Sledding

On Jan 18, we had gotten some fresh snow and the weather jumped up to the 20's, so we decided to try our hand at sledding. There is good hill right in our neighborhood, just 6 houses down, around a bug curve and 5 houses up.

It was so funny watching Tanner try to walk around in the snow.

He had been waiting a long time for it to be warm enough to play outside. He was in heaven.

Jeremy mostly stayed in the car with Dallin because there was lots of wind at the top of the hill, but he and Dallin came with us on a walk through the forest, where the wind was much calmer.

We saw the river, which just looked like more ground covered in snow.

Tanner's footprints next to mine.

Our adventure was short, but fun! The car had an adventure of its own, too. We spent 20 minutes trying to get it unstuck in the snow. If it wasn't for the snowplow truck that came by, we would have abandoned ship and walked home.

Other Zavoral News...

Jeremy FINALLY got his braces off. It only took 3 orthodontists (remember, the first one was a fraud despite Jeremy doing his research with choosing a doctor) 2 years of Invisiline and 2 years of real braces. Ugh.

BEFORE getting them off.

AFTER getting them off.

We eat fresh eggs from the Grush Farm now. Look at all the different colors and sizes!

And here's some fun shots of me with the boys.

Survival Tactics

People are saying that this winter is one of the top 10 worst ever recorded in MN history. And there is no end in sight. To survive, we basically stay home and bunker down during each wind or snow storm. It's hard avoiding cabin fever. This is what we do to survive...

Take pictures with the smart phone

Try every kind of moisturizer we can think of for our cold dry skin, including lubriderm, baby oil, Vaseline and coconut oil. 

Play with pots and pans

Wear sound muffs to stay sane from all the noise.

Play ball in the house. All types of ball- both real and imaginary- in all rooms, but mostly in the basement.

Eat lots of staple foods, like PB & J. Tanner consumes them by eating straight through the middle.

Bake goodies.

Take more pictures on the smart phone

Fill the crib with stuffed animals

Play in the basement. 

Dallin loves the Mickey mouse Clubhouse.

Make window paint bags.

Invade fridge.

Do art projects

After being stuck at home for a stretch of 5 days, I couldn't take it! Even though it was only 2 degrees outside, I packed up the boys and we went to the Spam Museum. So nice to get out of the house. We were the only ones there!

Another snow came soon thereafter.

So we needed more survival tactics. Eat more peanut butter.

Eat snacks in different places throughout the house.

Play farm animals with the children's gate. Jeremy is feeding the "horses" through the fence.

Rejoice when Daddy comes home from work. 

Dallin survives better than the rest of us. Being on earth for only 9 months kinda helps. He doesn't really know what warmth he's missing.

There's plenty of things to keep him busy with exploring, so that's nice.

But even Dallin gets bored and frustrated sometimes with being stuck at home.

Luckily, we've been able to make it to two sessions of Mom Time at a community church and three sessions of story time at the library. I would go every week, but it's not worth it when the windchill makes it -10 or lower or if the streets aren't plowed. 

The library has this learning room that keeps the boys occupied for a long time.