Still Kicking

Ooops . . . life seems to get busier and busier these days.  No BIG news here though, I’ll leave that to a certain someone at  http://jenniferchristi.blogspot.com/  who is expecting baby #2 and just got a horse!  Wow!  And congrats

Anyways, I can now see clearly that as your child grows life just keeps speeding up.  I am now working 4 days a week, which means Joseph is also at school 4 full day.  If I let him choose though he would go everyday!  Joseph and I are also attending a really neat Strengthening Families Class at his school.  We finished up skating lessons.  I have been more and more involved with town, working at the library and celebrating the wonderful new addition, attending town meeting, and now joining a committee focusing on the future of education in our town and state. I have also had three stomach bugs in the last two months—each passing quickly, but taking a toll.  We still spend lots of time at our two favorite libraries and Joseph and I now go to his future elementary school every Friday for “reading buddy” time.

When not busy with school, work, and other commitments, we try to spend lots of time outside.  This strange winter that has meant yo-yoing back and forth from wintertime adventures to springtime mudding.

Mid-Feb. we spent some time with Courtney, Wyatt, and Isabelle exploring the land around their new house.

Soon after we FINALLY got some snow and enjoyed a bit of sledding.

Just a week ago I took the train down to NJ/NYC for the Wells Mountain Foundation annual meeting.  The meeting itself was inspiring and exciting and it is always fun to hang with the Wells.  After the meeting we went out for my first ever Sushi and Hibachi.

Yesterday we got some (unpredicted) snow, which was lots of fun.

The best part was venturing into the snowy woods around our house. 

Joseph had a great time building a fort by a little stream.  This reminded me a lot of my childhood.

The snow melted quickly and was mostly gone by the time we headed into Middlebury for the annual Chilifestival.

It was unbelievable crowded.  Fun and good for the community, but crowded.  I can’t wait to hear what the attendance numbers were!

And this afternoon-we opened the windows and worked outside.  Full on spring.

Pictures and thoughts

This is the winter that wasn’t and it really bugs me.  We have barely had ANY snow.  I feel like it has been 8 months of mud season—with a little frozen mud thrown in.  I need the white stuff to lighten things up.  We have only been sledding once and have played and done springtime yard work many times this December, January, and February.  I am so glad we spent Christmas in Lincoln so we could get in some snow time.  And I am trying to get outside and enjoy even when it is not seasonal, but I live in Vermont for a reason!

New Years day we went for a drive and a walk around the new bridge.

We celebrated Brad and my tenth being together anniversary at Bob’s

We joined Amy, Bree, Jacob, Aloysious, and Bernie for a Harlem Globe Trotters game in Albany.

This past weekend was the last of Joseph’s “Learn-to-Skate” classes held by the Middlebury Hockey club.  We attended 5 sessions and it was a HUGE learning experience for all of us.  Most of the kids could already skate and it was so discouraging for Joseph.  I am used to Joseph doing well and having fun at things like this and it was hard to see him struggle and figure out how to support him. We talked a lot about sticking with what you start, trying your best, hard work, and more.  This last week we finally told him he could choose something from the snack stand if he did the whole lesson without his crate, and, ta-da, no problem!  He was SOOO proud of himself! And, even if we did resort to bribery I am really glad we ended on a good note.

Later we had fun at our first ever Middlebury College Hockey game!

And we have been spending a lot of time with grandpa Bernie, who has been in the hospital and now a rehab facility.

February is a good time to post xmas pics!

One of my favorite holiday traditions is Very Merry Day in Middlebury.  What a fun kick-off for the holiday season! Santa arrives on a fire truck.

The Henry Sheldon museum has free admission to their train exhibit, plus an old fashioned xmas exhibit, the normal (wondeful) exhibits, punch and cookies, and crafts.

Then free visits with Santa at the Community house.

Gingerbread house making at the library!  (Besides seeing friends, this was Joseph’s favorite part of the day.  He worked on it for a very long time and did it almost all by himself!)

Then we sold raffle tickets at the Festival of Wreathes fundraiser for Joseph’s school.  I didn’t get a very good picture, but he did awesome!

The next day we got our tree!

And did a little decorating

Our friend Jill organized a crafty get together where we made cinnamon dough ornaments,

We also were able to keep up our tradition of traveling to NY to make cookies with Grandma, Amy, Jacob, Bri, and Amber.

We LOVE this!

They also loved painting ornaments!

On Chritmas eve we partied at Grandma’s for her annual Christmas Eve get-together.

Then I stayed up late wrapping and filling stockings.  It’s kind a like playing god.

And then up bright and early for the excitement of Christmas!  We started by opening stockings and presents at our house.

Then we headed to Grandpa and Grandma’s and started out with sticky buns and hot chocolate.

Then we made them pose for some pictures

And then they finally got to dig in

After that we had a lazy morning playing with our new toys (including a new camera for me—thanks Brad and Grandmom!).  After a wonderful huge Christmas meal we head up to Lincoln for Christmas at the cabin.  By this time I was too tired to worry about pictures, but we had a wonderful time in Lincoln.  Actually we had such a great time we ended up staying for two nights!  I adore my family