It's been a while . . .

Sorry, it has been a while since our last update.

What's going on at our house? tons of laundry and diaper changing! Dan and I have been up for the last four nights changing Louie's sheets, diapers and jammies after a bath.
Emily went to Bella's birthday party yesterday with Grandpa Don by herself, Louie has had symptoms of the flu lately. I thought she was going to get by without catching this crap, but she was hit with the flu at 11pm last night. UGH. Another two loads of laundry and a bath for her . . . it's been a real treat!
Hopefully, this will pass quickly. . .

I talked to Grandma in Florida this morning, they've had a fun weekend with all the Jansen boys. Stacy flew to her parents unexpectedly on Monday night to be with them. Her mom was diagnosed with AML Leukemia recently. Now, we're all praying for both my dad and DeeDee. I don't understand what is going on with all the illness among family and friends!

It's still stinking cold!

This morning, when we got up, it was -17 degrees. Sorry, didn't get a picture of the thermometer this time to memorialize the temperature.

We made reservations last week to go to Florida for a week in March. All of us can hardly wait to go and play at the beach and pool.

My dad stopped his chemo treatments for a while and he and my mom split town as fast as they could! I talked to him on the phone yesterday and he sounded the best he has in months! He is clearly excited to be out of the sub-zero temps and on his way to the sun and sand. They have a place rented for two months in Cocoa Beach. Dan and I are taking the kids and going for a visit. This year, we get to stay at the Resort on Cocoa Beach. It will be so nice to be there with an indoor play area, the beach and a great kids pool. All conveniently located right next door to the place my parents are renting! We're going March 17-24, so we'll be spending Easter Sunday with my brother and his family this year. Fun fun fun. . . .

Here' s a couple pictures that I've taken over the last couple weeks:

Our house is a little dry, despite running a humidifier constantly. Emily's hair has this static look to it everyday, it's it sweet?

Grandma gave both Emily and Louie a pack of these in their Santa stocking this year. I havent' had Pop Rocks for a really long time. Louie wasn't so sure about it, even though he is always up for any type of candy. He kept wiping his tongue on his pajamas when I put them in his mouth. Emily thought they were pretty cool and actually figured out the best way to feel the pops.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr . . . .

For all the family and friends that live out of town . . . . it's really cold here right now!
This was the temp this morning, after breakfast. No, you do know how to read a thermometer. It really is -11 degrees outside right now (-28 below zero windchill).

It's warming up! The temp at 11am warmed up to -3 degrees. We're talking fahrenheit too!

Teddy prefers to wear his sweater 24/7 during this artic blast we're experiencing right now.

Last weekend, Emily and Lou burned off a little energy on Saturday night. They danced and danced and danced. Notice the guy on the TV? yep, they LOVE to watch the Lawrence Welk show that is on Saturday nights. It must be the house, I've watched many an episode of Lawrence Welk, back when they weren't re-runs with my Grandparents in this same living room! It's pretty funny to guess the year that the show was recorded by the hairstyles and what everyone is wearing. Louie wouldn't be Emily's dance partner, so she cut some rug with her Bitty Baby.

Here's Christmas Morning . . .

A few pix from Christmas morning (with the crappy point and shoot that doesn't focus!):
Louie got a nice wooden cement truck and Emily got bunk beds and bedding for the Bitty Baby Twins that Grandma gave her. She loves to tuck her babies into bed for naps and bedtime. (note: we found the bunk beds in the attic of our house when we moved in, my grandpa made them for my mom year for Christmas.)

Louie got a big horse, he loves horses and cows.

Sliding!

Yes, this is Emily in the tub all by herself!

Emily and Louie went sliding for the first time on Saturday morning. It was so much fun!
I don't think that I've been sliding for 20 years . . . it was a lot like exercise! We went to the big hill at the Highland water tower, by the golf course. Uncle Joe, Patrick and Katie met us over there with their big tobogon, that was lots of fun too.
Emily really enjoyed it and had tons of fun with Katie. I tried to get some pictures, but there aren't many good ones.
Oh how I miss our nice SLR camera and my how we have gotten used to it! Thankfully, I just checked and it has been repaired and is enroute back to us!
I'll get a few pix from Christmas and also from sliding out here tonight!

Notes about sliding: when we first got there, we got to the top of the hill and realized that we only had one tub and a saucer. Fearing that the saucer would send us down the hill like Clark Grizzwald in Christmas Vacation, we opted to use the tub for the kids. Well, there wasn't room for everyone in it so Emily layed down on her tummy and went down all by herself. She had a look of fear on her face the first time, but LOVED it after that. Louie liked it the first few times, but he screamed his way down the hill. Before we left, Uncle Joe and Katie took Emmy and Louie on the tobogon a couple times. They had lots of fun!

Patrick and Dan had a race, Pat won!

Christmas!

I'm very sad, our nice new digital SLR camera was inoperable over Christmas this year! We don't have any pictures of the kids yet . . . there's a couple from our crappy old point and shoot camera. I'll try and get some of those out here soon.
I did want to share this cool collage that I had made for my parents this year. Back in October, when the Florida Jansen's were in town for a visit, my mom hired a photographer to come out to their house and take some family photos. We haven't had a family photo taken since 1982 or something like that. . . . it's been a really long time.
Marnie (http://www.memoriesbymarnie.com/) came out to their house and shot photos for over an hour and she made this cool collage for them. It really turned out nice, I ended up ordering one for us too.

Well, our camera has been shipped back to Canon for repairs, hopefully we will be up and running soon! I miss having it on the shelf to snap pictures with.

Birthday Party, Round 2

We celebrated Emily's birthday with the Jansen relatives on Sunday. The party was moved out to WBL, so that Papa could be in on the fun. It's way too cold out right now for him to be going out. We had pizza, salad and cake. The plan was to go sliding down the little hill out back, but it was too stinking cold out. So, Emily helped Grandma decorate their Christmas tree.

Louie and Charlie sat on the couch and ate a whole bag of cheese puffs. . . ummm, delicious.
Then, Emmy opened presents. She got an art smock and a whole kit of fun stuff from the Syndicate Street Jansens, she LOVES to paint and draw. Tapios got her a lots of winter and Christmas themed books, we have read all of them!
And then the 117 piece set of food and kitchen toys from Isak. Isak must have known that Santa was bringing Emily and Louie a play kitchen this year???

Grandma and Papa gave her this hat and a cute red dress that goes with it. We went shopping at
Baby Gap with Grandma a few weeks ago and Emily picked out this hat, put it on her head and kept walking around saying "cute." So, Grandma had to buy it for her. It's very cute. On Saturday, Emily and Dan decorated the sugar cookies that we baked last weekend. Again, Emily ate the majority of the cookies that we put in front of her. There's still sugar everywhere!

Check this out . . .

This is so darn cute:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1225696267

Whoops, I put the wrong link in earlier, try this one. . .

This is a for the not so merry?
http://www.scroogeyourself.com/?id=1306326933

Here's one of the Florida cousins:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1229678360

Emily's Third Birthday

We got more snow on Tuesday. I bundled the kids up for some fun in the snow. Doesn't Lou look like he's having fun? He did like the Santa that we have out in front. Emily, doing her usual in the snow.
Dan got some fun Santa cupcakes on Thursday night for Louie and Emmy, to celebrate her actual birthday. They watched the "Happy Birthday" Signing Time and Louie walked around saying "hap bufday em" It was so cute.

Birthday Party, Round 1

Emily's party with Dan's family was last Sunday and let's just say that Emily figured out the birthday thing really quick. She was really into opening the presents and was very excited about each one. It was so nice, she said "thank you" after opening and studying each gift. We didn't even have to prompt or tell her to say it.

The cake was really good too, or so I heard.

Emily really loves her presents too. She got a couple things for drawing and painting, a Dora phone that says her name and some PJ's and big girl undies. Thanks everybody, we had a fun party.