Wich do you think is gowing to be the new baby?

 Nora and Dana are (kind of) patiently awaiting the arrival of their newest cousin! New Bean won't make an appearance until late January, and we have spent countless conversations debating whether Elsa will have a baby sister or baby brother. It was hard to keep track of who thought what, so Dana decided to make a survey.

Wich do you think is gowing to be the new baby?

 

 

Lizzie found the survey to be delightful.

As you can see, I am betting on another girl. I have a couple of theories, but mainly my reasoning is that I have two daughters, my sister has two sons, my cousin has two daughters, and all but one of my closest friends have either two daughters or two sons. Kevin thinks that it's time for another boy, since the last boy in our family arrived 11 years ago, and it's been a steady stream of girls ever since.

Many votes have been added since this photo was taken. At the first ultrasound, New Bean was uncooperative, refusing to reveal anything, including a spine. Haha! At the second ultrasound, the spine was visible and...it's a girl! I think Dana should make another survey about whether she will have a head full of black hair like Elsa did at birth, or if she'll be blond like Nora, or bald! Dana loves when I tell her about how it never occurred to me that my second baby would have anything BUT a head full of white-blond hair, and when Dana emerged with tons and tons of dark hair, I was really confused and absolutely smitten.

 

In Minnesota in October, the only way to enjoy a book outside is in snow pants.

Did I mention that our major summer project was to build a deck? It is absolutely lovely, and wraps around 2 sides of our house. I have to stain it in the spring yet, and we need to buy patio furniture, but you can see from the photo above that we are already enjoying it immensely.

...And it's back to studying for me. I'm a senior this year and am busy getting my grad school application in order. Wish me luck!

In Like a Lion...

After a long winter with nearly no snow, this is what has happened in the last week:

Anyone up for a nice barbecue?

 

 

 

Can you tell how they feel about all of the snow?

This was around noon on Saturday. The plow didn't go by for a few more hours.

My angel making a snow angel in the road.

My other angel coming in for dry clothes and hot cocoa.

This was the craziest week! The snow started in the pre-dawn hours on Wednesday, and we all got a snow day due to the blizzard conditions. Yay! It snowed and snowed all day long, and the girls got another snow day on Thursday, though I still had class. We got around a foot of heavy, wet snow, which took Kevin about 3 hours to blow out of the driveway. 

We woke up Saturday morning to find fresh snow on the ground, with more coming down. Over the course of the weekend, we got another 16 or so inches at our house! At least it was light and fluffy this time. Oddly enough, it is supposed to be 40 degrees tomorrow. Funny how the weather is this time of year.

We took advantage of being snowed in by watching the first two Harry Potter movies together, which was pretty awesome. We're hoping to watch part 3 this weekend, but we could do without another storm, thank you. 

Meow

Meet Mathilda...our kitten!

She is five months old, and we adopted her from the local animal shelter about a month ago. Kevin and I had been talking about getting a kitty for a while, and as soon as we met this little girl we knew she was the one. 

The girls had no idea we were even considering a cat, and the day we picked her up, we pulled in the driveway less than five minutes ahead of the school bus. We didn't say anything when the girls walked in-we just played it cool. Tillie was sitting on a chair pushed up to the table, and it took Dana about 5 minutes to spot her. It was kind of like watching a sitcom: she was chatting away, filling us in on her day, and she froze mid-sentence, then tilted her head and asked, "Why is there a cat here?" It was pretty fun to tell her, "Because she lives here." Why, oh why do we not have video of that moment? 

Anyhow, now that she has recovered from a kennel cold and has gotten used to us, she is feisty and fun. She likes to play soccer with an American Girl Doll soccer ball, usually in the middle of the night, and she likes to carry stuff around in her mouth. Last night she brought Nora's gloves upstairs, one at a time. Saturday night I confiscated a Barbie doll from her. We had a blizzard on Wednesday and two snow days, and while the girls were out playing in the snow, she was watching them through the patio door and howling for them. She definitely loves her girls! And she definitely livens up our little house.  

Ice Fishing

Ice houses on Grand Lake.

When you live in Northern Minnesota, you have to find ways to entertain yourself during the long, desolate, torturous winter months. Most of my ways of entertaining myself involve indoor activities: baking, sewing, knitting, playing board games, reading fiction...

Dana pulling a fish up hand over hand.

Dana caught this guy, but we threw him back.

My children, on the other hand, enjoy many outdoor activities, including ice fishing! And, at 34 1/2 years old, having lived in Northern Minnesota for my entire life, I had never once been ice fishing. So a couple weeks ago, my wonderful father in law invited the 4 of us fishing with him in his new cozy, clean ice house. 

Nora got the only "keeper".

 The girls did most of the actual fishing while us grown ups kept them company. Dana was up to her elbows in the minnow bucket at least half the time we were out on the lake. She just pushed the sleeves of her pink floral dress up as far as she could first so they wouldn't get too wet.

Kevin spent a lot of time in the ice house as a kid.

I didn't really know what to expect out of this experience. I was way overdressed. Bev tried to tell me that the ice house is about 65 degrees but I couldn't wrap my head around that. So I had polar fleece leggings on under my jeans and 3 long sleeved shirts under my parka, and I could hardly bend my arms and legs. 

This was obviously not Dana's first time. She was a lot more practical with her wardrobe choices, which is funny since she was wearing a dress under her snow pants. 

Now that I know what I was missing, I am pretty excited to go back. I plan to bring my knitting and some treats next time, and I will be smarter about what I wear. I could get used to roughing it in this ice house!