I LOVE the cold weather, I LOVE snow and I LOVE driving in it (with the correct vehicle, which I don't own at this time). I don't even mind shoveling it. But I have to admit that I am spending sooo much time shoveling that I'm not getting other things done.

But the Lord has blessed me with two sons who like to help me. And they REALLY do help too! First of all they are good for company, its nice that they can talk to me about real stuff, not just nonsense. They also keep my mind from wandering which usually leads to my worrying about stuff or reliving arguments.

Our winter has been too cold to make a snowman (the snow won't stick together). So we resorted to piling the snow and making snow monsters. Although I have to admit that they really look a lot like Marjory from Fraggle Rock. I'm pretty sure Nathanael's was friendly since he's kissing his. BUT - I must warn you that Mattathias's monster looks friendly but that is just a guise; all the little bumps covering what looks like a stick are actually TEETH! I got that information from Mattathias as he was closer than I was.

Secondly they really do move snow! If I let them they can easily have two cars worth of the driveway cleared before I am able to get out there. They also get the path ready for me by clearing a line down the middle of the sidewalks making it faster and easier to clear the sides.

Mattathias is usually able to stay out longer (he's like me and doesn't really have a limit, we can stay warm indefinitely), but Nathanael is getting better at handling the cold and he's also getting better at shoveling effectively. I won't even get into how they help when I'm mowing; I'll save that for this summer.

Thank you Lord for my wonderful family! Raising 4 1/2 kids is a lot of hard word (I won't even mention how hard it is for Andrea) but the Lord makes it well worth the effort!

Create a Toddler shirt

So. . . Brian sent me link to a craft site. He probably didn’t expect me to blog about it 2 hours later though (took me a while to find a shirt that would work)
Anyways, one of the crafts he told me to check out was this :
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-toddler-dress-from-a-t-shirt/Make a Toddler Dress from a T-Shirt!! How Cute!!
I finally found a shirt, it was a plain black shirt in a medium size (It was in a box in the basement, probably should have landed in Goodwill a while ago, but I was glad to find it.

So I cut it up, and pulled out my sewing machine and sewed it up. Next time, I’ll take note of how long the original shirt is on her before cutting, I actually really liked that length, and so I had added a couple of extra inches so it would have a bit longer waist.Oh well, a fun cute play dress!!

Oh, and I sew over a piece of dental floss when I need to gather. Just a zig zag stitch over it, and then pull the floss as tight as you need, and move the gathers as needed. So much less perment, and easy to do ;)And then, because I thought it was a bit plain I added some hearts. (Don't mind her pile of clothes, she just changed right there, and I forgot to hide them ;) )

Typing fun

Mattathias received a computer for Christmas this year. It was one of those kids computers, and hit has a lot of games, and a few 'programs' on it (calculators ect.) Of all the things on his computer his favorite program is a lot like Notepad in Windows. Really, the only thing he can do, is type letters. I wanted to get a picture of the last couple, because he's really funny in how he does it, but I was too late, it doesn't save any of his old info, just erases them.
Here are a few examples of what he has said:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM HAVE FUN AT BIAGIES HAVE A GOOD DAY

(This one is my fav)
MY DAD WORKS AT REMAX REEL ISTATE GROUP. HE IS THEIR TECH GUY. WE GO THERE ONCE A MONTH TO VISIT HIM.

He figured out how to capitalize things, and decided it looks really cool that way, so he won't leave the letters little ;) Sometimes he asks me how to spell things, but most of the time he just types it, and shows me later. I think it's really cute to watch him come up with things to say.
I'm thinking about finding a computer program to teach him typing, that is a game too. There are so many of them out there, it shouldn't be too hard once I decide to add that to his school day.

Story books

Yesterday after our reading lesson Mattathias and I talked about who writes stories, and we decided to write a short story of our own. I divided a page into six boxes and each box had one sentence and a picture that went with it.

Bunny soup by Mattathias
There once was a bunny who wanted soup
He found a house
He found a garden in the backyard
In the garden he picked vegetables
He put the vegetables in a pot
His friends were watching so he invited them

Cake Balls 2

Well, we did finish the Cake balls forever ago, and they have all been eaten too. Sorry it's taken so long to get this on.
The cake balls were pretty easy, but the trees, wow. :) The kids had tons of fun with these :) they got to add all the sprinkles!!
The trees 'hated' me. I had lots of trouble getting almond bark green, so I tried white baking chips. Still had lots of trouble, so finally I went to green frosting, and that was hard to work with, so I finally dipped the rest in chocolate. they were cute and tasty, just a pain. Probably my own lack of experiance ;) I would recommend the cake balls, but only if you really want a challange would I recommend the shapes ;)

Christmas Treats

I found a really cute reciepe on http://www.bakerella.com/ and had to try it!! So today the kids and I started making cake balls. Two different flavors and designs. We are doing Chocolate/chocolate balls, and then Red Velvete/White bark (colored green) trees.
We decided to make ours in two days so mommy doesn't stress out too much :)

The Ingrediants

There's three pans because I don't have two 9x13's, but I don't use it that often anyways.

Crumbled Cake!!

Getting started making the cake into balls

I made all the tree shapes, and the kids made the ball shaped ones.

EWWW, look at those hands :)

(see the rest tomorrow!!)

Blizzard of 2009

Well, it's December in Iowa. . . . That means that for weeks we had warm weather (unseasonal for us) and then in a matter of a week we got SNOW!! Our first big snow. We had snow in October, but that snow was really just a dusting (in fact it was during my garage sale, so it was just plain annoying ;) ) But anyways, back to now. We got our first big snow, and I mean BIG. NOAA called it an "Epic Blizzard". And depending on where we are, it was 14-18 inches of snow. Because we knew that the interstate would be rough for Brian to travel it was decided that he would stay with his mom, because I didn't want to be snowed in by myself with four kids, the kids and I stayed too!! (so glad they didn't mind).

Brian actually ended up getting some time off, on Tuesday they closed early, and then stayed closed on Wenesday. We would have been able to stay home after all, but this worked.
The kids had a blast of course. I also think that I'm glad we don't have cable connected, I think that it would get really easy to watch a lot of tv, or put the kids in front of the tv alot.

I'm 14 1/2 weeks pregnant now with baby 5, and finally starting to feel a little more human again. Still fighting morning sickness (or rather all day andnight sickness) a lot, but it isn't near like it was even last week.

I'm going to try to figure out how to out how to post pictures, and show you what we've done the last few days.

ahaa!! I got it!!

Mattathias and Grandpa Shoveling.

The walkway Mattathias and Nathanael shoveled yesterday.

Gabriella sledding (I'm not too much for the cold, so I hid inside and took this picture) She had lots of fun!!