Icy weekend

We had another cold storm come through this last weekend. No snow, but plenty of freezing rain, sleet, and ice. Most everything was closed down on Friday, so Dave got the day off!

Every single branch, twig, and leaf was covered in ice. Icicles hung from Everything!


We probably looked like big desert-dorks marveling at it all!


I wish I had been able to get better pictures - these are just from our yard on Saturday. But the tree-lined roads were beautiful, especially Sunday morning. On our drive to church when the sun was out, everything sparkled like crystals! It was breath-taking!

We spent most of the weekend like this: Cozied up on the couch! Lazy but warm and happy!

Invisible

If you spend a day with Caroline you'll inevitably hear her talking to or about some invisible people.
This isn't something I'm unfamiliar with - my little brother had a bunch of invisible friends, girlfriends, and pets and it used to crack us all up. I'm also told that my Dad had one imaginary friend he called "Click" that they even had to set a place for at the dinner table.

So maybe it's hereditary. But with Caroline they are not imaginary - they're just invisible. (Invisible makes her seem less like a loon and more like she has a super power: The power to see invisible people.)

One other major difference: they are not invisible friends - they're invisible siblings.
According to her (and she has stood by this for several months) she has 7 brothers: Joe, Kevin, Nick (yes, the Jonas Brothers names) and Scott, Smitty, Rich and Dave. (names from Imagination Movers)

Joe is her favorite and we hear about him rather often. (I also have a brother named Joe. He is not invisible.) Caroline's brother, Joe, accompanies us in the car wherever we go. He also usually plays the male role in any pretend games (the prince, the groom, the pirate)
Caroline has 2 invisible sisters: Brooke and Holly (names of two of her cousins in AZ) They usually attend the tea parties and fancy balls.

When I asked if I could take their pictures, she said sure!

with Brooke and Holly

with Joe (he's tall)

I think this whole thing is both awesome and a little sad. Maybe I need to arrange more play dates? It's usually pretty funny (and convenient that she's figured out a way to play "by herself") but sometimes, it's a little problematic. She has been known to blame things that go missing or broken on the invisible siblings.

A fruity activity

Last week we hosted a Mother's Group activity at our house. We made cereal jewelry and it was super fun!

There was definately more eating than jewelry making going on, but we kind of saw that coming. Caroline insisted on making a bracelet and necklace for herself, a bracelet for me, and one for Dave too.

Group Hug!

It's been really nice to have this group since we moved here. We've done a lot of fun activities and made some great friends.

Manicure

Caroline had a bad habit of picking at her nails. I would tell her that if she let them grow, then I'd paint them real pretty. It worked a few times, but usually she'd peel them the day after I painted them.
Then one day she saw glittery nail stickers at the store. She really wanted them so I told her if she let her nails grow I'd buy them for her. I really didn't think she'd remember, but a couple of weeks later she accidently scratched me and I looked at her nails and was surprised to see white tips! I told her I was proud of her and she said, "So we can go get those stickers now?!"
So she picked out the biggest pack that had hearts, stars, animals, sparkles, and flowers and we did her nails. I told her I wanted to take a picture of her nails and she posed as thus:

Love this kid!

A Great Thrift Store Find

A few days ago, a friend and I took our little girls to a neighboring town to do some thrift store shopping.

One we went to was a "Goodwill Outlet". That's right, an outlet thrift store! Hilarious. So what does an outlet thrift store look like? A large room full of giant bins filled with stuff. The bins are at least organized by clothes, shoes, bags, books, and toys - but beyond that, not much. No size, gender, or age catagories. So pretty much you stand around the bins and dig through other people's junk until you find something worthwhile. Awesome.

The best part? Pricing. You pay...get this... by the pound!!! Yes, clothes are $1.50 A Pound! How funny is that?!

While my friend was unable to dig up something of value, Caroline and I unearthed this gem:

It's shiney, poofy, has lace, flowers, and a hoop skirt. Needless to say, she loves it! I have no idea what it might have been used before (quincenera flower girl?) but now it's the best dress-up dress ever.

We brought it home, washed it, and she's been wearing it every chance she gets and has probably gotten married to an invisible prince named "Joe" about 7 times in the last 3 days.

Oh, girls are fun!

A Productive New Year's

We spent our New Year's weekend painting. We've been wanting to paint our living room since we moved in. We hate the flat paint they use around here - it doesn't clean well at all. And the color we had was the same color that they use in all the houses Dave works in - so it doesn't exactly give him warm fuzzies!

So we took the 3-day weekend as an opportunity to roll up our sleeves and work!

Caroline wanted to help, so we let her do a little. It took half a day to prep, and two full days to paint, but we did it!
For weeks, we'd been buying paint samples and trying to decide on a color.

And we love the result!

The pictures aren't the best quality, but you get the idea.

A few weeks ago we also cleared out our spare room and painted it. We're on a roll! We set a goal to try and do some sort of home improvement project every month. We've got a long list, so it's just a matter of motivation (and funds. but we've got another resolution to work on that one!) Our goals range from small and cheap (organize the shed) to moderate (tile a backsplash in the kitchen). Wish us luck!

Happy New Year!