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We’ve had a lot of snow this past week.  A lot of snow, between 17-20 inches of snow.   Which actually wasn’t as bad as it sounds really since the roads actually stayed pretty clear.  And most of it is gone now, which I love about Colorado weather.  As soon as it gets sunny, the snow melts quickly.  Much better than Indiana!  Anyway, it snowed a lot which meant I was stuck at home for a few days with the boys, Ryan was in the basement but since daddy was at “work” that doesn’t really count as having him home.  I try to get out  most days of the week because otherwise I go a little nuts, and a nutty mommy is not a good thing.  So we tried to do a few new things since the whining was really getting under my skin and I’ve decided that really the only person that can change my behavior is me, as hard as it is sometimes, so I’d better get happy or no one would be happy.  So Ethan got to make his first loaves of banana bread this week; I’d measure out ingredients and he would dump them into the bowl.  He’s fascinated by the big mixer, it goes “round and round”.  He really enjoyed the process, and it was fun to talk to him about it instead of just yelling at him to stop touching things.  He did get a few yells, particularly when driving his cars a little too close to the bread batter, but much fewer than usual.    Some moms are much more patient than I am, but I’m working on including him in the process instead of just acting like he’s in the way.  I want my kids to be included, not feel like they are a bother.  Anyway, that’s way beside the point, he had fun making the bread and then fun eating what he’d helped to create.

Another first for him this week was going sledding.  Like I said, we got a lot of snow, and fortunately a few weeks ago I bought a sled, so Thursday we opened the back gate and went sledding down the hill just behind our house.  It’s not a huge hill, but actually pretty good for sledding, especially with a two year old.  The best part was being able to just walk up it the last time and go straight into the house.  Kind of like ski in ski out, only with sledding.  He really enjoyed that, more so the second day since the snow drifts were a little smaller and he didn’t get stuck as often.  Isaac went out with us too, but he didn’t get to go sledding.  He did look funny in his snow suit though, very A Christmas Story.    Ethan was also introduced to the wonders of hot chocolate, since that is a must after any sledding adventure!

Tonight was another first for Ethan, he got to go trick-or-treating for the first time.  We weren’t going to take him, but he was so excited about the kids coming to our house that we decided he should really be able to go too.  Ryan took him around while I stayed home with Isaac to give out candy.  Ethan was a very cute pirate, I will get around to sorting and posting pictures eventually.  Ryan said he had a great time, though he usually said trick or treat way before people actually answered the door.  He was very excited to get some candy, but fortunately is too little to realize we just gave it all away to the kids that came to the door later.  Like we really need the candy!  Don’t worry, he did get one packet of gummy bears. 

So overall, it was a pretty good week.  I’m sure now it will probably warm up and give us a nice Indian summer, which would be great, but we’ve enjoyed our first tastes of winter.

Can you believe Isaac will be 6 months old in less than 2 weeks?!  I can’t believe he’s that old already, but I also can’t remember not having him.  He’s such a sweet little guy, he has a great laugh.  He’s finally sleeping 12 hours straight at night, most nights anyway.  He’s eating solid foods, and like most kids definitely prefers the fruits to the veggies.   He can sit up on his own now though he still flops over when he overestimates his reaching ability.  He still adores his big brother, except when Ethan’s pushing on him or pulling on him or sitting on him.  He’s getting in his first tooth, I can feel it but you still can’t really see it.  He immediately rolls onto his belly when we lay him down, regardless of the “back is best” campaign.    He rolls all over the family floor, ending up in some strange places sometimes, and Ryan wants to teach him to crawl but I think he gets into enough trouble without the increased mobility.  Of course, Ryan isn’t home with him all day!  He loves to laugh, enjoys tickles, wakes up more like his mom than his dad, and gives the biggest smiles just after eating.  He also loves to be held upside down.  He doesn’t like green veggies unless they are mixed with fruit,  does not approve of being left in his exersaucer while everyone else is at the table eating, and loudly protests being stuck in his car seat to run yet another errand.  It’s amazing how much personality such a little guy can have.    I love to snuggle with him and just squeeze.  That has had a few consequences for my clothes more than once, although he does tend to spit up more on dad than mom.

Ethan is also doing very well.  He loves to sing, and regularly sings along with the radio in the car.  He can say almost the entire abc’s, recognizes quite a few of the letters in books, still is obsessed with cars, and is generally pretty good with his brother.  He is a capricious sharer though, frequently giving Isaac something only to take it away within seconds.  He’s working on his polite words, and actually will say “thank you” without prompting on occasion and “bless you” even more than I do!  He still cleans up on his own sometimes, throws himself on the floor in a fit sometimes, and melts my heart all the time.  When Isaac is crying, Ethan will often say “it’s ok brother” and try to make it better.  One of his new favorite phrases is “what’re you doing?”, which is completely adorable coming out of a 2 year old mouth!  The first thing he usually says in the morning is “get dressed”, often the second you open the door.  He still loves Boo and Puppy, mimics everything (including me rubbing salt off of my hands after giving him goldfish), and is a chocolate fiend.  He loves playing with his friends and often asks for Evan and “Benjin”.  He had his very first sucker tonight, which made a disaster of his nice white shirt, and threw a fit when he dropped it on the floor and it had to be thrown away.  Bree and Trina are fascinating, including their water dishes, and their cat tree must really just be here for him to climb.  He’s definitely two, with his own thoughts and opinions, and I can’t imagine my life without him.

So those are my boys right now, hard to believe how fast they are both growing and changing and capturing our hearts.  I don’t think a day goes by when Ryan and I don’t say, “I just love my baby” about both of them.

Ryan posted pictures from our vacation yesterday, look in the vacations folder! 

We took a very late vacation this year and just got back on Sunday.  It was shorter and definitely colder than our usual vacation, but a lot closer to home which helped with two little boys in the car.  Vacations are a lot different once you are a mom, you take your work with you so there isn’t nearly as much relaxing as before.  And if you have to share a room with your kids, you get almost no personal time.  So it was good to get away but now I really could use a vacation!  I don’t mean to complain too much, we really did have a good time.  I’ll tell you about a few of the places we went.

We started at Mount Rushmore, but unfortunately it was freezing cold, windy, and snowing, so we looked at it briefly and headed for the gift shop where we spent more time warming back up.  Then we went into Keystone and caught the 1880 train into Hill City.  I’d ridden the train many years ago when we visited the area on vacation in high school and wanted Ethan to have that experience.  He loved it!  He’s still talking about the choo choo train.  It was a little cold, but the train is actually really comfortable.  And how often do you get to ride a real train?

We spent a day driving to the Badlands, where there are a few trails that you can walk around on.  It was insanely windy again so you can’t really see much of Isaac in any of the pictures, other than his feet dangling out of his carrier.    We went into Wall to the drugstore, which is really famous even if you haven’t heard of it.  You’ll start seeing signs for Wall Drug as soon as you get into South Dakota, no matter which side you are coming from.  It’s an interesting place, lots of fun stuff to see.  That evening we went to one of the coolest places, Bear Country USA, which is like a drive through zoo with elk, mountain goats, mountain lions, reindeer, wolves, and bears.  You actually drive through their habitats and get to see them up close.  It was really cool, I’ve never been that close to many of those animals, though that’s really ok since I’ve haven’t been meaning to!  They have another section that you walk through with smaller animals and the bear cubs, which was Ethan’s favorite part.

We spent another day driving all around Custer State Park, which is very pretty.  It has multiple tunnels in the rocks, some of them only one lane wide, and some great views.  We hadn’t been able to get up to the mountains here to do some leaf peeping so it was a great opportunity to do some of that.  We also went back to Mount Rushmore, this time on a bright beautiful sunny day.  We walked around the trail around the base, but neglected to find out that you should not try to take a stroller on that particular trail due to about a billion steps.  So I carried Isaac around, Ryan carried the stroller around, and Ethan was left to his own devices.  Good thing he likes stairs! 

The day we left we also went to Jewel Cave, which is the 2nd longest cave in the world at over 160 miles worth of charted cave and more discovered daily.  It wasn’t the prettiest cave formation-wise, but it was the most impressive one I’ve ever seen size-wise.  The caverns in it were massive, some bigger than multiple rooms in our house.  Ethan was also impressed with the size, and he actually enjoyed when they turned out all the lights and left us in perfect darkness.  He calls our laundry room a cave now. 

So we got to see some fun things, do a LOT of driving, and spend some time away from home as a family.  We really could have used more sleep, but we could always use more sleep no matter where we are.  It was a good place to go for a family vacation, even if it wouldn’t top your list of hot spots.  But the best part?  Coming home.