Sunny snow days!

Today was all about playing in the new snow.  Nora loves it; a complete turn around from last year!  Clara is right where you expect a two year old to be when the snow drifts are deeper then them.  She is a little unsure of all of it but, of course, is trying to keep up with Nora so she wants to be outside.
JR took the girls for rides in the toboggan along the shore.

It wasn't so good when they had to turn around....Clara lost a mitten in the snow...mommy had to come to the rescue.

Snow Day

The big snowstorm made it to the UP!  Nora played while I shoveled and got a few snapshots of our yard.  I am so happy that Nora can tolerate the cold better than she did last year (which was about 2 minutes tops).

Notice the road is not plowed yet....not until 2:30pm!!

One little Christmas tree.....

We put up our tree yesterday.  We went small to fit the space we have and it is so darn cute--it fits perfectly.

The day we moved--Nov. 14th we saw truck after truck load of Christmas trees going south from the UP.  So you can think of us when smelling the pine of your Christmas trees because it came from our backyard!

The making of Ice

I love our lake (Indian Lake).  The last few days the ice has begun.  I wanted to take pictures everyday to watch it in motion and it happened so fast I didn't get to do it!  Friday morning we had a little snow/ice on the shore and the waves sounded wonderful.  It sounded like big waves crashing boulders.  We would only have to crack our window the slightest amount to listen.  It was awesome.  Saturday there were still waves and the ice/slush went out about 20 feet and now today--ice everywhere.  It is amazing.  Also, it is now silent.  The silence is as cool as the waves were--you feel like you are the only one, and your breath is cold.  (Deep Breath, take it in).  Every morning I spent a few minutes (or seconds) watching the water.  The mornings are the best.

Here is the lake sometime around 7 this morning.  The moon was still up.

Here is the lake today about noon...to show the ice in action.

First Day Of School

Nora was elated to go to school today!  She did great!  When we got home tonight, she had everyone sit on the couch so she could show us everything in her bag; art projects, notes to parents...  She is very serious when she talks about doing art projects everyday, yes everyday.  (OK Nora, everyday).
She has grown up so fast; it is so fun to watch her excited about school, learning, and everything around her.

Bag of goodies

We just had to take this picture.  Clara wanted to get in this grocery bag so bad, and the little (allergy-free) peanut actually fits!  She had her first day at Debbie's today.  She did great even though I think it was a little stressful for her.  Every time she has ever been without her parents, she has always had Nora and today she was on her own.  I hope she will go tomorrow morning as well as today, but I am not holding my breath now that she knows what happens.  Debbie told me she was soooo excited to see Nora when she got off the bus.  She loves Nora so much and I had never really thought about how much she really loves her until now.

Thanksgiving weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving in Muncie IN with Grandma and Papa Cunningham.

We got a family picture then went for ice cream as a reward for being so cooperative during pictures (guess who that was aimed at?).  Nora was so excited to have ice cream in a cone, since it was her first time, she could hardly contain her excitement!

The girls also got to see their cousin Roady for the first time.  We took lots of pictures with the grandchildren, but this one is priceless.  Roady was fascinated with Nora and was doing everything he could to get at her, then there is Clara rubbing her eyes because she was so tired, only she had one trailing finger.  Is she trying to say something to all the people taking pictures?

Sunny days!

This past weekend was great weather.  We went for a little walk around the block and along the shore of Indian Lake.  At the end of our block, around the corner is a boat landing where this picture was taken.  I love the warm fall days!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The cabin

First of all, I have to correct my last blog--its not as small town as I thought.  The deal with the garbage is if it is ON a mail route--you have garbage service.  They are not one in the same.  But the bags you buy individually is still the real deal.

We have been spending time outside after naps between 4-5ish (sunset) here are a few pictures of the week.  Today is the first day we haven't fished this week.

Sunday night.  Fishing.  It was a little late but we promised Nora.  This was maybe 5:30/6.

Monday.  Fishing.

Wed. Not fishing, but playing in the backyard.

Nora went for a bike ride on our street.  It is very quiet.  Lovely.

The girls on the back porch with all of our stuff that belongs in a garage but we don't have one.  I seek bikes, strollers, sleds....

Clara, Clara, what to do with you?  Apparently Clara decided she didn't need snow or a sled to go down this hill of our neighbors that goes into our backyard.  You can imagine how her jeans looked on the back side after about 20 times down the hill!  Since Clara could barely make it up with shoes and no snow, this might be the perfect tot size sledding hill around when the snow begins to fly.

Last but certainly not least, the view from our backyard tonight at 4:45.  Good night sun. 

From the cabin

Hey everyone, I'm back on the internet and finally updating the blog.  We made it safe and sound Sat. night.  The girls did excellent for 9 hours in the car.  The last hour was the only test--it was rainy and had just turned dark (5-6pm) so the girls couldn't play games and they were done with the car.  I didn't make the DVD player an option and no one asked.  I was very impressed--they played and played with the toys I had along.

I am in a funny place right now because we are in a cute little cabin (I stress both the cute and the little), so are we on vacation or did we move?  My brain is all mixed up, partly also because it is already furnished.

The girls are really into fishing.  For the past month we have been telling Nora we could fish the day we got here, but we didn't do it until Sun.  We actually didn't get outside until it was almost dark, so we fished for 5 minutes at dusk, but we went out again today when it was nice and sunny.  The problem is that the docks are out so the little kiddy poles send the bobber out about 5 feet where the water is only 6 inches deep.  But hey, they are having fun.

We were able to bring a lot of stuff that we don't need now because of the furnishing and we took it to storage today so now we can at least move around the rooms.  We have probably 10-15 boxes in storage and we still have to clear out the porch.  I am happy we were able to get so much here and now I am happy it is getting out of the cabin!

You know you live in a small town when....
OK, I know these situations are going to be happening a lot in the next few months, but here is the first:  I don't know what the garbage service is like in town but here (about 3 miles out--in a neighborhood on the lake--all lake cottages around us) we had to buy special red garbage bags.  We put the garbage bags out on Wed and the mail service picks them up.  So the mail service dubs as the garbage man on garbage day!!!  I think it might be just where we are because there are not that many people on our street--a lot of seasonal people not here.  They remind me of giant red blood bags from a hospital.

I will get better at the blog and I know I need to get some pictures up, but this was a good start.  Right?

Moving boxes

Today I pulled out moving boxes for the first time.  They were fun to play with today...will they be in a few weeks?  I started cleaning out our "junk drawer" in the kitchen, you know the one everyone has for all the small stuff they don't know what to do with.  Well I found amongst other things, 47 pens/permanent markers, 15 chapsticks, and 2 1/2 boxes of crayons!!  People with small apartments have less stuff than we have in one drawer!  (I think we are going to temporarily need a bigger garbage).  Nora, of course, loved organizing  the drawer...she doesn't get it from her mother.

Ice Skating

I have been taking Nora ice skating this fall, and she is doing pretty well.  She has already passed both her parents in skill!

Play-doh

When you have your house for sale, you pull out all of the toys that confine the mess so the clean-up is much easier.  This weekend the girls played with play-doh over and over again.  It was very cute when they shared and actually had conversations about their creations.

Fall days

As you can tell by the nice weather in the pictures, these were taken a few weeks ago when Grandma and Papa Cunningham were here for Clara's birthday party.  We went to the Richardson Nature Center because we had a showing for our house.  It turned out that all of it was perfect timing because we got some cute pictures of the girls.

New Blog

Here I go.....I am joining the blog-o-sphere.  I am excited to share with everyone the updates on our girls, moving, and everything else going on in our life.  Enjoy.