Puppy Kindergarten

Well, this was Cooper's second week of puppy kindergarten, or "Stupid School" as Rob calls it, and I have to say he's doing pretty good. Of course, his attention span is about as long as my pinky finger! He loves having his best buddy in the class with him. We're just not sure if Carli makes him feel more comfortable there or if he's just tryin' to look good to impress her. At any rate, "recess" is his favorite part of class.

"Excuse me, you two! Will you keep your puppies under control please?"

"Did I do that?"

RECESS!!!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!

Grandma & Grandpa Plumb, we hope you have a wonderful anniversary, you love birds. 57 years - Wow!

Stair Surfin'

Cooper was bored so we thought we'd show him a good time.

Insulation Woes

Rob is pretty sure, no - absolutely sure, that he would not like to work with insulation for a living! We had some pretty serious ice dams on the back of our house and then when the snow starting melting, water starting running down the outside walls and was finding it's way into our family room and bedroom. So after peeling back the carpet so it could dry, Rob ventured into the attic to try and get to the root of the problem. Turns out, when we built the house 10 years ago, the insulation guys didn't quite finish the job. They forgot to insulate over part of the back of the house!

So lucky Rob got to cut a hole in the roof sheeting in the attic and drag 3 big rolls of insulation up there, lay it out on the rafters, cut it, and then try and shove it and himself through the small opening. Thankfully he survived and hopefully this will solve the problem. I wonder what else didn't get finished or done on the house that we thought did and paid for!

Is Winter Over Yet?

We certainly feel as if we've already had four months of winter, but it's only Jan. 2!!! Uggh! That's it - we're moving south. Okay, maybe not quite yet but we're definitely thinking a snow blower might be a wise purchase. Either way you look at it, we would be better off: if it snows, we blow, if we buy one it will never snow this much again! Perfect. We did have our neighbor take pity on us though and plow our driveway. What a Saint.

We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning - another 6 inches last night. We can't even tell you how much it's snowed, only that it's broken all existing records for everything. It was absolutely gorgeous outside though. Take note of the stop sign in the picture. That gives you an idea of the snow depth and that's after we had about a foot melt off.

Hopefully everyone had a fun and safe New Year's Eve. Kaylyn and Lexi went to church dances so we were home with the other two. Rob and I are not old enough to go out and party so Aleah and McKenna stayed home to chaperone. We invited the Novakovichs over (they are not old enough either and they only had Zoe) and of course Carli. So we sat around most of the night watching the dogs play and drool on each other. The little girls were sacked out by 11pm so there was no chuggin' the sparkling cider with them. We did manage to get in a few exciting games of "Hot Potato" though, before they conked out. (Really, this $4 game has been the catalyst for a lot of laughter since Christmas!)

Drool Soup, anyone?

"McKenna's ready for Hot Potato!"

And of course the Legofest continues to roll on. I'm just wondering what's going to happen when everyone heads back to school. No, I know what will happen - NOTHING! I will have legos in my dining room until next summer at least!

We loved hearing from so many friends and family at Christmas time. It was great to read all the newsletters and see the family pics. Thank you and Happy New Year!

Christmas Fun

Well, another Christmas come and gone. It was a great day filled with presents, laughs, family, christmas stories and FOOD. I feel as stuffed as I felt on Thanksgiving! The ingesting of two million plus calories actually started on Christmas Eve. We started the day by heading to Dennys to have breakfast with our pals, the Novakovichs. Then, after skipping lunch because we were still so full from breakfast, we had our traditional dinner of Belgian waffles piled high with fruit and "whup" cream (as Aleah calls it) and ham on the side at Grandma's. On Christmas morning we always fix a scrumptious spread of scrambled eggs with ham, peppers, onions and cheese, along with hash browns, fresh pineapple, toast and oj. You throw in the chocolate and what not found in our stockings that we munch on all day and then our next meal is a huge turkey dinner! You'll find me on the ellyptical tomorrow for two hours! And then an hour on the treadmill.

Don't mess with a girl and her chocolate!!

Cooper enjoyed his first Christmas. He got a nice, big, comfy bed that he loved immediately. We figured he'd be into everything as we were trying to open presents, but he just crawled on his new bed and went to sleep. That's my boy!

It was a LEGO Christmas at our house this year. We did the same thing back in 1996, but I think this year surpassed that one. Rob and the girls are crazy about legos so we added 24 sets to our collection of about 120! They had a blast opening them all to see which ones they were getting. Now my dining room table is completely submerged in legos, as well as the floor and sideboard table. Next, it will probably spread to the living room and then the hallways. I draw the line at my bedroom!!

The snow continues to pile up. We've now had about 55 inches or so and set a record for the snowiest December on record. With the 8" of new snow we received last night, we decided we had better shovel off our deck if we wanted it to remain attached to our house. So straws it was and Rob and Lexi drew the short ones. Whew! That was one job I was glad not to have to do. But Dad, being the smart one he is, told Lexi to shovel the stairs while he worked on the deck. It didn't take her long to figure out why he assigned her there - he could throw the snow over the railing right on top of her! She didn't think it was too funny but the rest of us were busting a gut, watching through the window! It's always great when we can laugh at Lexi's expense. haha

Record Snow Fall

Wow! We've had 26 inches of snow fall in 36 hours and it's still coming down! School was cancelled for Aleah and McKenna. They were thrilled because they just didn't think it was fair that they had to go to school when Kaylyn and Lexi were sleeping in. It's great to have Kaylyn home for the holidays, especially with all this snow. A mom is never truly at ease unless all her children are tucked in safely at home!

So what does a family do when school is cancelled for the day and everything is shut down? We had a Cookie-baking, Lego-making, Movie-watching day, of course! Kaylyn and Lexi got all of our Christmas cookies and treats made. And even though the kitchen was a complete disaster afterwards, mom didn't mind cleaning it up because all the hard work was done. The BIG lego sets came out today so I suppose I won't see my kitchen table and coffee table for at least a week. And try keeping a puppy from trying to eat those little pieces! Cooper thinks we put them there for his enjoyment. Star Wars seemed to be the theme for the day: star wars lego sets and movies. We were determined to watch all six movies but only made it through two. Oh well, the night is still young!

Rob finally got tired of all the girls asking him how much snow was on the deck so he waded through to measure. As of 3pm it was 26" and still snowing. We set a record in Spokane for total snowfall in one day - 19". But in this snowbelt we live in, we got a lot more than that. Because it's been so cold (in the teens and below) the snow is light and fluffy. Thank goodness because that's a lot of snow to shovel. I went out last night and shoveled about 9 inches off the driveway (it really stinks having such a big driveway in the winter) and by the time I was done 45 minutes later, there was already an inch on it again. So today, I boycotted and Rob and the girls shoveled. And because it's not supposed to get above 20 degrees for a week, it's definitely going to be a WHITE CHRISTMAS!!

Cooper is cursing us for bringing him to live in snow country. He's thinking that somewhere like St. George or San Diego would have suited him just fine! Just when we thought he was getting so big, we realized that he's just a little squirt in a whole lot of snow! We had to shovel a pathway so he could get back to his relief spot or he wouldn't have been able to get out the garage door! You could barely see the top of him as he ran down the path. He's still trying to figure out what this white stuff is. He likes playing in it but can't understand why it makes him so cold. Or why he can't breathe when he sticks his head in it!

You can barely see the top of Cooper in the back yard!