That’s what they’re calling it, anyway.  A very rare Northeast snowstorm all before the kiddos have even gone door to door for Halloween.  It was a heavy, wet snow.  I think we only got about four inches.  But four inches of heavy snow on trees that have yet to lose all their leaves means lots of broken tree branches, downed power lines, and ultimately, darkness and cold.  Yes, we were without power.  But we were among the lucky ones.  We only went about 7 hours without.  We crashed the neighbors for dinner, who were smart enough to cook a pot of chili throughout the day, and we ate by candlelight and sat in front of their gas fireplace.  When we did come home, we lit candles all around the house.  It was quite the sensory experience.  In a matter of seconds, traveling from room to room, you could experience the scent of ocean breezes, cinnamon spice, orange-vanilla (my least favorite, by the way) and the scent of the Christmas tree.  That’s enough to make anyone nauseous.  Haha.  The kids all slept well, and we even went to bed early.  And then, out of the clear blue, our house was alive again with lights, the washer filling up to finish the load of laundry started earlier, the furnace kicks on.  But it’s 1:00 am.  Thankful to have our power back and the house warming up again, but it led to a quick rush around the house finding all those lights that you weren’t entirely sure were turned off before bed.  Those three-way light switches always throw me. 

Today Molly was the only one brave enough to bundle up in all the snow gear and go out and play.  I was the meanie mom who wouldn’t let them go out yesterday while it was snowing.  Oh, how I dreaded digging out all of the snow gear, crossing my fingers that everyone would have “something” that would fit.  Of course, Emily wouldn’t.  The girl’s growing like a weed.  Finding the hats and water-resistant gloves (fleece just won’t cut it in this stuff).  Spend half an hour bundling everyone up only for them to come back in within minutes because they’ve soaked through all their warm clothes and they’re freezing.  Nope, not my idea of fun.  So, I just said no.  But today I realized I am the meanie mom, and guilt got the better of me, so I did all I could to encourage them to go outside today.  Molly jumped at the chance.  Gus was napping, or he probably would have, too.  Emily and Anna opted to stay warm.  Can’t say I blame them.  Regardless, Molly had a blast.

…sort of. Actually, it’s been one of those days that I’m just so thankful is finally over.  I’m tired.  Lots of late nights this past week, editing photo sessions and painting my entry. But today was no different than another other Saturday in the fall, really. There were soccer games. Emily and Anna both played this morning. There was dance. Well, there would have been dance, but Emily took the day off in favor of working on a big project for school.  Oh, that project.  Hours and hours we’ve (she’s) spent on that thing.  The kids all played outside for a while. They raked up a big pile of leaves. They jumped in that big pile of leaves. And as even a little bonus, Nick came home relatively early from work. My mom-mobile has been making an AWFUL noise the past two days. As it turns out, there was a rather large tree branch lodged up under the car. That will do it. But after Nick figured that out, he wanted to drive it and make sure it wasn’t something else. So then he was gone…. And gone….. And gone….. After about an hour, I sent him a text to see where  he had gone. He said he’d be back in 5. Ok. Well, he was… back in, oh… OK, maybe 10 or 15… But with a BRAND NEW mom-mobile!!! Wasn’t expecting that! But he said he’d gotten a fabulous deal, but it wasn’t signed yet, and if I wanted to keep my old car I could. But after trial driving the new one, how could I possibly keep the old one? I mean, really? So, it’s silver. Wouldn’t have been my first color choice, but the trade off is getting a darker colored interior than my current light tan color which gets SUPER dirty SUPER fast.  I think I’m going to miss my white exterior, though.  Oh well.  It has lots of cool new things I’m sure I’m going to have fun playing with.  Emily, I think is the only one disappointed in the new one.  She doesn’t really like the body style.  But, Nick negotiated for two extra sets of headphones for free, so maybe once she’s chillin’ back, watching a movie and not having to share her headset with one of her sisters or brother, she’ll change her mind.  And from what I understand, she’ll be able to play her iPod music wirelessly through the speakers from anywhere in the car (when I let her).  So that should entice her.  I, on the other hand, am simply excited over silly things like being able to open the back hatch with a push of a button.  It’s the little things.  Now I just have to wait a few days for it.  The dealer is adding a luggage rack to the top for me.  Big family… we kinda need that.

So, during my fabulous 5 minute test drive, Nick actually put his hands on my baby, I mean camera, and snagged this little gem of Gus.  Who knew he knew how to work it?  OK, maybe not really.  Based on the shots right before this one, I’m more inclined to say it was a bit of a fluke.  But he sure did nail the focus here.  Love this little guy!

Here’s to a happy Sunday!

So, in my last post I mentioned how Anna maybe, kinda learned a little in lacrosse camp.  The proof is in the pudding…

That photo on the right… yeah, that’s how she looked when I first raised my hand to throw her the ball.  She said she was afraid it would hit her in the face.  Somehow I don’t think putting the stick right in front of her face would prevent that.

Throwing was definitely easier than catching for her.

See what I mean?

HAHA!  That second picture is priceless.  Probably won’t catch it with her eyes closed. 

I think we can now officially say that we are “East Coast-ers”.  Anna is playing lacrosse, or LAX, as I believe it’s known for short.  I always thought LAX was an airport in California. Who knew?  This is one sport I can honestly say I know absolutely NOTHING about.  I was a soccer player through and through.  That’s my midwest roots.   Oh, and on a related but totally disconnected note….. We’ll be cheering on the USA Women’s Soccer team as they take on Japan in the World Cup finals Sunday. Woo hoo!  But, I digress.  So Monday morning Anna started lacrosse camp.  As it’s now Friday that I’m posting this, I can tell you that I think she learned quite a little bit this week.  Is that oxymoronic?  It was supposed to be.  Photos to back up that description are yet to come.  For now, here she is in all her geared up glory as we headed out the door Monday morning.

And on one last completely unrelated note… I just need to say how much I LOVE my new Nikon.  Love it, love it!  Pleased as punch with the images I get from this camera.  Just had to say it.

Super quick post today, but at least some more current photos of the kids.  I’m disappointed in myself for not taking more pictures during the two weeks we spend with my mom and dad in Cincinnati.  We had such a nice time there and squeezed out every last ounce of activity and visits and fun that we could.  More details of the trip yet to come, but in the meantime, some lunchtime photos of the clan on my parent’s deck.

Thinking back to my scrapbooking days (and let’s be honest, those were numbered days), I had this goofy hang-up that I MUST scrap chronologically.  That’s probably why those days were numbered.  I have two scrapbooks, they’re both of Emily, and they don’t go past her first year.  Life was happening, things going on all around us, and I just couldn’t keep up.  Funny how things never change.  I miss you, my poor blog (and blog readers).  Yesterday I decided to re-visit my blog.  WOW! Kinda out of date, I’d say.  Last post:  February 7th.  Ouch.  So, scratch that chronological idea, I’m working backwards… or randomly… or forwards.  Whatever I feel like.  But I do want to get some of our day to day life recorded here.  It’s just going to happen in whatever random way I feel like updating.  But chances are, I’ll probably backdate posts, so at least the blog stays chronological.  You might have to scroll around, browse through older posts, or better yet, subscribe to updates and you’ll know just what I’m posting.

The kids and I just got back from a little summer vacation on Wednesday night.  Why is it that you always need a vacation from a vacation?  We went back to Ohio, stayed with Grandma and Papa, and threw in LOTS of activities and things to keep busy for a full two weeks.  I didn’t take nearly enough pictures, but there are some, and some stories to share.  I’ll be posting photos and all of the trials and tribulations of our trip in the days to come.

In the meantime, a sweet little image of Anna from her ballet recital last month.  Pretty girl. 

Last week we celebrated Molly’s fourth birthday.  It should almost be illegal to be so darn cute at this age.  Molly is just so stinkin’ CUTE!  She says funny things, she does funny things.  She’s VERY girlie.  She would prefer that her wardrobe consisted only of skirts and dresses.  She has a huge collection of big flower headbands (and with her birthday, we added to it.)  She LOVES shoes, she loves sunglasses, and she loves dress-up.  Even in this bitter cold 10 degrees, she’s running around the house in a dress-up dress (you know the princess ones that are so thin and made mostly from tulle?) and nothing else.  Except maybe a pair of fancy princess shoes.  She’s extremely sociable and often talks well above her age.  Guess that’s part of having two older sisters.  You know, I think maybe I should interview her.  I will.  I’ll add that to tomorrow’s post.  In the meantime, some photos from her little family birthday celebration last week.

Being so far from family makes it hard (ok, impossible) to have all of the family around to celebrate birthdays.  We were very blessed that my mom was able to be here at the end of January, so we celebrated with her then.  Then last week, we had plenty more gifts! Grandma W. sent Playmobile and and adorable outfit… a skirt, of course.  Thanks to Aunt Lisa for the cool ice cream cone set.  A big hit, and goes well with Molly’s bakery.  Hats off to Uncle Dave and Michelle for the Zhu-Zhu pets and the pillow pet.  Clearly you can see her love for that one.  Other gifts have come in, too and we’re playing with everything!  We miss all of you and wish you could have been here.  I hope these snaps help fill in some of the details for you.  Love to you all!

There has been some amount of snow or ice or both on the ground since the first week of January.  Of course, I’ll be honest… if we have to have the months of January, February and March, and if it has to be cold, it might as well be pretty.  So bring on the white stuff. 

Because I realized that I never shared my own finished Christmas Card.  (See? I told you I was going to get caught up.)  So yeah, I’ll brag.  I’m am 100% beyond thrilled with the card we sent this year.  Number one, this HAS to be the BEST family photo we’ve ever taken.  Good thing, too, as I’m way too embarrassed to divulge the amount of time I spent coordinating our outfits and making us all look nice, but, suffice it to say, it was a rather excessive amount.  We met up with my fellow photographer friend, Michelle Leighton, who, as always, was great to work with,  on a gorgeous fall afternoon.  And the cool part of working with a fellow photographer is she sells me the digital negatives and I can edit and create on my own.  So when I finally finished up with all of my Christmas card orders for everyone else, I got to work on our card.  Again, way to embarrassed to tell you how much time I spent perfecting this one, but I couldn’t be more pleased. 

Remember how I said I was GOING to keep up with photos.  Hahaha.  Riiiight!  It’s OK, I see those eyes rolling. 

Since I’m failing miserably on New Year’s Resolution number 1, aren’t you just dying to know how well I’m doing on the other two?  Well, as for my DPAM (decorating project a month), nothing’s been completed, but I am making progress.  With my mom’s help last week, I got the family room re-painted.  It certainly wasn’t one my favorite projects to do, but painting gives such a sweet satisfaction when it’s finished.  I never loved the blue-gray that I painted last year when we remodeled.  But I lived with it for about as long as I could.  And the motivating factor to getting it done was new furniture.  Yay!  Of course, last week, we were also hit with 16+ inches of snow in less than 24 hours.  So that meant all the kids were home on my dedicated painting day.  But thanks to Mom’s creative energy, she kept the kiddos busy while I painted.  Mom and I also did a lot of shoveling those couple of days, too.  (How is it my husband always picks the best weeks of the year to travel?  He missed one of last winter’s 22″ snowstorms, too.)  I digress.  Anyway, the room isn’t finished.  I still have shelves to install, and we still need a couple of end tables and lamps, and other miscellaneous things, and I’ve picked out the most beautiful Kravat fabric for curtains.  I love it.  I just look at the sample and smile.  Fabric makes me happy. 

Which brings me to New Year’s Resolution #3….  Go me!  I’m making progress on my OPAM (organizing project a month.)  January was all about putting away Christmas decorations.  I’m usually pretty good about getting it to the basement and halfway put away.  But not this year.  I got it all put away, well, minus one little red berry garland draped through my dining room chandelier that I noticed the other day.  LOL  It’s organized and it’s labeled.  Organization and fabric make me happy.