Snowed in

This is the beginning of the snow fall on Tuesday. The kids were SOOOO excited.



This is after at least 2 feet of snow. It was not heavy, it was the fluffy kind of snow. All day long Aaron asked to make a snowman. This was the sad result. He did have a carrot for a nose, and a hat!

This car is not going anywhere until the snow melts. Since snow if forecasted off and on all week long I think it will be a while. We've had at least 3 feet of snow, some of it melting away. Imagine this happening in Florida and you can get the same idea of chaos as to what it is happening here. It doesn't snow more than 2-3 inches at a time (and even then it's a crisis). So this is a disaster for Bologna. I haven't left my driveway in 5 days.

The other problem is that we are not equipped for snow either. We have no snow clothes, and not even a decent pair of gloves for Jordan. We have no snow boots, and no snow shovel. We are using a garden shovel to try and dig a path in front of our door. It's a little tricky because the shovel is metal and the snow sticks to it right away and it gets heavy.
Glad that daddy finally came home from work. Sledding was a lot more fun when daddy was pulling.

Jordan feeding Isabel

Our friend's Brianna and Tyson Smith came over for lunch. They came despite snow and coldness. Thank you for the company! When I turned back from taking pictures, I found Jordan feeding Isabel!

Aaron took this of us. Good job buddy.
And this is little Taryn. She doesn't go to others easily and she let me hold her 5 minutes! Big step for her.

This about the cutest thing I've ever witnessed. Jordan is SUCH a 2 year-old that some days it's hard to remember the parts that I love most about him. I spend most of the day trying to forget the hours of crying, screaming, tantrums over the wrong color/shape/too much/too little/not hot enough/too hot, etc. Then he has moments like this one that shine through and remind me what a good core he has.

I was distracted in the middle of feeding Isabel (this is about her 5th solid food meal by the way). When I turned back I saw Jordan feeding Isabel, and Isabel was eating better for Jordan than she was for me. It was a small meal, but Jordan fed her all of it! Thank you for being such cute children!

Remembering Friends

Making friends is a lot harder around here than at home. Most of the time mine are the only children at the park. Most kids from 1 up are in day care/school all day, and then they spend in the evening in the house with their parents. This makes making friends rather hard since my children won't be able to start school until next year, and there's no one around us or even at the park.

We did make friends with a wonderful family from Libya. They have 2 boys that are about 1 year younger than Aaron and Jordan respectively. We loved having friends to play with and I loved their mother. She is a faithful muslim woman who taught me a lot.

Sadly they moved back to Libya. They were here for his Master's, but with political changes in their country and Italy suddenly cutting off their scholarship they needed to go home. I've had a rough week since they've moved. We will never ever forget our friends!

Missing what felt like my only friend (close by) made me think of all of the other friends that I love so dearly and have recently left too. Way too much crying last week.

Fortunately feeling a little better now. To all my friends, and unfortunately I don't have a way of contacting all of you, I'm attempting a post to tell you personally that I'm so grateful for your friendship. I'm grateful for your love. I'm grateful that I've been so blessed to have your good influence. I'm also grateful that these bonds last a life time, and not just the short time I spent with you. Life is about loving and lifting those around you. Thank you for your friendship! I've been lifted.
Going away party. Thanks for the good Libyan food Basma. You're a good cook!
Saleh was making Isabel laugh. It was so sweet.
This is the park that we always played at together. We were so lucky that the last 2 days before they left we had really good weather and could play outside.

What's for dinner?

If you don't like stories about children and boogers, I recommend that you stop reading now. If you don't like being grossed out by what they do, again, stop reading now.

2 nights ago I was desperately trying to get Aaron to eat something before going to bed, knowing that he would wake up in the middle of the night hungry (this has happened more than once). We even made pizza to make him happy, which he didn't eat.

I was trying to brush his teeth getting ready for bed and it was a fight (as usually). As a stalling tactic he starting picking his nose- deep! I was so glad that there were no witnesses to this scene. As I was protesting the deep finger diving and trying to explain good manners to Aaron he popped out a huge, dark-green booger! I tried to hurry and grab his hand so that I could then grab a kleenex for the treasure he pulled out. He was faster than me though. He quickly turned his back and shoved his hand in his mouth. Oh Yuck!

He then turned around to start chewing on his only dinner he'd had that night. It was work, and he even had to stick his fingers in his mouth to unstick it a bit from his teeth. Disgusting. I said to myself as I then brushed his teeth: "I'm so sorry Jordan that you love this tooth brush and will likely use it next! Please forgive your mother!"

First foods

I decided that at 5 1/2 months it was about time I start to give solids to Isabel. I tried once with rice cereal about 2 weeks ago and it didn't go down great. I tried cooking some pumpkin. She made a good face when I put it in her mouth, but once she was able to suck it down, decided it wasn't too bad.

My real struggle with starting solids is having time to pump, at least at first, while replacing a feeding with solids. I'm comprimising by giving a few spoonfuls and then her breast feeding she doesn't eat as much.
Aaron took these last 2 pictures, hence the shadow on the bottom picture. Not too bad for a 4 year-old.

More 2-year-old-ness

And the newest acquired skill growing from an old skill. Old skill: changing his mind 500 times over what he wants to wear. Newly acquired skill: undressing and taking off everything and running away from mom while laughing hysterically that I'm not as fast as he is and trying to make it up to the top of the bunk bed before I can catch him and wrestle clothes back onto him.

Lesson for mom's of a 2-year-old: Never write in INK! Aaron is really into writing and asks how to spell things. So Jordan of course has to do it too. We were writing together (me holding his hand and writing letters). He asked for an O. Then he changed his mind, he wanted an X in the same spot. After doing what he asked he fell apart and had a royal crying fit. It was such a ridiculous reason to cry, I had to take a picture of it. "take it away mommy!!!!!" I can't my dear. It's called ink. You can't erase it.
"Mooooommmmmyyyyyy, hold me!". Sure thing sweetie. I guess we need to invest in some pencils.

Two year old in the house

Jordan has 2-year-old-itis in a bad way.

Example 1: while trying to read the Book of Mormon to my kids the other morning Jordan screams "noooooooooo! I want to read about Nephi building the ship."

I answered "we are Jordan."

Hottily he says "no! I will do it!" He grabs the book from hand and starts using his finger to follow the words (like I do when I read to them to help them follow the words I'm reading) and reads: "Nephi was building a ship. Then he fell off it into the water. A whale ate him!"

"A whale at him, huh?"

"yes, a whale ate him. But then he was following the Lord...."

Example 2, while trying to brush my children's teeth. Jordan has to brush his teeth by himself. I'm not allowed to help him because he has to do it all by himself. I hand him his tooth brush and say "here you go Jordan."

He says falling apart and balling his eyes out "I'm not Jordan. I'm fireman Sam" (a new favorite cartoon).

Me: "ok, here you go Fireman Sam."

Crying even louder: "I'm not fireman Sam, I'm Jordan"

Me: "ok Jordan, will you please brush your teeth?"

Jordan crying even louder now, "i'm not Jordan, I'm fireman Sam. And I don't want a little toothpaste, I want a lot of toothpaste!"

To avoid more crying I put more toothpaste on his toothbrush and at this point he falls onto the floor in hysterics, "nooooooooo! I want more toothpaste. Hold me mommy!"

At this point I hardly feel like hearing screaming in my ear, but I hold him anyway. After a minute and yet more toothpaste we were able to brush his teeth without incidence.

Phew! Glad that's over with.