Good thing Leap Year only comes every 4 years!

The kids got to enjoy some hot chocolate already this morning. It's their reward for shoveling the driveway.  Alex got anywhere from 9-14 INCHES of heavy snow last night.  There is no school today and Jason is even working from home...for a while.  I dressed Harvey up in his makeshift snow suit and took him out in his car seat for a few pictures and to watch the kids shovel.  Its been a crazy 12 hours of weather. And it finally stopped here around noon. 

I am surprised that I haven't heard more snowmobiles or 4 wheelers zipping down our street.  There is a calm in our neighborhood. In fact we were the only people out shoveling before noon.  The people across the street just finished blowing their snow.  Its fun to watch them out on their riding lawn mower with a snow blower on the front.  That is what we want to have for next year.  The nice thing about our driveway is that with the black top surface it melts REALLY fast!

We had a shrub loose a branch due to to much snow.  I was very happy to wake up and find that we didn't loose power.  I thought for sure with the weight and quantity of the snow, we would have lost power.

There is a new album out on the Shutterfly site "Leap Year Blizzard 2012" - enjoy the time lapse pictures!!!  And happy shoveling! :)   (But I did add a few pictures below for you to enjoy!)  :)

 Jason and the kids shoveling this morning - he takes the first swipe - they follow and get whatever he doesn't get.

Here's the shrub/tree off the porch that lost a few branches.  I guess Bailley measured the snow under it and it was 17 inches or so.

A little out of order - this is a picture from Tuesday night out the front door.  Time stamp was 6:50 PM and it had only been snowing for an hour or so.

Little man outside in his snow suit and car seat.  He really didn't know what to think of the snow and the weather in general. But we figured this was his introduction to MN winter!

Blast from the Past

OK so Friday I decided to take all the kids up to see Grandpa Butch and Grandma Linda for the day.  The older kids didn't have school so what the heck.  The weather and roads were great for traveling and Harvey slept the whole way up there and Preston finished yet another book.

We met at the bank where Grandpa Butch still works.  I dropped the kids off and went to get grandma. When I got back- I heard the kids talking and they asked "what is THIS thing?" Grandma just about passed out.  The kids were referring to the typewriter Grandpa still had in his office.  They had never seen a typewriter before and thought it was the coolest thing ever.  Both kids got to play around on Grandpa's machine and Bailley made herself at home in the bank and started a "letter" on one of the machines in the front of the bank.  Bailley and Preston were trying to figure out where we could get a typewriter for the house (even though we have two computers already.) 

The kids got the tour of the bank and got to see the vault "where the big money is kept" or so they refer to it.  We went to lunch at the cafe then hung out with both grandma and grandpa at the house before heading home.  It was a great day and the kids can't wait to go back.  They were so disappointed that we had to leave, but we are already planning another trip back to ND. 

As if the typewriter isn't enough - we are watching "Short Circuit" with the kids. If you've never seen Short Circuit or know nothing about it -just look it up.  Its a classic!  :)

Simply Awesome

This week marks the end of the second trimester for Bailley and Preston. This also means parent teacher conferences.  The school sent home report cards last week so we could prepare ourselves and the kids for conferences.

As expected things went very well. Both teachers were very happy to have the kids in their classes. Mr. Witt, Bailley's teacher, was quick to point out how well she has adjusted to life in a new school. She's made lots of new friends and had found a rhythm with all the assignments and course work. She set some good goals for the last trimester (one of which is an AR goal with a reward attached -more on this at the end.) 

Ms. Hatelstad, Preston's teacher, simply raved about his positive attitude; "he comes in with a smile on his face and leaves with a smile on his face and that is just wonderful!"  Preston is going to be starting speech therapy to work on his "r" sounds but we had discussed this at the last conference.  He too is making lots of new friends and is just excelling in his coursework (reading at almost a 6th grade level!)  He set some goals as well - including a very ambitious AR goal but his teacher felt he could get it.  She had him put together a power point to go over what he did this last trimester as well as his goals and things to be aware of.  Points to note:
Wax Museum - The class has the opportunity to select a famous historical figure. They will get to dress up like this person then at a wax museum event (date and time to be posted at a later date), people will walk up, hit a "button" and the kids will recite things about their person!
Preston also has a field trip to Como Zoo in May, a field trip back to the Prairie Wetlands in Fergus Falls in late May and two rounds of standardized testing (one in March and one in April.)

Both kids have the opportunity to participate in the Student Showcase where they can highlight speech, visual arts, music and other skills. The event will be at Discovery Middle School (March 15th - 5:30-8 PM) but I will post more when I know more. At this time Bailley is looking to submit a picture to display and maybe do a poem with a girl in her class. 

Back to the goals.  For those of you who don't know what AR is it is a reading program that takes each book, assigns it a grade level and a point value. When the child finishes the book, they take an online test regarding the book.  They receive points based on how many questions they get right.  To date- Bailley has 60 points and Preston has 142.  Preston is averaging 25 points per month.  He set his end of year AR goal to be 215 points and Bailley is shooting for 100 points.  If both kids get to their goals, they get new golf clubs.  The kids created a contract and they signed it and Jason and I signed the contract.  Jason added a stipulation tonight for extra incentive - if they don't get to their goals, they don't get to use the pool in the back yard this summer! How's THAT for motivation!

On top of all that- Harvey took a nap from 9:45 to 1:45 today!!  We had him sleep in his crib last night for the first time.  We had hoped he would sleep a little better in there, but he was still up at 2, 4 and 6. Oh well he is only 10 weeks old.  Crap that means I go back to work in two weeks. :(   As the nurse said when Harvey got his first set of shots -it is a necessary evil. HA!

End of an Era

February 2012 marks the end of an era. Grandpa Larry Slack officially retires from Rainbow Inc Bridge Painting.  Larry has spent quite a few years traveling the country to complete various jobs for Rainbow.  He felt it was time to stay home and enjoy time at home with family and friends.  The family decided to send him off into retirement with a party; inviting friends and family as well as folks from Rainbow.  We had a great turn out and I think Larry had a fun time. 

Linda, Rachelle, Rene and Debbie cooked the food and did most of the bars the day before.  Laura did the cake and the picture boards. A good time was has by all attendees, but especially the guest of honor.  Below are a few pictures from the day, but for the full collection check out the Shutterfly page at the top of this blog.

Thanks Larry for all your hard work at Rainbow and we wish you the best as you begin your new adventure.

 Grandpa Larry standing next to one of the picture boards, his cake and some other decorations.



The cake. The pictures/frames (L-R) - Larry holding his first pension check, Larry under a Cozumel sign (first day of retirement) and a Certificate of Appreciation from the International Union of Operating Engineers.



Larry next to his picture board.

Larry with full family

Larry with all the grand kids.

7 Minutes

According to the pediatric nurses who gave Harvey his 2 month shots, babies only remember the last 7 minutes.  Thankfully, they were right.  Little Man got his immunizations today- three shots and one orally. He didn't know what to think of the oral one. Apparently it was refrigerated and he's never had anything that cold before.  Then on to the shots. Oye - a first time mom's nightmare.  The kind nurses asked me to hold his hands so he did not swat at the needles. I cried as much as he did but sure enough after 5 minutes or so, he was fine (see pictures below.) They did one shot, then two at the same time but its all over and as the nurse in OB called them "a necessary evil."  The rest of the day was spent sleeping and cuddling - just the way I like it.
Othert vital info - Harvey now weighs 12 pounds 5 ounces and is 21 inches long!

At 5 minutes after injections - still a little cranky - but he's always cranky once he gets into his car seat.

7 minutes after his immunizations - and he's all ready to go - no worse for the wear.

Lost then found!

OK so the whole point of having a blog is to make posts, right? Well its a little hard to make posts if you can't find your blog! I logged in and nothing appeared.  Oye - technology - what a "blessing". So for the longest time my blog was lost.  I had been putting off recreating it in hopes it would just reappear. For some reason my blog is back so I won't question it, I will just roll with it.

Since my last post:
Bailley has been busy with school and friends. She is selling Girl Scouts Cookies again this year - if you are interested let us know. :)  We are willing to ship cookies to you if needed. She has started to experiment in photography and is thinking of putting a picture in a school showcase in March. She also made valentines for both Jason and I.

Preston competed in the spelling bee at his school. He did not make it past the written round, but had a good experience. We also celebrated his 9th birthday. He had 4 friends over after school. We took all the boys to dinner and then out bowling. 

Jason is busy with work and helping with Harvey at night which allows me time to sleep - what a blessing!  He also went out of his way to spoil me on Valentines Day - a plant AND flowers! He has been bowling with the league every so often and is eager for golf season to start

Harvey is growing like crazy. It seems like he changes over night.  He has his 2 month checkup tomorrow and that means shots.  I am not looking forward to seeing that, but it has to be done. He is starting to smile and interact with us more which makes him a real treat to have around. He is a very good sleeper as well as eater which is probably evident by his weight; 11 lbs 3 oz two weeks ago. I predict he will be over 12 lbs at his next visit, but maybe not.

There are pictures of Harvey and Valentine's Day stuff on our Shutterfly site (the link is at the top of the page.) 

Take care and I will try to be more consistent with our postings. :)

Peterson Family
Monica, Jason, Bailley, Preston and Harvey