Playing in the snow

Jasper and I had a great time playing in the snow Saturday afternoon while Natalie was shopping. We got all bundled up and hit the backyard, which still has about a foot or more (mostly more) of snow covering everything.

He struggled to get around out there, and was a little grossed out by Cozmo's 'collection' in front of the deck (as was I), but once we stomped down some of the snow he was able to stay on his feet pretty well.

We spent our time doing two things:

1) Throwing snow for Cozmo, who absolutely LOVES chasing snowballs. J especially likes holding onto the snowballs and letting Coz knock it out of his hands with his snout and sometimes his paws. Yeah, J ended up on his backside a few times and with snow in his face a few others, but that's what's fun about the whole thing, and that's what got J giggling like crazy!

2) Sliding and swinging (more photos in next post).

The 50-cent snow pants Nat bought at a garage sale earlier this year and hand-me-down winter jacket and boots kept him toasty warm and dry enough for us to be outside for about an hour. By the time we went inside, he was pretty much wrecked, but perked right up when grandma Debbie and grandpa Paul swung by.

Tape measure

After playing in the snow on Saturday afternoon we sat down to watch the John Deere movie, but something else caught Jasper's eye: daddy's tape measure.

He'd sit there, pull the tape out as far as his limited wingspan would allow and tuck it behind him, waiting for it to reel itself back in. When it did, as you can see, he thought it was pretty darn funny!

Breakfast with Santa

The Wilsons and Melissa and Sydney Wilder made the short trek over to Pleasant Hill on Dec. 5 for Breakfast with Santa at the Doane's Park shelter after the girls stayed the night with us.

We ate pancakes with a couple hundred of our closest friends, but before that we got in the short (but growing quickly) line to sit on Santa's lap. Syd was all about it, and I'm sure had an earful for the jolly one. Jasper, as you can see, was not as thrilled with the idea, although Santa must've enjoyed having Nat there with him!

After settling down during breakfast, our peace was again interrupted by another Christmastime character: Frosty the Snowman. Again, Syd thought he was pretty cool and got a photo with him. Jasper ... not so much. He started to get upset so I had to calm him down. I told J that the snowman was nice, but all he could say was "Bye, bye, no man ... Bye, bye, 'no man."

J was happier after Frosty walked away, but kept an eye the 8-foot tall snowman for the rest of the time as Syd got her face painted.

Then we played outside for about one minute — it was cold! — and headed home.

Very good time!

Snowed in

The Wilsons were snowed in Wednesday — like most of the rest of Iowa — after a blizzard dropped about a foot (some places got up to 18 inches) of snow on us and 40-plus mph winds blew it around.

I scooped our deck to the best of my abilities so Cozmo would go outside and do his business, and I spent a couple hours digging out our driveway, but because the snow plow didn't come until about 4, we didn't even attempt to leave the house until about 5, when I headed to Dahl's and Little Caesars for pizza - can't beat $5 large pies!

Instead, we stayed comfy and warm inside with Jasper and Coz, reading books, napping, watch John Deere and having a good old time. Jasper also stayed warm by wearing my stocking hat all day. We tried taking it off at one point ... big mistake!

Here are a few pics of the snow - it was piled more than a foot deep against our sliding glass doors to the deck and one drift in our driveway was about waist deep.

Dance off!

One of Jasper's favorite things is to dance to Natalie's cell phone ring tones. Normally it's just the three of us in the dance contest, but we added a four participant tonight - cousin Sydney. I think she beat us all!

Baking with mommy

Jasper likes to help when Natalie bakes, so she pulls over a kitchen chair and lets him get his hands dirty. He always has a great time except, of course, for the one night when he fell off the chair. (He wasn't hurt, though, and he isn't at all afraid to jump back up on the chair to lend a hand.)

On this random Thursday morning, I stayed home with J because Nat had a doctor appointment on her day off. She got home and promptly fired up the oven to make some bread. With J's help, of course.

Yum!

"It's all about John Deere"

As I've written before, Jasper LOVES-LOVES-LOVES the John Deere DVD he got from cousin Syd and watched the entire 45 minute show once a day. We try to limit it to once, although we sometimes break down and let him watch it in the morning and at night.

Natalie and I have pretty much learned all the words and we find ourselves singing the songs even when it's not playing. Great!

Here's a quick video of J watching it this morning. He didn't want to be bothered, but at least he acknowledged the camera.