Surprise, it's more snow!

The weatherman predicted 5-8 inches of snow would fall yesterday evening. We woke up this morning to about 15 inches. I guess weather predicting is a guessing game sometimes. So we got the day off of school and had the bonus of hours of shoveling. At least the kids enjoyed it. The weather is supposed to be above freezing the next few days so now we can look forward to a mushy mess for a while.

Kelsey's ACE trip to Washington DC

It's a little late in posting but on January 21 Kelsey and I went to Washington DC with Kelsey's school group. We toured Ford's Theater (where Lincoln was shot) and also the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. We also stopped for a few photos outside the capital and lunch at the Old Post Office (where we took a group pic). It was just a day trip so we were limited on time but we are heading back to DC as a family for part of spring break to do some more exploring. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Christmas

Last weekend we stopped at Chick Fil A for dinner and the since the cow was dressed up like Santa and I happened to have the camera, we couldn't pass up a photo op.

Christmas was a nice quiet day here in NJ. The kids let us sleep til almost 7. Santa brought them lots of great gifts including a laptop for Kelsey and a DSi for Nick. It was nice to have a low key day which included a two hour nap for Mommy. We have been on the go so much the past few months that we are all looking forward to a slow pace this week. Rob fortunately has the entire week off too.

Today we woke up to the weather forecast of 12 inches of snow. It started snowing early in the afternoon and hasn't stopped since. I don't think we will get the foot that was predicted but there is a pretty strong wind so I bet it will be a mess in the morning.

Koda visits Santa

The kids wanted to take Koda to see Santa. I was a bit worried since he usually gets too excited and pees wherever we go. He did indeed make a small mess on the floor but Santa's boots were spared and we got a great picture. The kids were happy and I was so proud of him for good behavior.

House Projects

Here are some pictures of the house projects we have had done recently. A friend of ours is a trim carpenter by trade and put crown molding, shadow boxing, chair rails and window boxes on the main floor of the house. We then had the entire first floor, stairway and hallway upstairs painted including ceilings. The painter we hired had a huge crew and promised to get it all done in a week while Rob was in Germany (he has an intolerance to wet paint fumes because of his latex allergy). Well, they showed up 2 weeks ago and he said he brought the whole crew to complete it in a day. He wasn't kidding. There were 12 painters and they tarped the entire house and everyone took a wall it seemed. They worked from 8:15 to 5:15 and did indeed finish it all. It was a crazy day but it gave me the rest of the week to get the house put back together before Rob got back. The kitchen table is new too as we were still using the "temporary" table we bought the day we moved in 8 years ago.

Then a friend of mine decided to get new king size bedroom furniture and she offered us her old queen set. She had a beautiful sleigh bed and armoire and since Kelsey was still sleeping on my old bed (with a more recent mattress) that was 30 years old we decided to upgrade her. She loves her new grown up bedroom....now I just need to get her to make that big bed every day.

Snow on Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Yes, there were actually flurries this morning. I was hoping not to see any of those white flakes after last year. Guess I am not going to be so lucky. Kelsey & Nick were quite excited and I think were hoping for a blizzard.

Fall yard work

On Sunday we cleaned the leaves up from the yard. Rob was teaching the kids to use the leaf blower. Maybe next year they can handle the job themselves?? And who couldn't resist playing in the pile of leaves..we raked up this pile 5 or 6 times but the pics are cute!