09 Blizzard - Digging Out

I haven't seen the "official" snow totals yet, but the "unofficial" reading we took on the deck last night was 24 inches. This is what it looked like:

See that man shoveling his driveway in the middle of the blizzard? That's my husband. Pretty much the BEST husband ever...

Where do you start with this? We can't even open the door...

Maybe having two cars is overrated. I wonder what would happen if I just left my car here until the spring thaw?

Frosty Flashdance

Driving to School with Evan

E: Ice! Ice! No Ice! Mommy’s car! You turn on car! I drive your car! I want to be warm! Why beeping? Toy magazine? Toy magazine! What that Jeep doing there?
M: It’s not a Jeep, honey. It’s a Hummer.
E: Why people in it? Where are they going?
M: To school. Everyone on the road at this hour is going to work or to school.
E: Yellow! Why that light yellow!?!?
M: It’s a warning sign. Like “Warning! The light is about to turn red!”
E: What red mean?
M: You know what red means.
E: Stop! Green. What green mean? Green means go! (Giant sneeze) What’s that sound?
M: Um, it’s you. Sneezing. (Looks in rear view mirror to see impossibly long trails of snot coming from E’s nose.)
E: I have a snail trail!
M: Hold on, don’t touch anything! I’m getting a tissue for you. Here, wipe your nose.
E: I can’t! You do it!
M: You have to try, the light is green and I have to drive.
E: Okay mommy!
M: (Looks in rear view mirror to see all snot is gone, but the tissue has not been used.) What happened? Where did all of that snot go?
E: In my mouth!
M: Oh, Evan, yuck-o!
E: That’s so silly!
M: That’s not silly, it’s gross. Next time use the tissue, okay?
E: Okay mommy! That’s the YMCA! Why am I going to the YMCA? Who drop me off? Who pick me up? Make u-turn! Why this a u-turn, mommy?
M: Because it’s shaped like a U. Look – long straight line, turn at the bottom, long straight line.
E: Do it again!
M: If we do it again, we’ll be driving in circles.
E: Do it again!
M: Look! We’re at school!
E: (Attempting to unbuckle his car seat) I do it ALL BY MYSELF! I can’t do it! You help me!
M: Let’s do it together.
E: Lock the car! Flash the lights for me! (lights flash) That’s so silly! Where’s my cement mixer? I play on the playground! Miss Sandy! Let’s play with your Christmas toys! Bye mommy! You say bye-bye mommy!
M: Bye Evan! I love you!
E: Who pick me up?
M: Daddy will pick you up. Love you!
E: Love you too mommy!

A fly on the wall...

As you may have guessed, the reason for this blog is two-fold. I want to share insight into our daily lives with friends and family. I also want to capture pieces of our busy life that might be forgotten over the years. So, in that spirit I am going to start posting “A fly on the wall” entries. They will be essentially things that you might overhear in our house on a daily basis.

Here are a few snippets of recent conversations….

*****

Evan (as we pull away from the Starbucks drive-thru): No latte for me?!?!?

Me: Uh, no. No “latte for you” for a long time…

*****

Evan to Lauren in the morning: “Good Morning Sweetheart!”

*****

Evan (standing on toilet, wearing his new winter coat and looking in the mirror): “I handsome. I very handsome…”

Letters to Santa

This is the first year that Evan seems to "get" Christmas. He understands the concept of Santa Claus and is quite excited about him. In fact, I think Evan has a running loop of the song "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" in his head. If conversation in our house ever ceases, even for a moment, Evan will break into "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". Only he sings it twice as fast as usual and sings the entire thing through about seven times before he stops to breathe. But, I digress...



Evan is really excited about Santa Claus, so we decided to write a letter to Santa this weekend. Here is the letter:

Evan got a bit of help with the structure of the letter. But, when we finished I asked him is he wanted to add anything else. This is what he suggested...

I love that kid. So, then Evan mailed his letter to Santa Claus...

And probably committed his first crime. Notice the incorrect address and the lack of any sort of postage? I think the USPS frowns on shoving things like that in their mailboxes. We're living dangerously these days. Here is the fun thing... Thanks to Sealed by Santa Evan should be receiving a personalized response from Santa and some reindeer food in the next few days. Isn't the internet wonderful?

A Perfect Day!

Saturday was a perfect day! We met some friends for breakfast in the morning. When we arrived at the restaurant it was cold and rainy. When we left, it looked like this....

So, we went home, lit the fire, put on some music and decorated the house for Christmas...

I made Paula Deen's Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake. Then, we decided that the house was sufficiently christened with holiday spirit. So, Evan and I played in the snow. When I bundled him up in this get-up he walked around saying: "I'm cute! I'm cute in THIS outfit!"

We made a snowman. We threw snowballs at each other. Evan would say, "I'm going to throw this snowball at you! One... two... three... four... five... six... seven... eight... nine... ten... eleven... tweleve!"

Evan ate snow. I know better. ;)

We caught snowflakes on our tongues and eyelashes.

Then we went inside and drank cold apple cider. It was Evan's request.

.

Later that day, Kristin drove up from Richmond. She watched the kiddos and I had a date night with my husband. Want to be my new BFF? It doesn't take much. Watch my kiddos and let me go on a date with my husband. As my sister, Kristin already has lifetime BFF status, but this solidified her standing! It was a perfect, perfect, perfect day!

Thanksgiving Recap

Ever since we relocated from Texas, we have been talking about going to a log cabin in the mountains for a getaway. But, the timing was never quite right. Over Labor Day weekend, I stumbled upon what appeared to be the PERFECT log cabin for such an escape. So, we decided to rent the cabin for Thanksgiving this year.

It was a great decision! After a busy Fall, it was a much needed break. The cabin exceeded our expectations. And, we had HIGH expectations going into the weekend! We invited our local family to join us and cooked our Thanksgiving dinner at the cabin. We spent the weekend hiking around the lake, staring at the fire, reading, napping and exploring. We are already looking for an excuse to go back. Here are a few pictures from our weekend...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wordless Wednesday