Joys In My Life

The weekend is turning out great! It's wonderful to have Leo home. Yesterday morning we got all our tax papers together and got them over to the accountant. And it all happened with very little issues. Getting tax stuff together usually leaves me frustrated. We declare our home office as a deduction as Tom works from home. But this year we had a checklist and were able to pull everything together fairly quickly. Boring as it may seem, we also bought lots of batteries and replaced the dead ones in lots of the babies toys. Today I have lots of stuff to do too, but I at least used the elliptical machine and did a 20 minute yoga podcast from yogadownload.com . They really are fabulous podcasts. I found them on iTunes and not from their website though. Soon I will get a shower and get to bills and our finances. I'll make a menu plan for the week and decide if I need anything from the grocery store tomorrow. And huge news! Tommy has at least one bottom tooth cutting throu...

The weather this week has been crazy. We were supposed to get dumped on a lot of snow yesterday. The schools closed, I worked from home and we waited for the heavy snow to start. It didn't show up. We felt like fools for staying home, although I did get a lot of work done from home. It seems the snow is here now though, although we won't get as much as they had originally predicted. We were supposed to get 8 inches, but maybe we'll only get 3-5 inches. Leo is in White Plains, New York and they are getting a lot more snow than we are here, so he's going to try to make his way home. He takes two trains to get out there, so at least he doesn't have to try to drive in this. I hope Amtrak and the NY trains are running OK and he makes it home soon. He's been gone all week, so I miss him lots. Leo was also sick with some kind of a stomach bug on Sunday. He didn't throw up, but he said his stomach was queasy and he had a fever. Unfortunately, he thought...

I think I finally did it! I used iMovie to cut the video down by about half and save as an .avi file. Enjoy!

I'm trying to upload a video I have of Tommy crawling, but it must be too big. I'll have to try to get a shorter video of it today. He started on Saturday and it's so neat to watch. I'm realizing right now that Tommy is the only baby I've had that develops on the normal milestone order. I'm remembering now that Phoebe was like Liam. Not that interested in rolling, crawling and walking. She was more interested in the fine motor skills like Liam is. His pincher grasp is getting really good.

During the days of the snow storm, I got lots of good pics of the boys, but didn't have the time to post them. One of the things I'm trying to do is take pics of the boys in my favorite outfits and pajamas. Especially their pajamas. There's something about the boys in their fleecy-footed goodness that makes me just want to cuddle them. Here's one of my favorites, the polar bear pjs. Even they get distracted by the faces and ears on their feet! I also got some pics of the boys playing in the bouncers/exersaucers. Look how old Liam looks in this one! And Tommy, always the happy toothless baby.... Yesterday was a pretty long day. It was the first day back to work after the snowstorm and the first day back to school for Phoebe. And then we got to spend the afternoon and evening at the ice skating rink. She's doing amazing. I need to try to video some of the things she can do. Her coach said yesterday if she performs next week (test week) like she did this we...

Yesterday was a beautiful day to take the babies outside. The temp was warm, there was no wind at all, and the snow is still plentiful. We love to go sledding and we have one of the neighborhood water basins on our property, which makes for perfect conditions. I had to capture the boys first sledding with Daddy on video of course. First was Tommy and his Daddy on the hill Next was Liam and his Daddy on the hill Then they all went down together Of course Phoebe had fun sledding. Must include video of the big sis! We then took some still photos. Here's Phoebe and her brothers sitting on the hill! I didn't notice until after uploading these photos that Liam was smiling. Here's a close up of the boys. We tired Liam out. You can see just how much we tired him out. I'm not sure how one can sleep sitting in snow, but he did!

I borrowed Phoebe's camera she got from her birthday back in October to see if I could take some good videos. I got the boys laughing! Although you can mostly hear Tommy's laugh as it's a big belly laugh and really really loud! You can also hear Phoebe in the background at the end.

This snow is crazy! Here's a picture of our house, mailbox and driveway after this latest round of snow. I know they get snow like this in some areas of the US, but we usually don't and we're so not used to this! Meanwhile, inside as we try to stay warm, I got some pics of the boys in my favorite outfits before they outgrow them. My SIL that watches them for us bought them and they are perfect! Liam's says "Mom's Little Monkey" which is awesome as that is what I call him. I swear when he starts moving he's going to be a climber Tommy's says "How I roll!" which is great for him, as that's what he loves to do. He rolls all over the room and can cover lots of ground just by rolling. On the moving around baby update, Tommy is on the verge of crawling still and getting better every day. He's pushing himself forward with his toes, pulling himself with his arms, doing a full extension pushup with his arms, everything except getti...

We got hit with a one-two punch this weekend and then again on Tuesday night/Wednesday all day. Saturday we got about 20 inches of snow and then another 20 inches on Wednesday. Here's some pics from both days in the snow. Leo and Phoebe Trying to Start the Cleanup on Saturday Leo and Phoebe in the path they made to the front door on Saturday afternoon. We got 20 to 24 inches but the snow drifts made it higher in some areas. Here's Phoebe and her friends from the neighborhood playing in the snow on Wednesday while it was still coming down strong. Phoebe is in the way right of the photo with the beige jacket, black snow pants and pink scarf. My office has been closed yesterday and today as Delaware did declare a state of emergency. That's the only time my office closes, so I'm enjoying the time at home with just checking on work emails every now and then. Yesterday I couldn't connect to work at all, so that was a little nice. The boys just finished lunch and we...

We got snow last night, so Phoebe's school has a two hour delay. Because of that I'll work from home today so I can get her on the bus, which is great! I worked from home yesterday, and I'm getting caught up on so much with work and home. Leo would ordinarily be able to get her on the bus, but he's leaving right now to catch a train for work in NYC today. When I work from home, I really do knuckle under and sit at my desk and get things done. Then that way, I can feel comfortable when I'm done a the end of the day to get home stuff done. Last night things I got done were paying bills and working our overall budget and making some food for the boys as the freezer was out of dinner meals. I made sweet potatoes with green beans. Tonight I'll make brown rice cereal with peas and corn. I like making the whole meal mixed together for them and freezing it in cubes that way all we have to do is heat up the cube in the microwave. I'm also really excited as ...