Blizzard of '11

Well, it's astonishingly cold today here in Stillwater. Currently 15 degrees, dropping to *negative* 2 tonight. Egads! It snowed from late Monday night until early Tuesday afternoon. We've been huddled inside, because it was too windy and cold to let Margaux play outside. Maybe tomorrow. Margaux didn't seem to mind staying inside too much. In fact, while outside it looked like this:















...she decided to not only snuggle up *on* the couch; she actually snuggled up *inside* the couch, and spent quite a bit of time playing and watching Seasame Street on the DVR.















This is a before and after pic of the back yard. The top of the picture was taken around 9:00pm Monday. The bottom one was about 12 hours later.

Singin' the blues

This is a short video of Margaux and her harmonica doin' her thang. American Idol here we come!



I heard her in the living room singing and playing harmonica, ran and got the Flip Vid, but by the time I got there she had stopped. So, I asked her for an encore performance, which she happily agreed to.

A Louisiana Christmas

We just returned from spending Christmas with Mike's family in Baton Rouge. Please don't tell CPS, but we forgot our camera, so we are grateful for the pictures we got from family members. Hopefully, I will get some from our time in Fort Worth also, but for the moment, here's Margaux's Christmas week in Baton Rouge. First up, she loved playing in the sandbox Grandpa built for her. Then, Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Tammy kept Margaux while Mike and I went to New Orleans for the night (a complete blast for us, of course). While we were away, they took Margaux to pick out a Christmas tree. She loved that experience. Then, the last pics are of her on Christmas morning. Remember digging deep in your stocking to see if you missed anything? Remember, the crash after all the excitement and candy wore off? Ahhh, the joy of childhood.

Snow Day!

Yesterday, Margaux took a nap in her crib for the first time in days. She's been on this no-nap kick, which is about to send me and Mike over the edge. It wouldn't be that bad if she was physically ready to give up the nap, but on days she doesn't nap, she's like a drunk monkey by 5 o'clock. So, she actually did fall asleep yesterday and wouldn't you know it, it started to snow. I could hardly wait to wake her up. I went into her room and said, "Margaux, you need to wake up so we can go play in the snow!" She said, "No, Mommy. Just a few more couple minutes of sleep." That seemed like a sign of things to come. I finally got her up, and we had a blast outside. As you'll see from the pics, it took her a minute to wake up. Then, she got into it and even tried to catch snowflakes on her tongue. A very fun day!

Hold Still a Minute

So, the other morning, I thought Margaux looked like such a big girl. She was all ready for school and looked cute and happy. I had this thought, "Hey, take a quick picture for the family." Ha ha. There is no such thing as a quick picture of a two-year old. What you see below is the stream of pictures I had to take to finally get her to look at the camera and smile. As so often happens, the journey is even better than the destination.

Take a hike

Our friends, Tony, Patti, and baby Cecilia came to visit us a couple of weeks ago. We had beautiful weather, so we all went hiking in the Lincoln National Forest. Margaux loved the backpack experience (Thanks, Tracy!), but baby Cecilia preferred to walk on her own. It was pretty amazing because she walked a very long ways and only occasionally agreed to be carried. She's only 15 months old, too! It was a wonderful weekend with old friends and the great outdoors.

Happy Halloween!