More Snow, Grandparents, Sickness and Spring finally arrives.

Well Hmmm.... Where did we leave off?

So we thought the first major snowstorm (well second but we missed the one in December because we were in Ohio) was more than enough snow to last us through the winter, but a week or so later another ten inches or so chased David's parents out of the area a day early. My crazy parents made it in only a few hours later than planned. The biggest problem they encountered was the 2 plus feet of snow they had to help dig out so they could have a place to park.

Last year I think we only had a couple of snowfalls that were a couple of inches each and I felt like I'd wasted my money buying Megan a snow suit. So this year I didn't get a new one. Thankfully Megan was still able to squeeze into the one from last year.

Here's Megan "helping" grandpa shovel snow.

We spent about an hour digging before the homeowners association came around with some equiptment to finish the job. It probably saved us a half hour or more of digging.
The neighborhood kids enjoyed their weeks off from school with a little sledding. Megan is way down at the bottom of the hill in purple. She wasn't scared at all.

Ready to go- again.

Grandpa made it his mission to clear the ice from the front porch each day. Megan helped.

We had a great time building a snowman. He lasted over a week.

Megan helped grandma make dinner to warm us all up.

Just playing.

Grandpa helped Evan ride the Megan bucking bronco.

Ok so the above pictures should have been posted weeks ago after mom and dad's visit but then Evan caught the croup, Megan caught step throat, I came down with step a week later, and well.... its basically been an exhausting few weeks. Evan is still coughing. Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Evan loves the exersaucer.

Megan still loves her baby brother She tries to hold him, but he's too big to really fit on her lap.

Evan has started eating some solids. He loves banannas and rice cereal. Apples still get the sour face but the green beans were a relative hit- on to sweet potatoes today. Here he is enjoying his rice cereal.

OK so you can't really see the bruise on her forehead in this picture but trust me it was a good one. She got to going too fast down a hill on her tricycle and wiped out as I was running after her pushing the stoller. It must have been a sight. She did have her helmet on but it still wasn't pretty. Her poor little elbow was worse.

Yesterday was gorgeous outside so we headed for the zoo. We arrived early and left around 1PM when the crowds got to thick to walk though with the stollers. This is Megan walking like a duck. It was pretty hilarious.

Daddy and Megan and those noisy flamingos.

Evan mostly just chilled out in the stroller. He seemed less than impressed with the animals.

Tummy time back at home.

Snowmaggedon

Well, the snow started falling Friday around 10 in the morning and by the time it stopped on Saturday we had 24 inches in our front yard. I was trying to round on 11 children, mostly babies, in 2 different hospitals that Friday. The office closed at noon and I finally made it home through the slushy roads around 3 PM. David's mom made it in ok Friday morning just as the snow was starting, but his dad (who was supposed to get in Saturday just as the snow was ending) got stuck in Chicago for 24 hours. He was able to join us on Sunday for a nice but too short visit.
We pulled out Megan's snow suit and sent her out to play on the patio with daddy on Saturday. She lasted about 10 minutes. Later that day when many of the neighbors were out shoveling, she ran around out in the street with one of her friends. Megan got stuck when she followed Anna into the deep stuff and had to be rescued. Wish we had a picture of that but it would have been too cruel to leave her there screaming while I ran for the camera.

All bundled up ready to go out for the first time. David dug a hole for her almost down to the patio bricks.

Megan had more luck crawling than walking through the snow.

Here's David at the begining of the digging out. It tooks us six hours to shovel our little bit of sidewalk and dig out the cars. Luckily our street was plowed by the home owners association. Some neighborhoods in the area still haven't been plowed, and we're expecting another 10-20 inches of snow. Can we say SNOWVERKILL. By the end of the day David wasn't smiling any more.

At least the view from my bedroom window was pretty.

Sunday Megan made it out to play again. She did go sledding with some of the other kids and loved it. Again- me without my camera. Will have to get the photos from the neighbor.

There was so much snow we had to use the shovel to clear the cars.

Yeah Halabuhji finally made it.

Megan started a new game. Haircut. Luckily her red plastic scissors don't cut through hair.

Halmuhni played with Evan while Halabuhji got in on the "haircut" action.

Another new game started when Megan jumped on Halabuhji while he was dozing off on the couch. He kept pretending to fall asleep, but instead of jumping on him, he convinced Megan to wake him up with a kiss. We love you Sleeping Beauty.

Puzzle fun.

Group photo.

Megan and mommy played "sandwich." Here's Megarrito. Daddy didn't approve when Evan became one of the layers in our couch cushion, blanket, Megan sandwiches, so Evan just had to watch from the Bumbo seat.

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas Vacation this year. We traveled to Columbus a day early to avoid a big snowstorm that dumped over a foot of snow in the DC area. I had to pack everything for all 4 of us in just a couple of hours, and I almost packed everything we needed. We avoided most of the snow until we hit Ohio, but even then the roads weren't too bad. Thankfully David had plenty of practice driving in the snow when he lived in Minnesota.


Megan and AJ bonded pretty quickly. They ran around and had a great time all week at grandmas house.







Sadly I didn't get any pictures of our trips to the bounce place or Build a Bear, but both were a big hit with Megan.








Uncle Eric brought his Wii over to grandmas. Megan and AJ dueled with swords. I must say Megan is pretty ruthless, sorry AJ. The big boys played lots of golf.





















Evan just hung out on the floor during the Wii activities. He seemed to enjoy the flailing arms and excited exclamations.











On Sunday we went to church and had Evan's baby blessing. It was good to see some old friends.













Daddy and Evan just hanging out.










Wrestling matches were a frequent theme, especially when uncle Eric was around.





























Monday was cookie baking day with the aunts. (We missed you Barbie and Sue)








The kids did a great job unwrapping all the kisses and peanut butter cups. They acutally unwrapped them without eating them.








Decorating the sugar cookies was also great fun, but the kids ran out of steam long before the cookies ran out and the aunts had to take over.










Emma was great with her little cousins. She even fed Evan for me while I was passed out upstairs.

















More wrestling.














We took a trip to see great great aunt Ruth. We couldn't really get Ruth to take her eyes off the baby long enough to get a picture of her face.




























Megan and grandpa had a second cookie baking session later in the week.










Christmas Eve some of the Fam joined us for dinner and games.














Grandpa entertained the kids downstairs with the train.
















Uncle Eric gave shoulder rides.





















Great auntie Ruthie took bath duties.














Great uncle Mark- still great.
















Cousin Mike was a hit throwing the kids in the air, and cousin Tommy scored points with the kids during the wrapping roll (aka bonk-y-bonk) fight.


































Christmas morning was nice and relaxing. Santa Claus got Megan everything on her list- jump rope, scooter, stampers, and a fairy robe.




























Megan can now "read" her own books with her leap frog pen. It didn't take her long to figure out how to get it to read to her.












Daddy got both the kids gopher gear.











It was a little cold but we took the kids outside for a little while to try out the scooter and run off some energy.





























Family portraits.

Captain Morgan, Eric, David, Megan, Angela, Evan, Lisa and AJ.








The Sauers and grandpa's hand.














The Hyun's.











Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids. Hmmm..... it was really hard to get this picture, I don't know how we'll ever get a good shot when we add Lisa's little girl this spring.









Great Aunt Barbie came down to visit briefly on Christmas day.

Once we arrived home we had another small snowfall. It wasn't the 18 inches of the previous week but Megan had a good time playing in it. Evan and Megan are too cute in their monkey and fish towels. They are great for keeping the kids warm after their baths.