Poppy is 11 months old...and we had a snow day!

Don't let the exclamation point after "snow day" fool you.  I was not thrilled to have a snow day.  When it started to come down shortly before 9:00am, it was a little exciting.  I didn't think it would stick.  Boy, was I wrong.  I'll get to just how wrong I was in a minute.  But first, I present you with my 11 month old Poppy Seed. 

This was actually the first picture I took in my attempt at getting a good one of Poppy at 11 months.  I didn't think it was very good at the time, but after looking at the other 25 pictures that I took, this one was the clear winner.  

Now for my snow pictures.  This was taken at 9:02am.  I thought that I should take some pictures while it was snowing.  Surely it wouldn't last...

9:03am.  It was kind of accumulating on the slide, but not too bad.

Uh oh...this was at 9:10am.  I was already starting to feel like I might have been wrong when I assumed it wouldn't stick.

9:13am.  Lucas was excited for two reasons.  First, the snow.  Second, and probably the bigger reason, the garbage truck was right on the other side of the car. 

9:44am.  Yes, by now I knew it was sticking...

11:47am.  Just as we were heading out to play in the snow.

Lucas didn't know what to think!

My little snow-buddies.  This was Poppy's first time in the snow.  She actually liked it more than this picture shows!  Lucas has been in snow one time before.  When he was 9 months old, it snowed in Newquay and it stuck for a day or two.

See?  She was excited!  By the way, since she doesn't have a snowsuit, she was wearing two pairs of fleece pajamas, a pair of fleece pants, her jacket, and her hat.  And she was sitting on a towel.

Another one of Poppy enjoying her first snow experience.  Such a happy girl!

This was the best I could get of the three of us with the auto-timer on my camera.

Poppy went inside after a little while, so Lucas and I got to run around and play together.  He doesn't quite get the concept of throwing snowballs, but every time I threw one at him he would say "Okay.  Do it again, Mama."  He wouldn't keep his gloves on, so his poor little fingers were like ice-cubes by the time we came inside.

After I told him that it was time to go in and eat lunch, he grabbed his little chair and carried it over to the table at his playhouse.  He said he was going to eat there.

1:11pm.  Yes, I was definitely wrong about it not sticking.

My water can.  There wasn't any real reason for taking this picture, I just thought it looked funny. 

It is pretty cold outside.  Yesterday I thought it was cold and it was 30 degrees.  Well, it was 27 when we were outside playing...and now its 20.  BRRR!

What happened to Fall?

It really feels like Winter has set it here in Washington.  As I type this, it is 31.9 degrees outside.  COLD!  We are supposed to have "below normal" temperatures all week and not a whole lot of precipitation.  Sounds good to me!  I'll take cold without rain over less cold with rain any day of the week! 

After we got all bundled up yesterday, we went for a walk in the sunshine.  It had been a while since we had sun, so it was nice to get out.  But, man!  It was a shock to feel how cold it had gotten all of a sudden!  This was Poppy's first time wearing gloves and she hated it.  After trying (unsuccessfully) to tear them off with the few teeth she has, she gave in and dealt with it.  Lucas had gloves on and was really excited about it, but once he realized that he couldn't get the crackers out of his snack cup while he was wearing them, he took them off.

We are so lucky to be able to have scenery like this when we go for walks.  Washington is very beautiful year-round, but with the snow on the Cascades it is just a little bit prettier in Winter.

Behind the trees is Mt. Baker.  We can see it from our backyard, but not from any of the rooms in our house, unfortunately.  The far group of trees is actually where Fernando lives.  His huge nest is in one of them and any time we drive by, Lucas yells "Hi, Fernando!"

This is the thermometer from earlier today before the sun went down.  I took a picture, then remembered back to when I took a picture last month and posted it.  It was 55...and I thought it was cold then!!

It has taken me about 15 minutes to write this and its now down 30.4 degrees outside.  If it wasn't totally clear out there, it might actually snow!

Rainy day people.

We have had rain (and wind and hail) for pretty much the last week.  It has been unpleasant, especially since temperatures have been staying in the low 40's.  On Wednesday, we didn't have anywhere to go and couldn't take a walk because it was nasty outside.  So we stayed home, cranked up the heat and broke out the Play-Doh.  Poppy got the opportunity to play with ALL the toys by herself without the constant fear of Lucas making her "lay down" (that's his code for when he pushes her) or touch her eyeballs. 

I think she enjoyed herself!

This was actually Lucas's first time using Play-Doh.  He doesn't like to get his hands dirty.  I guess he's not a typical boy, or kid for that matter, in that way.  He hates having sticky hands when he's eating and doesn't like getting dirt on them outside.  So I wasn't sure how he'd react to Play-Doh.  It did take him a little while to get the hang of it, but he ended up having fun!

He was pretty excited about what he could do with some small cookie cutters. 

While we were all having our cozy-indoor day, our friend Fernando did a fly-by.  Yes, that is Fernando (or another Eagle, who knows if is the Fernando).  I had to zoom in super close when I edited this picture because before it really just looked like a small black spot off to the left hand side of the photo.

Poppy really had a lot of fun playing by herself.  I think she was a little overwhelmed and didn't know what to do without her constant companion nearby telling her "Its not for babies!  Its for big boys!" and "This is how we share!"  Lucas likes to tell her that as he takes her toys away...

And what did I get to do in all this excitement?  Only my very favorite thing in the whole wide world.  I caught up on ironing.

I was kidding about it being my favorite thing.  I actually can't stand it and don't do it at all when Adam is home.  But since he's been gone my little pile has steadily grown (the steam setting on the dryer can only do so much to get wrinkles out, unfortunately) and I decided that I couldn't put it off any longer.  Of course, as soon as I was done with this stuff, the laundry finished in the dryer and my new pile began with more stuff needing to be ironed.  It will just have to wait until another rainy day!



Poppy's first experience with bed-head.

This evening when I went to get Poppy up from her (glorious 3.5 hour) nap, she had something she's never had before...bed-head!  I guess her hair really is getting long now if it is capable of looking messed up after being slept on. 

Here she has that just-woke-up look to her.  And her fancy new hairdo.

It was a struggle to get another good picture of her because she wasn't a fan of the flash so soon after waking up, but this one turned out pretty cute.  One of her new favorite things is to pull herself up, then let go and fall down.  She just laughs and laughs...then does it all over again.  Fearless girl!

This picture cracked me up when I took it.  Now that I look at it, I think I can describe it as the same look crazed and bald-headed Britney Spears had when she attacked the Paparazzi with an umbrella.  And she's reaching for the camera like "Get out of here!  No pictures!" so it really does look like crazy Britney. 

Except Poppy has more hair!

Side by side...

Here are Lucas and Poppy standing up together, watching their friends Pat and Vanna on a Saturday night.  Oh yes, Wheel of Fortune.  Because that's just how we roll. 

Don't mind the basket of laundry in the background.  If I would have realized that was going to be right in the middle of the picture, I would have moved it!  Shoot, at least its clean and it had only been sitting there for about an hour!

Happy Halloween...very, very late!

Wow, this is about the fifth time I've come on here to write this post up.  Obviously, I need to get used to the "free" time I have while Adam is gone all over again!  Without further ado, I present you our Halloween 2010 pictures!

Early in the day, we went to the grocery store and for fun I dressed the kids up.  These weren't their actual costumes for the Main Event of trick-or-treating, though.  Lucas wore his Chewbacca costume from last year and Poppy wore the monkey costume that Lucas wore for his first Halloween when we were in Budapest.

 

Yes, in case you were wondering, those are cowboy boots that Lucas is wearing.  And if you think Poppy's smiling, you're wrong.  She was gearing up to throw a fit and this was the face she gave me.

That evening, we got them dressed up in their costumes.  Lucas was a monster and Poppy was a bee (the same costumes from the Pumpkin Patch earlier in the month).  Poppy got some extra fluff with a special yellow tutu from my friend Sarah that was just perfect for Halloween.  Thanks, Sarah!!

Too much tutu?  Nah!  Just right!

Here are both kids just before heading out...

 

Lucas going with Adam to our neighbor's house for some candy...

I got to hold the Bee while we were out.  She may look little, but she's 24 pounds and she felt really heavy after a while!

There was a firetruck parked on the street with two firemen handing out candy and Lucas was probably more excited about that than anything else.  This picture is really dark, but you can see that he was one happy boy!!

Lucas in front of our scarecrow and various pumpkins with his bucket of goodies when he decided he was done trick-or-treating.

And Lucas and Poppy together.

And just one more!

That's all I have time for!  I hope you enjoyed my very belated Halloween pictures!!