Snowy Owl

I have a super-sweet hubby! During the night last night he was up investigating a loud noise and before heading back to bed he looked outside. He got to see a new visitor to our deck: a big, beautiful snowy owl! We regularly get all kinds of birds, squirrels and even a rabbit (since the snow pile is all the way up the tree to our squirrel feeder. I even saw a hawk sitting out on the deck one day, but I wasn't fast enough to get a picture.

But Jon was able to watch the owl for a long time last night and get several pictures.... that's where the "super-sweet hubby" part comes in! He knew how much I would have wanted to get a picture of that owl sitting out there so he found the camera and took a bunch of pictures for me and showed them to me as soon as he got up this morning. See, super-sweet! :)

Anyway... here is our new friend, the snowy owl!

Dinosaur Puppies

This is Emmy writing this blog tonight.

Wrigley: She is a puposaurus. This puposaurus is cute. She likes to eat dead fish. Shoeshine: She is a cuddleasaurus. She likes to jump around.
Peaches: She's a peachadactyl. She's just a baby and she's cute. Mocha: She is a niceasaurus. She likes to sing, "Oh I Just Can't Wait To Be King!".

Cocoa: She is a heartasaurus. She likes to look at the stars at night.

Lexi: She is a snowasaurus. She likes playing in the snow. She likes eating leaves.

Dug: He is a woofasaurus. He likes doing the dinosaur dance.

Buster: She is a mysteryasaurus. She likes eating meat. She likes to play in the mud.

Bolt: He is a Boltrex. The Boltrex is kind of like a T-Rex but he is cute.

Bria's Piano Recital - February 2010

Here are some videos from Bria's piano recital this morning.

Bria Guest Post - Demon Dog, Her Opposite, and Snowy Dog

This is Bria I'm doing the blog today.

Have you ever had the felling your dog is evil, I have....

...but then they get all cutesy and nice...

...and then you get her all cute and covered with snow...

...but don't be decieved, your dog is evil.

Our Morning

Well, with a kind of rough day around here yesterday I thought it might be good to have an outing this morning. So after stopping at the store for a few groceries I asked the kids if they wanted to go for a drive to look at all the beautiful trees. We headed just to the south end of town so they could see how pretty everything looked covered in frost and the sun was just peeking out too. They really enjoyed it! They wanted me to take pictures of every tree we saw... so here are a couple at least because they wanted to see them later! I'm going to try to print out a couple of them to use as something for our notebooks next week too.

Now if only the outing had led to our normal quiet rest time...... seems like the two big kids had different ideas today - we'll see if they ever settle down! (naptime isn't always perfect here either!)

High Snow + Fence = Escape Route

This weekend we spent another 3 hours each getting more snow/ice off our roof, and then off our deck, driveway and sidewalks. It's amazing how much snow our roof held! And the one area of our yard where some of the snow has been dumped has finally reached within inches of the top of our fence/gate. So I also got to dig out that area before the dog realizes she can just walk right over the top of the fence in that part of the yard!

Moving around all this snow also means that the sledding hill created off the top of our deck is now off limits for the kids - the snow pile is so high that when the climb up it, they could now fall over onto the middle section of our deck and I'd hate to see anyone get hurt. So, in the meantime, they are enjoying jumping off the other "hill" created in our yard, playing in the snow fort and doing all kinds of other things around the yard.

Here are some pictures of the crazy snow piles (and Bailey wondering what I'm doing!)

This is a rabbit who is enjoying the tall snow hill - he can eat the squirrel's corn now too!

The sledding hill

Why we can't use the sledding hill right now!

The snow piled up near the top of the fence before I dug it out.

Walking and Naptime

While Miss Sophie has taken some steps around her house, she's been holding out on the walking thing here..... until now! Hooray! We had 2 steps! Crawling is still the faster, preferred method of getting from point A to point B, but the steps have happened.... before we know it I'll be reminding her that we don't run in the house! I was really hopeful that she would be walking before baby Ethan starts in March and it looks like we'll be there. Good job, Sophie!

Naptime...... ah, the delight of daycare providers and the dismay of parents at home on the weekends! Really.... almost all of the kids I've done daycare for nap here more easily than at home from about the age of 2 1/2 or 3 on up. THIS IS VERY NORMAL! Although frustrating, it seems to be the way life goes. No fights about naptime at daycare even though it may be the end of the world to take a nap at home. I can't explain why the phenomenon happens exactly but I do have several theories.
Naptime Theory #1: Normal routine. Weekends are the time for parents to relax, not worry about a schedule, enjoy time off of work with family, friends, etc. This a good thing. Although infants and the under 3 crowd still benefit greatly from a regular schedule at home as well as at daycare, once they hit the 2 1/2 - 3 age, they would much rather be playing with you and having their "downtime" for the weekend, just as much as you do. Going to daycare is just a much a job as parents going to their jobs. And at daycare, the schedule is so much the same from day to day - their bodies are programmed to go down for a nap about noon every day at my house.
Naptime Theory #2: Peer Pressure. Normally, peer pressure is considered a bad thing. But it can be a very good thing too! If your child sees everyone else going down for a nap calmly and thankfully, they are "pressured" to do the same thing. That's why if I do start to have issues with anyone going down for naptime, the rebellion is squashed as quickly as possible so that other kids don't play "follow the leader" with the mutineer!
Naptime Theory #3: You are way more cool than me! The older kids get the more they realize that the weekend is the time they get most of your time and attention - my kids feel the same way. And they love you and don't want to interrupt this time for something as "silly" as a nap!

Tru - Turbosnake

Ok all.... Tabbi wanted me to post this on the blog. Tru wants a Turbo Snake for his birthday... here, I'll let him tell you all about it......

Coyotes

I bet no one else said, "Let's not play coyotes in the house." today. Come on... Anyone? Anyone else say that? :)

Waiting for Kids to Come

All the daycare kids were running a little later than normal this morning so I had time to sit down and play around with my new photo editing program - so fun! Kaleidoscopes, reflections, textures, borders, etc..... Here are some of the fun pictures I "recreated"....

Happy Birthday Jon!

I really didn't get a chance to get on the computer yesterday, but wanted to still have a posting wishing my hubby Happy Birthday! I am married to the best man in the world and so thankful for him! We're looking forward to another good year!

It's Friday and Other Good Things

I'm sure you are all as glad that it is Friday as I am. We're looking forward to celebrating Jon's birthday on Sunday, watching hopefully a good football team (even though there's no Kurt Warner or Vikings playing.....), church, washing machine shopping, some birthday shopping and maybe some sledding.

If everyone's up for it, I think we'll try to get the sledding in tonight. I have a feeling the sledding hill will be packed tomorrow with the couple of inches of fresh snow and relatively warm temperatures. Tonight will be our best bet. One other funny thing about the snow - the snow pack is only about a foot below the fence in one area of the yard. ..... I'm waiting to see how soon it will be before Bailey realizes that with a little hop over she could roam the neighborhood. With the addition of a few more inches of new snow this weekend and any other future snow accumulations, she may be able to walk right over the fence at some point! The only thing that may discourage her is it's quite a jump down to the other side where the snow hasn't been able to pile up as much (it's protected from much blowing snow). Could be interesting.......

I've been so thankful the past couple of days for the warmer weather. These kids need some outside play time!!!!! We've been able to go out in the mornings and the afternoons 2 days this week and it makes a WORLD of difference in how the rest of our day goes. My full-time crew of 3 have really appreciated the change of pace and the change of play areas that being outside provides. When we come back in it's like they are different people! It's funny when you have a group of kids who have been together for a long time - they treat each other far more like siblings than like co-daycare kids. This has it's advantages and it's disadvantages. One disadvantage - they know how to push each other's buttons like no one's business! On the up side, they have really settled into a very comfortable level of interaction and play and can read each other's moods with pinpoint accuracy usually.

All of that being said, things will get shaken up here again soon. In early March I will be adding a 3-month old little boy to the mix. He won't be really playing with the other kids, but he will be able to interact and his needs will kind of shake up our routine for the day. It will be a good change though and we are looking forward to the change. Sophie's been growing up by leaps and bounds it seems the past couple of weeks and it's nice that she is at an easy age for me at add in another little one.
I also have an interview lined up for tomorrow with a potential family. We'll see if it's an arrangement that will work for everyone. If it looks like another new child will be starting after that interview, I'll be sure to let you know as soon as possible. So lots of changes could be shaking things up here in the next 6 weeks or so. I'll keep you posted!

REMINDER: $25 arts and crafts fee is due for full-time families. Thank you! That fee helps me restock our arts and crafts supplies and enables me to purchase some more unique kinds of projects.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Snowflakes

The kids had fun yesterday making snowflakes. We used pipe cleaners, clear beads, fishing line and pom-poms. Now, to find a place to hang them!

Bria and Emmy saw the ones made by Reed and Talasia yesterday and are excited to make their own this weekend.