a visit from Grandma and Aunt Hannah!

Before I get to my lovely visit with my mom and sister (more appropriately named Grandma and Aunt Hannah these days), I had to share a couple fun pictures from the week prior to their arrival...

One Saturday we didn't leave the house, and we likely were watching UK win another basketball game. :) I looked away from the computer or the television after noticing that it was super quiet and this is what I found: internet cafe, with ear phones. I swear they stayed like this for 20 minutes. It was a glorious 20 minutes. And then it ended and we haven't revisited this! But, I now know it "works" as a babysitter and will employ it when necessary!!!! But this is pretty cute.

Keagan's school was celebrating Dr. Seuss with Wacky Wednesday and so the night before Keagan wanted to practice his wacky 'do. I obliged...and then little bro wanted a piece of the action (of course). What made me laugh was that at bedtime Keagan was super stressed about messing up his awesome wacky hairdo.

Wacky Wednesday! He picked out his Wacky outfit and we attempted to put some crazy colors in his hair...but you cannot see the color really well. I love how enthusiastic Keagan is about participating in school activities.

Now finally!

My mom and sister came to visit last week, it was kind of a surprise...in that there wasn't much talk about it and then it happened! I was super excited but the boys were even more excited to have guests. And "my mom and sister" have officially changed their names to Grandma and Aunt Hannah. They are celebrity status. My boys LOVE all of their family...even the ones they see regularly...but I think the fact that Grandma and Aunt Hannah live so far away and the boys don't get to see them much made the emotions really big. And it was tough on Keagan especially when they left. Sadly I was horrible with taking pictures. In fact, I took NONE...well a few with my phone. Luckily my mom took some pictures and Keagan took some pictures with my phone. I guess I just enjoyed the moment, but man! I wish I had brought my camera out and captured the sweet moments of Grandma setting up the electric train that Grandpa gave Keagan for Christmas. Or Grandma and Aunt Hannah playing basketball with the boys, teaching them chest-passes and bounce-passes. The boys' faces were priceless, and full of joy. There were a lot of these moments, and I am kicking myself for not documenting it. But here are some:

Keagan and Finn really couldn't get enough of their Aunt. 

One night we all went to the movie theater to see the new Cinderella movie. They boys actually really liked it (we weren't sure...afterall it isn't animated)...after we stopped at Zaxby's and Keagan had ahold of my phone. He is obsessed with taking pictures (he got it from his momma...), and though these are not good, they make my heart smile because this is what he wanted to capture. Here are some he captured:

Then I tried to get some pictures with my phone...but seriously, the kids move too fast, and i didn't have time to focus. But again, these pictures, though fuzzy and not good, make me happy. So I want to save them. I laugh because the boys were so goofy and all-over Hannah..and playing "Billy Goats" over her. 

The time that they were here was mostly beautiful...definitely the prettiest weather we've had this year. So there was a lot of outdoor play. Grandma encouraged the boys to pick up worms and play with them. Better her than me...but I am glad they got to do this with her. Keagan wanted to chase a squeamish Aunt Hannah with the worms though...I pretended I didn't care and he didn't come near me!

And on the nicest day we took the boys out to Mike Miller Park to walk and play on the playground, then we went to feed the ducks. While we were feeding the ducks a man was catching fish after fish, and so the boys were interested. The man decided to give the boys a "lesson" in what happens to the fish after he gets them home. I would've censored this a little if I were the one telling the story, but I figured they wouldn't remember this redneck version, so I let them listen and didn't dwell on it. No questions were asked afterwards and I was thankful, but they did talk about how slimy the fish were (he let them touch them) and how stinky, too. 

Mom snapped this picture of me and Finn. I could tell he was seeming big but until I looked at this picture I guess I was in denial. My baby is getting huge. He looks like a kid.  He is growing up way too fast. As big as he is, I am glad he still needs to hold his mommy.

Our visit was too short, in my opinion, but it was the nicest longest visit we've had in a long time. I look forward to the next one.       

Snow Day after Snow Day

Not even kidding, we have had another round of snow. And by "round" I mean 18 inches. And 3-ft snow drifts. So, in the last 3 weeks our kids have been out of school for 2 full weeks. And I feel like I have been stuck in the house for that amount of time, too. This has been crazy weather. But I will say that this round of snow didn't bring as negative feelings as the last round. Maybe it is denial or maybe I have come to grips that Spring WILL come someday.

The snow was crazy. These pics are taken from our front door: the snow is completely up under the porch, covering the 3 steps to get up to the porch.

These are taken from our back porch. There is a retaining wall somewhere in that snow...it is a little over 3 feet high.

Keagan and Finn did a lot of crafts while being inside, and a lot of pictures were drawn. Here is one that Keagan drew that blew me away...it is a Ninja Turtle. I was pretty impressed. :)

Silly boys pretending to be billy goats over the candy jar:

Finn asked to bake a cake, so we did.

Then I put them to work cleaning. We cleaned the bathroom and then baseboards! They thoroughly enjoyed it, and I enjoyed a little help.

Annnd Finn got a little silly...I think being stuck inside was getting to him

Snuggling with my sweet big boy while Finny took a nap. Keagan wanted to take pictures with his Ninja Turtle. He forgot to put his mask/eyes back on it though!

While the boys rested/napped on the first day, I decided to get out and do some shoveling in the tracks Josh made when he left to work that morning. I really wanted him to be able to get back up the driveway. The first couple pics are his tracks, so you can see the depth of the snow:

Finally some playtime out in the snow when we (I) couldn't handle being inside any longer.

Though we have had a TON of snow, it has not been fit to make a snowman. They boys really wanted to build a snowman. So we did the best we could. I thought it was pretty pitiful, but they loved it. And even named him Olaf...fitting. (If you have been living under a rock and don't know who Olaf is, Google it.)

I am glad to say that we survived the Snowpocalypse of Winter 2015, and this weekend we have been above freezing so the snow is melting. We even got out of the house yesterday! Whoo hoo! Now, bring on Spring.