Self-portraits with Jack-Jack

2010 Snow & Ice Storm

Through the eyes of my 9-year-old. Jonathan loves taking pictures, and I love his different perspective!

This is the side of the garage. The snow is just out of view, but you can see the icicles.

Our two vehicles; 2009 Chevy HHR and 2002 Honda Odyssey. They each had over 1/2" of ice topped with 3-4 inches of snow.

The back yard.....a slice of it.

The fence in the front yard. Hmm....interesting.

We thought this was going to be a big one, but it wasn't really all that bad. I mean, we got what they said we were going to get, on the lesser end of it (some parts of the state were worse), but our lights never flickered, and we never had any trouble at all. The neighborhood roads are still icy and slick, but the main roads are completely clear. We had finally finished filling in the gaps around our front door, which is on the north side of the house, so we stayed pretty toasty inside! Other than cabin fever, we were good! And it was so beautiful outside! (More pictures to come!)

The Littles

Fun at the park with some friends. (I forgot to get more pictures after this!)

He just laid here for the longest time, and every time I looked at him, he just giggled.

I caught Jacob in a sweet moment, playing with a teddy bear. :)

Then he was embarrassed and had to make sure I saw his manly car too! This was a pinewood derby car from one of the past races.

The Runt

This poor little thing is just so sweet! She is less than half the size of the other puppies! She seems to be growing and fairly healthy, but we keep her inside a lot now so she can get more to eat and more attention. She is just so small! So small, in fact, that she just can't keep warm, so she likes to sit in front of our heater in the hallway.

Jonathan told me that she also likes to sit in front of the heater when she is out in the garage, and when it goes off automatically, she walks away. When it comes back on, she gets right back in front of it! What a smart little girl!

If we didn't already have dogs, I might consider keeping her. She is just too sweet, and we are becoming very attached. I'm not sure how big she will get, but she will make someone a very good, snuggly pet. I'll definitely make sure it is someone who can give her plenty of attention and maybe even keep her indoors!

Pinewood Derby!!!

It is that time again. Time for the Cub Scouts' annual Pinewood Derby race! Jonathan designed his car all by himself. No pre-cuts, no one else's ideas but his own. It looked very aerodynamic and really cool! He also painted it himself and even took pictures of it from every angle himself. What a creative guy he is!

He is in the 4th grade this year (WEBELOS I), so we had to wait a while for the Tigers, Wolves and Bears to race their cars. Once it was the Webelos I's turn, the other den raced first, so just a little more waiting. Then it was time for the Blue Dragons den!

He got first place out of three in his den!!!!

Now on to the runoff between the two dens.......

There were a total of 6 heats, each car racing in each lane one time. Most of them were very close!

In the end, HE WON FIRST PLACE!!!!

It was a very exciting time! This was Jonathan's very first trophy too. He has been wanting one ever since Jayla won her first trophy last year. He was on cloud 9 all day.....all week, actually. He wanted to carry his trophy around and show it to everyone!

Congratulations, Jonathan! We are so proud of you for doing your best!

Random pics

In the waiting room at the eye doctor's office (for Jayla), this boy was very friendly and playful with Jack. It was really cute, but I don't think Jack knew quite how to take him!

We were at Chrysinda's house late one night. Jack fell asleep in my arms, and after a bit I laid him on Jayla. She loved it! :)

The healthy cookies I made for the kids when Jack specifically asked for them! I modified the "1 cup sugar, 1 cup peanut butter, 1 egg" recipe and used (approximately) 1 cup almond butter, 1 egg and 1/4 cup (?) Stevia. It was still WAY too sweet, but they had a good flavor and texture. I'll definitely make them again, but I will be sure to use much less Stevia!

Puppies!

These are our puppies, the 2nd litter of our female dog. We have a male and female Red Heeler (Australian Cattle Dog), but as you can clearly see from the pictures, they are not full blood!!!

Here they are 5 weeks old. There is a 6th puppy just out of the top of the picture. She looks like the one on the far left. There were originally 7, but one of the 5 girls somehow got separated from the rest of them on a cold day (in the garage) and didn't survive. :(

Check out the one in the middle there. I've seen runts before, but this little girl is literally HALF the size of her siblings! She seems to be doing just fine, she's just tiny! In fact, we call her "Tiny"!!!