And the Winter Drags On. . .

Well we have definitely had a full-fledge winter this year. It has been pretty cold, so we haven't been able to go outside. We have been doing some baking lately-the kids are mainly in it for when I let them lick the dough off of the mixer and spatula at the end.

Every now and then, they remember the teeter-totter that is temporarily sitting in the bonus room. As long as they are nice to each other, they have a pretty good time.And then they made a last-minute trip to Iowa to see Kaitlin and Zane. My parents and Lissy were heading up there and meeting Andy, Autumn, and Briley. They were hoping to maybe get a little skiing in at a little place near them. I don't know who told Ellie, but she came down one day with her backpack full of random clothes because she said she was going to Iowa. Well, on Friday morning my mom offered for Jackson and Ellie to go with them. She thought Briley would be excited to see them. After discussing it with Andrew, we let them go. I picked up Jackson from school and dropped them off at my parents and they were off. I guess Carroll had some bad ice this past week and part of the town was without power. Kaitlin and Zane lost power for half a day but their furnace was also broken down. So everyone piled into their house and turned on some space heaters to stay warm. It was kind of rainy on Saturday so they weren't able to go skiing. I think everyone did a good job entertaining the kids because they want to go back. I'm not quite sure if they missed us (except for Ellie at bedtime).

While they were gone, I was able to get a lot done here. It is amazing what you can get done with just one kid around. I was able to get some decorations done for a winter party we're having in a couple weeks, clean the house, and spend a lot of time on our taxes-I despise tax time. I also spent a lot of time with these two.

Andrew thought we should work with Lincoln sitting up. He would stay up for a little bit, but it will still be a while before it really works.Andrew and I went out to eat Friday night (our littlest diner was so good throughout dinner) and then rented a couple movies. We watched one Friday night and Molly joined us for part of it and spent the night here. We also watched another one Saturday night. And we watched one last weekend. This is quite a record for us. We hardly ever watch movies anymore except the ones we watch with the kids-Kung Fu Panda, Nacho Libre, Aladdin, etc. Andrew usually falls asleep soon after the kids go to bed so watching a movie together doesn't really happen. Even though we really missed Jackson and Ellie, we did have a nice weekend and Lincoln got some good one-on-one time. He is a sweetie and has become quite the wiggle worm. He had been crying for about 15-20 minutes trying to go down for one of his naps. I eventually went in to give him his paci and he was just laying there in his shirt. He had somehow wriggled out of his overalls-yes he had overalls on and somehow the shoulder snaps came undone and they were completely off. I forgot to mention that he has a couple bottom teeth now (and I'm assuming more on the way because he is still chewing like crazy). I tried to get a picture of them, but it wasn't really working out. But I did get a picture that shows off his amazing eyelashes.

And one last picture-this is of Andrew's office. The wiring and plumbing are going in right now. The front door is not actually the one he is using. It is just a junk door that they had to install because there was some wire stolen for inside. I took this picture while driving by-it is kind of hard to get a picture while building on Baltimore.