I want it

This is another blog post to try to win something.  But this time I REALLY want it.  It's a scale to automatically calculate your nutrition information!!  It is a proven fact that the best way for me to lose weight is to keep track of what I'm eating, but it takes too much time and effort.  This scale would change everything!  So, I'm trying to win it from one of my favorite blogs "make it and love it".  You can enter, too, if you'd like.  But if you win, you have to give it to me.

Scary Cute

Global Warming

At 4:00pm yesterday, the thermometer in my van said 59 degrees. As Carter would say, "What the what?!" This weather is so weird, but I love it! One day we're playing in the snow, the next we're going for a bike ride. Well, Micah was riding his bike. Hannah and I were walking.

As we were walking, the weather surprised us again.  The wind started blowing, some dark clouds rolled in, and the temperature began to drop.  I told Micah I thought we should turn around; it felt like a storm was coming.  Thankfully, he agreed and immediately started heading back for the van.  If he had protested or stalled for even a minute, we all would have gotten soaked!  The skies opened up, just as I was closing the door of the van.  Crazy weather!

Daddy's Girl

watching football

Winter Activities

Yesterday afternoon, the kids and I kept ourselves busy with play-dough and coloring.  I let Hannah use markers for the first time.  She was entertained for quite a while.

Today while the little ones napped, Carter and Micah and I went out to shovel snow and play. It is nice that as they get older, their "helping" is actually occasionally helpful! (At least Carter was. Micah still just moves snow in random piles.)

 The other news of the day concerns Micah's ears.  He's on his third antibiotic since Thanksgiving, so we went to see an ENT doctor today.  The funny thing is that Micah claims he has had no pain.  The only symptom is that he can't hear.  It's hard enough to get a three-year-old to listen to you.  I don't need fluid in his ears making it worse!
The doctor today gave him a steroid and singular and suggested cutting out/back dairy.  We'll see how his ears look at his four-year well-visit at the beginning of March.  If there's still fluid then, we can consider having tubes put in.  Here's the most important result, though:  there's no harm if he gets water in his ears.  So we can start swimming lessons tomorrow!!  Woohoo!

Zeo

There's a cool gadget called a "Zeo Sleep Manager" that I want to win.  I get an extra entry in the raffle if I blog about it.  So, here it is.  I hope I win!  :)

Zoo Surprise

In the past few weeks, Micah has mentioned going to the zoo a few times.  I tried to explain to him that he was out of luck.  Hannah's nap is right in the middle of the zoo's winter hours.  However, Saturday was Micah's lucky day!  Hannah needed a nap in the morning, which freed up our afternoon!  On top of that, it was a beautiful sunny day.  But that's not even the fun part!  As we pulled into the parking lot, we saw our good friends the Hays walking towards us! (It turns out, they had sent us a text to ask if we wanted to go with them, but we didn't see it.)  What are the odds that we just happened to show up at the same time? (The Snyders joined us, too.  They saw their text. :) )  It was a beautiful, fun day, made even better by some great friends. :)

Micah and Ally checking out the lemurs

Aaron at the lemurs

The "real" train is closed for the winter, but the kids had fun climbing on this stationary one.

Micah and Gwen getting a closer look at fish and turtles

Hannah stayed in the stroller for most of the time, but we let her walk towards the end.

Hannah, Micah, Aaron, Ally,  and some random kid watching the flamingos.  (Gwen was just to the left of Hannah)

Cute Little Buddies

Snow

We finally got some snow!  It wasn't much yesterday (we had a few more inches last night), but it was enough for the kids to bundle up and go outside with Scott.  I stayed in this time and provided warm snacks when they returned: hot chocolate, tomato soup, and grilled cheese rolls.

Hannah screamed the whole time we were getting her ready, but she had fun once she got out there.  Later that afternoon she was bringing me her snow things and asking to go back out.

After our hot cocoa, we turned on the previously recorded Tournament of Roses parade.  We knew Micah likes parades, but we were surprised by Hannah's reaction.  She kept pointing to the TV and shouting...a lot!

Watch out for this doctor.  He gives shots no matter what is wrong with you!