A Sleigh Ride to Remember

We shared a little Christmas adventure and went on a family sleigh ride just up the road from our house!  It was so much fun to snuggle in tight with our little family, Caren, Dave, Clara and my Mom.  There were moments when we feared for our life (my poor mother was a little nervous) as we went up hills and down hills through the woods in an old, creaking sleigh pulled by two horses, but overall we enjoyed the ride and had fun singing Jingle Bells with the kids.  It certainly was an adventure and one we won't soon forget. 

 Eeeeek!!!

"Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring ting tingling too. Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you."

Happy Winter

It is hard to believe that Christmas is still 50 days away (nearly as long as Kim Kardashian's marriage! Sorry, I couldn't resist). I got into the Christmas spirit very early this year. I mean, how could I not when we got a foot of snow and have had our wood stove burning to keep us toasty warm. A snowstorm any time of the year, even in October, calls for a little Amy Grant Christmas music...so alas, I started listening to Christmas music two months early and there is just no turning back now! We got the first snow of the season last Thursday and the boys were SO excited! I'm sure Micah has no memory of playing in the snow from last year, so it was really fun to watch him re-discover the beauty of winter. The boys were thrilled with the light dusting, but little did they know, the weekend would bring us a foot of snow!
Here they are tasting the first snowflakes on Thursday night...Micah still needs to learn the art of catching snowflakes! 

 Friday morning...

 My boys...

 We felt like true Homesteaders on Saturday.  I spent much of the morning attempting to make beef stew.  I chopped veggies like a pro, but let's just say it didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped...

 Scott and Camden worked outside making us a new coat rack for our mudroom...

 After a long day of stewing...we enjoyed our beef SOUP!  Definitely put in waaay too much water, but it was still yummy.

 And that evening, the snow started to fall.  It didn't come quietly and slowly as many storms begin, this storm came on with a vengeance and went from 0 to 100 in seconds.  It was so exciting to see the snow literally pouring down, and we are thankful to be on of the lucky New Englanders who didn't lose power! 

 Our church service was canceled on Sunday morning, and we had a wonderful relaxing day at home...

 So happy!

 Super Dad!

 Strange to see the fall colors against the white snow!

 We love our little road...

 Scott had fun playing in the snow too!

And all of this before Halloween!  I'll post some pictures of my little monkey and bumblebee on the next post.  Happy Winter!  :)

You Have Permission to Mock Me

So I have a confession to make.  I watched almost the entire royal wedding - LIVE!  Yes, it's sad to say that Camden has been a superstar at waking up at 4:00am since we stopped letting him sleep with his binkie (transition is going WAY better than anticipated.  He doesn't even ask for it or cry about it at all...but he seems to be waking up even earlier than he used to).  Scott is usually the one to get up with Camden in the mornings.  I am on Micah-duty (which is no easy task, my friends.  We were "blessed" with two non-sleepers) and Scott is generally on Camden-duty.  I'm SO incredibly thankful that I have a husband who views parenting as a partnership.  Even though he works all day (and night usually) he selflessly gets up and takes care of Camden in the early morning hours.  This might be different if he were the one capable of breastfeeding the baby, but at the moment that is my wonderful excuse to stay in bed with the little one.  I really do have the best husband.  (Thank you, Scott)!  Yesterday, Camden was up around 4:00 and Scott tried his hardest to get him back to sleep until close to 5:00 when he asked if I'd be willing to take over.  On normal occasions, it would have taken much more to convince me, but yesterday I knew there was something wonderfully entertaining on television that I was secretly really excited to check out.  I wasn't too wrapped up in the hype leading up to the big day, but once it arrived my curiosity got the better of me.  And I have to say, it was a beautiful, wonderful wedding and a piece of history that I'm glad I got to witness. I love Kate and I love that they were college sweethearts.  I love that she is a "commoner" and is being thrust into this very public position - she seems to be handling it so well.  My mom came over around 6:00 and watched with me and the boys.  It was fun to share it with her and Scott got to sleep in for a change (until 7:00!).

A few wedding highlights for me:
- I loved how Harry couldn't resist turning around to see Kate walking down the isle and then whispering to his brother.
-  I loved the boys choir - beautiful!
-  I loved the little smile Kate and William shared when her brother was reading scripture - a little private moment amidst the billions of people watching.
-  I loved the sermon the Bishop of London gave - a really wonderful message.  You can read the text here.

-  The carriage ride, the dress, the hats (!), not one, but two kisses on the balcony.
-  When Kate and William first stepped onto the balcony and you could see Kate say, "Oh, wow!"  What a moment that must have been for them!

Ok, so I'm a total loser.  Make fun of me.  I can handle it.

Images from cbsnews.com and people.com.

Family Fun

Other than all getting sick with some sort of 24 hour bug (ugh!), we have been enjoying a wonderful vacation together this week!  We had a fun family day on Thursday in the Upper Valley.  We started off the morning at our wonderful pediatrician's office.  Camden had his 2.5 year check up and Micah had his 5 months.  We all LOVE Dr. T and even though Camden hadn't seen her in about six months he was SO excited to go.  He totally showed off for her and I swear we didn't prep him.  He sang his little song that shows that he knows all the sounds each letter makes in the alphabet ("The A says a, the B says b...").  He sang nursery rhymes.  He did a puzzle.  He did his 180˚ jumps.  He balanced on one foot ("We don't usually check that until 5, but OK!").  He talked her ear off and answered all of her questions.  I was simultaneously so proud of him and somewhat embarrassed because she probably thinks we're crazy parents drilling him in all of this everyday.  We aren't.  I promise.  When she checked him out up on the table he totally complied with everything she asked him to do and as soon as she was done one thing, he'd say, "What's next?" (Over and over again..!).
Camden weighs 33 lbs = 70th percentile, is 37 inches tall = 75th% and his head circumference is 20 inches - 85th%.

Micah has seen a lot of Dr. T in his short little lifetime.  We follow an alternative vaccination schedule and spread out his vaccines more than the typical schedule does.  As a result, Micah sees Dr. T once a month.  She is always so helpful and spends so much time with you.  (She generally spends about an hour with us every time we go.)  She is very respectful of different opinions and ideas and is always willing to have a conversation with you (which was not the case with other pediatricians we met with before Camden was born).  Needless to say, we love Dr. Turkington.  Micah was his usual, happy self for her.  She is always commenting on how "social" he is (smiling, making eye contact, watching who is talking etc...).  He even showed her how he knows how to sit up!  He's growing like a champ weighing in at 17 lbs 14 oz - 75th percentile, 28 inches tall - 95th % and a head circumference of 18 inches - 95th percentile. 

After a successful time at the pediatrician's office, we headed to the Montshire Museum.  We practically had the place to ourselves!  Camden had SO much fun, although I'm still not sure if Camden or Daddy were more interested in all the exhibits.  We spent lots of time looking at the animals and exploring the special Blue Man Group exhibit before heading to my favorite restuarant (Molly's!!!) for lunch!
Looking at the turtles...

Playing with the bubbles...

Micah had fun too!

ramblings and famous folks

I have been such a blog slacker this week and it makes me so sad!  I have all these random ideas floating around in my head and just haven't had the time or clarity of mind to actually sit down and write!  And even now, with both boys sleeping at the moment (although it's probably just a matter of minutes before Micah wakes up...) I still don't think I'm going to be able to articulate anything very interesting.  Oh well, I'll do my best!

As you all know, New England got pounded with snow today!  It was so fun to sit in our little home and watching it coming down in buckets all day.  For some strange reason, I thought I would try to be super-mom and walk the boys down to the dining hall for lunch.  Part of me wanted to be super-mom and the other part of me was SO sick of being cooped up in our one-room downstairs.  We also haven't been grocery shopping in ages, and didn't have anything in the house to eat.  So, I bundled the boys up - snowsuits, boots, hats, mittens - and trekked outside.  My baby carrier was in the car (which was about 15 yards away on unshoveled walkways and covered with over a foot of snow) so I decided to push Micah in the double stroller.  That was a mistake.  I put him in there and covered the whole stroller with a huge blanket to block out the wind.  He was screaming the whole way.  Camden wanted to walk on his own, but was taking FOREVER so I finally convinced him to sit in the stroller with Micah.  I almost died going down the huge hill (literally slipping and sliding with my monstrous double stroller skidding and pulling me down the hill) and then Camden decided he didn't want to ride and tried to climb out of the stroller while we were still moving.  Meanwhile, my head is buried, staring at the ground as wind whips snow into my face.  It was a miserable 10 minutes and the only thing that made me feel better was seeing my friend Molly come into the dining hall looking just as flushed, frustrated, out of breath and exhausted as I was after walking over with her two kids.  We commiserated with each other a bit and convinced ourselves never to try THAT again!  Ugh!

On another note, we had such a fun evening on Saturday.  Scott and Gregor brought their basketball team up to Dartmouth to watch them play Harvard.  Rather than sitting home alone all evening, the boys and I joined them.  Camden had a blast watching the game, dancing to the music during time outs, eating popcorn and climbing around on the bleachers.

Scott was able to drive home with us rather than on the bus so we decided to stop at Ramunto's for pizza since it was getting pretty late.

Two of my FAVORITE books of all time.
Images taken from http://www.jodipicoult.com/

Part way through our meal, my favorite author of all time (Jodi Picoult) walked into the restaurant and sat right next to us!  I was freaking out to Scott, but he did a good job calming me down and convincing me not to say anything to her.  I'm not sure Scott quite understands how famous and how talented this woman is!  She has written 17 novels (the last three of which have debuted at number one on the New York Times best seller list!) and her books are translated into 34 different languages...let's just say she's super talented and well-known!  It made my day to see her eating pizza with her son and took all I had in me not to tell her how much I love her! 

Images taken from Amazon and Tomie.com

This experience came on the heels of a funny experience on Christmas Eve with our other local hero, Tomie dePaola.  Tomie has been published for over 40 years and has written/illustrated over 200 books.  Some of my favorite children's books were written by Tomie, and although he lives in New London, we don't see him very often.  On Christmas Eve we were out to dinner with my family and when my mom brought Clara to the bathroom she pointed out that Tomie was sitting at the Bar with some friends.  On her way back, Clara walked slowly by him and he struck up a conversation with her.  He was so kind and she was talking his ear off (we could all see and hear every word from the table we were sitting at).  The best line was when Clara says, "I've driven by your house before!" - aka: my family stalks you!  So funny.  He was unphased and was so sweet to her.





We've been making some good progress on our house recently!  The electrician will be in there next week!  I'll post some pictures soon of our gutted house!  It's pretty crazy!

Oh dear...Micah is up...gotta run.  Goodnight!