January Activities (and lack thereof)

As the month of January comes to an end, one thing comes to mind, COLD. Wow, it has been the coldest winter that I can remember in a long time, and definitely the coldest winter since I've moved to Indiana.  Because of the cold and/or snow A LOT of our normal activities have been cancelled (MOPS, Bible Study) and so we have spent more days at home than normal.  But we have had some fun days in January as well!

Jaime and the boys came up and we went to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch.  The kids had a blast playing the games and they even got to dance with Chuck E. the mouse (at the end he threw up a pile of tickets)! Afterwards we went to the Commons to play for a bit.  It was busier than normal due to the school break, so we didn't last super long there, but did come back to the house to play some more.  The kids were wiped out by the end of the day.  Now every time we pass Chuck E. Cheese the kids tell us all about going there with Lucas and Landon.  They loved it!

We also went up to Monkey Joe's (indoor bouncy house) with Helen and Mi Kayla.  The kids are really at a fun age to do this activity.  They can play on their own and Maddie isn't afraid of the big slides anymore and so she can "hang" with Nate the whole time.  Lots of fun and good to visit.

I  brought my camera to Monkey Joe's but didn't take one single picture (if you can imagine that!), but here is one from Chuck E Cheese's.

Bunk Beds

We bought bunk beds this summer, not really intending to use them until next summer.  Maddie just moved into a big girl bed not that long ago, and we didn't think she was ready to share a room yet.  So the bottom bunk stayed in her room and Nate got the loft bed in his.  However, we caved and gave in to the constant requests to share a room.  We didn't think she was ready and we were right, however the move was made and the bed wasn't going back.

While the transition has been less than smooth, with most nights moving Nate out of the room until they both fall asleep and then putting him back in bed, there's is something so sweet to checking on the kids and seeing them in the same room sleeping.  And last night was the first night that they both fell asleep in their beds.  Granted it took them awhile to settle down, but eventually they did, all on their own.  Victory! At least for one night.

Fire and Ice

With the weather so cold, school has either been delayed or cancelled, thus cancelling our activities. 
We woke up on Wednesday with no MOPS.  It was quite cold in the house, realizing that the power was out (again, happened for a few hours on Monday afternoon).  This is not a good thing when it is this cold out.  So I had the brilliant idea to get a fire going in the fireplace.  I have never performed this task and should have known it would not end well.  The chute didn't open all the way and so smoke started filling the house.  Luckily the log I had put on didn't catch so I just waited for the firestarter block to burn down.  We went upstairs to get out of the smoke and get warm in my bed.  We cuddled there for awhile but quickly realized the kids are too squirmy to do this all day so we left the house to go play at the Commons.  The power was back on by the time we got home in the afternoon.

That afternoon I decided I better get some laundry going (the mountain of clothes piling up is a good sign).  So I started the washer and then we went upstairs to play.  We came down a bit later to find the kitchen flooded. The washer has done this before when it's really cold, the water in the pipes freeze and the water comes back up the outlet tube...and onto the floor. 

Feeling really overwhelmed with all the events of the day, and on day 10 of Michael gone to a school in Iowa, I start to cry.  Then my sweet, sweet little man says to me, "Mommy, don't be upset.  It's okay, God loves you".  Yes He does.  That's all I needed to hear. So I can take the power outage, and the smoke filled house, and the washer dumping water all over the floor.  I am so grateful God has given me these beautiful children that help me keep things in perspective when it gets a little rough.

Maddie, Oh Our Little Maddie

Just a "quick" note for a Maddie update:

For memory keeping purposes (because I can't remember what happened yesterday), I will give a little update on Maddie. She is super smart. She knows her alphabet and can recognize many of the letters and some numbers too.  She loves singing songs and her favorite right now is "Jesus Loves Me".  Often, though, she is too smart. But when she's trying to get out of something and she gives that little grin, who can stay mad? (which is the problem)

Maddie now thinks that if she closes her eyes she is invisible.  Which means she can do whatever she wants.  So whenever the desire to be naughty and not listen arises, she simply closes her eyes and the proceeds with whatever it is that makes her happy and drives Mommy crazy.  It must also affect her hearing, because when she's "invisible" she can't hear a word I'm saying. Gotta love her.

Maddie and I were sitting on the couch, watching Toy Story.  She turns to me and out of no where tells me she was naughty at church last night.  So I thought, okay this is good.  She is feeling bad about what she did.  So I told her that next time she can be good.  She looks at me and says "no" and then turns back to her movie. So I guess she wasn't trying to clear her conscience, but just simply stating a fact.

She has also started biting her nails. It's weird. How do kids pick up these habits? Well, at least I don't have to cut them anymore.