The Holidays

Its been quite a while since I've been able to update the blog. First was Thanksgiving, which we celebrated in quiet Troy, NH with Dave's family.

Annika had a wonderful time washing the breakfast dishes. She has been such a big help lately with cleaning. All of us had a great time catching up with family. Eric really enjoys watching the bigger kids play. It won't be long before he is right in there with them!

About 2 weeks after Thanksgiving came the ice storm. We lost power just after 9 pm on Thursday night, December 11th. All that night I worried that each crack I heard would be a tree falling onto our roof. We did have many branches down, but luckily, none hit our house. But in the morning, we did get to see a giant pine in our neighbor's yard fall across the street, taking nearly all the branches off two smaller pines in our front yard and doing some damage to our mailbox. Here are some pictures:

OK, here aren't some pictures. I've uploaded them "successfully" 4 times, but so far I haven't seen them. Not sure what's going on. I'll have to try again later.

In any event, we spent 4 days at my Mom's house (Friday through Tuesday). Everyone I knew was without power, but at least Mom had a wood stove and thus heat. No running water, though, so we had to get creative about how we flushed toilets (Dave and Mom got bins of pond water), took showers (used our gym membership and took the kids to a local pool), and washed hands, and dishes. The days went by without much of a hitch, but once the sun went down things got more difficult. Both logistically and psychologically. I'm not sure we could have stood another day without power. I am very thankful to have lived my life in the post-industrial era.

A pool, a Grams, a pumpkin pie

This weekend we went to Steele Hill Resort. I'm a little embarrassed, but it was one of those time-share marketing deals where you get a great deal on the room if you listen to their sales pitch. We spent way too long listening before we finally said no thank you and went on to enjoy the rest of our weekend. Mainly the pool. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of said pool or our kids enjoying it because we left the camera in the room. But the kids loved it. I'm really thinking we should enroll them each in a Y swim class, but I can't figure how to swing it (what to do with one during the other's class). Eric was adorable, looking around while splashing his little feet. OK, I'm bordering on gushing mother so I'll stop now.

The second night, the kids spent with their Grams and her new puppy, Jack. Thanks, Grams! I actually got over 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep! That was definitely the best part. And the next day I got to do a little Christmas shopping without listening to a toddler saying over and over again, "Go home Annika's house." It was heaven.

Below are some pictures I took today. Eric in the bath. I just love bath pictures, what can I say? And Annika helping me bake pumpkin bread and pie. She is a big fan of straight brown sugar and raw pie mix. So am I. We liked the bowls together.




Hopefully we'll have some good pictures from Thanksgiving. We'll definitely have stories to tell.

Greetings!

After a few years of this Mommy-business, I'm starting to get worried I'm going to forget most of the funny stories we've lived through. I'd also like to keep friends and family members who live far away informed. I don't have a ton of time to update this, but hopefully I'll take a nap-time break a day or two a week and let everyone know what's going on.


Here is are some pictures of Annika, Grams, and Liddon at the Keene Pumpkin Festival.
















For Halloween, Annika was an Elephant. She wore that darn costume everywhere! Around the house, to the grocery store, to playgroup, to music class, to Gram's house, in the Halloween parade, and to bed. Along with those pink rubber boots, I'm not sure she needed any other fall clothing items! We actually do have a second child, Eric, who was born last June 8th. He's 5 months old now. Last weekend he had solid food for the first time. It was hard to tell what he thought of it, although it was the first time he sat in his Bumbo seat without crying.


Lately, Annika has been interested in helping out with Eric, which is both cute and unnerving. She "suggests" things for me to do with him (like, "Put Baby Eric in bouncy seat" or "Exersaucer") and she wants to pick him up and carry him (especially the time I put him in her Elmo chair! Was she mad about that!) Here are some pictures of things she can do with Eric.