One of Buddy

Buddy was a pretty good sport with all the kids in the house. Bonk would have made himself scarce but more than once Buddy ventured into the room filled with kids. He is quite lazy here these cold snowy days. Thought I would share a picture of him in his new favorite chair.

Sibling Day!

While I was driving the Stewarts to the airport Jessica went to school with Justin. Jessica had no school that day so Justin's school invited the older siblings to spend the day. Both kids love this day. Here is a pic I took from the school website.

The Stewart visit

Kathy's kids arrived with a checklist of thing they wanted to do- all the snow things they have read about in books. We did our best to meet all the requirements. First up was sledding. I believe the below picture gives you a good idea of Marc's sled run creation. The first big snowstorm, for us this year it was the foot of snow we received the Friday before Christmas, Marc snowblows a HUGE pile of snow. In the past he has done this in the backyard but because of the new septic digging up our entire yard he decided it was best try it out in the front yard this year. This huge pile is the starting gate- high enough that it will give them a good start. Then he lovingly creates a very fun run. On this one they bank twice before coming to the end (bank #1 stops them from heading into pricker bushes and our house). At night after grooming his run Marc will often poor buckets on water in order to ice it up so they go fast and to protect the integrity of the slide. This is Rebecca heading into bank #1- Kathy told her "smile for the camera" and she did the whole way down.

Here's how it works. You get on your saucer, tuck your feet in and get someone to push you- go Justin!

Then you scream as you go down- not mandatory but definitely a common occurence.

Here is Kathy on Friday trying to calm Rebecca's fears before one of her first runs.

Mimi came up on Friday to visit and she couldn't stand it, she had to give the run a try too.

Look! She survived!
After this particular run Rebecca got up and yelled- AWESOME!




Also on the list was throwing a snowball- check.

Making a snow angel- check!

The last thing on the list was catch snowflakes on their tongues. It did snow while they were here and I think they did this but I don't have a pictures. Grandma Sara and Grandmommy stopped by on Saturday for a visit too.
Do you know what Kathy and I did most of the weekend? This puzzle. I actually gave this 1,000 piece puzzle to Jessica for Christmas- not sure what I was thinking. She isn't even a real puzzle kid. Do you know who is a puzzle person? Kathy! So she and I sat over the puzzle visiting for most of the weekend. Kids came running past occasionally- they knew where to find us if they needed us and we finished it before she left!

Kathy had brought Webkinz for each child as an in case of emergency option, but we never had to pull it out. So the last night she gave all the kids their webkinz. They were so excited they decided to line up all the Webkinz they own on the steps.
By Tuesday morning the visit was over but everyone agreed it was the best visit we have had.

P.S. Kristin, Kathy did not have to purchase any snow stuff. Since my kids are older when they outgrow their winter clothes I keep them until Kathy's kids have outgrown them too. That way when they do come for a visit they don't have to worry about "the stuff". I did borrow a pair of boots for Kathy from a friend- thanks Jenn!

P.P.S. I was giving Kathy a hard time for not updating her blog. She believe I am one of the few people that actually reads her blog. I told her I thought some of my blog peeps checked her out occasionally too. If you do read Kathy's blog- leave her some love in her comments section next time- Gainesville Stewart News

As a comparison...

Many of you have mentioned the similarities between Jessica and Rebecca and Kathy and I. Thought it might be fun to put this up. This was taken 2 years ago in Florida. This was taken with my "old" lens- woo baby glad I don't use this one anymore- tried to sharpen it up a little. I think it is funny that we are in the same exact pose.

A few more from our photo session

Yes I do have pictures of the Floridians outside in the snow, but I just haven't quite gotten to all of those yet. So here are a few more from our cousin mini session. I left this one in color because I think the pink gives them a nice look.
Total cuties!
Long after the others had tired and moved on Rebecca was quite happy to sit and pose some more- here is just one.
And for your enjoyment an idea of just how poorly coordinated the gang was- next time we will plan better.
Oh all right, I will share one snow picture. This is my favorite of Kathy and the kids on the their first day. They are on top of the saucer run that Marc has created in the front yard- more pics from this later.

Just one for now...

I know a couple of you are clamoring for pictures of our long weekend visit with my sister and her kids. I have finally uploaded the pictures off the card but haven't yet begun to edit the pictures. In short we had a wonderful weekend. The kids loved playing with their cousins. Since we only get all 4 together once MAYBE twice a year it is hard to get a group shot of the kids together. They are just so excited to play with each other. Well we made a concerted effort this time and the kids were pretty cooperative. We didn't even try to coordinate their outfits so I believe these pictures are best in B&W for that reason. Here they are the four Singer (my maiden name) cousins- from left to right and in order of age- Jessica, Rebecca, Justin and Ryan. I promise more from our visit soon.

Ta Dah!

You have asked about the closet and the project is mostly done! So I thought I would share the before and almost after pictures- there is still some work to be done. Here is the bedroom (ok, truth time this is the pic that was on the website when the house was on the market- doesn't exactly look like this on a daily basis).

Before:
After: (ahhh a closet in my bedroom, haven't had that for 5.5 years!)

Family Room Before:
After: Woo Hoo!
Still to be done:

• Marc is going to wire everything through the closet so we will not have all those wires hanging down.
• Carpet to be ripped out in both rooms. There are hardwoods in the bedroom but they aren't in great shape, so we are probably going to have them re-done. As lovely as the pink and green linoleum is under the carpet in the family room I believe we will just put in new carpet.
• We need to get that big ol entertainment center out of there but it is too heavy for Marc and I to move it. Dee might want it but she needs to recruit all the strong people she knows and a truck- go Dee!

I have to admit that I was skeptical about the closet project. I was inclined to go the cheap and easy way out and just install the closet on the interior of our room- but Marc was convinced this was going to be the right solution. In the end I really like the end result. I think Tom and Dave did a great job and the built-ins look great and totally fit in like they have been there the whole time. So happy! Marc was in heaven watching the playoffs yesterday in HD.