More Snow in One Day than in the Last Two Years!

A big snowstorm. About 18" here in University Park - snowed for about 24 straight hours and LOTS of fun. Cold, so the snow was light and fluffy (each of the five times I shoveled our steps and sidewalk). Took awhile to get the boys ready to go outside - my fault. I spent about half an hour digging through the "Winter Clothes" bin down in the basement looking for snowsuits. But eventually we were set (even if they were all in clothes a size too small because Sarah had already laid the right ones out neatly in the closet, which she'd told me but I'd forgotten - I blame snow-induced short-term memory loss):


Then the long walk down to the school with the great sledding hill, about 100 yards from our house, after which they were exhausted:




But they rallied and made a go of it:






Back home Joshua and I built a snow fort:


We got in morning, noon and dinnertime rounds of sledding. Everyone slept soundly...except Sarah, who had to go to work (picked up by a co-worker in a giant 4x4 truck) AND IS STILL THERE AS OF THIS POST BECAUSE HER JOB WOULDN'T LET HER LEAVE EVEN THOUGH SHE'S 37 WEEKS PREGNANT!!!

Fall Moments

October 31st

This year Michael went as Ben 10, Joshua made a last minute wardrobe change and went as Batman instead of a clone trooper and Matthew was a crocodile. In spite of the rain that arrived shortly after they started trick-or-treating they managed to drag home a ton o' loot.

November 3rd

Dad's home from school!

November 4th

Talking on Mom and Dad's cell phones to each other...

November 8th

A yogurt snack and a game of Guess Who with your brother. Does it get any better?

November 10th

When one wakes up at 5:45 mom has plenty of time to make him pancakes before Michael and Joshua need to get ready for school!

Restaurant Quality

And with the boys as spectres:

And Matthew didn't even eat any of the pieces

With contributions from all three boys, my mom and Rich, and Sarah and me, we knocked out this 1000 (!) piece puzzle in a couple of days. We needed to finish it so we could set the table for dinner.

$1.72

That's how much money we took out of the cd player in the car after Matthew decided to transfer the coins in the change holder to the cd slot (does look kinda like a piggybank, I guess).

Peterson's Field Guide

Took most of the summer (and me remembering to keep it full) but our hummingbird feeder has a regular visitor.*







* Photo credits to me and sketch credit to Michael.

The DC Nationals have new fans

(L-R) Michael, Joshua, Brigid and Alex check on the Metro driver on the way to a National's game with Chris and Joe.

Brigid and Joshua

Summer of the Shark

Can't tell from this pic but Michael has a second row of teeth coming in! He mentioned last week that he had a new tooth and I didn't really believe him (in fairness to me, he hadn't lost any of his baby, so couldn't be possible, right?). But when he told me again the next day I checked it out and sure enough, new tooth right behind the baby tooth! With another about to pop through right next to it! So we started wiggling the baby tooth as often as we could - I gave it a couple of good tugs over the course of a few days, Michael worked at it non-stop, and Sarah administered the coup-de-grace on Tuesday while we were in WV (where apparently the tooth fairy makes special visits):

Road Rash

Took the turn on Dead Man's Corner a bit too fast...

Why did it have to be snakes?

Despite the kind offers from her children, Mom does NOT want to hold the baby milk snake.

The Future

I am prepared for three boys to eat a lot of food (and cost us a lot of money in groceries) somewhere down the line. I didn't expect it to start so soon, though. Matthew has been waking me up with "I'm hungry" or "want Cheerios" (he'll be two in two months). This morning he has eaten three bowls of cereal and one bowl of oatmeal. He continues to "want more."

life with these boys

weekend in NY

A House in the Trees

SATURDAY, APRIL 25th:

FRIDAY, APRIL 24th:

Wanna go for a walk?

Matthew loves to walk with us where ever we're going - starts to put his shoes on every morning when it's time to take Michael to school. And he LOVES to walk Mookie. And I often clap for Mookie when I'm ready to take him out. Matthew caught on to that quickly, and has recently started to clap when ever he wants someone to come to him. "Let's go!" is what I translate it as in my head. This morning he was the first one awake, wandered into our bedroom and clapped at me...

Marco Island

Michael, Joshua and Grandma all had spring break last week so we spent it together in Florida. The boys were in heaven with a heated pool, a beach nearby and their doting grandparents. Chris and I drank lots of margaritas from Rich's new Margarita maker and even went to the movies TWICE!! Thanks Karen and Rich! We had a great time.