Winter vacation

The kids and I drove up to Nana & Grandpa's house for winter break! So much fun with snow, cousins, sisters, parents, etc.

I sure love him!

Here's Nathan on his actual birthday. He isn't a fan of cake, so we did an ice cream cake! SO delicious!!!

The snow was perfect! Hours and hours were spent outside, sliding, and making tracks, and playing, etc. It was wonderful to watch. I'm so glad that even though we live in the city right now, that my boys aren't "city boys".

All three of them out in the far back just enjoying it all.

If you look really closely you'll see Hunter at the tippy tippy top of this pine tree. He was so pleased at how high he got! He's been climbing trees with Nathan since he was 2 so, thankfully, I wasn't nervous in the least! I've gotten used to it!

The 5 of us!

Some indoor playing with cousin time. This happens to be a boat, in case you were wondering. Hunter just fell out. It was great to see them using every bit of their imaginations together!

Nathan's early birthday

We recently celebrated Nathan's birthday. A little early, since we weren't going to be all together as a family on his real birthday. He requested that we go to VanCortlandt Park and sled, so we did!
The first hill.... with Gary waiting at the top for his turn.

This was actually on the way back to the car... Ben was pulling all three little ones on the sled. Tired out kids!! (Great Dad!!)

This was the 2nd hill, and the better one. They started up a little further back from where they are now, and crossed the path where I'm standing to take the picture. Then the go down through some turns and cross the lower path also. It was a great run!

Back to the first hill again, for Gary's turn. I love his face! Such good brothers!

This one is when we were first starting out. The two big boys and Ben had a snowball fight.

Snow Day!!

10 inches fell yesterday. It was declared by the mayor to be a snow day before it even started snowing!

The three boys had a wonderful time in it! Snowballs, trampoline, forts, sliding, etc!

Here's Gary on the trampoline. With all the snow on it the effect wasn't quite the same!

Felicity was content to be inside with me!

Mud, Mud, Mud !

So a couple weeks ago we had an uncharacteristically warm day. My sister was here visiting with her children, too. So after the boys got home from school, we had a mud day! We got the boys dressed in their old clothes, and we shared some with Rebecca! They had an amazing time!
This hole in the back yard is the boys allready.... all through the year they work at it. Digging, filling it in again, digging it deeper, etc. It's completely their own. It had rained, and thus -- the mud.

Of course it didn't stay in the hole! It soon moved to the trampoline! Have you ever jumped with mud?

It can't get much better than this! This is a pure WALLOW in the mud.

Now, I must say... We had them strip down at the back door, and then go straight into the showers! We hosed off their clothes on the back deck, along with the trampoline, and then put all the dirty things right into the washer!

The mess was bigger than we had anticipated, but it was a great mud day!

away...

Well, my excuse is that I've had a camera which hasn't been working, and I've had morning sickness! Both of which are now just fine! My camera is working again (quite mysteriously) and my morning sickness seems to have passed!

Here's a taste of the new green color in the dining room! It's so pretty!
Here's the giant dragon on the wall. The boys had the best time coloring it, and drawing little people everywhere! It took about 2 hrs from start to finish. It was so great!

Here's the new brown fireplace. It used to be a non-descript gray. Yuck! I love it now! It really fits the room, and makes itself a real piece of furniture in the room now!

Here's a little pad for the back of the bench. Now it wont leave black marks all over the wall when it gets pushed against it! Yay!

And here's my beautiful 100% girl! Dressed in all her finery!