Pictures of Life

I'm trying a new scrapbooking thing where I take a picture a day to tell the story of our life, because so often before this, I'd have a random picture of Ian that was great but that I couldn't tie into a scrapbook page. This way I can do a page for each week and incorporate those pictures. I'll post the layouts when I finish them, but for now, here are some of the pictures we've taken.

On the 7th, Ian wanted Darrin to get his belly. Darrin pulled his shirt up and he stared calling it his hood. He started running away, though, when Darrin pulled out the camera. Good thing Daddy's quick with the camera.


This first days of January have really been about all the snow here in Omaha. We thought Darrin was finally done digging us out when we woke up to this sight Saturday morning. Darrin thinks it was a sabatoge. I doubt it, since there were plow marks on the road...


And then there was yesterday, when the Packers scored lots of touchdowns, though fell short in the end.
Which brings us to today. Ian asked for help getting the goggles on (which came with a miniature leaf blower for Christmas last year) so that he could go swimming. He learned this weekend about snorkeling and apparently wanted to pretend. Somehow it transferred into sitting on the couch with me. The couch was a snow plow one minute, a train the next, and even a boat. We drove whatever he decide it was like the crazy drivers we are.

Reason #3,585 that I love my hubby

At 6'3", he's a foot taller than me. Now, this has its obvious benefits that I use almost daily, such as reaching things on the higher kitchen shelves. But in my 33rd week of pregnancy, it has some benefits that I've really been taking advantage of lately- clothes. With all the snow days we've had, I spend my days lounging in his pj pants and sweatshirts. Sure, the pants are a little long, but I'd rather deal with that than wear maternity pants. I've been wearing his clothes so much lately that when Darrin actually wore his own sweatshirt yesterday, Ian said, "Hey! That's Mommy's shirt!"

While Ian was wrong on that one, he was right on this one: Darrin was outside on Wednesday before the snow really hit using our roof rake. Ian and I were watching from inside when he said, "I have a good daddy." in his matter-of-fact way. And he's right. Reason #1 I love my hubby- he's a great daddy- the best (and he'll probably be a bit embarrassed by this post all about him...)

Three Snow Days

It's about 4:20 on Thursday and they've already cancelled school for tomorrow, making that our third straight "snow" day. That makes 6 cancelled days in the last 14 days of school. Today and tomorrow should actually be deemed "too cold to be outside" days. With these cold temps (what does above zero feel like?) coupled with the piles of snow, I KNOW I could never live in Alaska. I don't even remember there being this much snow in Northern Iowa where I grew up. It's actually hard to tell how much snow we really have because of all the drifting. Where Darrin's shovelled and blown the snow, it's got to be close to 3-feet high, and there's a drift in our backyard that's closing in on the top of our fence. Hopefully the wind is blowing all the snow off our roof because we have some wet spots on the ceiling and don't need them getting any worse. I can't tell if it is, though, because I'm not venturing outside (otherwise there would be photos to accompany this post).

And you would think having yesterday and today off that my house would be put back into order, but of course not. I do feel reasonably comfortable that if I were to go into labor today, which I better not go until March, that we would be prepared at home. Now if we could actually have some school days so I could prepare my classroom for my departure...

Snow pictures

I stepped out long enough today to take a few pictures of the snow that was awaiting our return to Omaha. We can't thank Marlena and Noah enough for clearing us out while we were gone! Wish there was a way that the snow plows didn't have to fill it back in, but thus is the give and take of living in the Midwest.

Back to Normal...Almost

The tree and ornaments are in their respective boxes and snowmen have replaced Santas... now just to pack it all away. Oh, and for Darrin to shovel out our mailbox so we can get mail on Monday. There is A LOT of snow here, and if I ever change out of my pj's today, I'll be sure to get a picture or two. What a welcome back to Omaha. Instead of being lazy our last day of break, we're trying our best to be productive, which is hard since our parents did everything for us back in Iowa and we could be as lazy as we wanted. Thanks for that everybody!!!

I'm not looking forward to the packing away of all the Christmas things. Because to do that, we need to start rearranging the house for the arrival of Baby Collins. The room that will be the nursery is currently the room where we throw everything that doesn't have a place. So now I'm forced to find a place for all that stuff. I'm thinking there will definitely be a few trips to Goodwill in our future.

All I really want to do is work on Ian's quilt now that I have the backing fabric (thank you 75% off Christmas fabric sale) but I must clean to have space even to do that. Better stop typing and get started...

Christmas Happenings

It's been a while since I've posted, but I was a crazy-quilting lady these past few weeks. Why is it that I wait until December to decide I'm going to make people gifts, never leaving myself enough time to get things finished?

On Friday the 18th we met up with Marlena and Noah to see Santa. We waited outside of Creighton Hospital as he was supposed to come in on his helicopter, but because of ice in the clouds, we watched him arrive in a security car.
The day after my quilt group got together. We exchanged ornaments like last year. I made the eaten gingerbread man, Marlena made the snowman, Virginia the bulb, and Sara the folded red/green ornament.
This year has been the most fun yet as far as Christmases with Ian go. Last year he was just getting the hang of opening gifts and such. This year he is a pro. He also understands now that Santa leaves presents under the tree while he's asleep, and it was fun to watch his reaction in the morning when he realized Santa had come. He's become a great helper as well. He passed out most of the presents at all of our Christmases. Of course, he can't read anyone's name except for his own. He'd see a package that had an I on it and think it was his- even if it was from him instead of to him. He was also smart enough to realize that after opening presents at our house, Santa hadn't given him a combine or semi- good thing there were more Christmases to come.

Here are a few highlights of our Christmases:

Opening his Cars racer from Marlena and Noah.
Showing Marlena how her nativity should be set up
Showing off our new Christmas pajamas

Digging in his stocking from Santa

Santa's Little Helper

Ian loves his combine
Ian holding cousin Owen (9 days old)
The boys having fun with Elefun (notice Ian oblivious to them coming out the top- he just picks up the ones everyone else misses, which proved to be a winning strategy).
Playing with his new semi

This is definitely just a sampling- I think we've taken about 150 pictures so far this season, and we still have two Christmases this coming weekend!

Snow Day

It's the first snow day of the season, and Ian has been talking of sledding since yesterday morning. We got a bit of snow Sunday night, but not enough to cancel school yesterday. For a kid who's only gone sledding once before in his whole life (before he was even 1), he wouldn't stop talking about going sledding. So after work, Darrin and Ian headed outside. Turns out he's too big for the sled he had, so we headed to Target to buy a new one for the impending snow.

Which brings us to today. It started snowing off and on around 10 last night, and has been snowing steadily since 8 this morning. After a quick trip to the doctor's office for a baby check-up, we bundled up into our snow gear to try out the new sled (which Ian picked because it's red like Elmo). It works wonderfully and Ian was so proud he could go sledding by himself and loved being out in the snow. I'm surprised he didn't fall off the sled more, because it doesn't have sides, and he would let go of the handle. I was just waiting for him to tumble, but he never did.



Now he's getting his first cup of hot cocoa. I'm so glad Darrin's working from home today and we can have a family snow day. And hopefully I can spend the afternoon sewing and getting some Christmas presents finished.