Cooped

It's winter again. Time for me to hit the internet to whine about how much I hate the snow. And the cold. And being cooped up without our daily walks and playground time. Hmph.

Here's how we are surviving. The boys have extra energy at night without their bike/playground/playing in the dirt time during the day. So during scripture reading in the evenings, they have taken to our toy boxes to rock out all their last bits of energy before bed.

While we were reading about the Brother of Jared one night, Jeff paused to look at the kids mid-reading and said, "Hey look. The kids are acting out the story." We had a good laugh about it for a few minutes.

Any day that is above 40 degrees outside, I make the kids suck it up and endure a walk with me. Eli recently discovered dandelions, and made me stop to get every dandelion we found along the way a few weeks ago.

And I made him pause to pose for a picture with every dandelion along the way.

Our favorite winter activity? Staring at the window. Waiting for Jeff to get home. Even if it's only 3:00 in the afternoon. We still wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Still no sign of him.

Wait a minute! There he is!

The shock on Carson's face every day when he hears the garage door open:

The first snow. Despite attempting to talk the kids out of it, we were all out in the cold at 9:00 in the morning to "play" in the 1/8 inch of snow.

Eli had been asking about snow for MONTHS. So he was thrilled the snow had finally arrived.

Carson is a fair-weather boy. He didn't last more than two minutes out in the snow.

Cooped up on a Sunday morning? No problem! Sounds like the perfect set-up for your first shaving lesson!

(fear not. There aren't razor blades in those.) The boys take their shaving very seriously.

One night on a day I apparently never got around to combing Eli's hair, Eli had limes for dinner. Mind you. He won't eat a single vegetable. Ever. But he has no problem slurping down lime juice for dinner. Kids.

Eli had a great idea for combatting the cold -- coloring!

All over the car. In permanent marker. Thank HEAVENS it was only on slick surfaces and not on any of the fabric parts of the car. Magic Eraser worked like a charm!

The same day as the permanent marker incident, Carson mysteriously woke up with chipped front teeth. It was so bazaar! The kid falls flat on his face about 20 times every day. My theory is they were already cracked and finally chipped off while he was sleeping? I have no idea. But he is now a little snaggletooth. And he's going to be that way for a few more years. Tear.

The boys love the car. They have a sixth sense if I have left the car unlocked. I have stopped letting them play in it because of the marker incident. And the incident when Eli put coins in my mom's CD player in her car and broke it. And the incident when they open and close the garage door a trillion times, get into all my gum, and tear the whole inside of the car apart.

But one day. One day they got in. And they were being so good. And it had been a while since they had played in the car, so I had forgotten just how tornado like they are when behind the steering wheel of our cars. So I let them be.

And then we went to grab some food that evening and found our tape player jam packed with coins and credit cards. The credit cards were recovered, but the coins will be there. Forever.

If you were a fly on our wall a couple weeks ago, you would have heard this conversation,
Me: "Jeff, are you getting baby hungry?"
Jeff: "I do kind of miss having a baby around. They're so cute to snuggle. And swaddling them! Oh I love swaddling babies."
Me: "I don't even remember how to swaddle a baby it's been so long since we've had a baby."
Which led to us brushing up on our swaddling skills to see if we still had it.

Carson was the closest thing to an infant we had lying around the house.

He had no complaints.

Then Eli wanted a turn. But he had the same reaction to swaddling as he did when he was one week old. Immediately squirmed right out of it.

And then Carson laid back down on the blanket for round two of his swaddling.

Maybe it was last week when there was one miracle warm(ish) day? Carson's eyes were so pretty in the sun. I tried to capture them in a picture. This was the best I got, but it just doesn't do them justice.

Here's Dr. Carson administering shots. Anyone interested?

Eli throwin' some sass for Family Home Evening.

Carson taking after his brother.

Here's Eli really cooped up.

Squished in the laundry basket by his friend. Carson couldn't pass up an opportunity to help trap Eli for a few seconds. You can see the sweet revenge in his eyes.

And I'll end with a cute Eli quote:

Me: Eli, is your name Elijah?
Eli: I don't hope so.