White Trash Sledding

I still remember our first winter here in Oklahoma, which we kind of rolled our eyes at because it was so mild compared to Utah. There was one or two days of snow and barely enough to cover the ground. We were out shopping on one of the snow days and the traffic was horrible. We attributed the delay to a bunch of hillbillies that didn't know how to drive in the snow. Come to find out the traffic jam was actually the result of cars that had literally parked in the middle of the road. No, they weren't broken down. It was just the most convenient place to park for sledding down the grassy slope right next to the nearest freeway ramp (we're a little short on mountains and hills here). Not only were they parked in the middle of the road and sledding ten feet from the freeway, but instead of sleds they were using laundry baskets, storage bins, cookie sheets...seriously. And it wasn't just one crazy family, there were tons of people doing this. Jason and I couldn't believe it! We were cracking up at how white trash it was. Then again, if it only snows once or twice a year would you bother to buy and store a sled? Three years later, I'm ashamed to say we have joined the white trash sledders (but don't worry...we found a quiet safe little hill in our apartment complex). The kids had a blast.





Boys will be boys.


Not one of his brightest ideas.


"I help you Daddy!"


Who needs a hill anyway?




Snowball fight. Actually it was more like snow chunks. The snow was icy and hard to form in the shape of a ball, so they were limited to chunks they could find near the walkway.




My little snow angels.

Family Bowling Night

We only go once in a while because it's so expensive, but the kids have sure taken a liking to bowling lately. They LOVE it! I think they feel pretty cool that they can do it all by themselves (if you don't count the gutter bumpers and the ramp). It's so cute watching them. They like to choose their own ball, lug it to the ramp all by themselves, watch anxiously as it rolls toward the pins and jump up and down in excitement afterward (even if they only manage to knock a few pins down). They cheer each other on and give lots of high fives and they even like wearing the funny shoes. Here are a few pictures of the fun time we had.













The only part they don't like (as you can tell by Corbin's face) is when it's time to leave!

So Creative

Tressa is such a little character sometimes. She has quite the imagination! The other day Jason was watching a hockey game on TV and was trying to get the kids into it so that they wouldn't make him put one of their shows on. They were pretty curious about the skating on ice part. Tressa disappeared into her room for a few minutes and came out looking like this.

"Look Mom, I'm a hockey player!" She said as she started "skating" around the living room. It was hilarious.

Daddy's Little Buddy

For months Corbin has been going through a Mamma's boy stage and has been a little clingy. But I think he's starting to come out of it a little lately. He likes to mimic what Jason does and follows him around the house. Anytime Jason's home Corbin will run and get a toy to play with Daddy. Usually it's a ball or car of some sort, or sometimes they just wrestle or tickle. But the other day Jason was reading in bed one morning (he's one book ahead of me in the Twilight series ladies!) and Corbin grabbed a book of his own, climbed up in bed and joined him. He didn't ask Jason to read it to him, he just wanted to look at it on his own, he wanted to do what Daddy was doing. It was so cute.

And here he is helping himself to a lick of Daddy's ice cream cone, even though he's got his own in the other hand. He also kept insisting that Daddy have a lick of his. What a character.

Nesting

I've had a sudden burst of energy over the past few weeks and I've been nesting like crazy. Getting things ready for the baby, but also just purging and organizing in general. I even went through the kids rooms and tried to get rid of old clothes and excess toys. I was able to go through Corbin's stuff mostly without his knowledge, chucking the junky things that he doesn't play with anyway. But I decided to elicit Tressa's help when decluttering her room because I was sure that if I threw something out she would somehow realize it was missing (even if she never plays with it) and get upset. So I made piles of similar items and allowed her to choose a certain number of items from each pile that she really loved, played with and wanted to keep. She did really well and we got rid of a lot, but after we went through the stuffed animals she started to look a little worried. "Are we giving these animals to the needy children?" she asked looking very thoughtful.

"Yes, sweety. To the kids that don't have any stuffed animals."

"But...will I ever see them again?"

"No sweety, but that's why we kept all your favorite ones."

"Well, can we maybe give them to one of my friends so that I can still visit them sometimes?"

"I think all of your friends already have stuffed animals."

She started looking teary eyed at this point. So I came up with a plan. "How about we take a picture of all the animals we are giving away so that you can always remember them."

She thought it through. "Okay Mom, but I don't ever, ever, EVER want to get rid of the picture, okay?"

"OK."

After we took the picture she seemed to feel much better and we went on with our evening. I got the kids in the bathtub and started bagging up the things we had purged from her room. Every so often I heard a sad little voice calling from the tub as Tressa kept thinking of items we'd tossed. "Mom? Did we throw away the (some junky toy she hasn't touched in months)?" I started feeling a little bad and I let her rescue a few things, but then I had to put my foot down and tell her that there was no more space to keep things, so if she wanted to take anything back from the junk pile she'd have to get rid of something else. She got over it after that. I know that adults often get into the bad habit of keeping too many things...becoming pack rats, but I couldn't believe my 4 year old had such strong feelings about her clutter. It was so cute. I think she felt good about getting rid of it in the end, especially since we were donating a lot of it. Hopefully it won't be so traumatic next time!

A Break from the Cold

There were a couple days during the holiday break where it actually warmed up enough to take the kids to the park without jackets. (I'm ready for another one of those days about now...it's been so COLD!) I think everyone else in town had the same idea as we did that day. The park was super crowded with kids trying out their new Christmas toys (bikes, scooters, roller blades, skateboards, kites, etc.) There were even some friendly games of soccer and football going on. Corbin had been asking to go to the park for weeks. He just didn't seem to think the cold weather was a valid reason for not going to the park. I was relieved to finally be able to get him off my back...and he was ecstatic. He knows there are three things mommy won't let him do in the cold weather: wear crocs, roll the window down in the car, and go to the park. So now anytime I let him do one of those things he excitedly asks for the other two. For example, there was one day that I was in a hurry and didn't want to fight about his shoes so I told him he could just wear his crocs. His face suddenly lit up and he exclaimed "Hab my window down in da car!?" Anyway, we were all glad to have a break from the cold and the kids had a great time at the park.

We played on the playground...






Went for a walk...

And rode bikes...

Jason even got out his old remote control car for Corbin (which was a big hit)!

How about These Names for the Baby?!

So, we've been having a little trouble coming up with a name for the baby this time around. How about these? (left to right) Vikas, Hitesh, Nishant, Sidharth, Jason, Rajiv. These are some of Jason's flight students that we had over for dinner one night during the holiday break. They are all from India and Sri Lanka...and I have no idea how Jason can keep those crazy names straight! They are all super nice guys...very polite...very hard (for me) to understand. I thought it was really thoughtful of Jason to invite them over since they are all away from their families right now. What a guy! He is a great instructor and really likes his students...but maybe not quite enough to name our child after one of them. Hmmm...back to square one I guess.