Can you pack a cat in your check in luggage?

Poor Gopher must have not wanted us to go to Mexico. Either that, or Im unaware of how comfy clothing in a suitcase can be. Every time I turned around he was finding a little spot in our luggage to nap while i tried to pack..

Merry Christmas

So my blog is a little behind. The snow, Christmas and Mexico...December was a wirlwind around here and I apologize for lagging behind on my site. Were back now, things are settling back to normal...so blog should be update more often now. :)

It was definatley a weird holiday season this year. Every year we all wish for a white Christmas, and the year we finally get it I feel like it changed so many plans that it didnt feel as much like Christmas. We werent able to get together with any family or friends over the holiday which was the biggest change for us. Were used to running from house to house to visit, but this year we were home the entire time. I guess it was a bit of a blessing as well, because we were able to relax and slowly pack for our much anticipated trip to Mexico.

Because we were leaving for Mexico on Christmas morning at 4am, Santa was very kind to the boys and showed up a day early. The boys had no idea he could do that. Infact Eli was a little concerned about if Santa could find us in Mexico. Well Santa knew mommy would just stress trying to pack all the gifts home. So on Christmas Eve morning, our last day home before our trip, Eli had gone out in the living room and came running back into our bedroom to wake us. He said that someone put presents under our tree and it must have been Santa coming early. Jake and I kept teasing him and saying he was lying to us and that it wasnt Christmas yet so of course Santa hadnt come to our house. He kept yelling at us to come see and that he was telling the truth. Then Zach comes running in our room screaming "Santa came to our house!!!" and brought one of the gifts to prove to us. They were very excited, and I was happy he came early so they had the day to play with their new gifts while we packed for Mexico.

Zach was so funny this year opening his gifts. He would get really excited tearing the paper off and was shaking crazily and yelling "what is it, what is it, what is it?" until he could see what it was. So funny.

Santa is the smartest person ever, how did he know these neck pillows would come in so handy on our plane ride?

One of Zachs gifts was a really cool race track for his cars that hooks on a door and shoots across the room!

Eli has been asking for Pixo's for atleast a year. At the tree farm visiting Santa he told them thats what he wanted. Santa looked at him kind of funny, and Eli was really concerned Santa didnt know what Pixo's were. Thank goodness for his Elves hu?

Santa spoiled the boys and they were very happy. All their new treasures kept them busy all day while we packed for our trip. What a calm and quiet Christmas it was.

More snow fun.

We're really enjoying this rare snowy weather, but are also starting to panic about our flight out of town to Mexico on thursday. Fingers crossed that planes start taking off again so we can get to our sunny vacation...current weather today there was 84 degrees.

This morning I shoveled out a path for Pebbel to use the bathroom and we measured at just under 15 inches....and it snowed all day long today so its even more now.

Hmmmm....wonder why his car wont move?

Our snow covered back yard. You can see on the left of it the spinning thing is compleltey covered.

Look at all that snow on the bird bath! Guess they wont be bathing any time soon.

And just an update on the chair we've been photographing through this storm.

Trying to make it to the park again today. It was much harder to walk today than yesterday. There were areas I was up past MY knees. Crazy.

Our trees curling from the heavy snow.

Our new addition to our Christmas lights this year, and we cant even see him entirely.

A white wonderland

I worked so hard at 9:30 am to shovel this nicely...and it quickly covered again with another 2 inches...crazy.

Should Jake go to work?

......Yeah probably not.

...and this was YESTERDAY.

Some more snow fun.

Jake showing the depth at about 2:30pm on saturday

Today the "big storm" hit, and we had a blast playing in it! At 9pm we measured our backyard at 9 inches...check out that chilly chair!

This was at the park at 3:30, so beautiful

"Im almost there mommy...its so hard to walk!" (poor Eli found parts on our walk where he sunk into the snow up to his knees!)

Zach and Daddy had no interest in playing outside today, so I spent 3 good hours outside adventuring with Eli. We took a walk around the neighborhood, stopping at the park, and just had a good ol' cold time. When I finally got Eli to come in his poor cheeks and hands were so red.

Making the perfect snow angel.

Call me a mean mommy but this is some funny stuff! So I convinced Eli to slide down the snow covered slide, head first. Heres how the pretty slide looked before Eli...

Wait, theres snow in my way....

Awww man, its all over my face!!

His Im angry at you for tricking me face..that usually he gives Daddy..I dont tease him much.

And then he went into panic because the snow was stuck up his nose....

Ahh the adventures you can send your kids on. Jake tought me well.

And to top it off...I convinced him to go down the bigger slide head first because he believed that because there wasnt as much snow on this one that he wouldnt get another face full. Silly boy, so easily tricked. You think with Jake as his Daddy he'd have us all figured out. I apologize I took it sideways and dont know how to turn it on here..but you get the giggle from it at any angle you watch it. And notice how he picks up a pile to eat as soon as he stands up...see it didnt hurt that bad. haha

Frosty lives on...

So durring the "1st" snow storm this week we built a great big Frosty. The boys loved him and talked about him all night. When we woke up the next morning, the kids were so upset that Frosty was sadly laying on the ground. It hadnt thawed out around our house too much, enough to make him fall anyways in my opinion. I came to the conclusion that some teens went around crashing neighborhood snowmen because every snowman on the block was only a bottom. So today with the "big storm" Eli and I picked him up piece by peice and packed him together...kind of....so now, we have a picaso snowman. We love him all the same as when he was beautiful. Zach even wanted to put a hat on him thinking that would make him magic and fix...we just watched Frosty the Snowman movie if you havent guessed already from his comment.

Beauty is within' people!

Some snow day(sssssss) pictures.

Its been such a fun week around here. We've gotten quite a good amount of snow all week (and some ice too) and its stuck around great. Its nice knowing that when the boys go to bed asking if they can play in it tomarrow that we can say YES. Normally in past years you just dont know if it will stay around until the next morning. We've had a lot of fun sledding down our yard, building a big snowman, and just hanging out at home relaxing all together. Zachs favorite thing in the snow is sledding and eating a sample of snow every step he takes walking around...were really working on teaching him which snow is not ok to eat. haha Eli loves to sled and makes now angels. Its been a fun week. Nice and relaxing and COLD...so that when we get on that plane a week from today to Mexico...man will that warm beach feel great!

Even Pebbel had to come check out the white stuff.

Yes Pebbel took a turn on the sled too.

Mommy and the boys making snow angels.

A trip to the park by our house.

Our house all lit up for Christmas...nice job Jake!

Mommy and Zach sledding.

Our big snowman that was really heavy and too alot of work, and we woke up this morning to him crashed. The boys were very upset that Frosty fell down and we explained to them its just like the movie, he doesnt last forever. Curse the neighborhood teenagers whom we think took Frosty's short life.

These are my favorite pictures of the bunch so far. Our first Christmas season here in this house we were hanging out at home and kept hearing firetrucks. It sounded like there were 100's of them. I kept thinking what an awful accident must have happened. Then I kept hearing them get louder and louder, and sounding like they were on the opposite side of town than 10 minutes earlier. So then we started thinking there was some serious car chase going on. Then we looked out to see all the neighbors outside. What was going on in this crazy town!? So as we went outside with tiny little baby Eli, all the local fire trucks came up our street right by our house. Covered in Christmas lights with Santa standing on the first truck waving to all the kids! It was a parade! Its a very small parade, but I have to say its on my top list of favorite parades. I really look foward to it every year. It really gives that small town close communtiy feeling. All the fire trucks make their way through town and visit all of us and wish us a very special Christmas. Afterwards you can head to the fire department to see Santa and have cookies. This year we were concerned that they wouldnt do the parade because of how bad the roads are around here. But low and behold, the fire trucks came out to cheer up us cabin fever families, chains on and making their way slowly around town. This year it was fire trucks only, no trucks with singing children...but it was still a very pleasant suprise. We were outside for about 10 minutes, but came in happier colder and with lots of candy. Thank You Dundee Fire Department for spreading your holiday cheer!