I made a little snow cave with the kids while Jason was out of town. It’s still there! Abigail said she wished we had built it in December so she could have played with it all winter.

Oliver finished up a season of indoor soccer. Abby went to all of his games.

Phoebe played “don’t eat Pete” at FHE for the first time.

Oliver has an open-door policy with Phoebe. We’ll see how long it lasts. Right now he loves to watch her crawl into his room and pull wooden train tracks out of a drawer. He carefully and very purposefully keeps his floor clean of anything small so I don’t take her away. This morning we got Pheobe up and almost immediately she started calling “Ah-lah”. Oliver heard her all the way upstairs and come running down. She was super excited to see him. She likes to call his name in the van too when we pick him up from school.

Today it’s 37 degrees and cloudy. Yesterday was 47 and raining. Monday was 0 with the wind and snowing. We’re hoping (really really hard) that April is warmer. It’s getting old.

First, here’s Abigail’s gallery. She drew and colored these all by herself.

She made this Yoda for Oliver one day while he was at school.

She told me this is a rainbow fairy (below).

This is a mermaid getting a ride from a fish. (below)

Nabby told me this is a baby Rotta the hut when he was kidnapped. That’s why he’s scared and sad.

This is Mary and Joseph looking at baby Jesus and Mary is saying “He is cute.”

Here is a gallery of Oliver’s work. So many fun ideas.

This is the inside of a clock house he designed.

This is the front of the clock house.

Lots of mountains with a tiny red house at the bottom. (below)

Thank you for the Valentines Grandma Kotter and Grandma James! The kids loved them. I made valentines with bouncy balls for the kids to take to school.

Jason made pancakes.

I spent my birthday money on matching dresses for the girls. After church (my birthday was a Sunday) Jason took a couple photos of me with the kids.

My birthday was perfect! Jason made Sunny Blaylock’s chocolate cake (of delishousness) with beets mixed in the batter. Super good stuff. Kevin and Karen subjected themselves to Nabby’s blanket net. Next time we invite them over I need to remember to wash it before they show up. It’s her favorite blanket and it smells like it too (morning breath!)

It’s been a while. Here are some photos from December and January (including Christmas).

Toy Hamster, hard legos, a toy angel cuddly, goggly eyes (the craft glue-on kind), cuddly reindeer, toy robot.

Jason took the kids to see a living nativity at a church downtown Christmas Eve. They even had camels with the wise men.

Christmas Ever dinner with Ham, roasted potatoes, orange rolls, smoked salmon with cream cheese on baguette, cranberry sprite, strawberries and brussels sprouts with bacon. Nabby and Oliver loved the smoked salmon, rolls and drink.

Santa brought Oliver what he asked for; a chemistry/lab set.

And he left Abigail what she asked for; a toy hamster.

Phoebe opened her stocking while she waited for Dad to bring her some clean p.j.s

New year’s eve we went out for indian food. Oliver drank most of his giant mango lassie by himself.

Phoebe tried some naan.

Still new years eve. We could walk around in the street (on Main) and look at ice sculptures because the traffic was blocked off for a party later.

The kids made these noise makers and hats at the library.

We’ve had the humidifier on a lot because the furnace dries everything out.

Jason made five trips out of town in January for job interviews. Transportation was a nasty battle all month. Digging the car out of snow banks, getting a jump start from the neighbors a couple times (the battery was too cold to work), waiting at the airport (once for 7 hours with postponed flights), walking home from the main bus station at night (-15) with no hat because his scheduled taxi couldn’t make it through the streets. The polar vortex held nothing back.

I was alone home with the kids for most of the month and spent all my free time shoveling snow.  Ann Arbor received 37 inches of snow in January and the average temp was 17.  I remember the weather man one night saying it would feel like -35 or -40 in the morning. One Sunday the sacrament prep counter water pipe burst in the chapel and flooded part of the church. We spent a lot of time playing with legos from Christmas because sub zero weather turned out to not be great for sledding…or for snowmen. We had many many hours to wile away inside the house. I watched Snowball Express twice and Oliver thought it was funny for the first time this year! He kept asking me to say “Standarules Plumbarmacy” and then he’d raise one eyebrow and chuckle to himself.

Oliver and Nabby are so sweet to Phoebe. They entertained her for hours some days when Jason was interviewing out of town.

This is Oliver marching around the house singing “The Phoebe band is coming! The Phoebe band is coming! Da da da daaa!” And each time Phoebe sees him she squeals in delight with her hands in the air.

Oliver had the idea and made this doll swing all by himself for Nabby.

Just hanging out at home together.

Nabby put little soft toys in this pair of underpants for Pheobe? The underwear was very clean and she said it was a good way to carry them.

There’s no hill under there. It’s ALL snow. And it’s as tall as the car.

Look! There’s the grass. We dug for a good while to find it. The hard pack is icy.

She turned 5 and spent her day…

Feeding Phoebe (she wanted to)

Looking at the picture Oliver drew for her

Opening a few gifts

Whacking (and whacking and whacking and whacking) the butterfly pinata I made with a plastic sword.

And by “whacking” I mean barely taping it. Really the whole things was only held together by three pieces of scotch tape, but it still wouldn’t crack.  She requested Oliver’s help and he hit it twice before stuff started to fall out. Then she took the sword back and finished it up.

Same barbie doll she had in her cake two years ago…

Building a lego car.

Phoebe holding a pencil and watching Abigail build a lego car.

Let’s go back to mid December. Oliver ran into a bar during gym at school and stayed home a couple days with eight stitches. It was the day before Jason left town for four days. No one was really getting all the attention I wanted to give them, but they were really patient and good. Everyone (all 18 kids) of Oliver’s class made a get well note for him and I was truly impressed with how sincere and compassionate the notes were. The families and teachers/staff around us obviously really care about each other and I’m glad I live here.

I visited Oliver’s class to teach a little art lesson on making flip books. We drew snowflakes falling and looked at real photos of snowflakes. Then we sang “If all the snow flakes were candy bars and milkshakes oh what a snow it would be!” Of course we then drew a second flip book of candy bars and milkshakes falling from the sky into a person’s mouth.

Phoebe likes playing with the duplo legos in Abby’s room. The basement is too cold to just hang out there during the day.

Some little snowmen because we only have a little bit of snow. Oliver’s is featuring a berry button. Nabby’s has a stylish walnut shell hat.

Jason’s rolls and my turkey. The kids made napkin rings.

Oliver’s picture of ALL the holidays on the kid’s table. He said the tombstone at the bottom is for memorial day. I think it’s cute because it says “PiR”.

Time to put up the tree. Jason played a couple christmas songs on the piano while the kid’s danced. Nabby mostly hoped around a lot. Oliver really had some moves. There’s some talent there. I think about his uncles Kendal and Kyle when I see how mind-blowing smart and silly he can be at the same time.

Phoebe slobbered on a paper candy cane.

Nabby remembered that Grandma James let her pick out this red bird from Sears last year.

Nabby was exited to put the santa in the countdown calendar.

Took us a while to settle down and get in bed.

Abigail’s p.j.s were appropriate considering it was almost 10 before she stopped getting out of bed and asking for snacks and lotion.

First of all these are the new glasses Oliver made for his Azboo.

These are the kids in new winter p.j.s. Oliver and Nabby asked for ones with feet.

Nabby: “Oh Phoebe smells so good!”

Oliver: “She does? Let me.” -sniff- “She does!”

Okay, and here’s Phoebe holding a baby doll for the first time. She has a headband just because were were playing dress up with her. She LOVED the baby doll and “kissed” her face and head half a dozen times.

Then Nabby thought they were getting a little too attached so she traded the doll for a smaller one.

Phoebe didn’t even cry. I was surprised. I just let them do their thing and they were fine.

The smaller baby wasn’t as exciting and didn’t get any kisses.

She was still happy though.

Jason loved the attention he got on his birthday. Thanks everyone for the cards, gifts, notes and calls. Here’s a card Oliver made for him.

Here’s a card he opened from Nabby.

Phoebe played the piano with Dad one Saturday.

Jason liked it as much as she did.

Phoebe’s grown very fond of her baths lately. She loves to arch her back and slide herself low enough to slurp up the bath water. I spend the whole bath setting her back up in her seat over and over. I guess it’s fun for her to get a drink by herself without waiting for us.

Lots of leaves to rack and jump in.

Oliver is still coughing, but it’s getting better.

Phoebe eats lots of leaves.

Abby takes her baby for rides in her bike.

And delivers leaves to Oliver for whatever he’s working on.

What IS that? See the volleyballs (or soft balls) on the grass under that tree over there?

I thought they were the neighbor kid’s balls till I realized they might be ostrich eggs. Finally upon closer look I could tell they were mushrooms.

They are so weird. I thought they would open like button mushrooms, but instead they just split in the middle. I don’t see any gills or spores… or aliens…yet.

We carved pumpkins for family home evening Monday.

Pumpkin guts.

Oliver and Abigail sketched their jack-o-lantern faces on paper.

Abigail eating her hello kitty necklace.

Lord Vader (Oliver) walking the halls of Wines Elementary. Jason helped at the school parade/party this year and took some photos.

Halloween night we made a cranberry grape juice witch’s brew and watched the dry ice fog blow around when we waved our arms.

Dinner was a mummy hotdog and pumpkin shaped cookies Nabby made at her preschool class party.

Ready for trick or treating!!

I can’t decide which makes me more happy: Snow White’s face or Darth Vader’s toe.

It was windy and raining so Phoebe stayed home, drank some milk, took a bath and played with a paper towel ghost on a string.

Bean bag toss. The rows of points from front to back were 1, 5, 50, 100. Oliver added up his own points on his turns. 305!

Phoebe, watch out for that spider!

This was a game we played later on. Someone says two number, rolls the dice and if one of those two numbers come up they try to catch a ghost under the strainer. Everyone tries to pull their ghost away with the sting before it gets caught.