The Atherton Family: More Snow

Last Monday was super cold!!!! I don't remember what the high was (below freezing), but it felt cold especially since the high the day before was in the high 40s. Our friends invited us up to their house for a while in the morning. They had gotten some new lego sets (Harry Potter Castles) and invited us up to help put them together. Alan and Jared had a great time working on that and Lauren, Brad, their little girl, and I had fun playing memory and go fish. That afternoon we went out and went infant car seat shopping. We went to 4 stores...trying to find just a car seat....not a whole travel system. The first store had one, but we wanted to compare a couple of places at least. The second store was too expensive. The third store didn't sell just a car seat. The last store we went to was just right... it had a car seat that was on clearance because it was last years model. It came in a travel system...we also got Jared and Brad new socks all for less then the cheapest price for just a car seat. We were pretty excited about it...still are...we also got a $5 gift card on another promotion that the store had. We were feeling pretty blessed to find it...and I am relieved that now we have a way to get the baby home from the hospital. Now that we have 4 strollers and almost 4 kids we're going to have to figure out how to push them all. :)...or which ones we can finally get rid of. This is a dragon boat that Jared made out of tp tubes. The fire is connected to a popsicle stick and can move in and out of his mouth.

Tuesday Jared had a field trip to the Bean Museum. Brad and I got to meet them there and help a group of 4 boys around the museum. We saw a short reptile show and then got to go on a horn hunt....I've never seen the horn hunt paper before so that was a fun new thing.

Wednesday was a really busy day. The first thing we did was go to the pet store and get crickets for Webby (the pet tarantula in Lauren's class). We planned a little extra time there to look around which is always fun. Then we dropped Jared off at school and the rest of us went to Ready to Learn. After Ready to Learn we dropped Lauren off at school. Brad and I bought milk on the way home. We didn't have much time here (long enough to do the dishes, get the mail, and change Brad) then it was time to go pick everyone up. After we picked them up we stopped by home for a pack of crackers then it was off to get Alan and go to the doctor. Jared had wanted to go 2 weeks ago to my doctor's appointment to hear the baby's heart beat, but they were doing some tests....so we told him the next one. Last week the only appointment they had open was while he was at school, so he finally got to go on Wednesday. He got invited to a birthday party on Tuesday for Wednesday at the same time as the appointment, but choose to go to the appointment and then go to the party late. Of course the doctor was running behind so we had a wait a while, but he did finally hear the heart beat and make it to the last half hour of the party.

I had a theory that if you took your kids with you to the doctor they didn't make you wait as long...Lauren had to go once when she was sick and we had just taken Brad the week before since the others were at school...both times we didn't really have to wait. Even though we had to wait about an hour this last time they found some things to entertain themselves with.

It was kind of funny when we dropped him off...at parties here (in Wymount) people usually invite the whole family and everyone goes...and that is what he was expecting I think. We asked him if he wanted someone to walk him to the door and he said yeah who is going with me and we said you go by yourself...he thought for a moment and said ok. Alan did walk him to the door, but he did great at the party. Also 2 days last week and everyday this week Jared jumped out of the car and ran into school by himself. (Everyday up to now we've had to walk him in...and he can be clingy even then) So this is a big deal...and something that I'm really glad he is doing now...and will be especially nice in a few weeks. The party was a star wars theme...Jared brought home a Yoda cupcake..maybe drank Yoda punch...ate pizza, and got to bring home a light saber...it sounded like lots of fun.

Thursday and Friday were both really nice days and we were able to play outside for a little while each day. Friday night we went back to the pet store since we had such a fun time there earlier in the week.

Saturday we just got some things around here done and we went to another Women's Basketball game. Jared, Lauren, Bradley, and Alan all went down and did the chicken dance during the timeout. When we came out of the game it had started snowing. We still had to make a run to winco, but we got home before it got too slick.

This morning we woke up to about an inch of snow, but the walk to church was super slick. By the time church was over the sun had come out and was starting to melt everything. After church Jared's primary teacher was outside making a giant snowman and Jared really wanted to help, so he and Alan went out for a little bit and then while Alan was home teaching (almost 2 hours) the rest of us went out too. Once the giant snowman was finished Lauren and Jared and a neighbor had fun building some other snow creatures.

The Giant snowman...check out his giant carrot nose too! (I'm not sure how he got so big since there wasn't that much snow.)