The Engbers Blog

We are finally moved and living in our Rock Valley house.  It hasn't necessarily been smooth sailing as far as house issues go, but nothing we can't fix.  Olivia and Clara have been adjusting great.  Olivia loves her new room and all the areas she can explore!  Clara also enjoys having her own room, but she makes sure she can still bother her sister and take Olivia's stuff every once in awhile. :) As for us, Jon has been busy being a handy man and my head is spinning with lists of things we still need done.  Sorry no pictures, we will be without internet for a few days yet.  Then I will attempt to show you all the progress we HAVE already made!

...you can't help but see the beauty above all the broken limbs                                                     ...you feel the snow tickle your face                                ...you get together with grandpa and make a '10 foot' snowman!                                   ...and help uncle Connor make 'the world's largest' snowball ...and sometimes you might even press your face up again...

My mom and aunt Bon drove grandma Dorothy back home from Arizona last week.  We were excited to see her again after she spent the winter away in the warm weather.  The girls were also happy to get some new cactus shirts!   

Who else feels sorry for these very sad trees?  Well, I have to admit we feel a little sorry for ourselves as well, since we have to cut and clean up all these trees before our move in 1 1/2 weeks.  Ice storm Wanda will not be one of our most fond memories of living in this lovely tree filled neighborhood.  Right now we have this tree branch hanging on our shed.  It is also touching power lines, so we are on the long list of people the power company has to come check out. Backyard branches.  Our front tree has done as well as it can with all that ice.  We are hoping it stays that way Some of our neighbors' trees.  The tops all look like this. Our tree in the backyard. The tree next to our garage.  Hopefully we can just saw a few of the cracked branches from this one. More of the neighborhood. Jon and I both compared the sound of the falling branches to fireworks.  First you hear ...

 Olivia is a big fan of painting and she jumps on any opportunity I give her to do so.  I am cautious to get out the paints when it is two against one in terms of mess makers vs. mess cleaner.  However, one morning I decided we needed some sort of activity and crazily chose the finger paints.  It went fairly well for two reasons.  1. Clara hates having her hands dirty so she wanted to constantly wipe her hands resulting in her staying fairly clean!  2.  Finger paint is remarkably easy to wash off any kind of surface (including the mouth of a child who may be trying to eat the paint rather than making art with it.  She doesn't like it on her hands, but she is just fine with it in her mouth.)   While we are on the subject of art, here are a few of my favorite drawings by Olivia lately. What I like about this lovely artwork:  mighty fine snowman, pitchfork feet, mom and Liv holding snowballs, a nice sunshine with a few lingeri...

Clara Mae continues to make us laugh and (at times) pull our hair out.  She is developing and learning at a crazy rate these days, and I feel the need to write a few of her lastest characteristics. Clara has suddenly become our little talker.  She likes to repeat words and has started combining words to say two or three word sentences.  We love the way she says Livi..."Leebee or ibee".  Another favorite is the way she says "Too, Too" indicating she wants something as well - most likely it is whatever we had just given Olivia. Clara must be up to something making everybody laugh. Clara likes to be a helper.  If she is given a task, she will most often willingly help out.  She is always trying to bring us sippy cups, phones, cameras, or anything else that probably shouldn't be laying around that she finds.  She will then say, "here a go" (Here you go).  I see this look often.  It says to me, "I am being a stinker ri...