Saturday we had a last minute visit from my brother, sister-in-law and niece.  We recruited them to help us with our gingerbread villages.  It was fun!

I stood gazing out the window into a part of the yard I don't normally pay attention to.  Far off I could see these little pretties!
 If you know what any of these are I'd be interested in knowing, although I probably won't remember.  Ha!

The nicer weather has found the kids in the yard more!  They are loving their bikes they got for Christmas.  Karis & Brennan pretty much self taught themselves to ride their bikes in the yard.  Those two are quick learners!




Reegan is a bit more cautious and still uses training wheels.  She has no desire to take them off at this point.

Last week the kids had spirit week at school.  There was a pj day, wacky tacky day, twin day, cartoon character & book character.
We made good use of our dress up clothes this week!

For book character day Karis dressed as Herminia in Harry Potter, Reegan was Angelina Ballerina & can ya guess who Brennan was dressed as?!  Ha!

I was hoping to be posting about an ice skating adventure, but that will have to wait a few weeks.
Vienna has turned cold!  Like, unseasonably cold!  We are breaking records here.
For the next few weeks the kid's school scheduled a once a week skating outing, but it was so cold this past Friday that they cancelled it.  Jerry and I were to be chaperones.  Luckily, they are tacking a week on and we'll go another time.

Otherwise we've been trying to stay warm!

This week the kids are on an energy break.  I have no idea why it is called that.  All I know is that all Vienna schools are closed to give people the ability to go skiing.  I think the kids would like it, but we're not big skiers.  I did it as an Alaskan teen, but the thrill did not carry over into adulthood.  So, no skiing for us.

Jerry still has to work and since it is cold we are trying to stay warm in our drafty house.

We did, however, wake to a nice layer of snow yesterday.
Jerry had to go clear the sidewalk on the street in front of our house.  If you have a public sidewalk in front of your house entrance, then you are responsible for clearing the walkway.  If someone is walking by and falls in front of your house, they can sue you.  Lovely!

Unfortunately as the morning carried on things took a turn for the worse as Brennan was hit by this tummy bug!  You could say we've had this thing for three weeks!  Luckily that is not an ongoing three weeks, but one kid having it at some period each week.  I hope we'll be through with this thing soon!

We're suppose to go sledding tomorrow, so I hope Brennan will get better soon so we don't miss out!!

Happy Energy Week!

We get up.
Eat breakfast.
Watch some tv.
The kids decide they don't want to watch tv, so I turn it to a channel of MY choice.  How often does that happen?!
I turn it to Extreme Makeover Home Edition.
Sob my eyes out as they make a new home for a Marine who fought in Iraq (who lost a limb) and his 4 kids.
Do mandatory reading with Karis.
Read "Marley & Me" to her and Reegan and decide we need to watch the movie.
I forget how emotional this movie is at the end, thinking I can handle it, and end up sobbing my eyes out even harder than Extreme Makeover Home Edition!!! 
Over a dog!! 
Gotta love a blubbering cry in front of the kids!  Ha!
Try to do some cleaning up of the coffee table where school papers have taken over! 
Lucky I did it today and found the medical forms for 3 kids that are due at school tomorrow!!
I start lunch.
Karis tells me the form has to be turned in to her teacher. 
I tell her the form says to turn it into the front desk. 
She argues with me. 
I pull the form out of the envelope and have here read it with me that it needs to be turned in to the front desk. 
She then proceeds to lose it and tell me that her teacher will be mad at her if she doesn't turn the form in to her. 
I assure her that she will not and to come talk to me if she does.  That I have to follow the directions on the form.
She is still not happy, sobs herself and I get frustrated because she doesn't believe me.  Her teacher's word is GOLD!  That's great and I'm SO glad she wants to please her teacher, but I'm her mom!  Trust me, girl!
She then comes into the kitchen as I finish up lunch, gets water, still a bit pouty where I explain to her that it is upsetting to me that she doesn't trust me.
She walks away and I get angry that she walks away while I'm talking.
She proceeds to spill water on herself sending her into another sobbing mess!
I tell her to chill (well, I didn't say that exactly, but something to that effect).
She says something mean to brother and sister and goes to her bed.
I tell her to stay in her bed until she can change her attitude.
She tells me her sister is always mean to her.
I remind her that she is sometimes mean to her sister.
We go over "...do to others what you would have them do to you..." Matthew 7:12 that she has been learning.
Hope she calms down before I come to get her.
I get Brennan & Reegan started on lunch and go get Karis.
She is found messing with the light fixture because she wants her pillow to glow (Sounds a bit crazy, huh?  Nana made Halloween pillow cases and used glow in the dark thread to spell their names on the pillow).
I tell her that she is sitting in a different spot at the table because Brennan is watching a show (Yes another one.  Don't judge! ;))
She's not happy about it and pouts a bit more telling me she always sits in that spot.
I tell her she won't be sitting in that spot again for awhile (we have a system at our house based on a "first day" rotation).
Make a mental note of rotating this spot (that is not the first day spot.  Confused??)!
She finally calms down and eats.
The funk is fading!!
Mama is drained from all the tv sobbing and challenging morning!
Kids are now all happily playing together.
All before 2 pm!
How many days until daddy returns!!

Did I mention daddy is on a long trip??

I realized I didn't include a picture of the cellar/dungeon that we discovered last week.  The entrance to it anyway.