Christmas 2010...Snow Fun

If the snow is going to keep us home on Christmas Day, we might as well enjoy it, right!?! It was a bit cold and windy outside, but we ventured out to try out one of the kids' Christmas presents. Uncle Matt had gotten them snow/sand molds. Joey couldn't quite handle them by himself, but Marie could use the smaller molds. Marie had just as much fun using the shovel and helping to fill the trash can which was brought in as an impromptu mold to aid in the building process.



Here Joey is "hiding" behind one of the walls in its initial phase as Jon "threw" snowballs at him.

Uncle Matt, Jon, and Grandpa did most of the actual building. I think they enjoyed it as much as the kids! When they were done with the fort, it had three walls, towers, and a door, just the right size for Joey and Marie. It must have reminded Marie of grocery shopping though, because she started calling it a deli. As the construction neared completion, Joey and Marie were taking care of any of our food and beverage needs, ranging from snow cones, to chicken soup, to pastrami sandwiches.




In the days to come, we would have to check on the fort (deli) whenever we went outside. It held up pretty well. Here you can see that after four days a lot of the other snow and melted and yet it was still standing!

Joey is Two and Winter is Here

Despite all the fun things that have been going on (or perhaps because of them!), I've been extremely delinquent at posting updates of the recent 'happenings.' I'll try to bring you up to speed before Christmas and before things really get out of hand!

To begin, Joey turned two on Dec 3rd...just in time for him to stop asking about opening more presents. Grandpa and Grandma Meinhart and Uncle Matt came into town to help celebrate. Grandma and Grandpa arrived the day before, early enough to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. The kids got a kick out of having a "birthday party" for a grown-up and enjoyed helping Grandpa open his presents.


For Joey's birthday, the Thomas the Train theme was continued, much to Joey's excitement. He had a Thomas cake and got a table on which he can play with his trains and tracks with less assistance (much to my excitement). It takes up a good bit of space in our living room, but it has become the focal point for the kids as they use it quite often.







The other activity that was undertaken during our visitors' stay was to get our Christmas tree. It was a bit cold, but we successfully got to the tree farm, rode the wagon out to the pines, picked one out, cut it down, got to ride the wagon again, secured it to the car, and made it home in one piece. A little hot chocolate when we arrived home helped to warm everyone up. Marie and Joey enjoyed decorating the tree as well and apart from needing to redistribute the ornaments to higher elevations, we thought it turned out well.









Joey also had his two-year check-up. He is definitely not usually a fan of visiting the doctor, even though our pediatrician is absolutely great. This time though, I think he was under the impression that it was Marie that needed to see the doctor. Plus, he didn't have to get any shots, so it was a much more manageable visit. The doctor affectionately calls him "Big Joe" since he always measures on the bigger side. He was 30.5 lbs and 37 1/2 inches which is roughly 98-99th percentile and 2-3 lbs and 1 1/2" bigger than Marie was at his age.

Marie has definitely been enjoying this season more this time around. All kids look forward to Christmas, but she has been really been getting into the Christmas spirit working on her Jesse tree, helping to decorate the house, making presents for friends and family, and lighting the advent candles. Joey enjoys it too, but more often asks his usual question, "Can we open presents?" Somewhere in there, I got to have a wonderful outing to do some outlet shopping (without kids!) with a good friend, Jon and I attended an adults only Christmas party where we always have too much fun and stay way too late, and we had a kid-friendly Christmas party hosted by my boss at a bowling alley. Marie and Joey had never been bowling, but we could hardly tear them away from the lanes. They basically bowled the entire time, only stopping long enough to gulp down a piece of pizza.

In weather-related news, we got our first real snow of the winter on Dec 12. You know what that means…sledding! We went out the same day and the conditions weren't great. It was windy, cold, and the snow was powdery which meant a lot of snow in the face during the descent down the hill. Plus, it was pretty hard for Marie to get all the way up the hill on her own. Since my self-imposed limit is to pull only my pregnant self up the hill, that meant that Jon got quite the workout pulling both Marie and Joey up. Thankfully, we've been out multiple other times and things have been much smoother. The kids could actually go down in their own sleds and Marie has gotten fantastic (to use her own words) at getting up the hill on her own. They have had a total blast. One of their favorite things to do is sled down and run right into the strategically placed straw bales at the bottom. As Joey would say, they go "Bonk!"




Things with baby #3 are going well. He is growing at the appropriate rate and I'm starting to receive quite a few substantial kicks. We are just shy of 30 weeks, so it's hard to believe that we'll have a precious newborn in just 8-9 weeks (based on my history of being induced a bit early). Marie and Joey are anxiously awaiting the baby's arrival. Marie has loved getting to feel the baby move and before bedtime while we are saying what makes us thankful, Joey has been known to say "Baby brother" while giving me a pat on the belly. Not sure Joey really knows what's coming. :)

So that basically bring us up to speed on what's been going on. I know that there are some funny stories that I'm missing about things the kids have done or said. I hope to do a better job at memorializing those things…I can always hope. I did just have to share one more picture that was taken over Thanksgiving and sent to us by Aunt Jess. We hope that everyone has a blessed Christmas!

Post-Baptism Fun...Go Steelers!

Well, if we're going to have all the snow here, we might as well enjoy it. Since we had all gone to Mass on Saturday, that left Sunday wide open for lots of fun. The Meinhart clan was around and our good friends the Clausers came over in the late morning. Mark and Erin's daughter, Megan, and Marie are only three days different in age and are great buddies! Their son, Jacob, was born at the beginning of August, so he and Joey are sure to be playmates as well.

Both the big and little kids did quite a bit of sledding. Marie and Megan had lots of fun riding down and then being pulled or carried back up by various adults (Mark, Matt, Jon, Sarah, or Mark Clauser). When the girls got tired, they came in and the boys stayed outside to do some more extreme tricks. Thankfully, there were no injuries, just an occasional face plant into the snow.

The ride down is worth the trek back up!

Megan, at the bottom of the hill.

Marie, up to her ears and loving it!

Superman...I mean Uncle Mark.

Once everyone was inside, we enjoyed a nice lunch. They had worked up quite the appetite!


Later that afternoon, it was time to get ready to watch the Steelers. Actually, we were getting ready all day, as you can see by all the Steeler garb. We, of course, are all very excited about the upcoming Super Bowl...even Joey is getting into it!



The picture below was actually from Monday, but I just had to post it. Marie has been loving all the new toys that we've been getting out for Joey. Actually, a lot of them are her old toys. When Joey was "playing" with his floor mat, she just had to join in.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was somewhat quieter than usual, given that we didn't drive anywhere. We stayed close to home and let family come to us! On Thanksgiving Day, Mark and Sarah came to hang out and partake in our Thanksgiving meal. Turkey and pumpkin pie was on the menu, but we didn't go to the trouble of making a whole bird.

We did still have a little bit of snow on the ground, just enough for Marie to take a few trips down our hill in her sled. (See the video below from a few days earlier.) So, at least she and Jon got the chance to work off some of those holiday calories. We're looking forward to many more opportunities for sledding this winter!

On Friday, we were fortunate to have ALL the Shibata's here. It is not too often that we are able to get everyone in the same place at once. It was quite the long day for the travelers, but we were so happy to see everybody. We had a small engagement "party" for Joel and Jenn and spent most of the afternoon chasing after the 1- and 2-year-olds. We did get to watch a little football, though. (Go Pitt!)

We're looking forward to having a couple more days "off" before heading back to work next week. 16 days (max) until Baby! We'll keep everyone posted!

Happy Advent!