The Christmas Blizzard of 2009

As most of you are well aware, we are stuck at home in a lovely blizzard. So, I am attempting to post some video of Cole's first visit from Santa (when he actually gets the concept anyway). Santa brought Cole a play kitchen that is now residing in our family room and he has been bringing us coffee and hot dogs all day :) Easton seems pretty oblivious to everything, but has enjoyed watching Cole play with both of their toys today.



As for our latest happenings, Easton is still suffering from what we have termed "kennel cough" for daycare centers. He seems to be improving, however we will be making a trip to the Dr in the morning. His eye started weeping this morning and I fear he has followed in the footsteps of his big brother with his first ear infection just before his 4 month check-up. He has not had a fever (at least that I know of), but with this latest development we will be making a visit for some antibiotics.

We were lucky to have almost all of our family Christmas celebrations over before the blizzard set in. However, the Hirschman holiday extravaganza planned for our house today was pushed back to Sunday due to the 4 foot drifts outside our door this morning and the forecast for snow to continue through tomorrow. We were able to celebrate with the Hoidal crew in SD a few weeks ago, and then had dinner at Nana B's on Tuesday. As if Cole needed any more presents, Santa managed to make an appearance at the Poutre's house yesterday and brought him a "John Deer tractor" that he can drive and scoop up things with. It is currently in our basement with a bucket full of toys and "parked" against the wall for the night.

Due to not knowing how this video thing is going to turn out, I will post again following this with pictures from the past couple days.

Hope this finds you and yours having a wonderful holiday. Oh, and don't despair if you have been looking for our holiday letter...I am hoping to START writing it in the next week. And, no we are not announcing any new additions to the family ;-)

I am trying to edit the video post to add pictures...so bear with me.

Easton watching Cole play with the new kitchen.

Daddy's new table saw...in the family room.

 Me trying to take a nap :)

The snow up to the top of the doors in the basement!!

Cole made himself a hot dog with ketchup :)

His new tractor!!

Combine Harvester...

IN OUR FRONT YARD!!! Cole was soooo excited to have a real tractor right out the front window :)

Santa & the Christmas Treat

After three attempts, we finally managed to get our Christmas tree. However, Cole continues to call it "our Christmas treat." We kept telling him we were going to go out into the field and pick out our tree and I think he really thought we were going to be going into a field of rice krispie treats. We tried to go twice to the place we have always gone and they were closed for the night, then we tried a second 'cut your own tree' place and they were closed 'till next season.' So we ended up at one of the local nurseries where they actually had real reindeer running around!! Now we have had the tree in the family room for almost a week and are hoping to get it decorated this weekend...maybe we will have it finished by Christmas :)

In other news, I went back to work this week and we are all adjusting to the new routine. Easton has been doing great at daycare, despite refusing to take a bottle. Cole struggled with the change at the beginning of the week, but seems to be remembering what it's like to have Mommy at work again. However, Easton seems to have picked up the 'new daycare' cough, so we are hoping it is short lived and he starts feeling better soon.


This morning was spent exploring the trains at the Durham Museum here in Omaha. They have a giant tree set up for the holidays and a Santa and Mrs Clause to visit.

 

Cole had a blast playing on the trains but was not going to have anything to do with Santa. He would talk big about going to see/talk to him, but both times we tried to get him within 10 feet he freaked out.

Then he fell asleep while eating his chicken nugget on the way home...about 5 seconds after I took this picture, he dropped the nugget and his head slumped over to the side :)

SNOW!!!

We are just coming out of the "Blizzard 2009" as the news has so nicely coined our latest round of snow. We have about 10-12", but the drifting has resulted in about 3 FOOT drifts around our house and neighborhood. The back door is inoperable right now due to the snow piled up taller than Cole on the deck. Due to the base closing we have had a great couple days with Chris home, but they are opening again at noon today so he has to go back to work :(
We are ready to get out of the house though, as we haven't been able to leave. Chris would LOVE it if I would keep this story to myself, but the temptation is just too strong. He tried to leave yesterday morning and managed to get his car high centered on a drift up the hill just close enough that we could see it from the house, but just far enough not to be able to do anything about it. Then got my car stuck halfway down the driveway also in a drift trying to go rescue Cole from the stuck car (no, I was not worried about Chris at that point). The neighbor actually went up in his Gator to get both boys and bring them back home (I think that will be quite the story at the next neighborhood gathering). Thankfully, his parents came out yesterday afternoon to bail us out. However, it was beyond reach of the tow ropes and luckily for us another truck got stuck right behind him. They had a bobcat and dug out both cars. It was a great break for us, or we might have had to call a tow truck to get our only winter car unstuck!! That's what stubbornness gets you in a BLIZZARD :)

Easton's First Blizzard...and other news of late

We finally had to reboot my computer back to it's original state after a Microsoft Update killed it beyond repair. It was really helpful that they sent out another update to fix the first one, but my computer was already blue screened to death thus making it impossible to get the corrected update. I will try and fill in all the gaps since I have been trying to get everything updated again.

Thanksgiving was wonderful, we spent the morning in Lincoln with my mom's family and the evening in Bellevue with the Poutre clan. The boys were great and Chris and I both had to put on some elastic waist pants when we got home.

My Three Boys :)

Last weekend, we painted the family room/piano room/foyer a lovely grey color and the kitchen is now blue. Not the same blue from the last house, but more of a true blue. It made a HUGE difference in the whole house. It is starting to feel more like "home." This was poor Easton sleeping while we were getting the rooms prepped for the weekend frenzy...

 

The after...

Cole has started talking to Easton and bringing him toys more often. After several attempts, we finally managed to catch it with the camera.

Since we were snowed in today (I think we have somewhere around 8-10" already and Chris has been out to snow blow twice today alone), we started getting out some of the holiday decorations. We tried to get a tree yesterday, but were about 5 minutes late and the place had closed. So we will be trying again after the blizzard is over.

Then we put up the new microwave which was our Christmas gift to ourselves (a little early).

Easton was helping us get the microwave mounted :)

I think that about sums up our latest happenings...hopefully the computer will keep working and I can post a little more frequently.