Blizzardssss

Yeah, that is right, we are currently experiencing blizzard #4. Well, I guess technically speaking people are saying we have had one real blizzard and these are all just heavy snowstorms, but let's be honest, having 4 snow storms in the last 30 days is kind of ridiculous. That being said, we are doing just fine. We haven't lost any power, and we are warm and nothing really important has broken. The downside is that the kids (and I) are restless. We need open spaces, and the snow kind of hinders that sort of openness and frolicking (Lucy is a frolicker...).

Here are some pictures of the last month. A lot of them include snow, because have been seeing a lot of it.

 

Okay, so this isn't a snow picture. It is a picture of Sam, and his uncanny ability to do things that shouldn't be done. And Lucy picking her nose...

 

So this is blizzard #1, back in January. Yeah, just a couple weeks ago. We got 2-3 feet depending on how the snow drifted.

 

I went snowshoeing and I looked awesome. Thanks mom for the winter hat. I can't hear very well when I am wearing it, but it is undeniably warm.

 

We attempted sledding a few times during this storm. We didn't get past the driveway. It was too cold.

 

Here is Lucy in my hat. It goes well with the Frozen dress. I kind feeling like Elsa should come popping in sometime and bring back summer with some good ol' love. Lucy keeps saying that summer should be coming soon...like next week. Sorry, honey! We have a long way to go!

 

Here are our new window decorations. Lucy wrote about how much she loves us on each heart. For example "we love Sammy because he is cute...we love mommy because she is a good cleaner...we love daddy because he plays with me..."

 

Last weekend we went up to Nelson, where they also have a lot of snow, and spent the weekend with my parents. Grandma K took Lucy sledding. Sam only last 10 minutes (let's be honest, I only last 10 minutes!).

 

After Sam, Jimmy and I went inside, Lucy and Grandma K made snowballs and then decorated them. The snowball makers worked awesome, just so you know Uncle Curt and Aunt Karen!

 

One day, I tried to distract my children with all sorts of things. Stamps.

 

Play dough

 

And finger paints.

 

 I realized that my daydreams of running around with the kids outside doesn't curb the boredom that we must endure inside. We have to do something. Some days I am inspired to do all sorts of things. Other days we go to the library or walk around stores and by useless things. I am a work in progress when it comes to craftiness in the home...

 

On Thursdays Lucy does a small preschool with some kids from church. Sam and I get to have a little time to hang out just the two of us. This past week we went to Target to pick up some odds and ends. Target is a dangerous store for odds and ends, because I end up buying lots of things I really don't need. For example, while we were perusing the children's section Sam pointed out this cute Thomas hat. He says something like "cha chis." I only really understand him because he puts in two syllables and points really well. I thought it would keep him from leaping out of the cart, so I let him hold it. Then it made its way all the way to the check-out and it was really cute on him so we bought it. Yup, Sam totally out-smarted me. It kind of happens all the time with that kid. Remind me to write a little update on both the kids. They both are growing up way too fast...

 

Yesterday Jimmy took Sam to the store when he got home from work. So it was just Lucy and me. Going outside with both the kids is hard because Sam really can't handle the cold for more than a few minutes. Lucy on the other hand is completely oblivious to cold. She loves everything about cold. So we went outside, just her and I. She totally and easily outlasted me. I was the one begging to go inside. My excuse was that her hands must have been getting cold. They weren't. She was fine.

That is our lives right now. Now onto the next snowstorm. We are getting some really awesome arm muscles from the snow we are shoveling. Guess mother nature doesn't want us to slack on that workout.

This one time we were sick...

I hearby dub this month, the month of the sickies! Yes, that is right, we have kind of been sick all month. Well, not all month, there were a few days where we got out of the house and visited people and did things that normal people do. But then there were a bunch of other days where we just stayed home and watched way too many "Daniel Tiger's neighborhood." Lucy is signing the songs now--ALL.THE.TIME!!

 

This last week was probably the hardest. Lucy got a fever and a cough, then Sam got a fever and cough. The kids deal with sickness differently, but for the most part it means cranky kids, mom and dad.

 

We have made it to the end of the week, still not one hundred percent, but we did have a lovely day yesterday. Mostly because of the snowy day and the weekend. We did a lot of fun things together, and it was relaxed and for the most part the kids were not acting quite as sick.  So here you go, so pictures to document our weekend, that was kind of normal and boring.

 

 Are they not the cutest little sick kids?! Sam won't watch a show for more than a few minutes. Lucy is a zombie until it is over.

Lucy also decided to make some pretty epic blanket forts.

And we play with trains a lot too.

Sometimes Lucy asks me to take pictures at random times.

We made some pictures, and colored some hearts. The hearts went on the kids' bedroom door. They are all conveniently too high for Sam to reach.

We also went outside, because this was the first real significant snowfall. Look at the snowman with his vegetable face. I think he looks more like a bird.

Classic Lucy.

This was something I did with Lucy a few weeks ago, snowflakes. I thought this pictures was appropriate as the snow was falling.

We also played with Lucy's circuit set. One of the set-ups causes the fan blade to rise in the air as you turn the switch on and off. Lucy does it over and over.

Sam does this...

We are starting to get Lucy excited about board games...she is a Cooprider after all. Here is her Olaf Sorry game. She plays until things get old i.e. 15 minutes. She is usually winning, but gets antsy.

And for the rest of the day, we roasted a chicken, watched a movie together and just hung out together. After our week of sickness it was nice to be together. Let turn a corner. February, the month of good health and beautiful weather...

Bye bye 2014

Who knew a year could by so quickly. I am glad it happened, but I am glad to start a new year. It gets me all motivated and stuff. Like running, yeah I started doing that at 5:30 am again. November and December were kind of unmotivated months for me, and January, well it makes me all "let's do this!" again!

But in other news we had a great holiday season. This year we had the opportunity to celebrate Christmas morning with just our kids. We love our families, but starting some of our own traditions was important to us, and this year turned out quite nicely. And we still got to see lots of our family members who were in town.

So let's just commence with the pictures and hope that I cover most of the important things.

This year we got a real Christmas tree. Lucy put the star on top, Sam "helped" putting the ornaments on the bottom. It felt very iconic and it was very exciting to finally have a real tree in our house.

Then there was our Church Christmas party. It was nice dinner with Santa visiting at the end. Sam made that pretty iconic too. Lucy is just peachy, Sam is NOT impressed!

This happened, and I just let it go. They played in the sink for an hour or so. I think they miss having their little garden bed where they can get messy and play around. I miss nice weather too...

And this is just cute pictures of my kids falling asleep on the couch. No story, just cuteness.

We have a craft day once a week with our friends. It was our turn to do the craft. This is what we made, Nativity scenes with a peanut as Jesus, grapes for people and graham crackers and animals crackers for the rest. It was fun!

Sorry, just another cute picture of my kids.

 

We took daddy on our favorite hike. This is when it seemed like winter was just around the corner. Lucy found a puddle and told us she had powers. Her powers are that she can break ice, which is the opposite of what Elsa can do.



 

Sometimes my kids behave and let me take pictures of them.

On Christmas Eve we made the trek up to Nelson for the annual grinder night. It was fun, but remarkably quiet. A lot of my cousins are spread across the country. We were also missing the Miguels! Sad day. But it was still a lot of fun. We finished the night with the name game. Always a family favorite.

This is another classic picture, sorry it is blurry!

 

Onto Christmas morning. So our plan was to get up when the kids woke, which is always around 6 am and talk to them about Jesus' birth--read the story and talk about it. We also received some awesome nativity blocks that worked out great for this activity. Then we went downstairs had them open their stockings. Everything went really smoothly.

After we did stockings we had breakfast, opened a few more presents and got ready to go to the Coops. I didn't get a single picture from that, but let's just say it was awesome too! Grandma and Grandpa Coop, Grandma Nancy, Annie and Tod, Heather, Nathan and girls, and Joe were all in attendance. We opened presents, ate lots of food, and enjoyed Christmas day together!

Here are some of the things that we have seen since Christmas.

Then on Friday Jimmy went back to work. Bummer, huh?! But on Saturday we all got in the car to go the Temple. It was the special sealing day at the Temple for Danielle and Poul. As many of siblings who could be there, were there. Chris and Gretchen were having fun with Sammy.

And daddy and Sam photo-bombed a picture.

I love these two! This is picture is a very accurate portrayal of them.

We were super excited because Gretchen and Chris came to stay overnight with us before they left the next day. Too bad Gretchen was as sick as a dog. But we went to the park and they took me and kids out to lunch. We liked having them around. Now they are back in the warmer regions of Arizona.

Okay, now things are going to get random. Yes, we love the puppet theater!

And I wanted to document daddy painting Lucy's nails.

And this was just last week. We did get a little snow, and the kids were super excited. We are glad we have these kids. They always keep things interesting.

 

As far as New Year's goes, we went to the Coop's. Jimmy was at that point very sick, so basically we played games and watched the ball drop and then went to bed. Kind of anti-climatic, but it was nice. Jimmy got New Year's day off, which was good because he was basically dead to the world, and consequently took a sick day the next day. We were happy to have him around even if he was a sicky. And that was the end of 2014. Though I might figure out other things to mention later, such is my memory these days...