Marcus and Bubble Painting

This past weekend we had more snow from winter storm Marcus. It was advertised as the snow storm that was going to last for days. And it did. A little fell Saturday afternoon. Then a lot more Sunday night. More was coming down Monday as Justin was leaving for the clinic, but UConn didn't cancel--ugh.

Nolan had hot-late chocolate with breakfast, and towards the end he started blowing bubbles in it. (He insists on drinking hot cocoa through a straw, and if unsupervised, will always will blow bubbles through any straw. He's a three year-old boy.) It reminded me of bubble painting, and that's what we did while it snowed outside.

When it stopped for a bit, we went outside to shovel our back porch. At least 6 inches of new snow. (Nolan's using his sand toy shovel to move the snow.)

And now Rufus is completely covered.

Thankfully UConn cancelled the clinic in the afternoon and Justin came home for some bubble painting of his own. If you're lucky, you might just get one of Nolan's bubble paintings in the mail.

Linus

After the Superbowl Sunday night, winter storm Linus blew in. It snowed through Monday morning and the clinic was cancelled. Linus dropped 8-10 inches of snow on top of our previous snow collections.

Poor Rufus is covered in snow up to his little ears.

 And I suppose the novelty of the snow has worn off for the season. Nolan had absolutely no interest in going outside to play, so Justin and Tony shoveled alone. I'm certainly ready for winter to be over.

At the XL Center

A few weeks ago on a Saturday morning, Justin was randomly checking sports on the computer when he noticed there was a UConn men's basketball game in two hours. It was the only remaining Saturday game at the XL Center in Hartford. (The Univ. of Connecticut campus is in Storrs, CT, so many of the games are played there, and they have several Sunday games we wouldn't go to.) He found cheap tickets online and we made it to the game on time.  It was very spur-of-the-moment and not usually something we do, but it turned out to be a perfect outing. 

For Nolan, going to a basketball game means he's going to get popcorn. 

He let us subtly know he wanted a snack with his little guessing game. 

"Hey Mom. Something's missing. It's yellow and white."

The game was interrupted Grant's morning nap, but with quite a bit of coaxing, Grant slept for almost the entire first half. And he was really happy when he woke up. 

Then on Friday night we went to a hockey game with some of Justin's coworkers. Nolan has been pretending to be a hockey player (or a Zamboni) ever since.

Juno visits Connecticut

Winter Storm Juno paid us a visit Monday night. The governor implemented a travel ban on all emergency vehicles Monday evening. We had plenty of supplies and hunkered down inside to wait out the blizzard. Snow started coming down around and the strong winds created snow drifts. It's rather interesting how the wind travels around the light and our car and leaves no snow.

I've yet to hear final snowfall totals, but on the front lawn we had between 9-14" of snow.

Thank goodness Tony had a snowblower.

Justin playing Nolan's new "ice guider" game--you help someone walk through the snow and then tackle them.

There were even snow drifts around our snowman and dog.

Justin's favorite way to play with our kids is to toss them around. Good thing Grant likes it.

Justin also got quite the workout dragging Nolan around on the shovel.

And Grant loved crawling around on his own.

Until he face planted. I dried him off inside, but he cried until he went back outside. 

He didn't want to be inside while everyone else was playing with the snow.

Luckily the storm wasn't nearly as bad as everyone predicted it would be. Not as much snow and milder winds. We kept our power and stayed nice and warm inside. I can handle this.

A Snowman and his Dog

Saturday morning we woke up to beautiful freshly fallen snow, thanks to Winter Storm Iola.

When Grant went down for his morning nap, we headed outside to test it out. 

It was slightly heavy and wet--perfect for snowball fights.

They even attacked the photographer. Good aim, Nolan!

Nolan has a funny way of playing with snow balls. He awards you "zero points" if you hit something or someone. If your snowball lands back into the snow, you win the game.

Justin demonstrated the art of making snow angels.

And then rather forced Nolan to try it, too. He didn't mind too much.

We built a snowman--with snow arms, and a snow dog. Before the snow season started, I made a "snowman kit" gluing craft stones and buttons to golf tees. I think they worked quite well.

And we were very surprised (and Nolan was very excited) when the snowplow came through our cul-de-sac. Usually they don't come down our street for at least a day after it snows.

This snow wasn't too bad, but unfortunately our winter storms are not over. 

We are expecting 18"-24" of snow from Winter Storm Juno on Monday through Tuesday. Sheesh.

The Boy with Many Names

Nolan has quite the imagination. Some days he is Mr. Mailman, and sometimes he is a hermit crab. Recently he's been re-naming himself. When he first started wearing this BYU football jersey, he was a football player named Nick Tector. A few weeks later that changed to Sid Sector.

And even if he's not wearing the jersey, sometimes he'll only answer to Luke Collector. 

(Notice the "-ector" theme?) What a funny kid!

A Light Snow

Today we woke up to a inch or so of snow. I was hoping it would be enough to cancel patients for Justin, but no such luck. Nolan was dying to get outside and shovel the snow.

I bundled Grant up in his puffer snowsuit, and he crawled around in the snow. 

 He seemed rather fascinated with it and enjoyed being outside. That is, until he went off the curb and face planted right in the powder.