Blizzard of Oz x 2

February 2013 was one for the record books. Wichita received 21.5 inches, beating the record of 20.5 inches set in 1913. School was out for four days, plus a weekend.

It all started Wednesday, February 20. The boys finally got their snow. This was after school.

The snow was deep and heavy, perfect for fort building and snowballs. We used our snow shovel plus our "regular" shovel to play.

It continued to snow through the night.

Thursday morning.

School was out, but that didn't mean that work was out too. Scott and I fired up our laptops and worked from home. I think Scott ventured in Thursday afternoon...after this amusing conversation (he didn't think it was funny, though): 

Scott: "Where's the snow shovels?"
Me (uh oh): "Outside."
Scott: "Where outside?"
Me: "By the snowfort."
Scott: "Where's the snowfort?"
Me: "You know, by the corner of the driveway."
Scott: "You mean buried in the snow?"
Me: "Um, yeah, I guess."

You see, Wednesday the boys and I were shoveling snow and making snow forts. Well...it continued to snow all night, and we forgot to bring the snow shovels in.

Thursday afternoon we had 14.5 inches.

We did a little sledding. All three of us on a sled. My view.

And a late afternoon snowball fight, complete with three forts for protection.

Sunday night another storm was predicted. Before we even went to bed, we got the email, text and phone call: "No school tomorrow."

Monday started out calm enough, but by noon, it was blowing and snowing on and off throughout the day. It's hard to tell how big the flakes were...you can see it better on this video. This was later in the afternoon (there's nothing to hear, so don't bother with the sound).

Final measure on Tuesday was another 7 inches, bringing the total snowfall to the record 21.5 inches.

Valentine's Day 2013

Zach playing a game at his Valentine's Day party.

Adam "eating" his bracelet.

And the Nifty Nuthouse tradition continues.

Yes or No?

This note was found on the table:

I'm not sure how it works if you KNOW you are spying on each other.

House Remodel: Decisions

We moved into our house in 2004. It was a spec home, so the paint and carpet are basic. After nearly 10 years and two boys... it. is. time.

First, we decided to replace the carpet. Then I think we added on paint, and then since we were doing all that, we might as well get new living room furniture. We've had ours for at least 12 years, and within that 12 years, moved four times. We tacked on a new master bed frame too...our foot board is cracked from little boys using it as a balance beam and practicing their Olympic dismount off the end.

Adam is thrilled to be looking at furniture.

Recliners.

An AUTOMATIC recliner!

We chose a couch, swivel chair and ottoman. We chose carpet...my LEAST favorite activity. We I chose fabric and paint colors.

Main house paint color: Sticks and Stones

Master bedroom paint color: Escape Gray

The boys chose a color to paint one of their walls (the rest is the Sticks and Stones color).

Zach chose sapphire sparkle.

Adam chose solar flare.

And no, we didn't get any recliners.

Next we have to remove everything from the walls, move all our furniture into the garage, remove all the carpet, prep to paint, paint, wait for carpet, get rid of old furniture (couch, love seat and king bed frame), install carpet, move all the furniture back into the house, put together new bed frame, and wait for our new couch and chair to arrive.

As if we didn't have anything else to do. We are not doing all this ourselves, but the "getting ready to paint and install new carpet" is enough hard labor for me.

Holidays 2012

As you may know, this is the only time of the year I really like to bake, aside from the occasional chocolate chip cookie batch.
My holiday baking this year was an epic fail. I burned the white chocolate I was melting, the caramel cookies were too hard, my toffee bars weren't sweet enough and the sugar cookies had seen better days. The only thing that worked was the Harvest Pumpkin Apple Bread...which should really be called cake, because it has three cups of sugar in it.

Here's a few photos.

Here's more entertaining posts from 2011, Baking by the numbers and 2010, Baking by the numbers, as well as "We can't all be Martha Stewart" from 2009.

Our house from the outside.

Grammy and Aunt Lisa traveled down a couple of weekends before Christmas, to celebrate an early holiday and also Aunt Lisa's birthday!

As for Christmas, It wasn't a white Christmas, like in 2009. (When we got stuck in the snow.)

Our furnace went out on Christmas Eve. With the help of handyman Uncle Steve, we were able to get it back on, and the house kept us warm throughout the night.

Christmas morning.

 Who doesn't need emergency underpants? What a funny gift!

 Legos, of course

We spent Christmas day at mom and dad's, since we knew it might get a little chilly at our house...and what furnace repairman was going to come on Christmas Day?

Our family photo.