trains, trains, trains

Conrad received a LOT of trains from a good friend last month. When they left for Hawaii, she left two totes of trains for him to play with while we stayed at their farm, with instructions to take them home with us when we packed to leave.

He was a very busy boy for three weeks.

Norrie - December

What my little girl was up to in December....


Loves books

she enjoys being pulled in the sled, more so after Conrad learned not to pull with a jerk-start

takes great care of her babies

had a renewed interest in stacking blocks

likes monkey hat, snowpants, going outside, and being independent

"grandma" hanna dressed her up one morning while we were staying at a friends farm. Both kids quickly attached to the sweet lady, who was our roommate while we were house-sitting. Kind of strange setup is some ways but I enjoyed visiting with her and in the end it worked out quite well as she was able, and tickled, to watch the kids in a pinch for us.

Conrad - our MN boy

More pictures from the not-so-snowy December.

As soon as there was enough (barely) snow cover Conrad was begging to ski.

And when he tired of that, we switched to snow shoes.

And when I put Norrie down for a nap that afternoon, CW and I went sledding. We found enough cover (again, barely) in Skow's bean field on an east facing slope. It wasn't a fast ride, but it was L-O-N-G. We had to get creative and experiment how to get Conrad down the hill - he didn't weigh enough to go very far on his own. I created a track by kneeling on a sled and pushing myself forward all the way down the hill. Then Conrad could make a bit more distance and stay straight by following the track. We discovered if I came down the track behind him, when he stopped I could bump him from behind, connect up like a train, and make it together all the way to the end of the track. It was pretty awesome.

Norrie would have been just fine sledding with us on that kind of slope so next time we'll include her. And maybe I'll get pictures next time too.

St Nicholas Day

The feast day is December 6th for St Nicholas but I fudged and we celebrated Dec 3-4 instead. That morning the kids and I read stories about St Nick and made bishop miter (or mitre) hats. Before bed we hung the stockings and the next morning before church the kids dumped them out to see what St Nick had delivered.

(Norrie trying on the stockings - silly girl)

The next morning...

That pretty snowy day...

Back in December we had a few snow days? Remember them? It was before the warm spell ;-)

We spent the early December Saturday outside, playing and working.

The kids attempted a snowman.

Conrad is posing with his new hat that my friend's mom knitted for him.

The kids helping stack wood. Though Norrie needed help to help, so Conrad worked with her.

When Norrie lost interest, he stacked some wood on his own.

(Tim, splitting wood :)

And when Conrad lost interest in stacking, he entertained Norrie so I could stack some wood. What a team!