Valentines 2014

For Valentines this year the kids made their own valentine butterflies to share with their classmates.  They had a great time decorating each one.

And then for dinner they made heart shaped pancakes.

 This week a ton of snow fell.  We probably got over a foot and half.  The temperatures have finally started to warm up into the upper 20's so that it's been nice enough to go out and play in.  So with the help of our neighbor Greg, we built a mound at the top of the hill in our front yard and made a nice sledding track that the kids really enjoyed zipping down.

Here we are standing in our front yard with our driveway behind us.  You can start to see how the snow is now piled up pretty high on the sides of it.

That said, I feel fortunate my back hasn't gone out yet with all the shoveling I've been doing to clear our driveway.  Everyone tells me this is an abnormally high amount of snow we're getting this year, which is the main thing keeping me from going out and buying a snow blower.  

A few days ago when 10 inches dropped, I had no desire to go out and clear the driveway.  Tara however hasn't done any of the shoveling and really wanted to go outside, so she volunteered.  Fortunately for us, a man with a big snow plow attached to his truck saw her out shoveling and voluntarily cleared most of our driveway in just a couple minutes.  We were so grateful!  He saved us well over an hour of shoveling.  It was quite a blessing. 

We also just noticed that some pretty large ice cycles have formed all around our house, which are pretty fun to look at

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Ryzen is now coordinated enough that he's able to feed himself. Actually, he prefers that over having us feed him.  He's got 2 little teeth on the bottom and two that are just now starting to poke out on the top, but that doesn't stop him from shoveling small items into mouth.  

Eventually though, during every meal, he gets bored and demands that Tara holds him. His case of "MAD" (mother attachment disorder) has been getting stronger and he often will grumble if I hold him if he sees Tara around.  If she's not around, he's usually perfectly content to be with me.  

Anyway, when he does end up in Tara's arms at the end of a meal, he's always reaching for things, making it a challenge for Tara to eat.