I have gotten so far behind on blogging our lives but I want to catch up- here's a brief accounting of the last few months:

My mom came to stay with us for 8 weeks- my clingy children took an instant liking to her. She made Ellie the sweetest quilt, including a little duck design from the quilt she made me 30 years ago when I was born!

My brother Bryon was out in Florida for work and made the 7 hour trek up here to see us (and my Mom) and it happened to be on his birthday! He introduced us to the all sorts culturally diverse foods (even went to an international food market which was amazing- it's like a playdate for kids and adults alike). Joe loves leiches now and Carter eats almost anything with chopsticks. Even lasagna.

My Grandpa (my Mom's Dad) came to see her while she was here. We haven't seen him as much as we would have liked to over the years and had lots of catching up to do! He was SO patient with Carter and let him cook EVERYTHING with him (seriously, three meals a day- we still miss him). He created a monster and Carter insists on cracking every egg and measuring out every ingredient when I cook. Good thing I don't cook much :).

Ellie's hair can be put in a pony tail! I know this doesn't seem like a big deal but it took us two years to get her hair to grow out and she looks so grown up now, it makes me a little teary.

It snowed a couple times. We took Carter and Ellie tubing and while Carter loved it, Ellie wouldn't stop crying. Apparently she is a little prissy about being cold. Then we had to practically carry Carter inside when we were done, our little asthmatic child was coughing so much he would throw up in the snow. But he still didn't want to stop. Go figure.