Snow Days

We've very much been enjoying the several inches of snow we've gotten over the past several days. The kids have had a grand time playing it! (pictures toward the bottom of this post.)

Every morning that Luke's still home when Carter wakes up, he gets a book, literally throws it in Luke's lap and begs to come up in the chair to have it read to him.  :)

 We brought our extra queen mattress up from downstairs and put it in Bridget's room, thinking that we would begin the transition to a big bed. When she saw it in her room, she started crying and saying "I don't want to sleep in the big bed!" So, needless to say, this isn't going to be an easy change for her. She's still sleeping in her crib, and tells me every nap time that she only wants to sleep in her crib. They have made good use of the mattress for jumping on, however. Carter esp loves it because he can so easily get on it!

   

Kisses!

Luke had a meeting one evening, so we headed over to my mom and dad's. Both kids love to play the piano. The listeners aren't so hot about the music they make...

 The other week we had our first day watching miss Ava. She's going to be a regular at our house in the future. Both kids love babies, and I'm pretty sure they couldn't leave her alone all day. When I came out from putting Carter down for his nap, Bridget had her and Ava all set up with books and Bridget was "reading" the Three Little Pigs out loud.  :)

 Carter's tired signal....sucking his thumb and rubbing his ear.

We went to pick up our 1/4 cow and 1/2 pig last week. This is the grump...

 And here's the happy boy!

 Little buddy is in LOVE with the broom, mop, Norwex mop, and sweeper. One of his first ten words was "broom." The other day I quit mopping for a minute to answer my phone. When I hung up I couldn't find my mop. I found Carter in his room rocking and "bio-ing" the mop!

Reading books...a rare but darling occurrence. 

 This past Friday the kids woke up to lots of snow and they loved watching Luke shovel the driveway before work.

 Carter found the leaf blower attachment and hauled that around.

 Neither kid had snow boots so after my chiropractor appt on Fri morning we went and got some at Walmart. Let me tell you, if you want to get a steal on snow boots, wait till the end of Feb to buy them! Bridget's are about 4 sizes too big, but she can at least walk in them. And we may get several years use out of them!  :) I also got those little snow shovels for $2.50 each, and they have been quite the hit. Neither one liked the sleds. We'll try them next year. 

 First taste of snow...she didn't like it. 

Our little snow man, complete with milk jug lid eyes and no nose!  :)  

"I saw a little wormie"

Children's Museum

For a long time I've heard from people that the children's museum in Bloomington is just lots of fun and their kids love it. We'd never gone, so last Wednesday Elise and I loaded our kids up and headed there. Pardon the not so great pictures...with our 4 kids we were a little busy keeping track of them!

Judah and Bridget had a great time in the back seat together. I think they giggled the whole way there!

 A van full of carseats!!

 The kids had fun in the water area. I thought Carter would love it, since he's crazy about his bath and any puddle he happens to find. However, he totally freaked out when I put his hand in!

 Tree house area

 They have a fake hospital set up, and of course both my kids gravitated to the babies!  :)

We went to Firehouse pizza for lunch, which was right next door, and thankfully, had a buffet for lunch. Our kids were starving! While eating lunch we realized we'd been parked in a 2 hour parking lot for almost 3 hours! We were hoping not to get towed! Thankfully, the van was still there, and the parking enforcement officer pulled in by us as we were loading the kids into the van.  :)  (after getting home and re-counting this to Luke he reminded me that they usually just give you a ticket if you're parked longer than allowed.)

We had a great time! The kids had fun playing, but the concept of the "exhibits" were over their heads. I'm sure we'll go again sometime! 

Thursday night we had our first foster parenting class. It was about as I expected it to be, although I did underestimate how tired I'd get sitting there for 3 hours after being up since 4:50am!

And a Bridget quote to close out this post!  :)

This morning Bridget comes upstairs and tells me that Carter is crying.

Me: Why is he crying?

Bridget: He's crying because he is stuck

Me: He's stuck? (thinking where in the world is he stuck at??)

Bridget: yeah, he's stuck in the lion's den

Going downstairs, I discover him stuck in the tiny space between the couch and chair...It's usually Bridget's hiding spot for her dolls, stuffed animals, sippy cups, etc and apparently she's nicknamed it!  :)

Perhaps...

Perhaps we should more clearly define to Bridget what clearing your plate entails...

more pictures

For Christmas this year Luke got me something I've been wanting for several years: a little point and shoot camera.

Now our other camera is great. I love having a nice camera for at home and stuff. But it was big and heavy and a pain to haul along. I wanted a little camera I could take with me to the zoo, or the pool, or the park, and that would just fit in my pocket. So now it rides around in the diaper bag. And this morning I finally thought to download the pictures from it!  :)

 Pfaffmann Christmas. Mom and Wendi trying to figure out the rules to our gift grab.

 onlookers

 One day it was pretty warm so after nap time we headed to school that's a block from our house to swing!

 Bridget and I came down with the stomach flu on a Tues afternoon in early Jan. By that Sat night we hadn't left the house since that past Sun and I was going a little stir crazy! So we met Paul and Elise and boys at Culver's for dinner!

 Blogger can't seem to get my pictures in the right order....this was back on that warm day. After swinging we came home and played in the yard (and garage) till supper time.

 blurry picture, but Carter LOVES the leaf blower. He gets so mad because it's too heavy for him to lift and carry around. He also loves the mower.

One of their outdoor Christmas gifts actually got some use before spring arrived!

Stuck (warning: lost post)

It's almost Feb and I'm pretty sure cabin fever is starting to set it. McDonald's trips have been seriously considered (and happened) more than ever, since going to the park is out of the question. We hit up the library at least once a week, and well as Kroger and Walmart.

However, we've stuck pretty close to home because....drum roll please....we have a child newly out of diapers!!!!! I cannot explain the shear joy of only have one kid in diapers. It's wonderful. Just this week we've started venturing out of the house without a pull-up on. It's been a little over 3 weeks, but I still just wasn't quite ready for the risk of having pee all over the grocery store. But she's been doing wonderful. It was a terrible first week. I was about ready to pull my hair out. If you ever need to know how to clean pee off of various surfaces (wood floors, furniture, mattresses, bedspreads) I'm your gal! 

Despite having a touch of cabin fever, we've been very busy. Some of Carter's latest adventures include: pushing the buttons on the dishwasher (got at least 25 spankings that day, until I finally put the highchair in front of it), hauling a full gallon of bleach up the basement stairs after getting past the child lock on the cabinet, celebrating Bridget's successes on the potty (he gets treats too), insisting on feeding himself at every meal, climbing on anything and everything and subsequently fall off and getting lots of bruises and scrapes, making a bee line for and giggling like crazy any time the kitchen chairs aren't pushed into the table (the laptop is on the kitchen table), ripping books, playing in the toilet, dumping out a brand new box of cheerios and proceeding to smash them, annoying Bridget by playing with doll house or anything else she's deemed as hers, screaming all the way through my chiropractor appointment (you know those smiles you get from the receptionist and everyone else in the waiting room when leaving? So embarrassing), and on and on. 

Bridget's latest activities include: doing everything in her power to keep Carter away from her doll house, doing her best to boss Carter around, attempting to boss everyone else around, putting her babies and all and any stuffed animals to bed and telling us all to be quiet (and giving severe glares to anyone who isn't), wanting to "walk all on my self" (all by myself) whenever we walk into any place, hating peeing in a big potty (I did drop her in once :-s), giving her dolls a suppository (she's had issues...and may be slightly scarred  wanting to take naps in mom and dad's bed (hasn't happened yet), actually trying the food we're having for supper (never eating more than her obligatory one bite, but it's a step), negotiating how much food she actually has to eat at a given meal ("I eat these, and I not eat those" or "when I am done with this I will have some more." The later usually only applies to things like grapes, cheese, and snacks). 

Bridget's been getting quite an attitude and telling us "no" a lot, so she's been getting disciplined for that. Only she's a little too smart for her own good and has started saying "nuh uh" instead of no. So the other day I told her to do something and she replied with "nuh uh." I picked her up and said "Bridget, you don't tell mommy no." To which she replied "I not say no! I say nuh uh!" Stinker.

 cool lady

 Giving kisses 

 Playing memory. I greatly overestimated her ability to do this. 

 This was a long time ago, but these are some of his first steps.

 Out of order, but here are more first steps.

 Reading the new library books

 First snow of the year! These two could care less how cold it is, they just love to be outside. Unfortunately for them, they have a mother who hates being cold. 

 Knapp Christmas...Bridget got a doll highchair

 And Carter got a cozy coupe car! There have been many fights over this car.

 Again, something happened and some of these are out of order. This is back at Knapp Christmas...Sandy reading books to the little girls.

 Bridget and Uncle Adam. We got these headbands in the Target dollar section and they've been a huge hit with the kids!

 Smashing a cracker into little pieces. 

 Back at Christmas with my family...Bridget got a doll house.

 Making pop pop with dad...they both LOVE popcorn, and even Carter knows where the special popcorn bowls are kept!

 Climbing on the side table. Just before this picture was taken he knocked the stereo off the back and broke it. :(

 Eating popcorn

 Two stinkers in the laundry basket