It's how cold outside?!?!

I had a hard time picking a title for this post. I was going to call it Black Tuesday, but I realized that that title could be taken entirely the wrong way....

Last time I posted I only thought it was cold! I didn't know what we were in for. Last week we broke the all-time coldest temperature in Clinton. It was -30! It's hard for me to describe just how cold that is. Ellery and I didn't leave the house for 2.5 days. We had one pipe freeze, but luckily it didn't burst. It was the cold water pipe that runs up an outside wall to the shower. I had to run space heaters upstairs in the bathroom and in the dining room pointed at the wall for most of the day to get it to open up.

Jason ended up winning the weight loss challenge at work. He lost 33 pounds in 10 weeks or 14 percent of his body weight! I must say that he was extremely disciplined! I think we were both happy it was over. He ate a bacon cheeseburger with fries and a soda at lunch on Friday to celebrate.

On Friday night we went to a gun show in a little town not far from here. Jason found what he's been looking for, but they were $1000 and $2000....a little pricey! Needless to say, we left empty handed. On Saturday I cut my hair back off. I couldn't think of a good reason for growing it out, so I had it all cut off. Kate did a great job and Jason loves it, which is what matters most. After that, we headed down to the boat/RV show in Davenport. Ellery had so much fun running around in all the boat. So, these may seem like pretty lame activities, but you'll take anything when it's so cold outside, any excuse to get out of the house!

This is a picture of Ellery playing dress up over the weekend.

On Tuesday Reagan and Emily joined us for story time at the library. As you can see, Reagan was less than thrilled.

The two of them ended up having a great time. It was a pajama party at the library that day, so all the kids wore their jammies.

Reagan warmed up quickly and decided to give "Jelly" lots and lots of hugs!



We were singing songs and the librarian asked Ellery where her toes were and she pointed to her toes. She then said, "See, Ellery knows where her toe's are". Ellery then pointed to her nose as fast as she could. It was cute and grandma got a picture.



We've been spending a lot of time playing inside. Ellery, Reagan and Lulu love Ellery's Rose Petal Cottage. They all climb in and play for hours. Here is a picture of Lulu hanging out on the changing table for the baby dolls.







A picture of her cottage put together as a house. This is what Santa brought Ellery. You can see Lulu through the window. Notice that the sun if finally shinning!






Ellery stuffing Gigi in the wash.

Ellery was making mommy some tea.

"Here ya go" She says that all the time.

Playing pee pie with Lulu.

I asked Ellery what shoes she wanted to wear and she put these on.

Drinking the baby's juice and milk.

Last but not least, I couldn't let this week go by and not mention the inauguration....Nope, I didn't watch any of it. I did decide that Tuesday would be a great day for me to put my new bumper sticker on my car! Hopefully 2012 will be here before we know it!