I'm Dreaming of a White Boxing Day

Our snow came a day late this year. It started to snow before we went to church and when we got there they announced that they would only have sacrament meeting so people could get home before the worst of the storm hit. So far we have about 6-8 inches. Mesha is in heaven. Sterling took her out to play (yes, in the dark...).

Christmas

The kids had a great Christmas this year. They both really loved the presents they got from everybody. Mesha kept saying "I love it!" to all of her gifts. Griffin played with his train set for about 15 hours straight. We had a nice relaxing day of playing with our toys and we went out for Chinese that night (got to keep the tradition alive!).
Merry Christmas!

Kids Say The Funniest Things

We were in the car listening to Christmas music. "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" came on and a particular line said "Now the goose is on the table..." to which Mesha replied: "Silly Goose, not get on the table! Get on the floor!" Silly Goose.

Copycat

I was trying to get a video of the kids dancing to their new Christmas CD but I got this instead. When I watched it back it made me laugh because Griffin is copying Mesha's every move. Can you tell that he likes her a little bit?

Griff's Stocking

The stocking I made last year for Griffin stays at Grandma's house (it matches all the others) so I needed to make one for the boy this year. Here it is.
And here he is.Personally, I think I did a better job making the boy than the stocking. It's all about attention to detail and 9 months versus a couple hours.

Santa

We went to Walmart the other day and to our luck Santa was there AND they were doing free pictures with him!

Mesha has made serious strides from previous years and was so excited to sit on Santa's lap. She was petting his beard and being so cheesy. It made me smile. Then Santa gave her a candy cane and she made a new best friend.

Griff had to be bribed with a candy cane to stay for a picture. But at least he's not screaming or something, right?

Turkey Day

We had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving. Some friends from the ward invited us over to dinner so we didn't have to make the whole thing ourselves. Yay! (Can you tell I'm not much of a cook?) After dinner another family in the ward invited us over for pie. Sterling made an apple pie and was so proud of it. He did a good job (now there is someone who likes to cook). It was a nice day.

Now it is onto Christmas and Mesha is so excited this year. We put up our tree and she kept saying "Wow, it's so beautiful Mommy" and "There are so many yellow lights on the big tree." Her favorite time of day is when it gets dark and we can turn on the lights. It is a lot of fun to have a kid old enough to appreciate the excitement of Christmas. Now if I can only get Griffin to stop pulling the ornaments off... Life is good.

Boston

We went to Boston this weekend. Yay Boston! We didn't get to do a whole lot of things because the real purpose of the trip was for Sterling to help out with the youth temple trip and also the fact it is freaking cold and there isn't as many things to do when it's cold. But we picked a few things to do and had a good time.

At the Boston temple.

We went to see the USS Constitution. It is 213 years old, not much of it is original, but it was fun to see. Sterling loves stuff like this. The kids don't do tours very well so he has learned to read about things before we go because we won't hear the tour guide.

On "Prudence". These guns had a 45mph 6ft recoil. Yikes.

Her nickname is "Old Ironsides" (if you want to know why I'll tell you but for the sake of those that don't care I won't do it here). Huzzah!

Us Smiths.

The kids love any kind of water.

You can't really see it but that flag is a "Don't Tread On Me" flag.

We also went to Quincy Market but didn't take any picture because it was a zoo and I was afraid of loosing a child if I wasn't holding on at all times.

It was a fun quick little trip. It will be fun to go back in the summer and do the whole freedom trail (a walking tour of historic places, the USS Constitution and Quincey Markert are parts of it). I have said it before and I'll say it again, it is so fun to be so close to things like this and to be able to go for a day trip whenever we pretty much feel like it. Boston is such a cool city. I could do without having to pay to drive there (curse you Mass Pike) but what can you do? Fun times.

Drawing

Mesha has really been into drawing faces lately. And by faces I mean the same face over and over. In her mind she is drawing different animals or people but to me they all look the same. They all have the same lop sided oval shaped face, a long oval at the bottom for a mouth, and small circles up high for the eyes. Sometimes she will throw in a nose or ears. It is really cute and fun to watch your kids grow up right in front of you. I finally got access to a printer with scanning abilities and I saved these two drawings to share with the blogging world.

I think this one is supposed to be a horse. It features "rosy cheeks".
And this one is a self portrait. I love the hair and teeth. This is her best and most detailed one yet.

I love this part of being a parent!

And Thus It Begins

Look what we woke up to this morning. Mesha was so excited it took her all but 5 minutes to break me down and convince me to put her boots on so she could go touch it.
It's hard being the little brother.

Mesha wanted some snow to eat. Griffin wanted pretzels. Together you have wet, soggy pretzels.

It has already melted but it is a sign of the times. My initiation to New England is about to begin.

Daylight Saving Time

Guess who went to church an hour early today? That's right, I did. Whoops. Man I feel stupid. I am glad we have 1:00 church because I would have been pretty put out if I had rushed to be an hour early for 9:00am. But better early than late, right?

One More

This is the last Halloween picture, I promise. We ended up taking the kids out on Sunday. It was nice and chilly and the kids had so much fun. Griffin would yell with excitement whenever someone showed up at the door with a bowl of candy. Mesha really got into character and was nuzzling people. At one house she tried to go inside because there were some fun looking toys in there. Halloween is all about freaking people out right? Right....

Halloween 2010!

(Yes, Mesha is hugging her candy. That's how we roll.)

Say "No" To Crack

"Why do you keep following me around taking pictures of my butt, Mom? Knock it off, it's creepy!"

Smell My Feet

On Wednesday our ward had it's Halloween party complete with trunk-or-treat. Today the kids went trick-or-treating at Sterling office. We got SO much candy that I am glad Halloween is on a Sunday and there will be no more!

I forgot to take pictures of the kids BEFORE they got any candy so this is what I was able to get AFTER the sugar high already commenced...

If you can't tell Griffin is a lion.

And Mesha is a horse (of course!).

You can see them a little better in this picture. Griffin had the hardest time not being able to eat the candy the moment someone gave him a piece. But is was fun! Hooray for Halloween!

Pumpkin Time

We carved our pumpkins for FHE this week. Mesha picked out the shapes for her pumpkins face this year.

Mesha and her pumpkin.She loved to look at the inside through the pumpkin's eye.Griff and the pumpkin carnage.Daddy, Griff, and Griff's finished product.After we were finished we went outside to light the candles and see how they looked. Unfortunately our doorknob is the kind that turns on the inside even if it is locked to the outside. We got locked out. After trying to find a way in for a while we ended up driving over to our landlord's house (a whole 45 seconds away by car) with the kids unstrapped in Sterling's car. He was very nice about it and let us in with no hassle. I'm glad it was a warm night. By the time we got back in however, Mesha went straight to the potty and Griffin needed a diaper change and a bath! Ah life.

The All Important Nap

This is what happens when you have no nap and not enough nap.
I don't know why they don't believe me when I tell them they need to sleep longer!

Pumpkin Patch

We went to a pumpkin patch last weekend. There are SO MANY around here so I chose one that had a free petting zoo. The kids loved it. You could buy little ice cream cones full of animal food and you would have instant friends! The chickens were by far Mesha's favorite. We could hold up our food cone and they would poke their heads through the fence and bite chunks out of the cone. Hilarious. Griffin loved the lose roaming goats. He tried really hard to ride them, I'm glad they didn't ram him. I fed a pig out of my hand. Can you say yuck? My hand was so dirty and smelled so bad after 1 second of contact with that animal's mouth. Gross. Besides that they were cute.

Mesha liked the tractor!

The kids petting a sheep/ram kind of animal (Sterling and I can't figure out how old this thing is. It is small like a baby but those horns make you think otherwise...)

The chickens, oh the chickens!

What is that? I have no idea, but it was cool!

Cute little boy.

At the end of the day we didn't get any pumpkins at this place, we picked some up at a farm stand instead. For some reason pumpkins are so expensive around here. There are so many and everyone and their dog grows them so I don't know why that is. I am used to going to any old grocery store and getting them for a decent per pound price. Oh well, what can you do.

Apple Harvest Festival

New England is all about the harvest. It is a big deal around here! We went to the Apple Harvest Festival to celebrate! We spend a few million dollars and let the kids go on some rides and play a game.

They had pony rides for FREE (I was shocked by this news. If the kids weren't so tired I would have put them on multiple times or go myself...). Mesha LOVED it! I was so proud. She has had some "freaking out" issues in the past (I feel there is a theme in our blogging, Mindy) and she didn't have any of the problems I was expecting her to have. She was ok that she couldn't ride the white pony because we were in the "large" horse line (she picked it out). She was fine with some girl coming up to her and slapping a giant helmet on her head without saying a word. She let a stranger lead her away from me a stick her on a huge horse (yes, now I am exaggerating a little bit...) and she was happy, excited, and smiling the whole time! Yay Mesha!

Griffin on the other hand was a bit too close to nap time to enjoy his pony experience.

They provided off site parking and a shuttle to the festival so we got to ride a school bus. Mesha was in heaven. Again, she had so much confidence and an obvious lack of freaking out. It was a good day.

I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home

Sterling came home on Friday. Yay! Both of the kids were alive when he arrived. We had some rough days but we survived. I don't know how people do that kind of thing on a regular basis. I'm glad it's not me I guess. While Sterling was gone, along with missing him I was always super envious of all the fun things he got to do. He had tons of free time with no kids to deal with, he got to talk to other adults daily, and he had a bunch of per diem to eat out with for every meal of the day for two weeks if he so chose. However I am NOT jealous of the 10 extra pounds he brought home with him! Yikes! I guess eating out isn't all it's cracked up to be. I am glad to have my chubby hubby home!

Love

This is what I love.

Why Bother?

Why bother scrubbing, disinfecting, wiping, mopping, and otherwise cleaning your kitchen when 20 minutes later it looks like this?

Here I Go Again On My Own

Deja Vu? Sterling went to Wisconsin for training. Apparently 7 weeks in Rhode Island wasn't enough. This time it is only for 2 weeks though. I still made a countdown chain for "the kids" (that's my cover for making childish countdown chains for myself...). I am so lonely. It's so quiet here at night. I haven't left the house in over 24 hours (don't worry I have plans for after dinner). The kids have been pretty good. They have slept in and Mesha has told me she loves me at lunch everyday since Sterling left. Tender mercies you know. I am grateful for the internet and a way to reach the outside world while still being home with the kids. I must say though, I wish I had a backyard like no other. I bet the kids would agree. Someday guys, someday.

Here are some random pictures that don't have anything to do with this post!

I made some growth charts for the kids. I'm happy with how they turned out, now I have to put them up and USE them!

When stacking blocks just doesn't do it for you anymore. I need a pantry with locking abilities...