I Got Daddy in the Belly

We bought Karlie a T-ball set about a week ago.  She is a straight demon when she hits the ball too.  We've been practicing outside throwing it to her, but we had no idea she was going to be so aggressive!  Here is a video of her the first night we got the t-ball in our garage:

That same night, as the hubs was video taping, Karlie decided to go in a slightly different direction than expected...

That still makes me laugh watching it now.  The best toy ever!

Disclaimer:  The hubs was not hurt during the making of this video.

Boo!

One of our night-time rituals is to play hide-and-go-seek.  Every single night.  As you can imagine, playing with 2 20-month old babies and a 3-year old can be a bit chaotic, but we've learned to embrace the chaos in our house.  Here's how it goes down:

Typically I'm "it" first, and Daddy and the 3 munchkins go hide.  There are approximately 3 places they hide - on the side of the bed, behind the bedroom door, or in the shower.  My typical places with the babies is under the desk, under the bed, or behind the big living room chair.  Of course after "searching" every room, and whomever is found, we all shout "BOO!" and giggle and laugh.  The object of hide-and-go-seek is not to find the hider, but to scare each other a little - just enough to be funny.

Lately, the babies, along with Karlie have begun taking turns counting and seeking!  When Maggie is "it" she says "OK" and takes off at a dead run to hide behind one of the doors by herself - we basically come to her on that one.  Ella on the other hand, covers up part of her eyes while closely watching and following, counting "on, choo, chee, juh" along with some rendition of "ready or not here I come," and then she will search every nook and cranny for us all.  Karlie, well, she counts and seeks, but her idea of seeking is poking her head in the door of each room and shouting "boo" until whomever she is seeking appears. 

Strange how different personalities appear when you're all playing the same game, isn't it?

Redneck Sleigh Ride

Our area recently received 6-8 inches of snow - in case you are wondering, that is not a normal occurrence.  We don't have salt trucks on stand-by, snow shovels in our garage, and certainly not any sleds.  If, on the off chance we do ever receive snow, it usually always all melts by the next day.

So we found ourselves snowed in, quite literally, with a ton of snow on the ground and all the roads closed.  So we bundled up in our multiple layers and headed out to our winter playground.  Yeah.  No.  The babies HATED the snow.  It was too deep for them to walk around in, and they were cold.  Not fun for them at all.  Karlie had a blast, but that tends to be overshadowed by 2 upset sisters. 

So we had a brilliant idea - let's go sledding.  Hmmm...how to get all 3 babies on a vessel and where to go?  We have a baby pool...and a lawn mower.  Sweeeeet!!! Wait we need rope - dang it!  Oh wait!  We have extension cords - those are as strong as rope.  So the hubs drills a hole in the pool, connects it to the lawn mower via an extension cord, and realizes the tires are flat.  While he's airing them up, I'm pumping the kids full of hot chocolate and gathering blankets for the bottom of the "sled."  Ok, we are fired up and ready to go.  The hubs hops on the lawn mower and tries to crank her up.  No deal.  Dang it!!!!  Ok, he jumps the lawn mower off the jeep, and we are ready to rock and roll.  Everyone piles in...and guess what happens?  We get stuck.  And stuck.  And stuck again.  Stuck in our driveway and stuck in the street.  Never fear, here comes Mommy to the rescue with her trusty shovel.

FINALLY, after what seemed like hours of trying to "sled," my family was the one making laps back and forth on our street (with all of our neighbors outside watching) in a baby pool, connected to a lawn mower by an extension cord in 20 degree weather, with all three of my children screaming in delight.

And that my friends, is what we call a "Redneck Sleigh Ride."