Monday marvels

1.  After just posting about how Evan had yet to keep his pants dry all day, he has suddenly started to do just that (the day after his 2.5 yr birthday!) and has now done so for the past 4 days!  Hip Hip Hooray!  (In fact, that is what I said to him after each day of keeping them dry, and he loves it!  He loves to say "hip hip" and have me say "hooray"!)  While I know we're not all the way in the clear, it sure feels good to know he is recognizing his needs to go with time to even go set up the bathroom.  What I mean by that is he will move his stool to the toilet, put the training seat on the toilet and then climb up.  He still needs help getting his pants down, but it's such an amazing sight to see my little boy doing all these big boy things for himself!

2. Emma's eyes are getting more and more beautiful every day.  I love that crazed look in her eye that she gets as she gives me a big, open-mouth smile when she first sees me in the morning.  How she giggles and smiles so big when I pick up her and hold her above me while kissing her cheeks.  And how she still fits snuggly cradled in my arms.  I know that won't last much longer.  This special time goes by so fast.

Just look at this cutie pie!

3.  It's been quite cold this winter, and equally snowy to go along with it.  I was hoping that since we spent a month in the middle of winter down under that we'd miss the worst of winter.  Boy, was I wrong!  It's brutal and we're here to experience it.  We have rows of huge icicles scattered along our gutter, which, by the way, is filled with ice several inches above its top edge. Our poor shrubs also have icicles draped all over them.  I hope they don't lose too many branches from all the ice they are wearing.    It's been that kind of cold where you cough the moment you take a breath of it.  At least the temperatures rebounded this past weakend a little bit.  The sun was out on Saturday and it actually got above freezing for a bit in the afternoon.  I decided that it was perfect weather for Evan to play in the snow, however we didn't have snow boots for him yet.  We went to several stores and they were all clearanced out, with only pink and purple ones left.  To prevent him from missing out on this opportunity to play outside, I decided to just let him wear his cousin (Eva's) pink snow boots (that we had left from when she visited several years ago).  They were a few sizes too big, and they were pink, but at least they worked and he got to get out in the snow.  Hopefully we'll find some proper snow boots for him eventually.

A silly "selfie" (left); and all bundled up and ready to go (right)

Using the scoop to scoop up and throw snow...

Daddy got him with a snowball (left); fresh tracks (right)

4. Speaking of the cold, we broke out Emma's winter coat for a few of the subzero (F!) mornings.  She didn't care for all the extra bulk when being strapped into her car seat.  But she sure looks cute, doesn't she? :)  [Note: mittens, in the form of socks, went on after this photo was taken...]