The Real Frozen

I’ve mentioned before that Mallory is way obsessed with everything to do with the movie Frozen.  She plays Frozen every. single. day. 

Anyway…

A few weeks ago I found a water leak in the basement.  The amazing part… it was a leak in my laundry area… which is not finished!!  So it was leaking from the ceiling – but the ceiling isn’t really a ceiling, if that makes sense.  I can see pipes and boards and spider webs and what-not in that section of our house.  (This is the only section of our house that is not finished and never will be.)  Jesse had already left for the day and actually was out of town.  What now!  It had snowed the night before.  A lot!  And he was driving.  So I hesitated to call him to distract him from the roads.  But… we have water leaking at a pretty good rate.  I better call him.  He tells me to call the neighbor.

Long story short… I called the neighbor.  He came over via snow blower.  He pushed his snow blower over so he had a path to walk on.  It has snowed a lot that night.  Looked at it thinks the roof has ice built up and it melted when we used the exhaust fan in the bathroom.  Ah.  Easy.  Jesse just has to go up there and get rid of that ice. 

Jesse comes home from work and finds the problem.  It is our rain gutters full of ice… and they are leaking out the backside… running down the house… leaking into the little part of the basement.

He shovels off a section of the roof onto the deck below.  Now we have tons and tons (literally) of snow on our deck!  We should get that off before our deck collapses.  We don’t shovel our deck in the winter – so it has every once of snow… plus now the snow from the roof on it.  Too much weight!! 

He was out there shoveling one day and it is such heavy snow!  It is a lot of work!  Lots of work!  He got out a hoe type tool and started chopping it into blocks of snow and just picking up the blocks and tossing them over the rail to the ground below.

I saw him doing that and laughed.  Mallory is always making Jesse be Kristoff from Frozen.  Kristoff’s job is an ice harvester.  So I opened the window and asked him if he was taking his Kristoff role seriously by being an ice harvester for the day.

When he was done and came in the house the kids were already down for a nap.  Or attempting to nap.  They were laying in their room talking and reading books and wanting nothing to do with sleep that day.

He showed me that he had built them an “ice castle” on the deck.  He grabbed Mallory’s Frozen dolls and stuck them in the castle.  He had a big surprise for them when they woke up! 

I grabbed a couple pictures of them playing in the ice castle.

They didn’t last too long out there.  It was super cold!! 

They also haven’t been able to go out there again to play because it has been below zero again!!!  It is suppose to be a warmer weekend so hopefully they can get out there and play in the castle again before it melts.  But at the rate our weather is going it is not going to melt any time soon!

Baby Bump–22 Weeks

22 Weeks!  Say what?!  How did that happen!  I thought I was only at 21 weeks… thank goodness for baby apps to keep me on track! 

Taking belly pictures is so… not fun!  I don’t know how to stand.  I feel like a big dork.

Moving!  Baby is on the move!  I use to only feel her at night when I would crash on the couch.  Not anymore.  She wiggles every time I stop moving including during the day.  She feels very low already!  And she seems to get real angry when I sit, as if I’m squishing her, because she goes to town! 

I hate pants!  The pair I’m wearing in this picture are too short – but you can’t see that.  I’m not kidding when I say yoga pants are my BFF! 

Baby Girl!  Still sinking in!  I still catch myself saying “he” and “him”.  Mallory is super excited!  Max still thinks he is getting a boy.

Names?  Nope!  We had a boy name.  Jesse is suppose to pick the name this time… and so far he has nothing.  : )  Mallory thinks her name should be Flower.  Max thinks her name should be Junior. 

Exercise?  Nope.  I haven’t for two weeks now.  I was going at 5:45 in the morning… and it was like 50 below zero outside… and I hated that!  I don’t do extremely cold mornings!  So I quit!  I need warmer temps!

Still crying.  Over things that are not even really sad.  I was reading a parenting book out loud to Jesse and I start crying.  I stop.  Look at him and say “was that sad?”  He said no.  I could not explain why it made me cry. 

Heartburn!  Yup!  Can get it just drinking water!

Sugar!  Give me sugar!  In the beginning I told Jesse I would not let this be a sugar baby (like the last two) and well… I did great in the beginning.  Right now all I want is sugar!  I try tricking myself by eating something healthy but sweet.  Doesn’t work.  Give me the ‘real’ sugar! 

Dreams!  I’m starting to have some wild dreams!  Last night I dreamed that everyone was kicked out of the United States and we had to flee to Iran.  They had a building for us all.  So we are in Iran and it is winter and they have tons of snow.  My brother got his vehicle stuck and he asks me to call Mom and tell her to start the van he was coming to get it.  I refused.  I would not call her.  Then we were going snowmobiling.  (My Mom hasn’t drove a van in many years – not sure why I went back to her driving a van.)

Ice Fishin

Ice fishing is a pretty big hobby in the winter.  However, Jesse and I have never gone.  There was an ice fishing contest here in our little town at the little lake and our friends go every year so they told us to come on down and bring the kids.  The kids get prizes for catching fish and they give the kids free stuff. 

Since I had never been ice fishing I was kind of nervous and kept having visions of Max falling into an ice fishing hole.  I expressed that concerned to Jesse (and my sister-in-law) and they both laughed at me.  Apparently the holes are not that big!  Not big enough for Max to fall into!

When we woke up on Saturday it was –12 out.  I was a bit hesitant about going.  We waited a few hours and by the time we were ready to go it was 9 above!  Good enough.  We layered on the layers and headed out.

Our friends (and their group of friends) had tents set up with heaters in them.  So we could go in there and warm up if we got cold.  Plus they had a fire going.  Which is so crazy.  A fire on the ice.  Heated tents on the ice.  Lots of vehicles/trucks out on the ice.

When we got there our friend, Trish, took us into their tent to show the kids the fishing poles and how to fish.   

Mallory sat on a bucket and tried it out.

It only kept their interest for about 5.6 seconds and they were off.    Our friends had their little boy & he brought a friend.  (They are 7 years old) Mallory had no fear running and keeping up with them.  Maxwell attempted to keep up with them.  They ran and sled and wrestled and ran some more.  Pretty soon there was a whole pack of kids who got bored with fishing and they were all playing.

One of the neighbor fisherman kept catching these little fish.  He brought one over for the kids to take up and see if it was big enough to get on the fish board to win a prize.  Max wouldn’t take it.  Mallory did though.

Walking over to the fish board to see if Mallory’s fish is big enough.  Max falls a lot! 

She still has her fish!

It was too small for the board. 

Meanwhile I’m not paying attention and Max is knocking off the big fish from the fish board.  Ahh!  One of the guys says “See.  They are teaching the little ones how to steal fish already!” 

Below is a picture of Mallory being pulled by my friend’s daughter, Vanessa.  She use to babysit Mallory (and then Maxwell) until she grew up on us!  We loved her!  She was our most favorite babysitter. 

This was just a picture of our fishing spot. 

I think Vanessa misses Mallory & Maxwell.  She pulled them in that sled for a long time!  She also chased and kept up with Max the whole the afternoon!

It was getting pretty cold and late in the afternoon.  Max was getting sleepy and a bit cold.  So he came in the tent and did some fishing with Trish.  She showed him all about how to set up the pole.  He was intently listening.

Showing me the bug on his hook. 

Trish asked him to hold the bug for her while she had to get something.  He wouldn’t do it.  Then she asked him to hold the hook (below the bug) and he would do that.

Below she is showing him to watch for the red end of the pole to bend way down.  Then we know there is a fish.

He sat here for a good 20 minutes.

Then Mallory came in to warm up and she wanted a turn.  Max shared his pole and told her how to do everything.

Then wanted his own and is pointing a pile of poles and trying to tell me what to do get him one.  He is an expert ice fisherman now, ya know. 

We made it to the handing out prizes and Max was done.  He had lasted the whole afternoon without whining or complaining about being cold.  He was starting to ask a few times to go home.  Mallory went up to get her prizes (little personal frozen pizza & fishing lure) and we left.

I’m walking to the truck with Mallory and she asks me if my feet are cold?  I told her they were starting to get a bit cold.  She tells me her feet are frozen.

We were so proud of both the kids.  They were so tough!  It was a pretty cold afternoon and they never once complained. They both also thought it was so much fun.  They like ice fishing. 

We got home and Max couldn’t hold it together anymore.  He cried and cried as I took off all his clothes.  He was cold.  He was done.  Once he was out of those clothes he ran for the blankets!  He just wanted to snuggle. 

We never caught a single fish.  Not a one.

Max (nor Mally) never fell in a hole.  There was tons of running and not watching where they were running too.  Amazing!  There were a few times we had to catch them before they stepped into the hole.  But they were always caught.  Vanessa just caught Max in time, one time, his foot just grazed the water – the water even rippled.  However the holes are not big enough to swallow up Max… just big enough for a leg.  : )