Friday, February 22, 2008

Winter Pictures

The kids next the to massive snow pile to the side of our front step! They're standing on the ground here and it's just about to Daniel's shoulders, if not higher!
We've got close to 2 feet on our table on our deck!
The snow was so deep, Brent knew the kids would never be able to pack it down enough to get a good sledding trail made, so he took the snow blower and made a special track for them...and it really seems to work well! " Seems" because I've only watched! There are still several inches of snow under Brent, and the sides of the track are still up to Brent's knees!
Sure is easier to walk up the hill without having to trudge through the snow! I know that areas south of us have gotten more snow that we have, but the difference is that our snow doesn't melt much during the winter. Usually the snow we get in November is still on the ground come March and April...at least it's up to the mid 20's today! There was a record low yesterday at actual -21!
And of course, just a cute little baby who will get her fair share of the snow in the coming years!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Sunday Pictures

This is the last time the girls will get to wear their matching sweaterse since both of them have outgrown them...you can see Sarah's sleeves are a bit too short, and Hannah's is too short at her tummy...but we had to wear them one last time. I know a day is coming when they won't want to match, but I'll do it as long as Hannah still likes it!


Sarah has this face she makes where she wrinkles up her nose and squints her eyes and purses her little lips. It makes everyone crack up when she does it, so, being the ham that she is, she does it all the time! I was able to catch just the beginnings of it in this pic...I'm trying to catch it on video, but she doesn't perform for the camera very often.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

What a cool thing!


I love our house, but one of the things that it really needs (besides new carpet since I'm wearing a track in it pacing the living room trying to get my 10,000 steps in every day) is new windows. I can always tell if it's sub-zero outside by the amount of frost on the glass! But today we didn't mind the frost so much because it made such a cool pattern on Daniel's bedroom window. I had noticed it earlier when he was in school, but he noticed it this afternoon when he came home. It's not the best pic of him, but I know he's been painfully lacking space on the blog lately, so I thought I'd post it anyways. Another interesting thing to notice...when we moved here, he couldn't see out the window without climbing up on his bed...He's really grown quite a bit lately...you can also tell by his pants--he's still an 8 slim, but he needs the length of 10 or 12! I still can't figure out how Brent and I have a boy who's so thin! At least he's started to take after our afinity for chocolate now...up until a few years ago, he wouldn't touch chocolate. I really wondered at times, as we looked at this skinny little kid who hated chocolate, if maybe he wasn't really ours. I used to imagine someone showing up at our door saying there had been a terrible mistake and babies had gotten switched at the hospital--I'd sadly shake my head and say I knew it all along! But all it took was some good ol' fashioned training, mentoring, and influence to help him over this hurdle. All doubt is gone as I watch him scarf down the chocolate and Mountain Dew as he plays computer games with the other Griffin men! This post is supposed to be about the cool frost pattern on Daniel's bedroom window, but as you can see, just about everything finds it's way back to chocolate now that I'm on such a strict regimine! I do think this frost pattern resembles a reese's, dont' you...hmmmm, I wonder if it would taste the same...

Saturday, February 09, 2008

If you could walk a mile in my shoes...

...it would take you a whole lot longer than anyone thought! Quick, ask me how I know! Northland has started a big "Fit for Service" program to encourage their staff and faculty to get physically fit. They are self-insured, so any changes we as a staff make to become healthy will only help lower their health costs. One of the big incentives is a program where we get points for doing healthy things. For example, we get 100 points if we eat 3 servings of vegetables and 2 fruits each day. We get 100 points for 30 minutes of exercise each day. And at the end of each quarter there are monetary prizes awarded for attaining certain point levels. Well, one of the 100 points per day is for walking 10,000 steps...IN ONE DAY! We were all given pedometers to keep track of our steps. Let me tell you that being a stay at home mom in the middle of a frozen tundra keeps one rather sedentary! For example, I put my pedometer on before I took 2 steps this morning and now at 3:20 I only have 3,616 steps! And I went out to a baby shower this morning! I've been retraining myself to walk around the house while I talk on the phone instead of sitting in my comfy blue chair. I've been purposefully being inefficient in the way I do things so I can make extra trips to get extra steps. The kids and I even walked around the circle of our living room and kitchen several times last night so I could get my 10,000 steps in. I even tried to iron one of Brent's shirts while walking in place...I gave up that idea rather quick! But I am determined...needless to say, my treadmill has gotten more use this week than the past years combined! But I do have to say it's all paid off--I have lost 6 pounds this past week...I am a woman on a mission!