good times

well, we are finally catching a break for this weather huh?! it feels so nice to be able to let the kids play outside! i am grateful for nice weather!

i was looking through the pictures i recently took in an effort to calm Daniel down, and realized i have more pics to share! and i'll also post a video or two at the end, when Daniel watched these, he giggled and it was so stinkin cute what he gets a kick out of.

So Friday we got a visit from Auntie Jenn and the kids were loving her attention. Daniel especially liked her touch screen phone (iphone). Daniel was being cuddly with Auntie Jenn then decided to play the "workout game" with her. well, i call it that, because as you sit on the floor with your feet out in front of you and Daniel facing you is sitting in your lap, he lunges forward into you knocking you down to the floor, then tries to pull you back up, but once you get up, he pushes you over again. talk about an ab workout. but Daniel thinks it's funny. and so Jenn played his game for a bit, then Kathryn joined in, and well, it was just too cute to not get pictures of.

Daniel pushing Jenn down

He just loves it

and Kathryn didn't want to stop.

Auntie Jenn even read them their bedtime stories and Daniel actually sat and looked at the book being read! he never does that with me!
The kids were lovin their Auntie Jenn's attention, and they were very sad when she had to leave.

So mommy sat down and read them one more story, and then we put them to bed. and so since our heating costs were going way too high, starting the beginning of last week when it got super cold, we turned the heater off, used our firplace for a few hours to heat the living area during the day time (it uses less gas than the heater) and closed all the doors so that it stayed warm. then at night we had a small space heater (ceramic) on in our MBR and set up little pallets for the kids to sleep on the floor and we all stayed nice and cozy (about 75) while the rest of the house was 58 or so... i know it's not a good habit to get the kids into, but their bedrooms are on the very outside walls and they stay so cold... so it's cheaper to do it this way, and the kids sleep longer!

this is my broccoli that i cut before it went bad from all the freezing/thawing. i'm excited about it!

so since we were staying in the living room where it was nice and warm and we were keeping all the doors were closed, i got the train set from Dan's room and set it up for them. they had so much fun with it! here kathryn is playing with one of the train cars and making the "choo" sound can you tell? (check out her lips)

i loved watching Daniel follow the train (battery operated) around and turn his head and bend over to watch it go through the tunnels and over the hills. too cute. "i know you're in there"

and he decided it wasn't going fast enough by itself, so he was going to help it along. he's really bending over...nice balance.

and Daniel's new favorite thing to do is tackle Kathryn...he's so much smaller than her, but it's hilarious to watch. and at first Kathryn thought it was funny too. hence the happy smiling faces...

He got her now, and then he brings her down...
and victory is his! this is too cute, it reminds me of a picture of John and his brother Ben that were about this same age in this same position. maybe i'll find the pic and post it.

so there was a mess up on the last check we got where John didn't get paid for Christmas (holiday pay), which we weren't expecting so we had to cut out the extra we should have gotten from the budget somewhere, and groceries took the brunt of it...which was fine, we had stocked up on sales stuff last check, so we were set... but when i had burritos on the menu and no tortilla shells, i made my own! no refried beans, made my own! it was a very satisfying feeling knowing we didn't have to depend on the store for everything. and John really liked the soft taco shells (they didn't stretch quite big enough for burrito size) unfortunately, when i went to pick the lettuce, i waited to late, and it was already frozen again, so it didn't fare well getting defrosted but all in all, it was good. so i wanted to post a pic for the accomplishment. i now have a MUCH greater appreciation for how they HAD to do things back in the day...all from scratch, from your garden, very few things did you buy from someone else. wow. it was hard work and a lot of preparation trying to make this dinner, i can only imagine trying to do that for every meal. and we are supposed to be the strong ones facing harder times... they were troopers.

so a few nights ago, i decided the kids would take a bath in the master tub, so they would stay warm, and i got them some kids blueberry bubble bath a while back and so they got to use it...they had a blast with the bubbles. here Daniel has a bubble mohawk, and Kathryn can't stop laughing at him.

and Kathryn with her bubble crown. yeah, i had fun with them.

Daniel with a bubble hat, sideburns and mustache/goatee. Now i didn't put these bubbles on, he went to "dive" into the water like he always does, and got a mouthful of bubbles and coughing them out. but he thought it was funny and did it again.

and after he got out of the tub, i love his long wispy hair...so don't even ask me what i was thinking doing this:

so he's doing something with his hands...idk why. ALL HIS BLONDE IS GONE!! i'm so sad! i dunno why i thought his hair needed to be cut...and i'm not great at cutting hair, so it was bound to turn out bad...bad meaning, i liked him with his long hair better!! so, he gets to have long hair from now on. because i like it that way! he looks so different to me!

So yesterday our pipes froze again... even though we wrapped them...except for the small hose connector you see here. is this unwrapped part the reason our pipes froze? it did get down to 19º but do you really have to keep your water running to prevent pipes from freezing?

so this was the temperature the car read on the way to bring Kathryn to school. that's the coldest i remember ever seeing the temperature read, but John told me over the weekend when he went to work in the am, it read 20. wow.

oh, and before i forget, the other week Mr. Guy wanted to take the bike for a spin, goes to start the engine, and nothing... the battery is dead i'm sure, we haven't turned it on since...november. but there is just no tellin if that is the only thing wrong with it. good thing we have already had plans to not need it. and thankfully our car is still running with no problems yet.

and lastly, the videos that Daniel thought were funny, i'll post in the next blog.