February is off to an artsy start

Lots of art-making going on around here. Also called "Hen-scribbling-on-every-scrap-she-can-find-while-Hudson-liberates-crayons-right-and-left". Also, outside time. Here you go:

You'll have to excuse us, lots of selfies in this batch...

Hudson suddenly decided he DOES like the snow. Or at least, sliding down the huge banks we have

Sundog. Prediciting (what else?!) more snow.

Because we don't feed her enough....

Weee!!!!

More arctic adventures

Hen napping. A very very rare occurrence sadly

We went tubing in sub-zero weather at Gore Mansion. For some strange reason had the place to ourselves

My new chair!!!! And it's super comfy

And the new side table. Just waiting for its lamp. I love when you find what you had in your mind but wasn't sure actually existed.

"Helping" with dishes. He loves to eat the bubbles. Blech.

And like any good mom, I took pictures instead of rescuing my coffee.....

.....which he then polished off and was clearly contrite about.

Water painting on the chalkboard. It's a "one eyed monster"

I have no idea, but I scored some perfectly ripe avocados which are amazing!

Ahh, it rotated. Anyway, this is a "Boston Eagle". Her drawings look surprisingly like what she says they are. 

Where she is a lot of the day. 

This is Santa. Note the red beard and white hair? (she used grey as white didn't show up).The red scribble to the left is a ponytail holder for Santa when he's flying so his hair doesn't get in the way. We don't do Santa, but she encountered a few books about him and the imagination has quite latched on to it.

More selfies

The gorgeous Gemma

She continues to be Hudson's favorite non-family person. He would sit and kiss on her all day if allowed. In nursery he gives her her paci, rocks her in the chair, covers her up with blankets, and kisses kisses kisses. He's a bit over the top, poor girl. Hence the concerned expression, lol. 

More snow forecasted, maybe some sledding again on Saturday, and then I got a call reminding me of Hen's dental appt on Monday. The first was such a hit, I can't waaaaiiitt for it. Ha.

More snow. And organizing

It's snowing, again. Steve has a snow day, again. The kids are going stir crazy, again. The grocery store was a madhouse, again. Ah, February. The month where everything starts to be just a wee bit irritating. My solution? Throw everything away!!!! The great purging of the closets has begun. Where did we accumulate all this junk???? The kitchen drawers are done, the kids room settled for the next year, and today was the pantry. I have dreams of a pretty simple (ha) kitchen remodel, but for now an organized pantry (with available floor space!!!) will do. Also, the living room is alllllmost completed. I just need a lamp and a small table for the great chair I found this weekend. I'm really pleased with the space. Functional and bright.
As for photos, I need to upload again, but here's a few from last week:

Watching Dad shovel

We have another foot+

You know, typical attire

Reading nook!

Your typical storm picture...

We're still in the middle of our "bizzard" (not supposed to end till 10ish tonight) but holding out just fine. In fact, I've broken in to the iced coffee I made in anticipation of losing power and being without caffeine, so I'd say we're committed to it just being some snow fall and not the "historic catastrophe" our beloved weatherpeople keep insisting it is.I have lived through blizzards, people, and this was not one. But anyway, it's nice to have some white on the ground, nice to get the free exercise of shoveling (even nicer that our neighbors do the really heavy drifts with their snowblowers!), and lovely that Steve gets a day off (who as an adult gets paid snow days?! He has a peachy job!).
The kids went out earlier but with the wind I made them go back inside after 5 minutes. No frostbite for them! I'm such a mean mom. Not that Hudson minded, the boy continues to really hate the snow. Normally he can't wait to be outside, but if you ask him in the winter he says "uh uh!" and backs away fast, lol. Henri is negotiating for a return outside after nap time. That'll be wind dependent I guess.
And here is our storm picture. Proof of why it's always so cold in our house, the insulation could clearly use some work:

The paci wars

He's only allowed his paci in bed and in the car (his speech is getting delayed, no progress in the last month, it's time to start being a lot more intentional about getting him up to speed!) but he doesn't fall in with the plan. So he's found a medicine dropper, disassembled it, and is very happy with his paci substitute. Stinker.

A real snow!

Hudson remains unimpressed by the walking-in-snow experience.

Hudson helps himself

He's very enthusiastic about "helping" me to bake. Mostly because of reasons like this:

Smattering of the new year

The kids and I took advantage of having a second car in the house and went to VT for a week to be with Aunt Anna before she went back to school. She's now happy to be headed back to peace and quiet ;) Then home for one last day with David before he headed back to school today. We are feeling a bit abandoned. OK, a lot. So pretty much normal goings on, compounded by the need to stay inside because of the cold. A few phone pictures of the past week:

Mr. No-nap has joined preschool hour with Henri and I. Clearly he's torn up about it

The letter of the week was "D" for desert, and here they were making playdough cacti (the spikes were spaghetti)

LOVE this shirt. Making (and eating) "locust" (sunbutter and honey playdough)

First sanctioned finger painting

He continues to love this nightlight from Ikea we've had since Hen was born. 

We're going to muss our dance parties with David!!!

Subway stop on our way to VT. Scariest driving I've done in a long time. Stopped counting accidents after #10 

Nikki, here's the hat rack. (There is a mountain climber up near the top haha)

Basically impossible to see here, but there's a gorgeous fox next to the middle fir tree. He was out a ton, catching some moles, bouncing around. And sooooo pretty!

I was pretty proud of these. Steve's the master pancake maker, but when he wasn't around I made some stellar breakfasts

It was cold, but it was gorgeous

Hudson likes to read to himself. But only if the book is upside down.

Selfies! The kids are enjoying my phone's camera

I just purged Hen's closet. She had tons of adorable stuff, but as she'll only wear stuff like this, it was pointless to keep it. The good news is, both kids clothes fits into one tiny closet now!