What a difference a week makes

This was taken on 12/2...last Monday. Notice the temperature...81.9 degrees.


This was taken on 12/9...a week later from that 80 degree weather. Blake was super excited to find such a huge icicle, although he kept calling it a popsicle. So hopefully next Monday we can be back to normal temperatures. School was cancelled Friday, Monday and part of Tuesday (starting 2 hours later). Are Texans wimpy? Maybe, but there is serious ice on the roads still. Ice is so much more lame then snow. What fun is ice...other then super huge icicles? It is currently 19 degrees, so nothing like other places I know, but still cold and not warm enough to melt this ice. Last night, Blake discovered a dead bird on our front yard...it didn't survive the cold. The boys did think it was super cool though.

Ice, snow and more ice

We have been hit by a lovely winter storm. Wednesday it was 77 degrees and the next day the fun started.

So, we need to get some real gloves for Dylan and some warmer clothes because he was too cold. Friday when we went out to play, he didn't like it at all, but on Saturday, he had a blast....until he was too cold, then he went inside.

Blake helped me clear off the tramp.

Yep...this is some ice that was on a tree in the backyard. Pretty thick!

I think this is Dylan's first time seeing snow.

A picture from Dylan's room. Not a ton, but caused some damage. They said 270,000 people were (some still are) without electricity, a couple deaths, way too many flights cancelled, community activities cancelled, church cancelled, etc. The ice is a killer. The high yesterday was 25, so nothing is melting.

This was Thursday when it first started to ice/snow. Luckily we had some friends over Thursday morning to play because we haven't left our house since. We are going a little crazy.

Aaron, the one who is much more familiar with cold weather, is of course, in Turkey. Oh well, we took care of business. We had a lot of things planned to help keep us busy while Aaron was gone, but most of those things didn't happen because of the weather.

Christmas in the Square

Last night our city had a kick off to Christmas with a tree lighting ceremony, so we bundled up and went to check it out.


There were other activities to do on the square as well. The kids were pretty excited to see reindeer.



Can you look at this picture without laughing?


And there is the tree.



You could also go tubing. My midgets were both too short though.

It was cold, but warmer then it has been. Thanksgiving morning Aaron was able to play in the Turkey Bowl in chilly 24 degree weather.

Saturday

On Saturday, after the library, we headed to our favorite park. The boys were in heaven because there are plenty of leaves to play in.

He is such a little tease...won't let me take a picture of him sometimes. Before we went to the library, we went to the museum, which I will post soon.

Reading and Friends

Last weekend, we went to the library again because the boys were ready for more books. We brought them home and they immediately started "reading" them.


Monday morning, we were about ready to leave for school, when I get a text from a friend saying her house flooded the night before and asked me if I could watch her daughter. She got to go with us on our errands, which also included visiting teaching...but then we also got to play at our house. She is the easiest kid to watch...for a 3 year old (she is being potty trained, but did great at our house) and Dylan sure liked having a friend over.

Car Dealership

My car needed to be serviced, so I took it to our local dealership while Blake was in school. I love when Blake is in school because it is a lot easier to do things with only one kid. Anyway, they had a fun kids room.

It was fantastic. It made me happy because Dylan was happy.

After we got the car serviced, we picked up our turkey, then went to Blake's school to see his Thanksgiving Program. Dylan was not a happy kid, so I wasn't able to get a good picture of Blake, but here is the proof that we went.

Fun Day

On Tuesday, Blake comes in my room at 6...right after I finished my workout and he tells me that Dylan woke him up and Dylan is crying. I can't hear Dylan, so I finish getting ready and then I go check on him. He wasn't in his crib, but asleep in his curtains. Dylan can get out of his crib, but not in it, so apparently he got out of his crib, but was still tired and couldn't get back in his crib, so he fell asleep in his curtains. Who knew curtains were so comfortable?

Later that day, my friends met up with us at McDonald's to celebrate my birthday and well, to give me some adult conversation since Aaron is still in Turkey. Our kids played while we talked. They also gave me a yummy cake.

I might have had some help eating it.

Reading

We have 2 libraries in our city and we love both of them. One night I was cleaning up dinner and Blake was "reading" the new library books to Dylan. I wasn't sneaky enough with the camera.

Reason to like Preschool

 

Dylan is awesome at playing by himself, so he really likes it when Blake is at preschool so he can play by himself and not have anyone take toys away from him, etc.


And since midget isn't taking naps anymore, I like that he can play by himself so I can get stuff done that I normally would do during nap time. Who is excited for next year when Blake goes to Kindergarten? It would be so great if the kids could play well together for more then 5 minutes.

Silly Kids

Blake was really excited about what he made at preschool yesterday.

A dance was necessary to go along with it apparently.

Blake story: The other week at Home Depot the boys each received a balloon. Blake took his balloon with him to the park afterwards and it had a slow leak in it, so as we are walking home I was telling him that we will just throw it away when we get home. Blake then said, "No mom. I will go home, put tape on it, then put some paper on it. Then the balloon will be good." Apparently he saw the look on my face because then he said..."Trust me mom..it will work."  A couple days later he told me again, "trust me mom".

While Blake was in preschool, Dylan and I went shopping. We got all our errands done so we were killing a little time before we had to go get Blake again when we discovered a random magnifying glass at our Home Goods store. Wow...Dylan was intrigued.

Dylan story: I was in the front yard doing some yard work during nap time, when I hear someone inside the house at the door saying, "Mommy, where are you?". I open the door and it is Dylan. He smiles and says "Me out". He then takes me by the hand up to his crib and says "Me out" and laughs. We went through this whole getting out of his crib things a couple months ago, so we put his mattress on the floor instead of having it attached to the crib itself..if that makes sense...it gave us another 8 inches or so. Needless to say, he hasn't been taking naps lately. I put him back in his crib, but he get out again. I don't fight it because I know he hasn't been taking naps every day recently anyway...I would hear him just talking/singing in his crib. Knock on wood, he does fine at night, but he does climb out of bed in the morning when he is awake. Since he doesn't take naps, he does sleep in in the morning. Side note: I was talking with some friends whose kid still takes a nap and he is 4. What? Clearly he must not sleep much at night then...oh, he sleeps 11-12 hours at night. What?!

I am just pretty excited that Dylan decided to do this while Aaron is away for a month. Way to score points with mom.....grrrrrr.

Petting Zoo

Here are the other pictures from the zoo. This is on our safari adventure.

We got to stop and pet a lot of different animals, like the zonkey..mix between zebra and donkey.

Blake didn't want to pet any animals, but he did want to look at them. His favorite was the male camel.

Dylan loved petting all the animals.

Petting Zoo

A couple weekends ago, we went to a petting zoo with some friends.

They had a train ride, which the kids loved.

Dylan loved petting the animals...Blake did not.



We also went on a safari, which I will post pictures of another time because they are on my camera still, but the kids got to pet camels and donkeys and other fun animals. 

We also ate lunch with Cindy and John at the Bear's Den, which is right next to where the black bears are. After the zoo, we went to Cindy and John's house. They have a dog, which Dylan loved, but Blake did not like at all.

Olives

For some reason, my kids love olives. Dylan has discovered that olives are even more fun if you put them on your fingers and then eat them.