Basketball

Seth has been playing basketball on a Corporate League at work and last night was the first time that a game was early enough and close enough that we could take the kids to go watch.  Cohen sat, wide-eyed as he watched them warm up. He was mesmerized.  After a few minutes he decided that he needed to play too. He took a ball, dribbled, and tried to throw it in numerous times. He didn't care that the hoop was 10 feet up, he was determined.

 

He especially liked it when he got lifted up to put it in the hoop.

  

 

 I think Seth was having one of those "proud daddy moments". He can't wait until he can take Cohen to more of his games and to the church when he plays on Saturday mornings.  

 

Meanwhile, since we were in an Elementary school, Addy had fun walking across the balance beam, running around, and playing with doll houses.  

Too bad the other team didn't show up...ah well, we had fun anyway.

Handy Helpers

These are a bunch of random pictures from my phone from the last few months. I just had to share some of the most "helpful" moments.

 

 Our ward and stake hosted a Creche event (Nativity displays) at Christmas and I helped with set-up and take-down. Cohen was helpful too. He climbed right up on this dolly and figured out he could drive it like the Flinstone car.  Luckily, he didn't break anything.

 

 He is very helpful when he's all done eating. He removes his bib himself and stands up and proclaims "all done!" 

 

 Can't forget to add this little gem. My mom helped encourage this while Seth and I were gone for 8 days on a cruise to the Caribbean. 

Addy likes to dress up and play "princess", "family" and "school".  She asked me to play the wicked step-mother here and tell her to do chores.  Who says you can't get anything done when you're pretending?

  I think I'm going to need a new set of dishes and glasses soon. I think Cohen was trying to be helpful with the dishes again, or maybe just hinting to me that I needed to sweep the floor. It's always helpful when this happens as you are trying to rush out the door in the morning.

 

  When it comes to the vacuum, my kids could not be more opposite.  Addy has always been deathly afraid of the vacuum (and still is). Cohen on the other hand, thinks it's a game whenever I decide to vacuum. He runs to it, climbs on it, chases it, runs away from it laughing, and tries to take over with pushing it. 

 

  This girl likes to cook. At 4 years old she is a PRO at cracking eggs. I can always count on her to help me bake or cook something yummy. 

 

  She is also so great at unloading the dishwasher and sometimes loading it. She loves to climb up on the counter and put everything neatly away where it goes.

 

 

 

 

Cohen's job is the silverware. I make sure to remove all sharp objects first though. He can't see over the drawer so he just flings them in. Sometimes I fix them, sometimes I don't. Makes it more exciting that way.

  Cohen also likes to help with the microwave. Having it right at his level is very convenient. He likes to help cook socks, balls, papers, pens, etc etc. You name it, he has probably stuck it in.(sidenote: notice the shoes---inevitable when you have an older sister obsessed with all things princess)

All in all, I kinda like these little "helpers" of mine.  I guess I'll let them keep helping out.

Dreary Winter

I gotta say, snow is great for Christmas and maybe even a little bit in January, but I don't remember ever having Spring fever like I do this year! We got hit with several big snow and ice storms the last few weeks and it makes me really miss the Las Vegas winters we used to enjoy! I've lost count of how many snow days off from school Addy has had, I think we are at 7 or 8.

Watch out if you come to our front door! With a house facing North we have an ice skating rink. And heaven forbid if an icicle fell on your head...or you walked into one (yes, they are THAT long)

The ice storms do make for some cool pictures. It was so nice to see the sun, even if it was in the negative digits.

We have spent so many hours outside shoveling. Seth has dreams about using a snow-blower on our 200+ foot driveway.  I told him he's lucky he has a wife who helps him shovel it ;) It has been a great workout! This is after one of the big storms, I never thought I'd have to bend down to check our mail.

 Boy, was I in for an awakening when the next 14 inches of snow came! We had to dig out our mailbox! Living on a pretty busy road means our road is plowed before most, however, the snow plows are constantly pushing more snow into our driveway and we are forever doing extra work to dig ourselves out again. I think we dug through 3 to 4 feet that was piled up after the last storm.

The daunting driveway.  The snow piles are so big, we ran out of places to put it.

 

 

Seth scraping away a giant snow pile so we could put more on. Driving on the roads is crazy, all the snow makes the lanes very narrow and it feels like driving through tunnels everywhere because it is piled so high.

 

Did I say 14 inches? I wasn't exaggerating. Here's proof. 14 inches of NEW snow. Did I mention we already had at least a foot and a half of other snow from earlier in the week? 

Buried car

I wish I had a picture handy of what our patio looked like in the fall for comparison, but this gives an idea of the snow on top of snow on top of rain on top of snow, etc...  

 

 

 

I have to give a shout out to my awesome husband. After spending the day working from home, then shoveling and being completely exhausted, he built a snowman with Addy just before it got dark. She loved it even though it didn't look like "olaf" because she has been obsessed with all things "Frozen" after she's seen the movie countless times. (She's told me a few times that "the cold never bothered me anyway.") Since Seth is the newly called Edler's Quorum president at church he found out that they are in charge of clearing the walks after all the snowstorms. Thus, after spending countless hours shoveling our own snow, he makes the 15 minute trek to the church to do the same thing there. (Luckily, there is a snowblower--although it broke for the 14 inch snowstorm!)

 

No, Cohen did not play in the snow in his pjs. He just went out for the photo. He couldn't take his eyes off the snowman.

This is just a glimpse of our winter.  It's hard getting so much unwanted snow and rain when people in Utah are fasting and praying for it. Boy, do I wish I could send some over! I am grateful for having 4 seasons, but it seems like winter is taking over right now...