Helping a Friend

Yesterday I had the pleasure of babysitting James (3) and Madelene Kate (3 months) during the day while their mom Debbie worked getting their house ready for the selling market. They were angels....James played joyfully very independently with the various trucks and cars and other boy toys and Madelene was an absolute joy. She took 2 bottles extremely well, slept wonderfully amidst all the noise, and was a very happy baby. Madison and Carson were delighted with having a baby in the house and Jason, well he was a bit more jealous. Madison and Carson were so sweet with her as they sang to her and gave her gentle kisses. Here are some pictures and videos of our time.


Madison LOVED feeding her!
Can you tell?

While I made lunch the kids enjoyed a little break in all the action and watched a show....can you tell that they were focused? L to R...Madison (4), James (3), Jason (2), and Carson (3). Notice how Jason is playing with James' hair....he always has to have his hands in someone's hair, it's his security blanket...and James thoroughly enjoyed it!

Here are a few videos...first of Carson singing to Madelene Kate as she lay in the pack and play and then of Madison singing to her while everyone else was sleeping.

Hitting the Slopes

Matt and I were able to go skiing yesterday at Whitetail Ski Resort and it was so much fun. I hadn't gone skiing in 7 years since our last big storm but had skiied alot in my high school and college days. Matt had only skiied once before about 15 years ago. While he took an hour lesson I went skiing by myself and was blessed that it all came back to me....I love skiing!

Here are a few pictures of a portion of the slopes.

Matt in his skiing gear.

The two of us riding the lift together.

And here are some videos of the new skiier. He was very much in control (most of the time) and he did very well making the turns. In the second video he begins at the top left of the video and makes his way towards me.

Buddies

Last night when I went to check on the boys before going to bed the first thing I noticed was that Jason wasn't in his bed....I looked over at Carson and there they were! Sound asleep next to each other in Carson's bed.....so sweet.

Super Storm 2010 Post #5

No time outside is complete without a little time in the swing....Jason even fell asleep swinging at one point. Here he is with a nice chunk of snow while swinging.
At the top of the mountain of snow. That's the top of what's left of the street sign off to the left.

Matt and the kids enjoying sucking on the icicles that we retrieved off the side of the house.

A view from our front porch right before "sunset" last evening while the flakes began to fall. Notice the one-way sign just barely seen above the mountain of snow.

Super Storm 2010 Post #4

Sledding and jumping and climbing fun in the snow that was delivered during the Super Storm of 2010....and this was all before we got the storm on the 9th/10th (which was more of a blizzard!)

Matt worked hard preparing a nice path to go down with our innertubes and sleds....here Madison and Daddy are taking a turn.

Carson (our sometimes very timid one) was not timid at all when it came to sledding down this huge hill. In this case he wasn't even willing to wait while the slope worker (Matt) finished his job. He almost always just laid down on this saucer, face down, eyes closed, and took off.

Our "little" slope built up by Daddy right in back of our house.

Last evening before the blizzard really started we headed down the street to the large mountain of snow that was created by the tireless plow drivers. The kids enjoyed climbing the mountain.

All three taking their turn down the little slope.

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME WITHOUT ADEQUATE SNOW AMOUNTS. Sam entertained us a bit showing off her ability to climb over railings and jump off the deck into the snow below.

There was only a little problem....getting stuck at the bottom.

Super Storm 2010 Post #3

Some random pictures:
A demonstration of how the wind has affected the snow....this is the area right outside of our front door...you can see a little bit of the grass and landscaping stones... the wind has cleared this area.
A quick venture outside with the kids around 9am Saturday.

Notice how high it is by Jason.

The van completely covered.

A view from the inside of the garage of the van.

Super Storm 2010 Post #2

Pictures of the Grill on the deck....a timeline.
7:15pm, Friday night
10:45pm, Friday night

7am, Saturday morning

11am, Saturday morning

11am, Saturday morning....the children's slide buried and many drifts on the deck.

Super Storm 2010 Post #1

Pictures of the Patio Table....a timeline:
7:15 pm, Friday, February 5th
10:45pm, Friday, February 5th

7am, Saturday, February 6th

11:15am, Saturday, February 6th

Recent Stats

Jason:
Height: 35 1/2 inches (66%)
Weight: 30 pounds (74%)

Carson:
Height: 37 inches (40%)
Weight: 32 pounds (54%)

I wouldn't be surprised if by next year's appointments Jason has caught up to Carson or passed him by.

Say Cheese!

My little girl is getting so big. I caught this picture of her looking so cute in her black sweater, black boots, and jeans. And no outfit is complete without a little jewelry!
And then the boys had to get in on the action.

Another Snow Day

Hard as it is to believe, we had another snow day on February 3rd. I'm beginning to lose count of all the days we've had snow so far this winter. There was a small snow in early December, a large snow storm (17+ inches) on December 18th/19th, more snow the last weekend in January, and then this small snow storm that started on Carson's birthday (5 to 6 inches). I figured I needed to get these pictures and videos up ASAP as we have yet another storm beginning this afternoon that's going to break records. Will definitely have more pictures and videos when that one is all said and done.

A picture of the beautiful surroundings on Wednesday morning.
A picture of our deck.

Here are a couple videos of our sledding experience early Wednesday morning. We really needed a chair lift or at least a rope tow to get back up that hill...it was extremely slippery. All this snow is really making me desperate to go skiing!

Carson turns 3!

The morning began mixing up the cake for Carson's birthday...of course all had to be involved!
The finished product....a few hours later...Lightning McQueen.

One of Carson's presents was an military dress-up outfit. You can see here that he's pretty excited about it.

Doesn't he look so cute in this? He liked it so much that he went to bed with the jacket and hat on.

Testing out the binoculars!

With a 50% discount at Outback we've begun a little tradition of celebrating birthdays there. They love it when a bunch of the staff come over and sing. Here's a little video of how much Carson was enjoying it.

From Grammy and Grandpa

Grammy and Grandpa got a large present for the boys to share for their birthday. We decided to have them open the present halfway in between their birthdays so that one of them wouldn't think it was only their gift....selfish little hearts that they have. So here they are opening the gifts.





A train table complete with a train set! The boys already have a container full of geo-trax but this train table with train will go in their room. Here they are enjoying the pieces while Dad in the background puts the table together.

All set up and ready to play....as you can see Madison enjoys this gift as much as the boys. Thanks Grammy and Grandpa!