New Hobby

As you probably know, B keep track of things, specifically places he's been.

• He's been to 33 states (AZ, AR, CA, CO, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MI, MN, MO, NE, NV, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WV, WI, WY)
• He's been to 22 state capitols (AZ, CA, CO, DE, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MD, MO, NE, NV, NM, OH, OK, PA, UT, VA, WV, WI, WY)
• He's been to 1,115 counties
  

So it only makes sense that he would add something else. He recently decided to start visiting each state's highest natural point. To start, on December 17, we went to the highest point in the District of Columbia, which doesn't even count on the list, since it's not a state.

Since we're dealing with the "highest natural point" here, in some low-lying states it's possible that land has been graded as a building pad which is higher than the "high point." Such is the case in Washington, where just next to the high point in Fort Reno Park is the higher land of historic Fort Reno. But hey, at least it's not as bad as Delaware, where the "high point" is actually a step DOWN from the sidewalk.

B declared that everyone needed to have a celebratory jumping pose for the pictures. Buddy complied with the request, but you can tell from the look on his face that his heart wasn't in it. Baby X didn't quite get the idea of raising his hands above his head.

However, we've summitted our first high point, and only have fifty more to go.

Temple Lights

On December 17th, we drove up to the Washington DC temple and saw the Christmas lights and Nativity displays.











Obviously, my camera doesn't do it justice (or take decent pictures at night).

Snowed In

We were supposed to leave for Richmond today, but it started snowing last night at about 8 PM and it hasn't stopped.


About 9 or 10 this morning. That's our car to the right of the minivan.
A ruler in the snow measured 6.5 inches.


The thing here in Virginia is to put your windshield wipers up in the air when snow and freezing weather are expected. This car's windshield wipers are up in the air, but buried in snow.


B shovels the first time.



A few hours later.


The corner of our front step is next to that candy cane, but the snow is up to the step.


Several hours later.


Close up of our buried car. It looks like it has a mohawk, or maybe a buzz cut.



The backyard undisturbed.

A few hours after this I had to shovel my way to our shed to pull our our salt. The snow was in drifts here and easily past my knees.



About 5 pm tonight. Our home.


B and Buddy shoveled again tonight and shoveled our car out so if the weather and roads are better, attempt Richmond again. I went out and brushed the snow off the top of our car... there was at least 18 inches on our car, even higher between cars and behind and in front of the car.


Where our car was.


Our parking spot.


Our spot from another angle... looking at toward our townhome from the parking lot. If you zoom in, those are our Christmas tree lights in the background.


Daddy's helper. Buddy helped shovel out the car and the sidewalks. Then he guided B as a maneuvered the car into a spot on the street. Our townhome has a parking lot and both entrances are hills. The one closest to us (like right behind our space) is impassable in snowy/icy weather. With this much snow, getting through the entire parking lot and to the other hill, though smaller, still wasn't going to be great. B ended up shoveling out enough to move the car and drove it slowly down the bigger hill to park on the street.

Petunia's Christmas

I found this book, Petunia's Christmas by Roger Duvoisin, at the library the other day and immediately checked it out so I could relive my childhood. I LOVED this book when I was little. Conveniently I then came across this blog post with a craft to accompany the story. Here's the end result at our house:


by Princess Sparkley



by Buddy (and Mom)

Fire Trucks and Trains

As we were parking our car after going to tithing settlement on December 12, this firetruck with Santa drove by. It was the same time as our apartment complex's holiday party, so I think the two were connected. Buddy and Baby X were of course thrilled!






Later in the afternoon we went to our local library which had a hobby train display up for the weekend. Again, Buddy and Baby X were happy. Buddy was the best kid there. He kept his hands in his pockets and when he pointed, he made sure not to touch anything. I can't say the same for all the other train enthusiast kids in attendance.




Daddy and Baby X checking out the trains. Or as Baby X says, "woo woos."

PS dresses Baby X up

PS's report on FDR

made by PS on Kidpix

It recorded her really quiet... so turn your speakers up.

Here's the written report:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32^nd President of the United States of America. People call him FDR. He was elected president 4 times. After he died, the government said that a president could only serve for two terms. He was the first president whose mother was able to vote for him. He was related to 11 other presidents, a fifth cousin to Theodore Roosevelt who was the 26^th president of the United States.

Roosevelt and his wife were distant cousins so her name was Elenor Roosevelt Roosevelt. His nickname for his wife was Babs. She loved books. They had five children.

Roosevelt was president when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II.

President Roosevelt had polio and joked about it to make people comfortable. Because of his polio, he used a wheelchair. He swam to keep his body strong.

Roosevelt had a stamp collection. By the time he died, he had 250 stamps in his collection.

President Roosevelt was a picky eater. His cook was terrible. She “insisted on making things he hated, like broccoli. Even special occasions didn't mean she'd serve fancy food. For a luncheon celebrating Roosevelt's re-election, she offered chicken salad, rolls without butter, and cake without frosting! But Roosevelt couldn't bring himself to fire her. He would just fix himself an egg salad sandwich if he was still hungry after a meal.”

President Roosevelt had a Scottish Terrier named Fala that he took with him everywhere. His dog became quite famous. People always knew that where Fala was, President Roosevelt would be also. Once on boat trip, it had all of its hair cut off by sailors as souvenirs so it was almost bald. He had another dog named Major. Major “was famous for biting several politicians.”

President Roosevelt died in 1945 when he was serving his 4^th term as President. He was 63 years old.

Christmastime is Coming...

Princess Sparkley is a bit like Fancy Nancy, in that, she is horribly disappointed with how not fancy the rest of her family is. These sentiments are even stronger during the time leading up to Christmas. We aren't festive enough for her. If PS had it her way, we'd start playing Christmas music in July. This year, we gave in to her begging and put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.

And yesterday, an answer to all of her dreams come true, she woke up to snow.

Baby X LOVED it. PS came in after about 15 minutes, freezing and demanding hot
chocolate. Baby X didn't want to come in it all. He was especially mad when
I took his mittens off because he'd been eating snow off of them.
(zoom in to see him eating snow in the back ground of this picture)


Baby X's face is hilarious in the background of this picture.
Buddy is also pretty funny.

Thanksgiving with cousins

Our closest family out here is B's older sister who is about 2 hours south from us. Her husband is from the DC area so when Thanksgiving rolled around, his brother's family was kind enough to invite us to his house. On the way home, our cousins stopped to see where we live. Here's PS and cousin G, BFF.




And then they got a bit crazy.


PS's cross eyes are sort of freaking us out lately. She can cross them, and then roll them out separately, if that makes sense. I'll have to film it.

Baby X and cookies

You may remember this picture from Easter time when Baby X knew there were cookies on the counter and he wanted them. Now our oven has a light on it, so he enjoys watching stuff bake.

Asleep, sitting up

We had to go to a playdate on the 24th, so I went to wake Baby X up from his nap. This is what I found. He fell asleep, sitting up, in the corner of his crib, without even his head tipping over or leaning on anything.

Pilgrim Hats

On the 23rd, we made these pilgrim hat cookies.

PS had a kindergartner do her face paint at Girl Scouts, so ignore the war paint.

Buddy used A LOT of frosting.

And Baby X just loved munching it down.
And he now calls Reese's Peanut Butter cups "hats."