never ending winter!

What do you do at your house when WINTER NEVER ENDS??? 

And when it is just too cold to be outside!?

We build with blocks. (And then fight when a toddler knocks his big sister's tower over!)

We read books. Lots and LOTS of books! (We do it while sporting a mullet!)

We play babies! Of course! (You notice, Jace is the baby.)

Dr. Seuss week- we make oobleck. A lovely mess- but a fun mess!

Sometimes Dad brings home Oreos. We eat them!

We shoot baskets!

We get crabby and sick of being inside. We are all ready for spring! 

CSA time

I'm so excited about the fact that our CSA will soon be starting again! I've been craving some fresh veggies after the winter filled with items that have sat in crates way too long and traveled from other countries. It kind of makes me sick to my stomach if I think about it too much. I do have a goal of an actual garden this summer (taking the plunge, not just pots this year!) but I have decided to stick with our CSA too as who knows how I'll do with this garden. The CSA was so great for us last year- no matter if I made it to the grocery store or not- every single week we had new vegetables to eat. It helped us to get many, many more greens on our table and try new things. I planned our menus around the weekly items.

For those of you that are unsure if it would be something your family would like- I would definitely suggest it. It is a great way to support local farmers and it is actually very affordable when you think how much you would spend at the grocery store on the fresh stuff in the time frame you pay for. If you have questions let me know! Otherwise, check out their website below. (I am not advertising but I am just trying to share the love!!!)

http://www.bwagarden.com/

cookies with nonnie

Last time Nonnie came to visit, she had a monkey cookie making plan! She makes incredible sugar cookies so she brought her dough, the kiddos helped to roll it out, and then they went to work on decorating!

The two helpers only lasted a few minutes and Nonnie was left to finish her monkeys on her own. But they turned out great! Good job Nonnie, we love your cookies! (Of course, I never got a finished product picture!)

our little buddy

We have had the chance to have our little buddy Chivon over to visit a number of times lately. Jace and Chivon are a month apart in age. 

When they play together, they dump everything!

Lots of giggles at dinner!

Of course, Addelyn loves having another "baby" to play with. Chivon is so good and lets her baby him of course. What a sweet little buddy, we just love him!

shower snow

In January, on one of the snow days, it was ridiculously cold outside. So I brought the snow into our shower and let the kids go to town. I also gave Addelyn a bottle of water with pink food coloring for some snow decorating! For the following week, everytime Jace went into the bathroom- he begged for snow in the shower. Sorry buddy, that only happens once in awhile!

family weekends

We also find a weekend around the holidays to have our Kramer family get together for Christmas. This has proved to work better than fitting 500 things into our Christmas celebration. This way- we actually get to enjoy time together. The fun part, next year it will include a baby too! (My sis, not us- before someone jumps on that!)

This year, our first celebration was cancelled because of Addelyn having the flu so we rescheduled for a shorter time, later in January. It was a great time. We got together, played games, played with the kids, and around their bedtime- headed out for dinner at Galleria de Paco. It is an awesome restaurant in downtown Waterloo where an amazingly talented artist has spray painted the Sistine Chapel in his restaurant. It is definitely an experience. Plus, the food was great. Then we went out to the casino for a bit- not really something any of us are used to or good at- so that was kind of funny. But fun to do something together! And we watched my step-brother Ben win some money in poker. I played a few penny slot machines. That is about all I can handle of throwing my money away!

That night, an ice storm hit and everyone got iced in at our house all day Sunday, with church being cancelled. We had a blast- made food, played cards, Xbox Kinect, and napped the afternoon away. Time with family is lovely. 

Also, best story ever about this picture! Addelyn saw it and said, "Mom, why did you guys take a picture with a penis on Aunt Jiller's head?" That girl. Makes me laugh.

movie morning

Had to post, aren't they the cutest little buddies? 

Popcorn and movie morning on a really cold, snowy day this winter.