Sledding

We enjoyed day #2 of no school or work!  

Today wasn't so bitterly cold as yesterday and was more enjoyable,

so we decided to go sledding on our ice!

Katherine still wanted to build a snowman, but sledding was the best we could do.

Zach commented that they'll probably remember sledding down this hill

and remember in their minds the hill being so big when it's just a little slope!

This is the first time they went down together and they also almost knocked me

down when I tried to stop them.  They would start off slow and then toward the end of the hill, they hit a slick spot and gained some speed!

I tried my hand at sledding in a laundry basket.

You feel every bump.

Jackson gave us our push-off!

Zach's turn!

Katherine started going "off course" and take a look at 

Zach's face when he realized she was heading in the wrong direction!

(clicking on the picture will make it a little larger)

One of my favorite pictures from the day.

Sweet girl having fun!

Time to change up the 'sledding'

Jackson and Katherine loved doing this, Zach not as much!

And to end with another favorite from the day.

It was a fun morning.

The White Stuff

Katherine got to see her first snow today!  It started off slow and we never really had snow, but it's white and cold!  It's mainly a snowy/ice/slush mix, with the roads being iced over.

 Katherine said last night that she wanted to build Mickey Mouse instead of a snowman, but this stuff wasn't really good for building anything.  Since we didn't build Mickey, we made snow ice cream!

Katherine loved it, Jackson not so much.

 We headed back out after lunch once a little more had fallen.  Katherine wanted to ride her scooter on it, but it was so slick she had to settle for her tricycle.  The 'snow' was so icy that it was hard to make snow angels, but they tried!

It was so cold we didn't stay out too long at one time,

but I think they enjoyed our snow day!

Revelations

We've made some discoveries in the last week . . .

Jackson discovered Michael Jackson last weekend at none other than a bbq restaurant.  He and Zach were waiting on an order and Jackson was mesmerized by the music videos he was seeing.  Zach said the tv station wouldn't quit showing MJ, and Jackson informed him we needed those on our tv.  Which song tops his list??  Bad.  Beat It is the only one of his songs I can tolerate, but unfortunately Jackson wasn't into that one.  Once they got home, we caught Jackson getting after it when he thought no one was looking, much less recording him!  Ha! (In case you can't tell or hear, he has the song playing on the i-pad).

               
I'm sure Zach will make sure there is plenty of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash playing on our tv in the future.

And then last night, Katherine surprised us with these!

She's been drawing circles for a while now, but all of the sudden she did this!  The 1st picture is me, the middle is Grandma, and the last is Grandpa (my Dad). She must have known he used to have a beard with all of that hair around the face?!  We were shocked!  I'm not sure which child shocked us more though--our Michael Jackson loving rebel or the budding artist.

Merry Days

Words can sometimes get in the way,

so here's our Christmas in pictures

Santa Sightings

Jackson and I ran into Santa at Zoo Lights

(poor Katherine was sick and had to stay behind). 

We were also happy to see Rudolph as well!

 The next day we decided to take Jackson and Katherine to see Santa at the mall.  While we were standing in line, Katherine kept saying she was going to tell him she wanted a purple book (which is what she's been telling us).  Once we started moving up in line and she could see him, she started telling me, "I don't want a purple book."  After that, I knew we were going to have a picture like this . . .

I told Jackson that no matter what Katherine did, to just look at the camera and smile!

Merry Christmas!

Programs and Pups

The week after Thanksgiving, Jackson's class had their kindergarten Christmas program.

 Jackson started off doing great, but after the first couple of songs, he and the little boy he was standing next to decided that they would be better off playing through the performance.  To put it lightly, we weren't impressed with his behavior and Jackson had to give up his "phone" for the majority of the week.   I added a yellow arrow to the picture below to help find him.

 If you haven't heard, we don't have Rex anymore.  He was constantly trying to bite Jackson (and he was successful a good bit), so something had to change.  Zach found another home for him about 2 months ago.  To fill the void, we decided to adopt another basset hound.

Meet Bella.

She hasn't disappointed yet . . . she's lazy, housebroken, and tolerant of the kids.  She even got excited over a ball one day, so Jackson may even have a dog that fetches!

Tree Hunting

We went to the tree farm last weekend and picked out our Christmas tree!

We picked out 2 or 3 before settling on one.  Jackson took a picture of me and Katherine in front of the first one we chose!

 Jackson is into hunting and had to take his toy gun with him, just in case there was something hiding in the trees that might attack.

 At one point we had picked out the tree behind Katherine, and another family was coming in the area where we were.  She promptly let them know this tree was taken.

 Finally, we decided on a tree!

 We're headed back tomorrow to bring it home!

 Uh oh!  Jackson spotted a wild animal before we left.

 Oh no!  Under attack!

And that was our cue that is was time to leave.