Melt a Mommy's Heart

Eliza doesn't know I'm sharing this special moment, so please don't ask her about it. She handed me a note at bedtime yesterday. And here's what my little kindergartener wrote completely on her own: I like you Mom. I bet you like me. I love you. I know you love me. I like it when you help me. I think you are glad when I help you. Love Eliza
Life really is much simpler than I make it. I left in the misspellings (there weren't any.) I couldn't be happier with her.

The Sledding Saga

After a week in the 40's, yesterday the temperature was below freezing and we could actually walk on top of the deep snow. We went sledding a week or two ago and had to trudge up the hill sinking up to our knees in the snow every step of the way. So, when we saw the chance to try it again without the sinking, we were excited. Well, we learned quickly that if the snow is icy enough to walk on, then it is very fast for sledding. Eliza and Belle took a run fast as lightning. At the bottom they rolled off the sled, and Belle came up crying. The left side of her face got scraped. I said, "These are kind of dangerous conditions." Erik disagreed. Then I took Alexus down on my lap, we also fell off before we got going too fast. Alexus came out of my arms and scraped her cheek. I said, "I think we should go home." Erik was still not convinced so Eliza took another run. She was great and even took the jump at the bottom of the hill. But she didn't land on the sled and scraped her cheek. At which point Erik conceded and we all went home. It's hard to see but the top picture is the girls today with their scrapes.

Cuties on the Couch

Just thought I'd post an up-to-date picture of the girls. It's the cute moments like this that keep me from going insane. They really are good girls, just a lot of work sometimes. Keep smiling!

A Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year

I'm finally back online. December was very busy and very snowy. This led to numerous power outages of course, but it was gorgeous. The winter scene was taken from our living room couch. We got tired of having blurry pictures and having to change the batteries in our camera way too often and splurged at an after Christmas sale for a little new one. Hence we have no pictures of Christmas for the blog. It's all on video (not digital video.) We did get some New Year's shots. I have been unable to post anything til now due to our phone line being down for 2 weeks as well. Wanted you all to know we did have a wonderful Christmas. For those who haven't already heard the story, I thought I'd pass along Belle's Christmas miracle. She came to me later on Christmas day and said,"Mom, you know what? Even though I picked my nose, Santa still brought me presents!" She got away with one this time. Hee, hee. On New Year's we had Erik's neice Chablis with us. We had to get a picture of our "toast." I got some sparkling cider. When I told the girls we would be having a New Year's toast, they asked if they could have cinnamon sugar on their toast. So we started a new tradition.

I never appreciated my electricity before moving to Northport

This morning we had our 3rd power outage of this winter. Maybe some of you are like I used to be and could use a refresher on what it means to be ready for a power outage. Well, first of all no power means no heat. In Bellingham, my preparedness consisted of having some blankets. That won't cut it here in the zero degree weather. My first thoughts when the power goes out now--do we have enough wood for the fireplace and kerosene for the heater. Not only do we need to keep ourselves warm, but the pump house and our house need to be warm enough that the pipes don't freeze. Which brings me to my next concern. No power means the water pump doesn't work so there's only 1 flush of the toilets and no washing or drinking water from the taps until power is restored. Do you have enough water stored? I love baby wipes for all our cleaning needs during power outages. Also I check to see if we have enough disposable plates and utensils to use for eating since we can't do dishes. It seems the outages always catch me when I have a stack of dishes to do, and they just have to sit there until power comes back. Then I think what do I have to feed my family that requires no cooking? A lot of sandwiches happen. As well as canned fruits and anything from the fridge that will go bad. Yes we could cook outside on a campstove or BBQ but that means freezing your patutti off and not really having a good heat source in the house to help you come back up to tempurature afterwards. Is your cell phone charged and ready? Where are the matches and the candles? Can you find them in the dark? I just don't recall ever thinking about these kind of things like I have to now. Here's hoping the rest of the winter has no extended power outages. We've been blessed that so far none of them have lasted more than 12 hours. I love electricity!

The mail.

The picture below is us getting our mail. Our mail box is about 200 yards from our house, so I can't just grab it. We get to go for a short walk each day to get it. It's nice that there's still no snow. I suppose when it comes, I'll just pull the twins on a sled instead of pushing them in a stroller. Maybe one day it will be bad enough that I'll think of driving to the mail box.:-)














We now get Netflix through the mail! It is our excitement, since there is no cable in all of Northport and we choose not to get satellite and there is no Blockbuster or anything like unto it for 45 miles. The girls picked out a DVD with Hannah Montana episodes on it. Belle put on some play makeup from her "Hannah Montana Backstage Kit" she got on her birthday while she watched. Fun, fun, fun.

Happy Halloween

Our Halloween Haunted Gingerbread House. Thanks Grandma Shari!

Halloween was quite a busy day for us. Erik was running the school's Scare Fair so Mom got to try to dress and entertain the 4 girls for Halloween. The girls had fun for the most part but it was very difficult to get the few pictures we do have. So here they are: Belle, the princess, Eliza, the clown, Alexus, the bee, and Olivia, the Lion.