Last week's activities

Genevieve has started to get into books lately. I'm pretty sure it was around this age (10 months or so) that Sebastien got into them as well. He would crawl over to the bookshelf, grab some books and flip through them for quite a while. Genevieve has started doing that now too. Of course, when Sebastien was her age, "his" bookshelf was only the bottom shelf of this rack and now all 3 shelves are kids books!

Below: Genevieve shows off her favorite book.
Below: Daddy's blue-eyed girl Below: Last weekend we went to our friends Adam and Rachael's house. Addison is 2 months younger than Genevieve and Ethan 1 year older. We all had a great time. The girls played then went to bed like angels, and the boys..well the boys played like boys. Their favorite game of the night was jumping on Adam and Rachael's bed while throwing towels up onto the ceiling fan. Then they'd turn the fan on, the towels would go flying and they'd fall over from laughing and squealing so hard. It was really funny to watch and listen to. They also did not want to go to bed so we put on a movie for them (while we watched our movie downstairs) while the snuggled in Ethan's bed. Ethan fell asleep but Sebastien stayed up and watched the entire movie. I guess he's going to be like me - can't fall asleep to TV. So Sebastien had his latest bedtime yet (11:30pm) the past weekend and recovered by taking a 4.5 hr nap the next day.
Below: Addison and Genevieve Below: A few days ago...Addison, Genevieve and Avalynn all chewing on toys.

Below: Genevieve shows off her boo-boo that she got from falling backwards and getting her head wedged between the corner of the fireplace and the TV cabinet. Thank God for our rubber fireplace pads or else this would have been a lot worse!

S to the N to the O to the W, SNOW!

So I guess it's been a while since I posted since my mom asked me the other day if I've "given up" on the blog. Geesh! No, it's just that 1. there's not much going on these days worth writing about and 2. it's a little hard to find the time sometimes, you know? Nevertheless, here we go:

We've had a TON of snow the last couple weeks and there's still a bunch on the ground, despite some melting from the sun being out in between storms. Here are some photos around our house:

Sebastien models on our front walk.

Below: Sebastien (who is a very tall 2.5 I might add) shows how high the snow is.
Below: Sebastien running down the driveway.

Below: Genevieve watching Dan and Sebastien playing outside.

Below: Both kids bundled up for a family trip to Winter Wonderland, aka our backyard.

Below: Us in front of the tunnel and paths that are shoveled out all around our backyard. Sebastien and Gwynnie run around the paths like crazies.

Below: Dan and Genevieve (notice she's wearing Sebastien's boots from last year) show off how high the snow is. It's almost over the backyard fence! Luckily Gwynnie has wisened up and realized she really does not want to run away in weather like this because if she wanted to, she totally could.

And as I type, Dan has been on the roof shoveling snow, snowblowing that snow from the driveway, and is working on snowblowing a path all around the house. He's also hoping to snowblow off the porch, which now has a mountain of snow on it from the roof. Wish him luck!

Snowy Weekend

Well I was all excited to finally get some video uploaded today but to my dismay, I just discovered that our new laptop doesn't have a slot for the special (but not uncommon) cord that the videocamera uses. So hmmm...we'd better figure this out. Until then, regular pictures will have to suffice. Sebastien LOVES playing outside - no matter how cold it is. He played outside with Dan on Saturday and cried like he hasn't cried in a while when it was time to come in.

Below: Sebastien modeling his new (albeit too big) snowsuit next to the tunnel he and daddy made.

Below: Sebastien coming back through the tunnel as Gwynnie (in her pink snowsuit) watches.
Below: The kids admiring Grandma & Grandpa Masse's new fishtank.

Below: Grandma and Sebastien

Below: Uncle Phil playing trains with the kids.

Below: Genevieve and Sebastien playing with cars.

Below: They both love climbing up on the back of the couch and looking out the window. I think they learned it from the dog. :)

Cooped Up

We had quite the snowstorm last week so the following pictures may reflect a bit of the cabin fever that the kids and I were feeling. (Sadly enough we're still feeling it, as there's not a whole lot on our daytime dockets these days.) Sebastien has been amusing himself lately by emptying the entire toybin onto the floor almost every morning. Genevieve approves of this endeavor, and it shows in this picture below as they are surrounded by toys.

Below: Smile and try not to look like we're burning up with cabin fever!
Below: Genevieve changes it up a bit by playing with the dog toys instead of her own. She, like Gwynnie, particularly likes this orange bone - possibly because it's beef flavored. (Yuck!)
Below: Dan and I babysat for some friends Friday night. Avalynn is 8 months (in the saucer) and Isabella is the same age as Sebastien. It was quite hectic with 4 kids, but it went wonderfully. All 4 kids had dinner, playtime and were sleeping in beds by 8pm.

Below: Sebastien tests out his new snow pants (size 5/6 because that's all that was left!) in the backyard.

Below: Saturday night, Dan and I got to get out of the house and go on a "date" to our friend Jackie's wedding. We had a good time and managed to each get to nap on Sunday after the late night out.

This and That

We returned home from South Bend last Monday. Luckily we didn't have too much time to mope about it before the week's events kept us busy. On Wednesday we met the O'Donnell's at a kid's museum-thing that we hadn't been to before. Here are a few pictures from that.

Below: Sebastien and Genevieve inside the mouth of a dinosaur.

Below: Sebastien and Luke take some time out from playing to chill and read.
Below: Genevieve has mastered climbing the stairs - even itty bitty ones that lead to a slide.

Below: Genevieve loves to eat puffs and cookies by herself so I thought, "Hey why not peas?" She humored me at first by happily putting them into her mouth, chewing them, but then spitting them out into her bib. She was happy to keep performing this little routine for me until I took them away. Her brother, on the other hand, is still a big pea fan (along with Gwynnie, who patiently awaits a dropped one).

A Sunday at the Museum

We spent (yet) another cold Sunday morning using our museum pass to visit Boston Children's Museum. Even though we've been there many times before, we hadn't been for a while (Fall maybe?) and it was like a whole new place since Sebastien was into different things than before.

Below: We started off in the bubbles section (which we'd never stopped at before) and it was well-liked by both kids.

Below: The most amazing thing about the day was that Sebastien ran straight towards the climbing apparatus as soon as he saw it. Even though it's a giant 4 story structure in the middle of the museum, he never seemed to notice it before. Much to the shock of his parents, he didn't hesitate to climb in and climb all the way to the top! Dan followed alongside as best he could on the adjacent stairwell but Sebastien seemed to have no fear. Dan says he was the youngest kid in there by about 2 years, but that didn't stop him from trying to direct other climbers: "You, up. You down. Go." When he got to the top, he did some sort of cheer for himself and then said "All done. My go down." And that was that and down he came. It took about a half hour all together.
Below: I remember when Sebstien first climbed through these tunnels

so it's pretty cool to see Genevieve strutting through them now. Below: our little construction workers

We used to spend almost all of our time in the room for kids 3 and under. When we stopped by that room on this day, however, Sebastien was clearly bored and we promptly left. Oh how he's growing up! (And I'm seeing some foreshadowing of future struggles- like when Genevieve will want to spend all day in that room but Sebastien won't want to be there at all.) All in all, another great day at the museum.

New Year's Eve Extravaganza

We spent our New Year's Eve at the FOP in Mishawaka, IN. It was quite a good time. We went with Kim's parents and some of their friends. Dan's college roomate Jesse and his wife came too since they were in town from Colorado visiting Erin's family. The night kicked off with a Polish style dinner (mmm...love those kluski noodles) followed by drinking and dancing.

Below: Mom & Dad at dinner

Below: Dan, Jesse, Kim & Erin at dinner
Below: Me holding one of the vodka cranberries that did me in.

Below: You know you're at a good party when they bring out subs at midnight.

Below: HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 2011!!

Below: And let's just say here we are dancing on stage for the last song of the night. Erin was such a good sport since she was pregnant (and of course sober) but still danced with me like a fool.