Snow Total!

We officially got 14 inches of snow! I could have been worse I guess! That makes our yearly total of over 60 inches!
Megan continues to not feel well! She mostly just has a lingering cough. She has been very cranky still....crying at the drop a a hat and you cannot conole her. Maybe it is from a week of poor sleeping! We did manage to all make it to Church today as a family. We celebrated Chinese New Year afterwards with our adoption group. Hopefully she will continue to improve this week!

Snow Day~Sick Day

Today did end up being another snow day for the kids and Megan is still sick. She was up all night coughing. According to the weather forcast we have received half of our snowfall so far. That would be almost 10" we have now (see below) and just as much still to come. We will have good sledding conditions this weekend that's for sure:) So..I know I am pretty pathetic measuring snow...but that what happens when you are stuck inside for too long:)

Ground Hog Day ????

I know ground hog day was a few days ago (I think his prediction here in Wisconsin was that winter will never end), but if you have seen the movie Gound Hog Day some of you may understand immediately what my life has been like this past January. The short of it is that in the movie this guy wakes up over and over and has to relive the same boring day over and over. Mine is more like the same week over and over:) It seems like each week in the last month someone has been sick, there is a snow storm..or fridgid cold weather, and I work frantically to catch up on laundry!

Tonight in fact, they are predicting another snow storm of 10-18 inches...possibly more if you are close to lake Michagan. They did not define close though! We are about 25 minutes away, so we will see if we get the 14+ inches and qualify as "close". I will let you all know on Thursday what the grand total is for snow! This will be the 4th snowday for the kids if they cancel school tomorrow. Megan has strep this week so it's not like I can go anywhere anyways, right! I am trying to look on the bright side:) Trying to find a miricle in the moment( I borrowed that phrase from Steven Curtis Chapmans new song!) Anyways, the bright side of the month was having Todd's sister, Mom and two nephews come and visit and Nathan celebrated his 10th Birthday! Where did the time go!!! I can't believe my first baby is 10! So here are some highlights of life since my last blog in December!

Anyone got static guard??

Nathan and Ryan went to a basketball game downtown and it was near Todd's work so they stopped to see his office (and use the bathroom).

Sledding and snowboarding over Christmas in Minnesota

A princess in the making ...or ballerina :) This was a costume I bought on clearance after Halloween and gave to her for Christmas!


Auntie Keri and uncle Ryan came to visit in January for a belated Christmas! Megan loved her princess trunk with tons of dress up items! They gave the boys a tent and an invitation to go camping with them for a week....I mean a weekend :)





Nathan turns 10!! What? How did that happen so fast!



Megan in the tub with a ton of duckies that she received from my cousin!!

Ok....I had to post a picture of the Nativity ducks! Too cute! Ryan received these from his Awana leader at church for Christmas. If you look close, left to right, there is a sheep duck, Joseph duck, Mary duck with baby Jesus duck, and three wise men ducks.

CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE!

Good and bad...the holiday season is here in full force this year! Here are some highlights! We have been bombarded with snow since the 1st of December. Today is the first official snow day for the kids and technically winter has not even started yet. Today's snowfall is absolutely beautiful to look at. The other ones seemed to be mixed with more sleet....which has caused our snowblower to not work so well:( I always think of the movie Narnia on days like today...maybe because we have a lamp post in our yard:) Todd finished his first semester of his Executive MBA program and now has a much needed break this month ....thank goodness! I participated in my second annual Christmas cookie exchange with my small group from church. We each brought 8 dozen of one kind of cookie and then went home with a wide variety! Megan loved helping me bake...although I did catch her sneaking M&M's when I turned my back on her:) so cute! The boys just finished their first trimester of school and both brought home awesome report cards!! Nathan was tested for the gifted and talented program and was found to be gifted in the area of general intellectual and math. So if you know Todd you know Nathan got that from him not me:) We are so proud of all of them! Megan is enjoying the holiday season and loves to shop with me! I think I should be worried...since she also has a shoe obsession. She has become quite a chatter box too! We also have had a couple rounds of sickness with the kids too...the other bad side of this time of year! Enjoy the following pictures of the beginning of winter and the holiday season!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Megan holding a Christmas bear... you press a button and it moves and tells you a story. She loves this bear. The kids got it from my Aunt Dorthy last Christmas.

The following pictures are highlights from our snow fall today!

NARNIA??? I think so! :)








Megan and Nathan sporting the Christmas hats!!






Megan helping me bake for my cookie exchange!

Early Halloween

The kids were able to get some candy early:) I signed up Megan to go to a rehab center for the elderly with some friends from MOPS(Mothers of Preschoolers).The boys ended up having off of school that day so they all got to participate. They got to visit some special older people and make them smile as well as getting a little candy early! If anyone can't tell Nathan is Darth Vader, Ryan is a Clone Trooper...both from Star Wars. Mom's personal favorite!! Megan is a ladybug. She loved wearing her ladybug dress....she wanted to wear it to church today:)

A day at the apple orchard!!

We went out apple picking with our adoption group from church"Forever a Family" We had a lot of fun picking apples. I think Nathan and Ryan liked climbing the trees even more! Megan was funny...she wasn't thrilled walking under the apple trees with all the fallen, rotten apples. When we walked under the trees she would say "eeww, gross apples mommy!" Much cuter to hear her say it though! A lot of cute pictures form our day at the orchard! We love to spend time with our Forever a Family group.

First day of School

Ok -I am really behind on posting pictures! I thought the picture was so cute though! Megan had to get out her ladybug backpack! Nathan started 4th grade and Ryan started second grade!I can't believe it!

Ryan's 8th Birthday

We were in Minnesota over labor day weekend so Ryan was able to celebrate his birthday with all his cousins! He was excited to find a Vikings cake! You can't find that in Wisconsin:)

Dress up time!

Megan ready to go shopping--She loves to dress up!

Megan after the boys got a hold of her:) The boys thought they were pretty funny dressing Megan up.

FLASHBACK:)

I decided to post some pictures from last year. They were stuck in the internal memory of my camera. I had lost the connecting cord to my camera and then sort of forgot about them. So I thought I would do some flashback pictures because they were so cute! When things get hard with the kids I sometime wish they were grown (I had many of these days in Aug.) But when I look at pictures only a year old and I see how fast they change I realize I need to enjoy every moment right now(can anyone out there relate)! They are gifts from God and each one is a treasure!

Megan~Spring 2006

Ryan, Megan and Nathan at the lake ~ Summer 2006

Megan walking in the lake ~ summer 2006 Not too sure of the water and she hated the sand.

Ryan~ no teeth last summer. They took forever to come in but they finally came. He talked so cute with out his teeth.

Nathan relaxing~he's more of a take it easy in the water kind of guy:)

Megan...probably April of 06. She was obsessed with climbing our stove when we first brought her home. She was way more of a climber than either of my boys.

She thinks she is pretty funny:)

Megan on her 1st Birthday!wearing a Chinese outfit we bought in China.We went to a Chinese Restaurant and I just remember she wanted nothing to do with the food or the highchair:)