Celebrating Our Dry Yard

We have been spending a lot of time out in the yard lately. We have hated our yard ever since we moved here 7 years ago. Little did we know that we live a few feet from a flood plain... Our back yard is always wet, lovingly referred to as a swamp. Over the years neighbors have put in different draining systems which made our yard worse because as you can imagine, all the water collected in our yard which is right in the middle of the street. Patrick's goal over Spring Break was to fix our yard, installing an electric pump which involved digging up our back yard, side yard, part of the front yard, & sidewalk to lay pipes leading out to the street where the water now drains. I fully admit I didn't think he could do it, but he assured me his years in agriculture prepared him for such a job. And now success!! A dry yard!! We will focus on the positives & not how the $100 project turned into a $1000 project & how I owe half the neighborhood dinner & a homemade dessert for bailing him out when he encountered a few minor emergencies & how he took out the neighbor's mailbox...... Sigh....

This child just got a haircut! Her hair grows so fast! You can't keep clips or bows in it because you know who pulls them out in 5 seconds or less.
Lexa busy collecting rocks; wouldn't hold still long enough for a picture.
Showing off her new trick, blowing the dandelion.
Geneva on the other hand, loves the camera.

Showing off her first "boo boo". She fell last weekend, skinning her knee pretty bad. Since then, she has busted the scab open twice, each time worse than the time before. During the second bleeding episode, Patrick & I were both holding her down trying to clean the wound. Of course, Geneva was screaming but Lexa was crying even louder because she was concerned for her sister. After a few minutes to regroup, we ventured back outside. Lexa bent down & picked Geneva a flower as if to say "I hope this makes you feel better." It was so sweet!
Geneva loves to pick up sticks, reminds me of Luke!

Love to be Outside

Mommy got home from a long Saturday at work & heard, "WALK" (two girls looking out the window begging to go outside). Who could resist? We quickly got dressed in our spring attire & loaded up the stroller.

Lexa is telling Geneva something very important.

Geneva is listening intently.
Geneva blowing Mommy a kiss.
Look at those beautiful eyes. I could just eat her up.
Lexa deep in thought.
Geneva showing off her ponytail from Thursday. I bragged & bragged on how pretty she was & SHE said "camera"! She wanted me to take a picture, even running to the drawer where the camera is kept. How did she know that? I swear the child is one step ahead of me at all times.
Everything is a phone. Geneva picks it up & goes through her relatives..."SuSu", "Pop", etc. is that you on the other end??

Art Project

So we have been super busy lately, but I have had some very friendly reminders from certain relatives :) to post pictures. These are the last pictures I have taken...2/26/11, the girls making Mi-Mi's birthday card. They are just beginning to like crayons & as you can see Geneva more so than Lexa. Lexa still likes to chew them. But Mi-Mi appreciated the effort. I have to say having kids comes in handy when it comes to giving gifts! More later. I am super tired & headed to bed. This time change has us all off schedule.

"Party" & "Cake"

Geneva & Lexa learned two new words this weekend--"party" & "cake". We had Mi-Mi's 88th birthday party Saturday night & then Cedar's 1st birthday party Sunday afternoon when we returned from our 4 hour trip! Despite all the travel, the girls loved the parties & the cake of course. I am SO upset that we forgot to pack the camera so we have no pictures of Mi-Mi's party [Mom can I have copies??] So these will have to do from the Little Gym party...

Geneva cried & did not want to go into the party, guess she thought I was leaving her. It took her a few minutes to warm up, but then she never slowed down.
Time for cake! Lexa did not want to sit in the chair until she saw the juice & cake. We didn't realize until then that we hadn't fed the girls lunch! We are such bad parents! We left Hot Springs after breakfast & went straight home for a quick change & then onto Cedar's party. Oh well, I think they were too busy to notice. [They did eat a few graham crackers in the car]
Carter & Geneva playing with the bubbles

No fear



The girls wanting assurance that I was watching
Can you see Lexa's hair? She got messier than the birthday boy. We went straight to the bathtub when we got home.

Geneva all tuckered out. Two days without a nap catching up!

Arctic Blast Continues

-18 last night! No, that is not a typo. And it is already 2 degrees (at 9:00 p.m.) with another night of negative temperatures expected. Despite two feet of snow & cold temperatures, the mini-van & I braved the elements & made it to work by 11:00 this morning (no way we could have made it in the car, just too deep). Patrick dug out the driveway & thanks to my neighbor's Jeep that created some ruts in the road, I was able to coast to the interstate which by the way was NOT clear as was reported on the morning news. I inched along at 30 mph for the 30 mile treck to work. I really could not afford another missed day as I missed several last week. Here are some pics I took on my phone.

Our neighbor's car...don't think they are going anywhere.
Standing in our driveway looking south.
Our recycling bin is buried. We haven't had trash pickup in 2 weeks! Not a good thing with twins in diapers!
Looking at our house & driveway. You can barely see our mailbox.
Another view of our front yard.
Patrick's car...it would definitely bottom out right now.
Front view of Patrick's car.
Pile of snow outside of work.
A view of the side street at the nursing home. This is where I normally park but decided not to today. Instead I parked illegally in 2 hour parking & walked 5 blocks so that I was sure I could get out.

Front of the nursing home. The parking signs are barely visible.

Another view of the front.
The patio at work.
City crews finally arriving to clear our street at work! The nurses who stayed overnight through the storm were stuck because they couldn't get their cars out of the parallel/street parking.
Yeah the plows have arrived.
As hard as it was to make it to work, I am thankful for the hard work the state highway & local transportation departments have done. The streets are actually in better condition than they were last week (because of the layer of ice underneath).

"Once in a Lifetime" Winter

This is NOT a joke... we are buried in 26 inches of snow & -10 degree low tonight. The National Guard is in place & we are trapped for awhile! Am I in Alaska? Canada? I am really confused! This is a record breaking day in our state...the largest snowfall EVER in a 24 hour period. We received 3 inches of snow per hour starting about 4:30 this morning, reaching 26 total by noon or so. The average amount of snow we receive in 4 years...today alone. Did I mention this is our THIRD snowfall in 8 days? Last Tuesday we received 8 inches with a 1/2 inch of ice & sleet underneath which resulted in me missing 3 days of work. When I finally made it to work on Friday (after two days of trying & turning around due to the slick conditions), surprise our second storm which was supposed to be a "dusting" turned into 4 inches. I almost got stuck at work but made it home okay. So, we still had snow leftover & then our surprise storm this morning. We were supposed to get 2-4 inches but the low shifted & everyone was completely caught off guard. I am SO ready for spring!!

View from our living room, looking out our front door

Geneva & Lexa looking out the door hoping Daddy didn't disappear into our 36 inch snow drift
Patrick's car is not going anywhere for a while. It is buried. Since we got the van, we can't fit both cars in the garage. Sorry :)
Geneva & Lexa's bedroom window is almost covered!