A Team Week 120: The Bitter Cold

This week was COLD and with Christmas over and nothing but Spring to look forward to (a long ways away) it seemed kind of long and depressing.  By the time the weekend came, the cold must have gotten to us because it became cold inside our home as well and all I personally wanted was some time to myself.

On Thursday morning (the coldest morning of the week) I had to brave the temperatures to do a site visit for one of the projects I am working on (a home near Sheboygan, WI).  Outside the home the temperatures were around -12 degrees with the windchill, and inside the home the temperature was somewhere in the single digits but thankfully with no wind.  It was painfully cold but I made it through and was pleased to see how things are coming along.

This is a pipe INSIDE the home.

When I wasn't at work, the boys and I did our best to fight the bitter cold by staying warm in side...which for us means sitting by the heat register in the basement (it is heavenly warm there!).  This has always been my favorite winter spot in the house and now I have to fight Emma, Asher and Avery for it as well.  The new Ninja Turtle activity books that the boys got for Christmas are perfect for this as they allow us to stay in that one (very warm) spot while we color together.

Saturday morning yogurts.

With my own personal coldness to deal with, I will admit that I wasn't the most involved Mom this weekend.  I really just craved time to myself (selfish I know) but with two littles that is a rarity.  Even so, the boys were forced to play with each other for much of the weekend and enjoyed a few games of "Hide & Sneek" (what Asher calls Hide & Go Seek).

Avery came up with this spot all on his own and I was pretty impressed!...even more so after I watched Asher walk right past him without noticing!

Video: Avery's Christmas Words

Along with the bitter cold outside, and my cold spirit inside, Avery also suffered a yucky cold of his own and was a snotty mess.  That isn't what this video is about, but you will have to ignore the snot in his nose during it!  :P  What the video is actually about is the cute little words/phrases that Avery said during Christmas and how I will miss them.  When Asher was Avery's age he LOVED the Christmas lights and would say "they blinkin', they blinking'", which made for one of my all-time favorite videos of the boys.  With Avery the same age this year I had hoped that he would love the lights as well and do something similar, but what I forgot is that he is NOT Asher.  Avery is his own little boy and does his own cute things.  Instead, Avery loved to point out "Da-ta" (santa) and say "ho-ho-ho" making me smile.  Even cuter still though was his love to point out "baby gezus".  For a while I had no idea what he was saying, but then one day he handed me the Fisher Price baby Jesus when he said it and then I knew. After that, we noticed he said it pretty much every time he saw a nativity or even an actual baby.  This weekend I was thankful that the holidays were over and life could start getting back to normal, but I will miss these cute little words from our two year old.

On Saturday afternoon, Asher and I braved the bitter cold outside to attend Asher's friend Elias' birthday party.  Asher and I had fun, but poor Elias was fighting a bitter cold of his own and not feeling very well.  :(

The poor little birthday boy. :(

All of the kids sitting around the table talking like grown-ups.

During the (Transformers) party the Decepticons stole the presents and the kids had to get them back, but the kids had to find all of the hiding Transformers to get their help to battle the Decepticons.

The kids running around and finding the hiding Transformers.

After the kids found the Transformers they had to sneak into the Decepticon lair and crawl through the laser beams to get there.

After the kids broke into the Decepticon's Lair they defeated them by popping balloons with their pictures on them all over the room.

Video: Fighting the Decepticons

Once all of the Decepticons were defeated the kids got the presents back and then celebrated with some cake and Energon Jello.

By Sunday I was pretty much mentally, physically and emotionally spent and looking forward to a new week.  I did my best to finish out the week and prayed that the next week would be better.

Asher & Avery eating their chocolate tools from Grammy & Gramps

On Sunday afternoon Asher wanted us to do puzzles together, which we did.   A couple of hours later, Avery came into the living room and dumped all of the finished puzzles out onto the living room floor so that I could separate them and put them all together again...on my own.

A long cold week required a warm comfort-food dinner.