Last week, there was a day that was uncharacteristically warm, without wind! I always have to force my boys to go outside,even though Elora is usually game if there's something to do. I really wanted them to take advantage of the weather and  Eli was taking a nap, so I decided these guys needed to have a race!

 

So who was going to win...this nimble little girl in the new mud boots?

 

Or the rambunctious boys full of energy?

 

Scroll down to find out! (And it's really fun to scroll down fast, it's totally like a movie.)

We did three or four races, and the outcome was the same...the six year old wins!
What I love about these pictures: Josh's  funny look of concentration. Elora's sheer happiness. Jonah having fun watching the other two and not worried about winning.
What annoys me: These don't look quite the same in blogger as they looked in photoshop, in regards to how bright and warm they were. And how that white wall looks. Oh well.
If you're wondering what this building is, it's the storage building with the smashed out windows with all the ruined stuff inside, which I mentioned back in August.

over the river and through the woods again

I know this was a few months ago now, but it was already half done, so I wanted to post it before it got too late! We had so much fun visiting Grandma at Christmas time. We got to have lots of  adventures while we were there.

One of our first days there, it was snowing! It was a pretty snowfall, with big soft flakes, and it wasn't nearly as cold as it is at our house when it snows. Plus, grandma came out and played too! 

This is the empty lot near our house. My siblings and I spent a lot of time playing here as kids too.

While everyone was running around playing, we had some surprise visitors!

Grandma told the reindeer to get back to Santa so they could help deliver our presents the next night.

Christmas eve we sang songs...

and we read the Christmas story while we sang. Hi Uncle Thain!

Santa brought lots of presents!

Elijah had a great first Christmas.

Daddy got to treasure hunt with Grandpa

And he found a bunch of his own loot!

We got to play cards with Thorin and Grandma (Eli won.)

And we got to decorate cookies too!

we all helped decorate a gingerbread house

Grandma was clever enough to buy one that was already assembled.

Elora added all the finishing touches.

After the visit to grandmas, we went north for Thain's wedding, staying at our aunt and uncles's home. We got to see lots of relatives, even our Great Grandma and our newest cousin, William! William is just one month older than Elijah.

Aren't they cute?

the boys liked making William laugh

    

oh yeah...Kiera was there too.

ps sorry the formatting on this post sucks! It was having issues.

New Furniture

Our big two-year-old, Jonah, got to move to the toddler bed this last week! He's such a big boy. I wasn't sure I wanted to move him yet, because when Josh moved out of the crib he stopped taking naps, but so far Jonah's been pretty good at getting in the crib for day naps, and he hasn't been climbing out of bed at night (yet) as I was afraid he would. 

 

 This bed was Joshua's, so we had to do something to make more room for everyone to sleep. Eventually, decided on a loft bed. I debated a long time about getting a high bed like this, but in the end it was the best solution for us. 

 

We got a loft bed instead of a bunk bed so there are more arrangement possibilities, especially if we move and the rooms are structured differently.The coolest part was that they came in the mail!
Boy is this bed high. They're made to fit a chair and desk underneath, so they're a bit higher than a standard bunkbed. Josh's bed is underneath (he loves sleeping in a bigger bed!), and Elora is supposed to be on the top....

 

 but as you see, it's hard to keep the boys off of it! (Elora wasn't home when I took pictures.)I just hope we don't have any broken bones in the near future. Elora has already climbed off the side with no ladder, and Jonah was trying to copy her before I caught him! Jonah has also burned his finger on the ceiling light, several feet away from the bed...I'm glad I didn't see him stretching out to touch it or I might've had a heart attack.

 

Along with the new bed, we also got two new dressers , one for each of the kids' rooms. The ones we had were literally falling apart, and it wouldn't be long before they were completely unusable or someone got hurt on them. The new ones are pretty nice, better than any I ever owned! The drawers are nice and deep, it's sturdy and it's tall.

 






















 
But it was kind of sad to get rid of the older ones. I'm usually all for clearing up clutter and useless things, but it felt like getting rid of a piece of the kids' childhood, we'd had them for so long. I loved that they were bright and white (which is hard to find) and the kids  had been allowed to put any stickers they got onto their own respective drawers, so they were pretty sad about loosing them too.
They looked so forelorn out by the dumpsters! I felt guilty throwing them away instead of taking them to a DI or Goodwill. But really, they weren't in good shape, and it was impossible to for us to transport them to any kind of second hand store, which are all hours away.


 
















Yesterday the garbage guys came and picked them up, and it was very sad to watch them get thrown into the truck! Goodbye, cute dressers!

Life inside the dome

You know those occasional cloudy days I mentioned? We had a week of that weather in December. It's very strange. Frost covers everything, there is no wind, rain, or snow, and the air is quiet and still. When you look into the distance it seems foggy, but up close there is no fog at all.

You can't see a beginning or an end to the cloud cover. In fact, I decided that it is like being in the dome on the Truman show! 

Sometimes the white is so thick you can't see this house over on the hill,

Or even the telephone poles down the road! It's surreal.

yes, there is ghetto graffiti even here in the dome.