Snow Day! :).......and a sick day :(

Yesterday we had another snow day. If I had to guess--probably one of the last. Virginia is known for having pretty mild spring weather. The kids were excited to have a day off of school. They all had a blast playing in the snow. We actually got a pretty good amount too!

Unfortunately Julianne has to take a few extra days off of school due to a bought of strep. She's being a tough little patient though. We all hope she feels better soon.

The End of an Era...

After 15 years of teaching piano lessons I have decided to take a break. Last night after I finished teaching my last lesson it was definitely a bitter sweet experience. Making this decision was not easy, and it probably isn't even permanent. But, recently it has felt like the right decision for our family.
I have always loved teaching. Music is something I am very passionate about and teaching in itself is such a rewarding experience. It has blessed our family in countless ways and I will truly miss it.
I will miss all 14 of my awesome students too!
However, I have to admit I am looking forward to having my afternoons free up a little bit. :o)

It's a bird...It's a plane...no...it's SUPER MOM!

Emily is kind of going through a Tom-boy phase right now. All her favorite movies are: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Cars, and Monsters Inc. Also, her her favorite thing to do is play "superheros." She runs from room to room getting rid of all the pretend "bad guys" in our house.
Well, the other day we were reading a princess book (for a change) and when we were finished our conversation went something like this:

ME: "Princess Emily, will you go put your book away?"
EMMY: "Mom! I'm not Princess Emily, I'm Super Emily!"
ME: "Oh...Well then, can I be Princess Mommy?"
EMMY: "No. You are Super Mommy.
ME: "How come?"
EMMY: "Because you are the BEST!"

Now I realize I can't put much stock into what a 2 year old says. And I would never in a million years claim to be a "super mom." As a matter of fact, most of the time I feel lucky to just make it through the day with all my kids alive. :) However, whenever I think back on that little conversation we had I can't help but smile.
It's just that sometimes it seems like, in my efforts to be a good wife and mom, I somehow end up being the "bad guy." Whether it's having disappointed kids because I make them do homework and piano practicing before they can play with friends after school, or having a frustrated husband because the house just didn't get clean that day and I forgot the dry cleaning...again. (Like I said, I have a lot to work on.)
But just the same, it's nice to be called "super mom" every once in a while. Even if it's just in my two-year-old's imagination.

"Happy" Valentines Day!....Finally

As long as I've known Joe we've sort of always had bad luck on Valentines day. Well...more than sort of. Honestly....for us....Valentines Day is always a disaster! Our first Valentines Day as a married couple we got in a huge fight. Then there was the year I woke up Valentines morning with a HUGE cold sore. (I'm not kidding when I say huge. My top lip swelled up so big it touched my nose.) There were a couple of years where I was sick. Then the year of "Jakes." We thought we'd try a little restaurant in the area called "Jakes." Hands down the worst place I've ever eaten. And It was not cheap either. It just seems like Cupid has something against us!
Well, this year I was determined to overcome our "bad valentine mojo." Joe made reservations at a great little local place, we got a baby sitter, it seemed like we had everything taken care of. I was a little nervous when Emily and Dallin decided to keep me up all night the two nights before Valentines day, but with the help of a little Dr. Pepper we made it through the evening with no disasters! As a matter of fact we had a great time!
Do I dare say our bad luck streak is over? I guess we'll wait until next year to be sure.

HAPPY "LOVE" DAY TO ALL MY FAVORITE VALENTINES!

My little performer

Emily has had a "larger than life " personality from day one. She is definitely the most outgoing of all my children and that combined with her perfect comedic timing makes her the biggest "Ham" of us all. A recent "Emmy-ism" is:

The other day we were at the hospital for a Dr. visit and as we were waiting for the elevator to take us up to the right floor an older woman with her daughter walked up behind us and Emily immediately addressed the woman and said in her all-too-confident, two-year-old voice, "Hi! My name is Emily. This is my brother Dallin. He is a boy. I am a girl. My Mom is a girl. My Dad is a boy. Becky and JJ are girls and I have pretty shoes!"
The woman was nice enough to actually act interested in Emily's description of her pretty shoes, her toys at home, and anything else Emmy wanted to talk about while we waited for the elevator.
Then once we were in the office waiting area Emily walked straight up to another woman in the room and went through the whole monologue again, "My name is Emily. This is my bother Dallin. I have pretty shoes. etc......" After she felt like she'd covered all points of interest, she announced that she was going to sing the woman a song. So at the top of her lungs (in the middle of the Office waiting room) she sang "Twinkle Twinkle little star."
Thankfully at this point it was time to go so I took her hand and started to lead her out into the hall, to which she responded with, "But Mom I don't want to go! I want to sing Abc's!"
So as I was now dragging her out of the office she was singing the Abc's even louder while waving goodbye to the woman who so kindly put up with her show for the last 10 min.

...Wow...

I've said it before, Emily is one of a kind :)

From Snow to Ice

Although we don't get a lot of snow here in Virginia, something we do have during the winter are Ice Storms. Unfortunately that is what our latest snow storm turned into. This morning we woke up to a world covered in a thick sheet of ice. School and Church activities were canceled today, but luckily we weren't affected by any power outages. The girls tried sledding again, and actually liked the fact that the track they made yesterday was covered in ice. Watching them "rocket" down the hill reminded me of Chevy Chase's sledding scene in "National Lampoons-Christmas Vacation." :)
(If you've scene it you know which one I'm talking about.)
All and all it wasn't a bad day. Sometimes it's nice to have a reason to sit on the couch wrapped in a blanket and sip hot chocolate.
(I should try that sometime =)

Let it SNOW!

Finally! The first snow of the season is here!
After living in Virginia for the last 3 1/2 years I've learned to accept the fact that this is not a part of the country that gets much snow during the winter. But in past years we've at least seen some snow before the last week of January! I think Joe prefers "snowless winters." I... on the other hand...happen to love the snow, so I was really excited to wake up and see big fluffy snow flakes covering the parking lot of our apartment complex.










































The girls were dismissed from school 2 hours early because of the weather, so we had a great afternoon playing in the snow!
We don't own a sled, so Becky and JJ tried sliding down the hill on some big black garbage bags. It worked great! Who'd have thought?



















Dallin squealed with excitement the whole time we were out side. It was so fun watching him discover snow for the first time.