Daily Life in February

We are stuck in winter.  I'm getting SO CRABBY in the afternoons, I feel bad.  I try to control it but even I can hear myself sounding like a complete bitch to Ingrid and can't stop myself.  I want to run outside without a coat on, or go for a long walk to the park or go to the lake.  But it's cold, it snows, it's windy, it's wet.  We try to go for a walk around the block, but after a few  houses I am already sick of hearing Ingrid complain about being cold.  Sigh.

 

So, we huddle inside.  We play with toys.  We paint.  We make play dough.  We play on the iPad far too often.  We get squirrely and I yell. 

 And then I get a drink.  At five o'clock.  OF COURSE. 

Somewhere in there if we're lucky, we take naps.  Otis has started to cuddle with a stuffed animal at his naps, which I love.  It's usually Mickey or a teddy bear.  It's adorable. 

 

 And sometimes I actually get around to doing something.  I painted Ingrid's room last weekend!  No more green stripes!  It's a nice muted gray color, and the stripes still show through but it's not nearly as horrible as the green was.  I will have better pictures when it's "done."

 

I also cleaned the basement and tried moving stuff around so it seemed like a place we'd want to use.  It's okay, but I just don't feel like hanging out in a basement.  An unfinished basement that is COLD right now, even sitting right in front a space heater.  I used Ingrid's broken dresser as a TV cabinet, it turned out okay, I think!

 The only thing getting me through this month is the fact that March means it's almost spring.  Like in a few weeks we can hopefully go outside with smaller jackets on.  But it's supposed to snow 6 inches tonight so I don't know...I'm hanging onto that hope.

 

So much snow!!

We finally got dumped on!  I would've prefered to have this in December for Christmas, but what can you do?  It was so nice out the other day, just kept snowing but wasn't super cold.  The kids and I went outside to shovel and play, then our neighbors came over and played.  We made a snow fort, it turned out awesome!  Until Cody ran into it and knocked it down and Otis cried.

 When we're not outside, we are playing indoors, which means games (Sneaky Snacky Squirrel, the world's cutest game ever) and climbing, and going to the community center to play with toys we aren't sick of. 

 And in other news...Ingrid got glasses!  We went for her eye exam today and she was super psyched to get purple glasses.  I'm glad she's getting them now and not when she's 13 and all self concious.  And luckily one of her friends at school wears glasses so she won't be the only one.  She looks so cute in them!!

Christmas Getaway

First of all, IT SNOWED!!  I was thinking it probably would never snow around here, we always seem to be just out of the range of wherever it is snowing...But it snowed the other day, and Ingrid was so excited!  We had to go out and play in it while Otis slept.

When Otis woke up, he wanted to join in the fun, so we made a snowman.  I have no idea why Otis is pouting here, though!

Anyway, the snow was the perfect backdrop for our Christmas getaway.  Brendan had some vacation time left so we got a suite at a hotel about an hour north of here.  It was awesome!  They have a waterpark so we got to go swimming and the kids went down little water slides.  The place was all decked out for the holidays,  it was gorgeous!

 Our room had a little bunk house for the kids, with bunk beds and a boat-shaped bed.  They loved it!  I loved the fireplace!  We had such a good time, it was really relaxing and fun.  We went to the local children's museum one day and had the place to ourselves.  It was super fun, so much to explore and play with!  Ingrid loved the grocery store and the doctor's office, which always makes me laugh.  "Come play store with me, Mama."  Uh, no thanks, I actually have to do real grocery shopping every damn week--it's not that fun.  They had a cool net thing to walk out over the whole first floor.  Ingrid was a scaredy cat but Otis ran full speed onto it!

 We stayed for two nights and it was perfect.  Just enough time to go swimming, eat out a couple times, and best of all, the last night we were there, guess who showed up??

Ingrid was beyond excited.  The cool thing was they had a group of carolers on the balcony singing holiday songs for awhile before Santa showed up.  We just sat in the lobby dancing to music, then went up to put pjs on and when we came back down, there he was!  Otis was more into Mrs. Claus, the little flirt!

We had a great time, this is definitely going to have to become one of our holiday traditions!

 

Happy Christmas!

We drove five hours to Gramma's house for Christmas this year.  It could not have gone much better, except the fact that Ingrid got sick and Otis refused to sleep.  But other than that, it was awesome!  It snowed so we got a white Christmas!

We got to see lots of family.

 We got some fun stuff (like a Dustbuster for me, seriously the highlight of my day!) 

My siblings and I chipped in for a Kindle Fire for my mom.  She was amazed, although she cried at getting a calendar with pictures of her grandkids, so I guess family wins out over technology.

It was just so cozy, sitting by the fire, watching the kids go sledding, eating crap food, and relaxing.  Thank you to my mom for letting us all crash and for feeding us.  It was fun!

Snow Art

We got a buncha snow yesterday.  It was quite surprising--I went to Salvation Army and it was sunny, and by the time I got out, I had an inch of snow on my car and the roads were treacherous!  Once I was home it was nice to sit and watch it, it was pretty. 

Today we had to shovel.  Even though Ingrid's been sick, I just know she's tired of being inside.  She has been acting out so bad, it's been horrible.  Just really crabby and crying, whining, not wanting to do anything.  So today I bundled her up and we went outside.  I filled two squirt bottles with colored water and we colored the snow.  Ingrid thought it was pretty fun, and it kept her occupied while I tried tackling the snow.

Check out that coat I'm wearing, I got it at Salvation Army yesterday!  I used to have a really great vintage red plaid coat that I finally had to get rid of when the lining went kaput.  I miss that coat...  But I found its replacement yesterday--the cutest blue/green plaid number, really warm, with a cute rounded collar.  If I have to deal with snow and cold, I better be able to look good doing it, right?

Snotty Snow Days

There was supposed to be a huge storm hitting us a couple days ago, but luckily we got spared most of the snow.  That doesn't mean we can't stay in and have a snow day, though!!  We lit a candle, played music, read books, colored with Ingrid's new mega crayons, and made Valentine sugar cookies.  It made me laugh because lots of friends were all excited about a cozy snow day off work, staying inside with their families, and I get to do this every day!  Lucky me :)

Yesterday Ingrid was very snotty and sickly, so we stayed in pajamas all day long.  We played with Otis and watched a lot of TV. 

I'm hoping today is a little less snotty, and that we actually get out of the house.  Library books are overdue, and food supplies are running low...

Thank You, Miss Wendy!

Dear Miss Wendy,
Thank you so much for letting my Gramma have us over to your house.  We had tons of fun sledding and playing in the snow.  Gramma helped me build a snow fort, it was pretty cool!

 

Pearl had fun, too!

Mom didn't come out with us, she just carried Otis around all day. 

Thank you also for letting my Great Grandma and Grandpa come over.  It was fun to see them, and they were pretty excited to be able to hold Otis!

I loved to play with the farm, Legos, dollhouse, and of course, the rocks!!  After all that fresh air and excitement, I got tuckered out.  Thanks for letting me crash!

Hope to see you someday soon.  Love,

Ingrid.

Snow Day!

Yesterday it started to snow, and it snowed all night long, and when we woke up this morning it was a winter wonderland!  These are the only days I really like snow--when it's new and white and fresh and clean.  Ingrid and I got our boots on and let Cody out to run in the snow right away this morning. 

We came in to do some coloring, of course, and I got some sewing done.  I made these little slippers for the shop. 

I think I'm getting better at them but sometimes they still come out so wonky--like a recent pair I made were made from the same pattern and yet one ended up an inch shorter than the other.  A whole inch, how does that happen?!  (Don't worry, I don't sell those!  I make sure they are the same size and shape before I post them.)

And now we're making dinner and listening to the Yo Gabba Gabba cd.  Ingrid knows most of the words to it, it totally makes me laugh to hear her sing along. 

Working When I Can.

Here is what I have been up to lately:
A felt book for my etsy shop

A few new crowns, also for the shop.

And a new dress for the shop.  I love that bird fabric so much!

Ingrid is only napping 50% of the time now.  She is not ready for that, but feels she is.  When did your kids stop taking naps all the time?  I'm thinking this is just too soon!!

But we manage fine on days she doesn't nap, now that I know there will be some of those days.  Playing, coloring, walking the dog.  Speaking of coloring, I love that you can print color pages on NickJr!  Ingrid has been having fun coloring all the Gabba creatures.  Over and over and over again...

It's snowing today and the fireplace is on and I'm ready to curl up and watch a movie.  I rented Julie and Julia and I'm going to make Ingrid watch it with me this afternoon :)  We'll see how that goes!

It's Christmas, Y'all!

Here are some pictures from yesterday.  Brendan went to work late so I got to get some work done.  We got twinkle lights the other day for our shelf, so it looked all nice and festive. 

I got a bunch of coffee cup holders done for Applesauce Crafts.  Within five minutes of posting them for sale, I'd sold two!  Yay!

I also worked on the goody bags for the party on Sunday.  I need to get more goodies for them, but they are coming along nicely for scrap fabric and ribbon!

And finally, it is COLD here now.  Like windy blustery snowy cold.  I shouldn't say snowy, we only have a dusting.  If anyone's seen how crazy it's been in the midwest, we missed all that...I love how weather works, my family lives on the other side of the state like two hours away and they got dumped on and schools have been closed.  We, however, got the smallest dusting and that was that.  But it's enough for me to realize it really is winter...Ingrid and I got super bundled and took Cody out yesterday afternoon.  Thank god we have the ring sling.  I remember last year I couldn't fit the pouch sling over my coat or hers, it was too much fabric!  But with the ring sling we have tons of room for all the extra padding.