February happenings

We had a blizzard here in Chicago in case you hadn't heard.

It kept Sam out of school for a few days, but it didn't keep us from being busy.

People were outside shoveling and snow blowing and sledding in their yards and Sam and Claire were no exception.

This is the fort they built with Annabel (and with a little of my help) in front of Bridget's house.

It was pretty awesome.

See? Actually I kept being afraid that it was going to collapse on them and bury them in snow.

But it didn't.

Even Luella Faye got out for a tiny bit. And then, over the next few days, the city finally started getting a handle on the roads, which was good because we had planned a trip to my sister's house in Ohio that following weekend! It was the weekend of her 36th birthday and we hadn't been to her home in a very long time. It was fabulous. My camera did not work while we were there though (we left our memory card at home for some reason?) but she blogged the trip HERE. It was very fun and we even squeezed in a trip to a water park!

Luella Faye is 8 months old today on Valentines day. She is getting these two top teeth which make her whole face look different to me.

And she's a crazy-fast army crawler. No legs necessary for this chunk-o to get around. I can hardly snap a picture of her these days because she's so on-the-go.

See?

I thought you'd like a picture of her with no aviator cap on. A good friend of ours just asked me if she has some kind of head problem that she has to wear those hats all the time. Haha! They are just for warmth, but here is proof that she does have hair.

She's really hard to get a picture of.

Here's her other mommy, Claire, who will be 8 in exactly one month from today.

And here is Wella terrifying some tiny doll house people by knocking over their house.

Sisters.

I got my kids mechanical toothbrushes, toothpaste, tic-tacs, chocolates, and a box of envelopes for V-day. Matt got Claire a chocolate rose and some treats for Sam and I too. Then he left town this morning for the week. Boo.

This past week I painted a wall in our kitchen with chalkboard paint. The WHOLE wall. I can't decide about it yet.

It used to be tan like this. Well, it was also clean in this picture which was nice.

And I repainted a struggling little bathroom vanity we have. It's gray with new handles that Claire and I picked up at Home Depot.

This is our downstairs bathroom that desperately needs a whole remodel (see the antiquated wall-hung toilet?) but that is not in my immediate budget.

But I like the cabinet better than I did when the vanity was this terrible 1980's fake-oak cabinet. Now, it's a PAINTED 1980's fake oak cabinet. Much better!

Poor my little guy is on the couch this V-day with the pukes. We spent Sunday laying on the couch watching old episodes of Mr Roger's on the computer with him. Maybe it was just because I watched so many of them in a row yesterday, but I love that Fred Rogers!