Snow Days = Play Days

We finally have snow!  What a winter this has been and one to remember and appreciate!  At this point it's kinda nice to see snow, mostly because I know it will go away soon and spring will come.  When it comes at the beginning of winter and you know it will be on the ground for the next six months it somehow becomes a little less enjoyable.  And maybe that is partially due to having all little ones who don't or can't enjoy playing in the snow quite yet.  Anyways, we've enjoyed some low key days inside lately just playing and reading and having fun together.

Well my baby isn't much of a mover and can I just say that I am okay with that!  I'm like really okay with that!  She can take as long as she wants to figure out how to crawl and get around.  Janessa doesn't even roll over much, she knows how and can roll over but doesn't do it much.  Which means I can still let her hang out on our bed, we haven't had to block off the stairs and I don't have to worry about keeping my floors as clean.  Did I just admit that?! (well you know babies find all kinds of amazing stuff on your floors that you didn't realize was there once they start crawling, it's like they have a magnetic force to anything gross on your floor) Anyways, she has started scooting a little bit and when she's sitting up she's figured out how to push herself backwards, which is pretty cute to watch!

The interesting thing about living on a hill and it being windy almost all the time here is that the little bit of snow we've gotten this season so far has blown right off our hill.  After this past snow that had a bit more of an accumulation, we've had a snow covered hill and can I just say that the glare is pretty intense!  If I thought it was bright before in our house, now it's like I need to wear sunglasses just to be able to open my eyes!  Okay, it's not really that bad and at least it's pretty, what I can see of it anyway.  ;)

The other nice thing, well actually great thing about our nice winter weather this year is that we haven't had to bundle up the kids every time we went out.  This is huge!!  Between jackets, hats, gloves and extra layers it has been so nice not to have to deal with that.  But I miss out on some major cuteness too.  Little ones all bundled up are a sight for sore eyes, pure cuteness!

I am one proud Momma and I just had to share why! The other day Zeke came to me with his doodle pad and announced that he had written 'MOM' all by himself! I could hardly believe it. I didn't prompt him or sit down to teach him exactly how to write it. He just did it on his own.

We'll be homeschooling our kids but to be honest I haven't really started yet. I will this next school year and it's likely I might do a bit this summer just to get my toes wet but I have yet to really start even though Zeke is already 4. There are a couple reasons why we have chosen to hold off. One, he's a boy. Boys are usually behind girls a little when it comes to learning, but really they're just boys. They were never meant to sit at a desk for hours upon hours a day, they need to be busy and use up their energy in productive ways. And we'll have plenty of years of schooling ahead of us, there is no need to rush things. This time in our lives is once in a lifetime. I don't have the responsibility of schooling any children (yet), we can just sit on the floor and play together and enjoy our days, whatever might come up. That will change all too soon and I intend to enjoy these precious moments with all little ones under foot and enjoy playing with them before we get a more structured routine that involves school.

But in the meantime they are still learning, always lurning!

They love playing and building and being creative with their train set, hours of fun!  The only problem, until Janessa is on the move, is that Zeke wants to build and McKenzie wants to destroy or at least take apart what he's put together!

Yes I realize I have a ton of pictures of Janessa, but what can I say, she's so cute!  Not that my other kids are not just as cute but she's my most cooperative subject, she doesn't run away!  ;)  And her latest and greatest accomplishment, sticking out her tongue and blowing bubbles, yep, she's that cute!  Oh and one of the other cutest things she does that just melts my heart, sucking on her bottom lip.  It's so cute I can hardly stand it!  All I can say is that there is some major cuteness in our home!  Why would anyone ever want to miss out on precious little ones?! 

Sisters, sisters.  There were never such devoted sisters...  :)  Well I am not sure if that song is totally accurate for these two,  Janessa is a little concerned when McKenzie comes around due to the fact that Kenzie is not the most gentle with her and I think Kenzie's not too sure about how much attention Janessa gets but they do have their moments of love. 

Mid-Way House Tour: Sun Room

For those of you who do not have the privilege of just driving on over to visit and see how our house is coming along then it's probably been awhile since you've seen the layout of our house.  I shared about our house plan here back at the beginning of the process of our building adventure.  But for a refresher of what the layout of our house looks like here is the main floor plan.

The third room in our house tour is the sun room.  At first I knew exactly what I wanted for this room.  The plan was to use our two overstuffed faux leather chairs in there with a small coffee table for the kids to use as a coloring table.  And then there was a piano.  I had a plan for that as well but ideas in your mind don't always work out in real life and do to the lack of walls (one draw back in our open floor plan) the only place left for our piano, on the main floor, was in the sun room.  So now I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this space.  I'd love suggestions if you have any that you would like to share!  For now, there's not much to the room but here's where it's at.

Welcome to our sun room!

Exciting I know.

One of the main reasons my parents made the trip this summer and drove up with a trailer full of stuff, one important item was my piano.

Now I can relearn to play (maybe), Nathan can play and hopefully we he can teach our kids.

I think this is the only photo up in our house right now.

The little boy we sponsor through Compassion International. Ellie!

Okay, can I just say my mom is awesome!  And so is craigslist in Las Vegas!

My mom is amazing at finding great deals and then she somehow manages to get them to us here in tim-buck-to.

This little gem I was initially skeptical about, but my kids love playing with it and so do all the other kids who come over.

Eventually it will find it's home in our basement, when its more put together and has a play area, but for now its perfect in the sun room.

The beautiful view from our slider, the deck is small and temporary but works for now.

Okay, this is what things really look like around our house, all the finishing work still needs to be done so in the meantime much is exposed.

Lovely, I know.  But it's amazing what your eye can skip over after seeing it for so long now.

The other view from the sun room, so much natural light into our home, it's wonderful!

And again, unfinished. 

No trim around our windows.

Here is another one of my mom's fabulous craigslist finds whose home has been in the sun room.

My mom had actually found this for McKenzie when she was a baby and she would have nothing to do with it since all she wanted was for me to hold her.

So I was so glad when we were able to get some use out of it once we had Janessa, she's really enjoyed playing in it!

So there you have it, our sun room.  Not much to it now.  And I have some thinking and planning for this room, it needs help and I need help figuring out what in the world to do for it...!

If you missed them, here are the first two rooms in our Mid-Way House Tour:
Living Room
Dining Room

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