A foot of snow...

We've been waiting all winter for a good snow and it finally came. Right now we have about a foot out there and it is simply gorgeous. We just went sledding as a family and it was so much fun. Elijah wasn't sure what to think of SO much snow...he was much more confident sledding yesterday when we only had 4". Toward the end, he got used to it and kept wanting us to pull him up AND down the hill. This is deep snow and it's thick....and unplowed. It was hard work! When he wore both Shane and me out, we came back in. He wasn't happy about that at all, and actually, when we told him that he couldn't take his sled inside, he freaked out. Evidently he's forgotten about inside vs. outside toys. That's a hard lesson to revisit.

A Day On...

Penny, Tom, Elijah, and I just got back from volunteering with a local organization called Volunteers for Change. Many of the volunteers from our local Obama campaign office got together and organized community volunteer efforts. We were assigned a neighborhood in town to go door-to-door and ask for canned food or monetary donations for the Hoosier Hills Food Bank. We had a blast and Elijah was amazing. It was his first, of hopefully many, volunteer efforts. He loved going door to door and telling people "Thank you!"

Thanks to Penny and Tom for inviting us to go with them, and thanks to the organizers of Volunteers for Change...it's going to be an extra tough year for many people, and those of us who can, should make a renewed vow to help others who are less fortunate. Anyone want to join us?

Showin' some sass

Last night I got home late from work, just in time to read books with Elijah. Before we started, I was asking him about his school day. He reluctantly answered my questions...I wanted him to be more specific than he wanted to be. After a bit, he just stopped answering. When I asked the same question again, he looked at me and said, "Hey Mommy, I'm done talking." What can you really say to that? I figured I'd better start reading.

I like cookies!

I've been wanting to bake cookies with Elijah all break, but it never seemed to happen. On New Year's Eve, I decided that it was time to stop doing normal things, and make sure that it gets done in 2008! We had a blast! Elijah was hysterical. His favorite part (aside from eating the cookies, of course) was using the hand mixer.

In fact, he loved it so much that when it was time to put it away, he had a meltdown...and a large-scale one at that! He was able to recover and finish. He helped me scoop the dough onto the pans, and then he had his first taste of cookie dough (take a look at his eyes and you can see how swollen they are from him crying!)!

Then, he waited oh-so-patiently, for them to bake in the oven.

After that, he had to wait for cookies to cool. It felt like he was waiting, and waiting, and waiting. He kept saying, "Hey mommy, I like cookies!"

Then, finally, it was time to chow down.