The Ugly Bike

Chad's new pride and joy, his new recumbent bike.

I call it the Ugly Bike, the kids call it the Funny Bike.

Chad is going to start riding it to work as soon as the weather gets a bit nicer.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sledding Party!

Last Friday we had our friends the "G's" and the "W's" over for a sledding party. We had received 6-10 inches a few days before but it melted down a bit. Friday was warm and sunny, the perfect sledding weather. We didn't even need the burn barrel this time to keep us warm.

Glory and Nora. Nora was on a sled when they first started at the top of the hill, but she quickly lost it.

Tim and Glory.

Nora, Naomi and Tim. This picture was taken late afternoon and you can see how the snow was starting to disappear. Nora took some tumbles down in the mud a few times.

Tim and Joey. Tim had it made, he would sled down the hill and wait for someone to carry or pull him back up. He wouldn't even get off his sled, just sit and wait till the next gullible person came along and gave him a free ride. We have such kind friends!

The snack and hot chocolate table. Tim getting ready to take another free ride.

When we tired of sledding we built some snowmen. A rare picture that includes me, thank you Christy!

Then...some snowmen were confiscated for a snowball war.

Even the little ones joined in.

The snowballs got bigger and bigger. Joey is biding his time until Matthew no longer has Tim in tow.

Sleds were even used as shields...

Nathaniel, ever the ornery boy.

The sled train. Nathaniel was in the front, but somehow detached and took off ahead of every one else. We spent 3 hours playing in the snow and had a fantastic time with friends. While we can't wait to do it again I do think I'm sledded out for the year.

Dressing for Church

Somewhere around the time Timothy turned one, I started to get my feet under me and was able to make it out the door in time for Church on Sunday morning without too much stress. What made it all possible was Chad's help in getting the boys dressed. Our routine would go something like this; breakfast was fast and easy and while they were eating I would put out clothes for Chad to dress the boys. I would then take a shower and do my hair. After that I would get myself and Nora dressed and do her hair. So by the time 9:00 rolled around Chad would have the boys ready and I would have myself and Nora ready. This routine has worked well for a year now. The only glitches are that most of the time I do not get breakfast and sometimes Chad switches the boys clothes. That happened again yesterday.

They wear clothes only one size apart. There in lies the challenge.

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Just in case you didn't see the difference.

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While Chad was changing their clothes Nora came up to me wearing a nice formal black velvet and red dress. With bare legs and white shoes. Now I'm no fashion expert but I know you don't wear white shoes with a black and red dress. Nor do you got outside in February with snow on the ground in bare legs. So I helped her get on some black tights and told her to put on her black Church shoes. By this time the boys were done switching clothes and getting in the van. Nora could only find one black shoe. So, she and I tore her room apart trying to find it. I knew the shoes fit her tight and so I ran downstairs to see if I had some black shoes in the next size. Thankfully I did. We then went to rush out the door and she couldn't find her coat. By then I was pretty inpatient and told her she was going to Church without a coat thinking we would find it in the van. When we got to the van we didn't find her coat we found her friend Ella's coat. So, I assumed at that point Ella was wearing Nora's coat to church that morning and Nora was just going to have to wear Ellas.

When we arrive at Church we discover that Nathaniel put his shoes on the wrong feet. Nothing new, but at this point I'm thinking we are so bad a getting ourselves dressed that maybe we should just stay at home.

We split up and everyone goes to their Sunday School class. When that is done we meet back for the Church service where I discover that Nathaniel's pants are on backwards.

Oh, and the boys were still wearing the wrong shirts.

The Mohawk

Life is too short to not have a little fun now and then. I am the barber for the male members of our family and therefore have some freedom of expression. It suited his personality well and it was as a lot of fun - while it lasted. We shaved it after 4 days when the novelty wore off.