraits!

Winnie was in hard-boile egg heaven. 

Mark had a meeting, but we saved him a few!

70's day

Mark and I have instituted 70's day.

Every Sunday after church we turn off the phones and laptops and ipads and computers...anything that encourages separation and isolation. You know...like they did in the 70s!

And then we figure it out from there. 

Boredom is likely. Anger is all but guaranteed.

But, so far...

We are having fun and making a few memories.

Week 1: We had a project that needed attention at the gym. We took all the kids with us and set them loose with their scooters, skateboards and a gym full of rings, bars, boxes and ropes. 

They figured it out! (I left my phone in the car, so I grabbed a few shots off the gym camera feed)

They even did a few dance routines to "Can't take my eyes off of you"

And get this....about 30 minutes into our forced family fun, my loudest complainers were begrudgingly admitting that this was a really good thing.

Week 2: We packed some sandwiches and went over to Bull Creek Park. I remember doing a simple hike there a few years ago and I thought it might be the perfect way to get ourselves out of the house for the afternoon. 

Megan made us some peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches...the strawberry jam was GONE. How could we have let this happen?? 

The hike was cute a short and interupted briefly when Mark realized he'd need to go back to find a bathroom. While he was gone we gave Megan a hard time over the insane amount of jelly Megan put in each sandwich...I mean, who is that girl's mother??

Stay tuned for our upcoming adventures!

Swing kids

 It's nice to know that it's still fun to go to the park with my pups.

Polar Plunge

What better way to start off the new year than with an audacious leap into a wintery lake??

The crazy crew!

   Cheri Knighton, Ross Terry, Carol Gregg, Mark, Faith Higgins, Lauren Terry, Lauren's neighbor & her daughter, Leah Terry

I was happy as a clam holding towels and taking the video!

True Blue Skaters

 Sadly, the ward ice skating tradition has run its course. I can't imagine why! 

What's that? You aren't super stoked to get your babies out of bed at 9 pm and drive into the city to freeze your buns off and have an oatmeal raisin cookie and scalding hot cocoa? Porque no?

WELL FINE. 

We'll go by ourselves.

And we'll have WAY more fun. Just watch. 

(well, I'll watch...cuz I don't actually like ice skating)

I'm super smart and forced them to take a photo before they all skated off in their own directions.

Oy! I love these people!

Mathew was whipping around the rink swapping hats.

Mark was out of the running too...knee surgery will do that.

Everly did exactly one loop around before she decided it was way more fun to sit with Ethan and watch funny videos. Ironically, I would agree. But Mathew, Megan, Laney and AJ all went the distance. 

In honor of the the three oldest being in town for the holidays, we went to BD's Mongolian for dinner! I foolishly thought that the gift cards I got from Costco would cover it. I misjudged. Cha-ching!

We ordered 4 big brownie desserts to share! Time to pair up!

Gingerbread Condos

 I cannot tell you how grateful I am that the major retailers have responded to my deep need to have gingerbread "houses" NOT be houses every year.  We've done the big house, we've done the mini houses and the trees. We've gone with graham crackers and a couple years in a row, pretended we might make the gingerbread from scratch...that's so adorable.  They say hope springs eternal!

This year I spotted these gingerbread row houses! I love their little staircases! And there are three of them...perfect.

With the gingerbread decorating complete, icing scraped off the countertop and sprinkles swept up, I settled in to work on my puzzle and was treated to an impromptu performance of Little Mermaid...complete with sister waves crashing on the rocks with dramatic flair!