The White Stuff

Adam and Kabe both love the snow, which can lead to disappointment since we live in Illinois. We frequently receive forecasts for snow only find that the front moved north and missed us altogether.


This year has been a little different though, because we've had a pretty cold winter for our area, even having 2 1/2 days of canceled school because of the cold....that doesn't happen for our district and we've had a good amount of snow for our area. Now mind you, by no means is this snow even remotely close to the amount of snow received in Northern Iowa or Nebraska...but for our area of Illinois, enough for an eight-year-old to play in.

These are a couple pics I took on the way to work, in a very safe manner...not using the view-finder, I just put the camera above the steering wheel and took a picture & this is what I got.

See...not tons of snow, but enough for people around here to freak-out.

MLK Day

I love Holidays where I get the day off from work and Kabe has the day off from school. Today has been a lazy day. Once we were up & around Kyler & Brandon came over & played MarioKart with Kabe. I'm tellin' ya, people of all ages love this game!



Now, the three of them are outside again, buildin' snow forts, havin' snowball fights and pullin' each other around on the sled pretending they're on a hill. Oh to be an 8-year-old again.

We've been home a lot lately because of the extremely cold weather, because I haven't felt well, because it's icy or snowy, because we haven't had plans or various other reasons. Being home is usually okay, but when we're stuck at home and it's too cold to be outside....uh, not so fun.
Luckily, today (Saturday) was nice enough to be outside more than 20 minutes at a time. At one point I caught them in the midst of a snowball fight.



Not always the willing participant, he was done with pictures.

Snow Fun!

Snow is great to play in, but it's -10 outside and there aren't many hills around us.


So Kabe and one of the neighbor boys have decided to make their own sledding fun and pull each other around. First Kabe pulling Kyler (above), then Kyler pulling Kabe (below).


Guess it's better than no snow at all.

Christmas Day!

Christmas Day was pretty relaxing for us. Kabe woke us at 5:30am to see what Santa had brought him.









His favorite gift was Guitar Hero for his Nintendo DS.











He even got to play outside in the snow.








And so did grandpa!







Kabe learned how to play marbles and was really good at it!







And at the end of the day, we watched 'House' and had our own sort of slumber party.






My personal favorite of the whole trip...proof that Iowa brings out the hillbilly in all of us! ;)

Snow Fun

As soon as the snow was spotted this morning, Kabe & Alex were ready to get outside to play.


We scrounged around to find winter gear to go around and they were set!


They couldn't have been happier rolling around, making snow angels and throwing snow balls.


There was even some tasting going on.


Rolling and throwing ...


Chasing and throwing .... and rolling.

Illini, a Razor, and Snow

This weekend the Illini played in a basketball tournament in South Padre Island. It's always fun to watch a good game, but this tourney was only televised on a special sports package. After some finagling and several phone calls, it was determined we could get the channel for a whopping $4 a month which was totally worth is for two games...way less expensive than two meals at a local bar & grill to watch the game. So we hosted the party for our small group BB groupies AND the Illini won...Does it get any better than that? Now, we just need a 'W' Tuesday against Clemson...


And while Lynne was at our house, she enlightened us on how to clean the ceramic top stove when things boil over .... use a straight-edge razor to scrape it off. We've had this stove for FOUR YEARS and used tons of elbow grease and all it takes is a straight edge. Who knew?


And then, this morning, we woke up to this! Finally! Kabe's friend Alex slept over so there will be more snow pictures in another post.


It was only an inch or so, but it sure kept the numbers low at church.


And although it'll probably be gone by tomorrow afternoon, it sure looks pretty right now.

A Long Catch-Up

Where to start ... Well, we finally have the internet back! YEAH!!! That makes all three of us very happy! I really enjoyed my vacation and got lots of stuff done, but it would have been even better with a working connection. Sad, isn't it?
My week off ended with a trip to Northern Iowa to visit Adam's parents. We left last Thursday after Adam got off work. A good snow storm was rollin' in to our town so we got on the road a little early. This is what it looked like when we left.



When we got to Iowa, here is the snow Kabe played in with the sled Aunt Kimmy got him.



Here are a few more pictures from Saturday when cousin Casey (13) came. Sledding and make snow forts with two people is a lot more fun!



There was a really big snow hill in the field across the street from Grandma Gene's. Here is a picture of Kabe (in red) and Casey climbing.



Here is a picture, not too clear, of Kabe falling off the hill.



It didn't deter him. He went right back to climbing.



He was pretty tired after all that sledding. It is hard work you know.














Aunt Kimmy and Uncle Jerry came to visit that night and brought lots of stuff for everyone. Kabe loved his Star Wars puzzle the most!



All-in-all, a good weekend was had by everyone!

One weird week!

We had a pretty strange week of weather. Tuesday started off in the mid-50's and sunny, then was spitting rain. By the time I left work at 3:45pm it was spitting slush and had dropped 16 degrees in 15 minutes. Overall, there was a 40 degree temperature drop that day. Here are what the trees outside our house looked like that night.



Skip ahead to Thursday and reports of a big snow storm headed our way. The day started out cold and by noon it was spitting snow and was very windy. Here are the little bushes in front of our house at 5:00pm last night.



These are the same bushes this morning at 6:30am.



So far, the total accumulation is only 9-10", depending on where you are, but there is a lot of blowing. People around here are a little sensitive to snow though, so ALL schools and many businesses / activities are canceled today. Not our places of employment of course. It is still snowing though, another 2-4" expected today.
I love a good snow storm. Maybe we'll get a good snowman and some snow angels out of the deal.