Nathan Strikes Again!

I have offend said that Nathan is a little like a hurricane.  He gets into things so quickly and leaves a wake of destruction wherever he goes.  He is very cute and super sweet, but that boy is a full time job!

Using his trusty step stool Nathan found a bag of veggie sticks.  He did what any self respecting 20 month old would do and poured himself a bowl.

"Oh these are good!"

"What?!  I didn't make this mess."

2/13

Sunday after church while Andy and I were getting the food ready to put on the table Nathan struck again...

Guess what he has in his mouth...

BUTTER!!

He was eating it like a cob of corn.  He wasn't happy when his Dad took it away either.

He decided that a slice of banana bread would do if he couldn't eat the butter.

2/16

One morning while I was working on the dishes I looked in and noticed that Nathan was once again helping himself to a snack.

He found some cereal with freeze dried strawberries in it and helped himself.

He picked it out handfuls at a time and dropped it on the couch.  Then he picked the strawberries out and ate them.

Then the flakes would get swallowed up by the couch.  It was so fun to clean up.  :0)

2/20

As much work as he is we wouldn't trade our Nathan brother for anyone.  We are glad he is part of our family.  He keeps us all hoppin' and that is for sure!

Building A Birdhouse

Bradley still needed to make something useful for scouts, so he and Andy headed in to the garage to make a birdhouse.  Daniel was my photographer.

Bradley and Dad getting started.

Nathan was the supervisor of the day.

Nathan inspected every step of the building process.  Dad had to keep a close watch on him.

Bradley paid close attention to the proper way to use all the tools...

Can you tell?!  :0)

The birdhouse is coming together quite nicely.

Nathan and Dad getting ready to attach the hing on the top.

This is the birdhouse hanging in the tree out front.

They made it so that you can open the roof to clean out old bird nests and get them ready for a new one.  We are excited to see how soon our birdhouse gets put to use.

Winter Wonderland Part 2

Later in the afternoon on the 13th we headed outside to enjoy the snow again.  We borrowed a snow shovel from our neighbor and Daniel started working on the sidewalk.

Daniel putting his back into it!

"Did you see that shovel full?"

Back to work boy!

The snow wasn't the best for making a snowman so we sculpted a snowman.

Eliza and Daniel next to the base.

It took a while but it slowly come together.

I had to shovel the snow up into a pile so I could use it to sculpt the snowman.

Eliza was my supervisor.

Nathan also supervised the building and shoveling.

He kept wondering back and forth between my building project and Dad and Bradley building a birdhouse in the garage.

I started using the snow on the van because it was closer and easier to get to.

You can see there is about 2-3 inches on the windshield, then about an inch of ice, followed by an inch of fresh snow on top.  I could dig the snow out from under the ice layer.  It was kind of cool.

Another look...

Eliza standing next to the almost finished snowman.

Bradley decided he needed to give the shoveling a try.

Will came down to play with us in the snow for a little while. 

Will liked our snowman a lot.

Daniel, Bradley and Will

It was no surprise that school was cancelled on Valentine's Day when we woke to snow still covering the roads.  Friday morning we headed out again to enjoy the snow.  It was warming up pretty well and things were starting to get slushy.

Bradley and Eliza 

Nathan was so excited to see water starting to run down the road.  He just couldn't help himself.  He had to be IN the water!

Aiden and Nathan checking on our slowly melting snowman.

Aiden thought it was pretty cool.  

I thought Aiden's hat was pretty cool.  :0)

We walked up and down the road so Nathan could follow the water.

Nathan's favorite thing to do was to pick up small ice chunks and...

throw them in the water.

Our drive had a small lake pooled in front.  We finally got the shovel out and moved some of the ice and slush out of the way so it could drain.

Eliza used this stick to keep the chunks moving so we wouldn't get any blockage again.

Nathan was her supervisor.

Bradley and Daniel cleared the ice down farther to keep the water flowing down hill.

They stayed out for almost 30 minutes trying to keep the water going.
We really enjoyed all the snow but we are looking forward to warmer weather.

Feb. 13-14, 2014

Winter Wonderland Part 1

Due to snow in the forecast, the kids got out of school at noon on the 12th.  By 1:30 pm it had started to snow.  It snowed for about 4-5 hours, giving us about 3 inches.

 The snow is starting to cover the ground.  You can still see the grass though.

 A couple hours later there was a pretty good layer of snow.  The boys were super excited to play in the snow and couldn't wait any longer!

 Since it was Marek's birthday we colored some decorations and hung them on his front door.  We decided that they needed to be laminated first because of the snow.

 This is looking back at our house from Marek and Margaret's house.

Daniel wanted to sled down their driveway.  Unfortunately the boogie boards really wouldn't work in the snow.

 Eliza quickly got too cold.  I couldn't get her to smile for even one picture.

I told her to smile for the picture and then we would go inside.  This is the best I got!

 Since we don't own a snow shovel we used our big push broom to try and clear some of the snow.  It didn't work as well as I would have liked.

 Daniel giving the broom a try.

 Bradley thought his last snowball picture was so cool that he needed to try again.  This one wasn't quite on center, but I did manage to get it in the shot.

 Daniel checking the van for ice sickles.

 The snow starting to pile up on the bush out front.

Daniel got the boogie board one last try...it was very anticlimactic.

 Daniel with his large "snowball" just before coming in. He and Bradley played until they were frozen before coming in.

Andy drove home around 10:30 pm.  He had to try a couple different ways to make it home since there are a couple of steep hills near us.  He almost made it onto Kilbreth Ave, but his car started to slide.  He decided to park on the street leading up to ours and walk up and around the corner.  He wasn't the only one who parked along the hill and walked up.  Several of our neighbors did the same thing.  We got freezing rain during the night that left a layer of ice on everything.

 The next morning you could see Andy's footprints leading to and from the door.

There was ice one everything.  This little bush is next to the front door.

 Ice up close and personal.

 The little ice sickles were about 3/4 in. long.

 This is the bush next to the van.

 Even the van was coated with ice.

 Before the rain all the branches were flocked with snow...now the snow is gone and ice has replaced it.  Both were beautiful sights in their own way.

 Looking down the road leading out of the cul-de-sac.

 This is where Andy's car slid the night before and he decided to park.

 Eliza with our neighbor Yu.  He and his wife Hailee were out checking the roads and Eliza and Bradley decided to join them.  There was a lot of ice so Eliza held on to Yu.

Daniel and Bradley crunching through the icy snow in front of our neighbor's house.

Feb. 12-13, 2014