Follow the purple blur

And after two hours at this birthday party, the purple blur actually said 'Mommy, I think we should go home and take a rest.' Ha! Of course, later she vehemently denied ever saying such a thing, but that brief glimpse of victory was ever so sweet...

Showing off (Mommy, that is...)

Tubing

Heading up...and down the Alpine Coaster with Grandpa Joe

Supergirl at superpark

PBA, here we come

Eli let loose with the camera!

Haircut

One of the women (Debbie) who works at AKP's school recently got her hair cut...like 12 inches shorter. She now has a cute bob that goes about to her chin. Debbie informs me that when AKP saw her new haircut, she asked "Did you get your haircut to look just like me?"

Alas, we know where the center of the universe is...

PSP - Thank you!

Cars cresting the hill at sunset

Say Cheese!

Ganging up on Uncle Justin

Storytime

I feel like this picture has been published many times before on this very blog, but somehow the kids don't fit as well on our laps  (except, of course, the one that's not in a lap)

Antsy

AKP was using the word jealous to mean 'I'm so excited I can hardly wait'. I explained to her that "antsy" might be a better word. She said she didn't even want to talk about her cousins coming because it made her antsy (excited and impatient, I presume).

The next day she said 'let's talk about what we're going to do with my cousins."

I said "I thought you didn't want to talk about that because it made you antsy."

AKP "No, it's ok. I trapped my antsy in jail."

It's called ballooning, and it's very popular

At the ready

Enjoying the flips (Ute's gymnastics)

Happy Valentine's Day

Little Diggers

Guess who's coming to town? :-)

Groovy Icicles

Handyman update

Washing machine fixed...but alas, not without calling in the real handyman (the Maytag service guy). We did manage to solve part of the problem on our own, and we cleaned our machine, such that it now works and sparkles. It is a joy to admire...a minor (if not complete) victory for us and for our marriage :-)

How would you like to be the guy that has to cut down trees when its 9 degress outside?? Brrr.

Before:

During: 

After:

Our neighbor asked us if we would be willing to part with our tree, that mostly hangs over his yard anyway (and even more so b/c the power company keeps trimming it so all the weight is on his side). Given we will someday figure out a new landscaping plan for the whole yard anyway, we agreed he could pay to cut the tree down. And thus, on one of our coldest days of the winter, these poor folks show up to cut down the tree. I was freezing just looking out the window at them. Plus they had to shovel the whole back of our driveway to get their tractor / tree eating machine closer to the back (since we only shoveled to the front door)...bet they didn't bargain on that...although maybe it warmed them up. 

Snow, beautiful snow!

It's been snowing here for about 30+ hours...not sure exactly how much we've gotten thus far, but I'm guessing 15-20". Roads are a mess but the air is clean again and its so beautiful. Here are some shots I took this evening.