Indoor Days

These winter days have given me a bit of cabin fever.  I have to admit I'm ready for that spring warm air, flip-flops, and days outdoors....but I want to cherish these indoor days, because we've had lots of fun memories also.  Baking cookies, putting on puppet shows, coloring - lots and lots of coloring, dancing, singing, playing hide-n-seek, reading, watching cartoons, just a few of our indoor activities.

One night I put both of the girls hair in braids so they would have "criggley" hair the next morning.  And they were reading a book Isabel wrote in school and they all were just cracking up about a few words Isabel spelled wrong.  Lee was telling her how they would sound if you said them how she wrote them and they just thought it was hilarious.  It was one of those, I just want to capture this moment and remember it forever.
    

Another afternoon the girls put on a puppet show with these My Little Ponies the girls made.  And yes, we have made ALL of them!:)  It was a great craft for them to do and it was their idea to put them on sticks and make them into puppets.   

 

So I guess for a few more weeks we'll enjoy these indoor days and all that comes with them. 

President's Day

President's Day we had a fun family outing.  Isabel was off school and Lee took the day off so we could spend the day as a family doing a few fun, not normal day things.  We started our journey to Jungle Jim's.  I think I've said this before, but I love that store.  It's just so fun!  My kids love it too, and this time Isabel really had a fun time trying to read the store map and figure out each place we were going to go.  Of course we had to get a family photo by the famous bathrooms.

We had a special lunch at BD's Mongolian barbeque.  SO GOOD!  You just put all these delicious ingredients in a bowl an they cook them on this huge grill right in front of you!  It was kind of out of our way to go there, but way worth it. 

Then since Lee and I had so much fun downtown before Valentine's day, we decided to take the girls back there.  We went to Fountain Square, had donuts at Graters.  Come on, you knew our family had to include donuts somewhere, right?  Then we took the girls up in Carew tower.  They were so cute.  Ana was anxious, but afterward she thought it was so cool!  They all loved it.  And at the end of our day, we ALL crashed.  It was fun, but exhausting and I'd do it all over again!

So many things to see, no one wanted to look at the camera

90

Lee's grandma turned 90 a few weeks ago and to celebrate we wanted to send something a little larger than large.  It took us several hours to make and the girls were a huge help!  Happy Birthday Grandma Nordine!!!!

Early Valentines

Lee and I had a special afternoon out the Sunday before Valentine's Day.  We spent the afternoon in downtown Cincinnati.  We enjoyed an adventure to the top of Carew tower, one of Cincinnati's oldest skyscrapers that has an observatory deck 49 floors up.  It reminded me of the few times Lee and I went up in the John Hancock in Chicago.  Our plan was to leave downtown and go somewhere else for dinner, but as we kept seeing ads around for restaurants we got hungry and picked one that was right on Fountain Square called Via Vita.  We are pizza lovers and their pizza ad got us.:)  It was an Italian restaurant.  It was fun to try something new and enjoy an afternoon together.   

On and off

This on and off weather, I'm not so sure about it.  I won't complain about 60 degree days though.  It was SO good to get out of the house, ride bikes, use our creative skills (little as they are), and take a little walk.  Isabel said, "Actually, it would be a great day to go swimming."  Ha.  Although I can't wait for those swimming days, it wasn't one of them yet.

Last bits of snow

 

  

Sound of Music

The girls have fallen in love with the Sound of Music.  I can't say I blame them.  I think it's one of those classic great movies of all time.  We heard them one night singing at the top of their lungs Doe a Deer when we told them to go get their pajamas on.  We caught some of their performance on film.  Sooo...we still need to work a bit on them staying in tune, but they definitely have enthusiasm going for them.  

Kindergarten Program

Isabel had her first kindergarten program last night.  The letters Q & U got married and there was a special wedding ceremony and reception, and Q & U became QU (kw).  It was a very short performance, lasting only about 10 minutes, but it was cute none the less.  The girls were asked to dress like queens, and the boys were told to dress like quarterbacks.  At the reception they served wedding cake and beverages, and had a special craft where you made a paper quilt. 

I remember when I was in kindergarten we had a Christmas performance and I and a few others got pushed off the top riser when singing our Christmas song.  It obviously has scarred me for life.:)  Isabel's performance was less eventful.  Here's their cute Q & U song...

She was the letter 'J' for her class

January...it's come and gone...

So I was hoping I would have more time to blog in January, but January kind of seemed like a catch up month.  Actually, the first week it didn't even seem like the new year.  I told Lee I officially start my New Year the second week of January.  That's ok right?  I had two resolutions.  One, to read through the New Testament, and two, to eat better/healthier breakfast.  It's February, and both these have gone well.

So January has come and gone.  I'll try to do a quick recap.  We had a lot of lazy days.  We had days that were 65 degrees and days that were 5 degrees.  That's KY weather for you.  We had a day off from school and few additional snow days.

Our first snow day...

Our second snow day.  There wasn't much snow, but Isabel was bound and determined to make a snowman.  This picture makes it look bigger than it actually was.  I say she did a pretty good job though.

Lee and I branched out and went on a date to Fountain Square and went ice skating.  It was fun, but it was COLD the night we went.  After a few times around the rink, we were like...okay, that was fun:)  But we went around a few more times cause we had paid to do it:)  People that know me know I don't really like cold.  I'm more of a, stay inside and hibernate kind of girl.  I'm not exactly sure how I survived growing up in MI.  I do enjoy winter activities though (sledding, ice-skating, skiing), but I'll have on my long john's, wool socks, and thermal heat pouches in my pockets.

We both think it kind of looks like we cropped ourselves into this picture:)

We also celebrated my friend Marty having her baby boy, Ben.  He's a cutie!

Marty and I a day or two before Ben was born

Klara Jane guarding Ben when I watched him for a few hours one day.  Believe me all I heard ALL day long was, "baby, baby, baby, baby, baby."

Speaking of Klara, she is getting to be SUCH a big girl.  It seems like she went from baby to toddler overnight.  She is saying LOTS of words, and one of her favorite things is her new fish nightlight she has in her room.  She gets SO excited when it comes on every night. 

 

Not to mention she's pretty good with technology...

 And then she does silly stuff like this...

One cold evening, we went over to my parents house and played some ping pong.  I may, just may have beat my dad every game and beat Lee 3 out of 4 games...I'm just saying though...it may have happened!  Yea, I got pretty good at ping pong growing up.  My brothers would hit the ball at me as hard as they could until I learned how to hit to back.  I would often beat the boys at camp.  They never saw it coming from little o' me.  Here's Isabel.  We play with her if she hits the ball, at all, she gets a point:)  

And lastly, I wanted to post this picture because I just thought it was so cool.  We have a sweet lady in our small group who is so talented and she made this snack for our group one night.  It's cookies that have scriptures written on them, and the whole thing is edible!  Very cool!  The scriptures she put on them were all about the subject we were discussing that night.  So creative!