A Slow Start to 2014

Well, Mark arrived home, having checked off marathon #23 in Jacksonville, FL.  It was a pretty rough race with humidity, high temps, and rain through most of it so I think he was just glad he finished.  He was home for a day, one that we spent having friends over, and then headed back out of town to California.  Monday was a lot of fun with our friends.  The kids all played well together, we made some pizzas for lunch, and just generally hung out.  Friends are good for the soul, and since I've had kids I see less of mine.  I'd like that to gradually change as they get older.  But I digress.  On Tuesday we woke up very early and piled everyone in the car to drive Mark to the airport.  Was an earlier day with the kids than I would have liked given that I now had them solo for the next three days, but they were actually quite good for me all day.  We did a lot of crafts from Christmas presents, some puzzles, some relaxing watching movies, and we even made soft pretzels.  A few snaps of the girls rolling out dough.

Sawyer is getting better at it.  Isla just sort of plays right now.  But with this batch I made some nuggets so it worked out the way she did it because she then helped me cut them with the knife

 It was a pretty low key few days, and a very quiet New Years Eve, with Mark gone.  We got somewhere between 1/2 to a foot of snow.  The girls helped me shovel a few inches on New Years Eve while Margot slept, we took New Years Day off because I'm pretty sure it's meant to be a national day of rest, and then had a lot to shovel on the 2nd.  Luckily one of our neighbors did the whole sidewalk for the street with his snow blower which was awesome but I got my workout on the rest of the driveway regardless.  The girls helped for about five minutes and then left to make snowballs in the yard, run around, and climb drifts.  As Isla declared it was the best day ever, and was very Boo-tiful outside.  Alas, Margot missed it because I like to keep our girl warm inside.  So our ventures out were only during her naps.  A quick snap of her trying cinnamon/sugar toast.  As per usual, it was a hit.  She nearly ate a full piece of toast first time out.

Mark got home late on the 2nd, or more accurately the morning of the 3rd.  Like many people, he was flying east at the wrong time and due to weather there were all sorts of delays and cancellations.  Luckily, he and Ted got home, but it was after some long hours.  Since then, the weather has continued to get worse.  We got a bunch of snow today, and lucked out because the neighbor did our driveway this time too!  Mark's still gotten out to shovel twice because it's been snowing all day, and the really cold temps are just starting to roll in.  School and activities have been cancelled for tomorrow so it looks like an extended break for the kids around here.  As for me, I head back to work tomorrow and have a busy week ahead of me.  Trying to get a few things done tonight so I don't have things to procrastinate with this week....