Chicken Dance

I put the Valentine decorations away and got out the Easter decorations.  Seems silly to have spring decorations out when there is 10 inches of snow on the ground; however, I went with it.

I had forgotten about the little chick that plays the chicken dance.  As soon as Karsten spotted it, he remembered the song.


And he loved it!


And we may have all done the chicken dance a few times.


It senses motion, so it goes off ALL the time.  We typically turn it off when we can't take any more of the chicken dance - which usually happens after 3-4 songs.


Liam got bored of the chicken dance and went to play with (aka bother) Madison.  See how she is looking at us - it looks like comon' can't you help me


He loves her so much - she 'talks' tough but I think she really likes him.

The Blizzard of Oz

Shortly after the first snowstorm, the weatherman started talking about another storm scheduled to hit us on Tuesday.  We were skeptical, but as it got closer, it sounded like we really were going to get a lot of snow again.  Scott's school was cancelled on Monday night, so he officially had a snow day on Tuesday.  That meant it was time to make snow day cinnamon rolls!  I think this is a great new tradition - I'm sure you would agree too if you lived closer. :)


This was the view out our back door after breakfast.  This snow was much heavier than the snow from last week.  It was really sticking to the trees and patio furniture where the other snow had just fallen off.


Karsten discovered the yummyness (yup, that's now a word) of licking the frosting bowl.  Check out his cool Mickey robe that Scott's mom got him for Christmas.  Isn't it cute?


Liam may not have been awake yet, or perhaps he was trying to figure out why I was taking pictures so early in the morning.


When Liam went down for a nap, we went outside to play in the snow.






Offering me some snow to eat.


I love the determined look on his face here.


Enjoying eating the snow.


We decided to build a little snowman for Liam. This snow stuck together really well, so the snowman was quick put together   They were pretty cute right next to each other.

Melting has begun

After church on Sunday, I had to head into the office for a bit for a meeting, but thankfully, the boys waited to play in the snow until I got home!  Lucky me (I say that in complete seriousness without any sarcasm - I LOVE the snow!)

The sun was out and was starting to melt the snow, which meant that it was perfect for snowman building.  Scott had started the snowman with Karsten and I helped him finish.


Finding something for his eyes and mouth was tough, so we improvised with mulch for the eyes and a twig for his mouth.


Liam hung out and watched.


Then he decided it was more fun to climb up and down the dry stairs.




He was trying to look past me to see what Karsten was doing.


And this is what Karsten was doing - throwing snowballs at Scott.


And he got him.


I agree with Liam, it was pretty funny.


And Karsten was pretty proud of himself.


So he decided to try it again and this time Scott got away!


I managed to convince Karsten to stand by his snowman for a picture.  At first, he was too busy talking to him to look at me.


Without prompting, he put his arm around the snowman.


Then he came at ME with a snowball!


Liam wasn't so sure about this snowman guy.


He didn't want to stand too close to him.


Karsten was loving the snow and became a pro at making snow angels.

Snowy Saturday

At breakfast on Saturday morning, Karsten asked if we could play outside again.  Since Liam hasn't been a huge fan of the snow, we decided to wait until Liam went down for his morning nap.

We sledded down the driveway for a bit, but then I decided we needed to build a snow fort.


We got our shovels and we were ready to go.


We dug and dug and had a pretty good fort, but Karsten enjoyed the digging part more than playing in the snow fort, so we decided to keep digging and turn the fort into a tunnel.


Scott dug from the other side and eventually we met in the middle. Madison loved the tunnel because it allowed her to get over all of the snow and into the yard.


Digging out the rest of his tunnel.


This is hard work!


After we finished the tunnel, we were frozen and headed inside to thaw out with some hot cocoa with marshmallows!

Dog's Best Friend

Each day before we eat dinner, we remind Karsten to feed Madison.  Lately, Liam has been following Karsten to get the food out of the cabinet and walking behind Karsten as he goes to feed Madison.  Liam crouches down next to Karsten and watches carefully as the food is poured into Madison's bowl.

Tonight, Liam got Madison's food out of the cabinet, plopped down on the floor and started to feed her, one piece at a time.  We hadn't asked Karsten to feed her yet, Liam just decided it was time to feed Madison.


Madison was watching carefully to see how much food Liam gave her this time.


Putting the lid on and the food away, she's evidently had enough.


Just jokes, she must have looked at him with sad eyes and he gave her some more! I bet Madison is going to plan on this being a new routine.

Snow Day #2

Friday morning dawned and since the snow plow had not made it down our street yet, we were stuck.  Normally I would assume that my SUV could make it through the snow, but after watching countless cars on the news get stuck and seeing a number of SUVs not be able to make it down our street, I was staying put until the snow plow went through.

I was inside working while Liam took a nap, so Scott and Karsten went out to shovel more snow and sled.


That's the street behind Karsten, see why I didn't want to chance it?


Shortly after we ate lunch, the snow plow came through and our neighborhood came to life.  So many people were out digging out the base of their driveway and ready to get out of the house.  I headed into the office for the afternoon and left the boys to enjoy the rest of their snow day.

Snow Day Fun

The weatherman had been predicting this would be the biggest snowstorm we had seen in two years.  Since it only snowed once last winter and had only snowed a tiny bit this year, it didn't seem too hard to live up to that sentiment.  When I woke up to get ready for work, there was only about an inch of snow on the ground.  I thought about going into to work then heading home at lunch before the roads got too bad.  I watched the news for a bit and decided there was no need to chance it when I could just as easily work from home.

Thank goodness I made that decision.  After breakfast, this was the view outside our front door.  You could no longer see the street.




The boys played downstairs while I worked, but when the snow finally stopped around lunch time, I decided it was time for a break and we all went outside to play.


Sometimes getting bundled up takes longer than the time we spend outside!


Our official measurement around noon was 10 inches.


Karsten was a bit surprised when he stepped into such deep snow.


Liam didn't know what to think - he was a bit unsteady in all of his snow gear and boots, so he stayed in the relatively dry confines of the garage.


Until I thought I would 'help' him by plopping him in the snow.


He was doing really good until he stood up.  Then he quickly got frustrated that he couldn't walk like he normally does.  And when he lost his balance and fell forward, he got a face full of snow - can't say I blame him, that would upset me too.


Looks like he might reconsider - this snow stuff is kind of fun.


Sitting in snow 'chairs' in the  middle of the driveway.


Our driveway is a hill, so it made the perfect sledding course once Scott had taken the first layer of snow off it.  Liam slid to the bottom on the sled with me then tried to run back up the driveway.


The sled was a big hit!


Scott and Liam capsized when they got to the bottom of the hill.


We had so much fun!


Liam had another close encounter with the snow when he fell forward on his hands.


He was almost done with the snow.


Poor little guy.  He had snow on his eyelashes, in his hat...everywhere.  We decided to call it lunchtime and go inside and warm up.


Later when the boys were napping, Scott went outside to scoop the patio for Madison.  Liam woke up early and this was his reaction when he saw that Scott was outside without him.


So after Karsten woke up from his nap, we played outside again.


Endless fun wit the sledding.


What a great snow day - I love the snow!