Crawl!

For all you parents of little ones, make sure your baby crawls for a while before they start walking. Apparently there is research that suggests that babies that go straight to walking tend to have memory problems. I remember Lidia only crawled a little for like a week and went straight to walking at only 9 months. The boys all crawled for a few months and did not walk until they were a year or older. Just thought that was interesting. Now I'm even more motivated to get her back into dance as soon as we move because it can help in a fun way with her working memory issues.

Fun with Photoshop

Tonight for our YW Laurel activity, I showed them how to make digital photos fun! Here are a few of our funky examples. Modern art made easy!

He's Back!

Hooray! Cory is back from his trip and I survived the week without any meltdowns. I really missed him though. I told him that I think that he is like a sponge. Everyday when he gets home from work and gives me a hug, it's like it absorbs all the stresses of the day out. You don't get that same feeling when you have nothing special to look forward to at the end of the day and when you go to bed by yourself. He was lonely in Korea too. We just can't have much fun without wishing the whole family were there. Like I had fun in NYC a while back with my friends but during the show I nearly broke down in tears b/c I wished Cory and the kids were there. At least we love each other's company.

Happy Valentine's Snow Day

We are on our third snow day this week. It is not snowing or sleeting anymore but many small roads are not clear yet and there is a lot of ice. I didn't move my car to the end of the driveway before all this started so my home teachers came over last night an shoveled enough of the driveway to get my car out. We have about 6 inches but the top 4 are sleet or ice or whatever. I went out and tried to shovel while the kids were sledding yesterday but it was way too heavy. My hometeachers said if i left it it would just become a solid block of ice that would take a long time to melt b/c it's so cold. I do have to pick up Cory at the airport Saturday. Anyway I'm glad they came and broke their backs for me. We'll have to do something nice for them when Cory gets back. Sledding was good b/c we just slid all over the top of it. When we walk on it we don't even sink down. I stomped hard and made my heels go down in it but the kids and the dog just ran all over the top. I tasted some of it and it's just like the slushie ice you get at the convenience store. You know, little balls of ice. Cory said I should just go scoop some up and have slushies since we have a few bottles of flavored syrup. I didn't though. It's probably polluted. The snow and ice on the roof came crashing down like an avalanche yesterday morning before we went out. It was really loud. I wish I could have seen it from outside. Once one side came crashing down, I waited for all four to come down before letting anyone go out. I guess we could put those little snow guards on the edges of the roof so it doesn't come down in sheets like that but it doesn't usually do that. I think it was b/c of all the ice. It does always melt and come off faster with the metal roof. All my neighbors still have white roofs. Oh, the one pic is of the microwave hood cory instaled before he left. He took out the cabinet above and cut it down to make it fit. Now when he gets back he has to make the cabinet doors smaller and put them back on. I like having the microwave up there instead of on the counter.

SNOW DAY!

We woke up to a couple of inches of light powdery snow and no school this morning. The kids woke up and played in Lidia's room for a while and then ate breakfast and bundled up to go out and play in the snow. It is really cold and when the wind blows it's even worse, but that didn't stop the sledding fun. Lidia, Aiden and Tristan had lots of fun sledding and Avery had fun just walking all around the yard in it. Pumpkin had fun too. After that the kids came in to thaw out and have hot chocolate and then they played in Lidia's room again for a long while with her babies, jewelry and littlest pet shop toys. Avery loaded all her necklaces and bracelets on himself. Then they had lunch and while Avery was napping we watched multiplication rock on our school house rock dvd and Lidia and Aiden now know their 3x's. We watched that one several times and I've been quizzing them on it all day. They knew 0x, 1x, 2x so I thought I would help them learn 3x. I'll keep quizzing them this week so they don't forget. Oh, Aiden and I cleaned our faces with a blue clay mask this morning. The other kids wouldn't let me put it on their face. Cory is taking the day off tomorrow so I can go with Aiden on his field trip to the Baltimore Aquarium. Should be fun. I have not gone on any field trips before.