i thought i knew

let me just say...i THOUGHT i knew what cold felt like. i've spent many a christmas in canada. but no one ever told me that the real coldness comes AFTER christmas. -15 degrees. note the minus sign before the 15. days where the high is zero. zero isn't a number! i go outside and breath in and i can literally feel the breathe crystalize on my nostril hairs. I'm not making this stuff up! it gets in the 20s here and people think it's a heat wave. seriously, they'll go outside without a coat!

i've had to shovel snow once so far. Will had shoveled the driveway the night before and left for work early in the morning. but by the time i got up a snow plow had come down our street and shoved a MASSIVE pile of snow at the end of my driveway. apparently that's normal, but i was in shock! i had to be somewhere that evening and will wasn't going to be home until the next day! so when the kids went down for their naps, i put all my winter gear on, including my furry hat, and headed out with a shovel. i slung some snow around and felt like i had no clue what i was doing. i kept looking around to see if any of the neighbors were watching me. and i just kept thinking, "where am i? is this my life?" it's times like these that i feel like i should be on a reality tv show where people are put in extreme situations.

however, to liam and hayden this life in the north is normal and they are two happy little kiddos!

Hayden is 11 months old and i think i can say she is officially walking. She's been cruising for a while and taking a couple of steps here and there, but yesterday something clicked for her and she was toddling all around the kitchen. She's still pretty timid. Not near the bull dozer that Liam was at her age. She also quit nursing about 3 weeks ago - turned her nose up at me and would NOT nurse. Actually the first few days she cried and pushed me away when i would try to nurse her and then she started looking at me like, "mom, why is your boob in my face". I tried and tried for about a week and then just had to let it go. I was completely crushed and emotional for a couple of days but I've moved on. She's on formula now, which she really didn't like at first, and i'm going to put her on cow's milk soon.

Liam is doing pretty good with potty training - still has bad days - but not as often. He loves to sing. He stands up on the fireplace like it's a stage and gives us a little show most nights before bedtime. His greatest hits right now are "I've Got the Joy, Joy, Joy" and "The Farmer in the Dell". We get the biggest kick out of him singing "The Farmer in the Dell". He sings "The farmer takes a wife, the farmer takes a wife, hi-ho the dairy-o, the farmer takes a wife." then it's supposed to be "the wife takes a dog", then "the dog takes the cat", then "the cat takes the mouse", "the mouse takes the cheese", then "the cheese stands alone". what a dumb song by the way! the farmer takes a wife and the wife takes a dog??? what's that supposed to mean? is that some kind of absurd ranking of mammals? anyway, sometimes liam gets the verses mixed up and says "the wife takes the cheese". ha ha! i guess it's not that funny, but hilarious when liam's singing it.

We have made a New Year's resolution as a family this year. We are committing ourselves to memorizing scripture. We don't really have a set plan, but we're starting with Psalm 23. I think Liam's little brain will soak it up. And my prayer is that it will become second nature to store up God's Word and in our hearts and minds.

Happy 2010 everybody!