In the Process of Moving

Lily likes to help do the dishes....in the buff. She doesn't seem to be bothered by the fact that it's freezing outside...she'd prefer to have as little clothes on as possible at all times. She makes me cold just looking at her.

Chloe is learning how to dive into the pool for swimming.

It took her a few times not to pike save under the water. I taught her how to do diving line-ups a while back. A swimming dive is much different! Her coaches laughed when she pike saved, and then tried to keep swimming out into the pool!

This is what she thinks about waiting her turn!

We are moving to Vegas in April. It's a great time to buy a home there!....but I'm under so much stress! My hubby is now working, a lot-which is wonderful...don't get me wrong.....but, I'm taking care of the kids, packing up the house, being the go between for all correspondence with Jason, organizing the house, packing boxes as I organize, going out to Vegas to buy a house, keeping the kids in their routines, cleaning the house, looking at new houses, church calling stuff, teaching my fitness classes with my ever growing belly, shoveling the driveway, and then re-shoveling the driveway, going to doctors appointments because I apparently have a hypo-active thyroid, getting lab work done once a month, going to the OB, trying to keep the girls from killing eachother, shopping for clothes that fit, sewing, painting, going to volunteer at the girls schools, and then shoveling more snow! These are just a few of the things that are keeping me busy these days. Oh, and I found out that I need to substitute teach in NY for a few days so that I don't lose my NY state benefits! It's no wonder I got the world's biggest cold sore this week. But I did find out that your dentist can zap those suckers with a lazer so that a cold sore will never again return to that spot. Yes, I got mine zapped!

For my creative side this month I decide to re-upholster my couch pillows. Now, I think I might tackle doing the whole couch. But, I'm kinda scared. Any suggestions?

Jennie has a new boyfriend that we all love. He fits in perfectly with our family and he makes her happy!

Here are a few pics of the baby bump:

14 weeks

15 1/2 weeks

Sledding Family Fun!

On New Year's Day we went sledding with Jennie, Hayden, Owen, Griffen, Jordan, Woody, and Sheba. Yes! We took our dog sledding and she loved it! Chloe also thought it was awesome....however...as you can see in the pictures she always got toted back up the hill by Uncle Jordan! Lily on the other hand, hated sledding, because every time we went down the hill we got tons of snow in our faces. (Note the picture with the snow cloud)! That's Lily and I.....it happened BOTH times we went down the hill. We sat at the bottom and watched every one else for a VERY LONG TIME!

The Mop Brush

I love my mop brush!

This is a mop brush. It's purpose is to absorb a lot of water and paint to cover a larger area of canvas. I almost had my latest painting complete last night...but had a few touch ups to do this morning. Now, I usually do not paint my "real" paintings when the children are around, because I know that they will want to "help" me. -Especially Lily. However, she woke up this morning, got ready for school and had plenty of time to spare and said, "Mommy, I need to paint!" So, being the art teacher mom that I am...I indulged her and also got out my own work to finish real quick. Lily has about 100 of her own paintbrushes. Do you think she wanted to use those? No. She very quietly pulled out my mop brush and very sweetly said, "Mommy, can I use this brush?" Not really thinking about the implications of this I allowed her to...moreso as to give myself the few moments I needed to do what I needed to do. Well, in about 2 minutes...maybe less, she had black paint splattered all over her face, half the table, and the floor. Not to mention it was all very, very wet! I wish I would've taken a picture because she was so proud of herself. She really enjoyed using that brush! She made such a mess! But, I did not take a picture...instead I cleaned her up and everything around her to protect my own painting.

Lily's painting. -This is one of two. She gave the other one with all the black on it to our friend Carolyn.
This is my latest creation. And yes...I used the mop brush too!

What We Do In Buffalo When It Snows!

This is old news to any of you in New York...but I have to catch up on a few things!

A few weeks ago we got A LOT of snow. Lily was sick...so I sent Daddy out in the snow to make snow angels and a snowman with Chloe. However, it was way too cold and the abundance of snow created by this storm was just too overwhelming for them. After about 40 minutes they were back in the house stating that they didn't want to ever go out in the snow again! Unfortunately they never actually finished the snowman. However, the wind that took over Western New York the following day made our snowman turn into this amazing sculpture:

I think mother nature is, at times, the greatest artist ever! Just look at that perfect circle around the "sculpture"!


Here is Jason finally getting to the end of our driveway. -Quite the workout!
This is what I prefer to do on snow days! We blew up balloons, dipped some string into Elmer's glue, wrapped the strings around the balloons, and then sprinkled on lots of glitter. A very messy project...but a lot of fun! After waiting a day for them to dry, popping the balloons and listening to the really cool noise that made, our messy fun turned into these really cool Christmas decorations!