Nada, Nothing, Zilch

That about sums it up.....absolutely nothing new going on in this neck of the woods. Still cold, still winter, still snow on the freaking ground, still takes me 15 minutes to get everyone bundled up to take a 5 minute drive to Abby's school. I sing a song every morning as I'm buckling up the kids in their car seats, "I love winter, I love winter".....I figure if I chant it enough, it may come true....or at least I will come to not mind it so much. Ugh, is it May yet???

Anyway....a couple of boring pictures from the weekend:

A Lazy Sunday afternoon with Griff and Abby (Hannah was still napping)

Griff helping Mike fix a a hole in the wall he made by throwing one of his toys on Friday afternoon. He spent a bit of time in the corner for that one :-)Pics of the kids...ignore the Craisins in Hannah's mouth!

Picture of Abby writing and illustrating one of two stories she wrote Monday afternoon. One was about a girl buying a puppy from a kennel and the other was about an ice skater. She seems to really enjoy coming up with the story ideas, writing them and then drawing the pictures to go with the stories. I've been adding them to my book collection, so anytime you come to visit, you are free to read them :-)

More Ice Skating

Luckily Abby likes ice skating, since it's the one winter sport that Mike and I don't mind doing with her! Mike took her to open skate at the indoor rink by us this afternoon, and she skated for an hour. Once they got home, she asked to go out on the pond, so we got the twins bundled up and all of us went out and played for a bit. A few of our neighbors met us out there, so we had a pretty big group out there skating. Hannah & Griff found a new favorite way of getting across the ice - you'll see in the pictures what I mean. They couldn't get enough of "skating" with Mike.

For whatever reason, I didn't get many pictures of Miss Abby. I think she was more interested in playing ice skating tag with her friends than posing and smiling for mom!
And lastly, pictures of Griff and Hannah talking to Grandma and Grandpa Newman on the phone last night. They love to talk on the phone. I can only image how difficult it must be to understand them, but they get such a kick out of it we make people suffer and "talk" to them on the phone when they call!

Happy Valentine's Day....

....from the chickens......Also, my mom sent the kids some window sticker thing-a-ma-jigs, which Hannah and Griff were just fascinated with. They stood at the window for a good 1/2 hour rearranging each sticker. You could hear Hannah saying, "ok, this goes here. ok, right here. no, griffy, right here." They were a big hit!

More Nothingness

Again, not much going on, but below are pictures of the kids. Griff is very into coloring and painting lately. He's very proud of each picture, and wants everything he creates to be put on the refrigerator (at least all the pictures hide most of the fingerprints so easily left on stainless steel!). Then throughout the day, he will walk over to the fridge and admire his work, telling anyone who will listen that they are his pictures.
Hannah is fine...feisty as ever. She likes to push limits, but then can be as sweet as pie, so it's hard to stay frustrated with her (and yes, I know I need to do something with her bangs, but I really don't want to cut them....they are usually pulled back, I promise. I don't take her out with her hair in her face!)

Both are talking up a storm, and you can actually have sentence-long conversations with them.

Abby is great. Is reading like a pro. She sounds out words almost perfectly and can read most beginner reader books by herself. This is her "mom get the camera out of my face" look:

Fun at the Funny Farm

A few pictures from the last couple of days for your enjoyment:

1. Griff playing with Hannah's Baby Alive, AFTER somehow getting himself into a play wooden cradle that Abby uses for her American Girl Doll. I was making everyone breakfast one morning and went to the family room to get everyone as it was time to eat, and found him happy as a clam sitting in the cradle, playing with naked Baby Alive.....

2. Hannah and Griff painting while the oven repair man was here replacing the heating element on our upper oven. Mike and I have terrible luck with appliances. 3. Hannah & Griff playing cars NICELY this morning (Saturday). Not one scream for an entire 20 minutes. Unbelievable. 4. The kids riding Mike like a horse this morning (Saturday). I was upstairs getting ready, and as I was coming down the stairs I heard, "okay, now hang on, and Abby, don't let Hannah & Griff fall off. Now this is the hard part, I'm going to get into horse position....". I wasn't sure what I was going to see when I got all the way down, but I have to tell you, all three on Mike's back wasn't it.
5. And finally, a picture of Abby just because :-)

Accident Prone or an Athlete?

I used to think Griff would be the reason for our first emergency room visit, however both Mike and I have changed our minds and are convinced it will be Hannah. This kid goes from being strangely athletic at the age of 2 (extreme sense of balance; hops and runs much better than Griff and Abby at her age; throws like nobody's business; climbs like a mountain climber; and can pin Abby and Griff in a pretty impressive wrestling move!) to a complete klutz within seconds. Within the last week, she has leaned back on her dinner chair, falling to the floor backwards, narrowly missing hitting her head on the corner behind her; she burned her finger on a casserole dish I had just taken out of a 450 degree oven; and Monday she tripped over her own feet while running out of the gym, giving herself a pretty good scrape on her nose and forehead. She looks like she was in a fight. And we shouldn't forget the many times she falls up and down the stairs b/c she is trying to beat Griffin in whatever race they have against each other. The first picture is Monday night, and the second picture is from this morning (Wed). It's starting to heal, but still looks not so nice.

On a lighter note, Abby is celebrating her 1/2 birthday today at school (she is officially 5 1/2 today). She is bringing in cupcakes and a couple of books for the classroom (they ask that you don't do treats, and instead donate a book or two to the room; however, according to Abby and her teacher, no one is listening to the no treats recommendation, hence the sugar-filled cupcakes I am sending to her classroom :-) She is super excited about the celebration and can't wait to get to school this morning. (picture was taken after school, and after she had a cupcake....you can see the pint frosting still on her face!)Abby also seems to have a "boyfriend" in her class. She has mentioned to me before that she likes this little boy Ryan, and a month or so ago confessed to me that she was in love with him (!). She promised me not to tell Mike, which I promptly did after she went to bed. He about fainted! The next night, she confessed to him, and he held his cool pretty well while she was explaining why she loved him. Yesterday she came to me with the boyfriend word. They apparently have bonded even more the last couple of days b/c he also is a Narnia fanatic. She wants to have him over for a playdate so they can watch Narnia together :-) He is a sweet kid. Now I am just trying to figure out how to ask his mom if he can come over to play with Abby!