Dave, Neala, & Our Family: January 2011

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Downfalls to Snow

Beautiful Snow....

Maybe Not so Much Right Now...

I looked out our back window and this is what I saw. A tree has fallen in our backyard due to the weight of the snow. If there is a positive thing, it is that it didn't hit anything but the ground (and it gives us a place to put the swingset this spring). Right now as I type, Dave is working on getting some of the snow off of some of our other pine trees. The snow is a really heavy snow and it is currently sticking to everything.

THANK YOU TO DAVE

This is just a shoutout to say what a wonderful and handy husband I have. Our new faucet has been giving us trouble. It was working great and then all of the sudden there was no pressure. He has tried a few things to fix it the last couple of weeks and tonight he figured it out by taking it all apart and finding a flaw in the faucet. He was able to fix it with some parts on hand. Thank you DAVE!!!! We now have a faucet with pressure.

Snowfall

Today we got some snow. Work was let out a little early and so I was able to pick up the kids and we could enjoy it for a little bit.

Dave, shoveling the driveway.

Our home....with a few of us standing in the window getting ready to go outside.

Our snowman

Sunday, January 23, 2011

What do you do on one of the coldest days of the year...

Go to the ZOO.

Our plan for the day was to go downtown and take an adventure. However in the morning, Alex, Aubrey, and I had been looking at a magazine about zoo animals. So I said to Dave, "Gee it would have been great it we could have gone to the zoo today." I was just kidding, of course. But then we both realized that even though the temperature was much below freezing, the sun was out so it didn't seem so bad. So we went to the zoo. It's free here, so we didn't feel bad if we didn't stay long. We decided to park near most of the zoo buildings and we spent most of time inside looking at frogs, snakes, lizards, crocodiles, gorillas, orangutans, giant turtles, mole rats, and a few fish. We also took a short walk outside to check out the lion and tiger exhibit. We were nervous that they might not be outside, but thankfully they were. Alex was so happy to see a tiger and a lion.
I didn't get any pictures inside and at the lions/tigers exhibit because I forgot I had the camera.

However, we did get a few on our way back to the car and next to the dinosaur.
(Oh, and by the way, I was suprised that there were more people there than I expected, but at least it wasn't crowded by any means.)

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Yogurt Time

Aubrey and Alex really like yogurt lately. They ask for it all the time. Do these pictures show how much they love it?

Marissa and Jessica's Paintings

While Marissa and Jessica were here, we asked them to paint some pictures for us for our Living Room (aka Alex and Aubrey's play room). They just had to use the house paint that we had on hand. Some of the paint was from the previous owner, some was samples we changed our mind on, and others are the current colors in our house. We went and bought some canvasses and Marissa and Jessica made us masterpieces of circles and squares.

They also painted some pictures with watercolors. Marissa's painting on the left currently sits on a shelf in our dining room. Jessica's painting will go into Aubrey's room because it happens to have all the colors of Aubrey's room.

Thank you Marissa and Jessica for your hard work.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Scissors

Dave and I have colds (that are wearing us out), so we are trying desperately to keep the kiddos from going crazy while we manage our colds. We are trying our best not to let them watch too much TV, but that goal isnt going so well. Last night, we did do a craft (we followed this website for penguins). After that was over, I decided that maybe it was time to pull out the two pair of kid scissors that we bought a couple months ago. If I would have only known that it would entertain them for a full 45 minutes, if not longer, I would have done it a long time ago. They started out with a half a sheet of yellow construction paper...a few stickers...and a pair of scissors each. Then they went to town.

By the way, we know they have the scissors upside down...we tried to get them to turn them over, but it didn't work. We will try again next time. But, at least they got the cutting part down.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Jessica's Birthday

Jessica had her birthday in December, but we celebrated on Saturday. We decided to have an apple pie birthday cake. (we had some apples left over). Dave and I were never able to make an apple pie that turned out. Well, I think we finally succeeded...if I do say so myself. It was a delicious apple pie. Also, Jessica had a great time on her birthday.

Jessica and Marissa's Christmas

Jessica and Marissa are visiting with us for a week. We love them here. Since they just got here, we celebrated Christmas with them last Friday. Here they are opening their stockings. Of course, each stocking always has to have a toothbrush.

Jessica and Marissa gave Aubrey a My Little Pony for Christmas and she loves it. She has taken it with her just about everywhere since she got it. She also loves the box that it came in.

Alex really likes his big T-Rex that he got from Marissa and Jessica. In fact, I think he is taking a nap with it as I type.

Monday, January 3, 2011

A little note

Just a little note to say that I found out how to change the date on my blog posts, so I rearranged December a little bit. I had things all out of order. Just in case you see a picture with an earlier data that you didn't think was there before. I'll try not to do this again....but things were kinda hectic with the new laptop and all the holiday happenings.