Winter with the Neibaurs

I know that for some of you saying it is winter may seem premature, but not for us! Thought we would share some of our happenings. Dashell is learning to deal with snow much more gracefully than Stratton did at his age and is turning out to be a pretty good sport as long as something exciting is going on.

Piper and I have been spending our spare time with a new hobby- skijoring. In theory, she is supposed to do alot more pulling than she actually does, but we have so much fun. It has been a great way to combine cross country skiing with getting some of our dog's never ending energy out. I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I do. I really love it!

She still does best when showing off for others, but we will figure it out yet. We just need a few more months to learn all the commands and get a little more in sync with each other.

Our driveway has turned out to be the ideal sledding hill, so we take advantage of it most days to get out enjoy the snow.

Today we have had a fluke of extremely warm weather, especially for November that made for terrible roads and a day at home that we spent riding bikes in the garage, painting, cleaning, getting ready for Thanksgiving and building a snowman that Stratton insists looks like me. Can't you see the resemblance?

Hope all of you have a Happy Thanksgiving in whatever part of the world and season you find yourself in!

I Have Been Foolish and Deluded and I am a Bear of No Brain At All...

This is the current favorite at our house- a dramatized Winnie the Pooh with Judi Dench and Stephen Fry an others that is so funny, I enjoy it as much as the boys who mostly like Piglet's squeaky voice and Roo. If all you know is the Disney version, you have missed out! I never thought of Winnie the Pooh as being a funny book until I heard this version. One of my favorite stories is when Pooh tracks the Woozles and is actually following his own footprints in the snow in a circle. At then end, when he realizes what he has done he say, " I have been foolish and deluded and I am a bear of no brain at all." I just keep thinking of so many situations where maybe we could all afford to admit that we have been chasing our own tails and have been foolish and deluded. I must admit, I have put those words into more than one person's mouth this week, including my own!

What are you looking at?

2T

Dashell has broken into the box of 2T clothes this week, and they fit! I am a little bit sad that we have already outgrown month sizes. Stratton still says he is his "baby", so why is he getting so big? Plus, why do the terrible twos have to start already. He was being very grumpy and tempermental this morning, so I told him to choose whether he wanted to shape up and go to his music class or keep being grumpy and take a quiet time. I said " What do you want to do?" And he looked at me square in the eye and said, "Nothing!" with as much sass as a not even 2 year old boy can muster. I asked him again and he said " Grandma's house!" He can be such a handful, and that little temper of his has not cooled down one bit since the day he was born. I can tell that we are in for quite a ride with him.

We Can't Play in the Backyard Today

Sorry about the reflection off the window!

Quiet Time

This may be the only way there is ever a picture of me with the kids. Stratton does not always do so great at staying in his room for all of quiet time, and he was not enjoying me paying bills and such on the computer when clearly I should have been devoting my attention to entertaining him. Playing with the computer camera for 5 minutes bought me a few more minutes to get my work done. And I am glad that the special effects kind of blur out the background...otherwise you would be getting a full dose of our pink and flowery room that is just dying to be repainted.

Life Lately

The first hockey game with Grandma and Grandpa. We were so lucky to have them come and visit us for the first time here in Alaska.

Mittens for Dashell....too bad he only wants to wear his dad's and not his own.

The view from one of Brigg's rides from the house.

The boys favorite addition to our household.

Halloween for the boys.

We know that we are recent transplants to Alaska when our boy's favorite toy is a snow shovel.