Winter Wonderland

We finally got snow (back in January).  Kent was glad he was able to get the snow blower out of the garage.

Oliver has fun in the snow about 50% of the time.  He will only wear mittens for a few minutes before he cries to have them off.  Then he starts wandering around and starts to cry when he gets his hands wet and cold.  It's pretty challenging once those mittens come off!

We had a very nice Saturday afternoon playing in the road.

Our view!

My favorite tree on our property is the crab apple.  It got loaded with snow.

Brooke loves the snow.  She runs, rolls, and falls in the snow.  It'll be nice when Oliver is a bit older and can enjoy the snow like she does.

"ING!" That's what Oliver calls "skiing".  He really likes the rush of going down a "hill"!

We are trying to teach about yellow snow, because this girl LOVES to eat it!

The rest of the afternoon was spent with a cozy tea party with a warm fire!

Oliver's Artwork

Oliver's artwork is also similar to his personality.  He sparkles for the camera (attention) and gets physical with the paint.  Paint ends up in his hair, forehead, hands, arms, toes and feet.  He even started pulling up his pants to see how high the paint could go.

He's creative in his own way!

Another reason why boys drive me a little crazy.  But it's so much fun at the same time!

Brooke's Artwork

Brooke's artwork has been really growing and developing lately.  The drawing above she called, "A Sunny Day" and it was the first time she drew hands with fingers (the blue person).  The extra circle on the hand was the thumb!

Sorry the color isn't great on these.  The drawing above is a self portrait with a flower on the right of her. This was one of the first drawings with shoes.

This drawing is called "My Family" and has her first drawing of a house.  I just can't get enough of those faces!

Brooke's finger painting shows a lot about her personality.  She likes to keep the colors separate by cleaning her hands in between colors.  She likes to follow rules.

She watched me very closely as I drew a "sea scene" and then she decided to try to draw her first fish.

Pretty good!

Melting Snow Activity

It was a snow day today!  A big storm rolled in and snowed heavily all day long.  The kids had fun playing with the snow INSIDE!

Mixing and pouring, so much fun!

Then we got out the food coloring and it was even more fun!  We even learned about melting snow!

Sledding!

We had to head up to Leavenworth to find snow.  Kent and I wanted to see how successful a sledding trip would be with our two munchkins.  We packed in the wood and food!

Brooke was happy that Auntie Caitlin came!

Me and my kiddos trying to stay warm.

The nice fire Kent make helped us stay warm.

So did the Top Ramen!  This was Oliver's favorite part!

Brooke loved the sledding.

Oliver had a few good runs down our small hill.

Our hill was slow at first but definitely got faster after a few runs.

Here is a photo I took after church a few weeks ago.  This is about all the snow we have had ALL WINTER LONG.  Hopefully we will actually get some snow this coming week.

Christmas 2011



Bing and Britta came down to celebrate Christmas with us.  We had a wonderful Danish Christmas Eve dinner followed by a festive church service.  We all gathered in the morning to unwrap Christmas presents!

Oliver opens up his new truck from Auntie.

Oliver has been having fun with Brooke's toys all his life.  This was the time to break into the world of trucks, power tools, and sports balls.  He was in HEAVEN!

Oliver knew where to go with his tools!  He spent lots of time fixing the pantry door that he watched his Daddy build!

Even Brooke got into the action!

Grandpa John helped open some toys.

Brooke has been very involved in art lately, so many of her toys had to do with coloring, painting and stamping.  She got right to work!

We took a short morning trip to Leavenworth.

The McCabe family in the Bavarian Village!

It's been an exciting week with company, presents and lots of laughter.  Time to take a break and watch some "Dragon Tales".



Our family.  Oliver is now 19 months and Brooke is almost 3 1/2 years old!

The kids LOVE their Grandma Britta!

Britta came down to babysit for us while we had a busy weekend for our local symphony.  Then she went home, worked and turned around to come back down again!

Inside Play

Getting everyone to smile at the same time is still challenging!

As the temperature outside dropped and the kids got colds, we have spent quite a bit of time inside.  There has been hardly any snow in December, so we are going to be so excited to enjoy that part of winter in January and February (hopefully!).

Brooke dances with her Olivia doll.

Brooke has been enjoying playing dress up with her various tutu's and other fashion items.  Then she dances around the living room like a ballerina.

After Thanksgiving, the Elf on the Shelf arrived and made each morning an Elf hunt!  Once in a while, he did silly things like make "snow" angels!

We definitely got messy.  The finger paints came out this day and the kids had a great time!

Brooke's picture was orderly...

and Oliver's was not!

It's sure getting colder as we near the end of November!  We tried to get the kids out for a few adventures.  It's sure not as easy as in the summer sun!  Oliver loved chasing "E-E" (Kitty).  I'm not sure that Kitty enjoyed it as much as him.

We went on a big walk over to the neighbor's house to feed the horses.  The kids were all bundled up in the winter finest!

He's in there somewhere!

Brooke was brave with the horses, even giving them a pat!  She had a big smile on her face the whole time!

Brooke wanted Grandpa Bing to go on ALL the adventures.  Here he is helping Oliver find his way through the "forest".

A treasure!  Must bring it home to show Grandma Britta!