My Little Protector of the Universe

Nolan's current alias is "Earth Ace- Planet Hero". As always, when Nolan has an alias, I have a corresponding one. Today's was "Dazzle- planet hero from Venus". As we entered the car wash today to remove all the snow, ice and other disgusting winter grime from our lovely van I hear "Don't worry Dazzle! I will protect you from all those soapy monsters! Planet Heros on the way!" Who could worry when you have such a diligent hero by your side.

Fun in the Snow

There are not many things I like about winter in the MidWest. When the temps are below 20 and everywhere you look there is white, white and more white with snow and it makes everything you own dirty and wet it is hard to like it. There are other times though when I can see it through the eyes of my kids and see that there are things to love about a cold winter. Today was one of those days. All the stars aligned today, the temperature was close to 32 (which means I can tolerate being outside for more than 2 seconds), there was plenty of snow on the ground, and school was out! When all these things fall into place we can get on our winter gear and enjoy it so we headed to the golf course to make roller coasters out of pieces of plastic, white fluffy powder and big big hills. Every year I love the days we sled like this but I do not ever think you will truly get this native Texan to say she LIKES winter here in Iowa. As Quinn said today "I can't wait until we go sledding again!"
Enjoy the videos!

Where once there was a...

Where once there was a playroom, a guestroom, 2 boys....

This seems to be the continuing story of the old beautiful house that we live in. The collage above is composed of pictures from each of the different functions the huge open attic space has had here. When we moved in we were sure that this space would be the family room, replacing our big basement family room at the old house. Unfortunately, the couch wouldn't fit up the stairs and after a good cry on moving day we had to rethink our plan. This landed the family room on the main level in a sun porch very crowded with furniture.

Once we knew the attic couldn't be our family room we decided that we would use it as a playroom/guest room. What we didn't realize was that the guest room function would be it's most important use. For several months we had another family living in that attic space which never could have happened if that couch had fit up the stairs. Funny how those things work out, isn't it? (The picture in the lower right corner is of the attic when John and Ellie were here. )

When the guest room was vacant again we realized that we were not maximizing the space we had in this new bigger house. Jim was still working in our room, we were cramped in our family room and we didn't really have a playroom. SO, we rearranged again. The boys moved up to the attic to share a room, a very daring thing for their parents to attempt. Quinn's old room gave Jim his 1st actual in home office space and Nolan's old room turned into the guest room. (the bottom left 2 pics are of the boys' attic room) While Jim, the boys, and our guests loved this arrangement there was still the problem of a cramped family room and no playroom in the main level to be dealt with. So.....

After much discussion about how we could solve these problems we rearranged again for hopefully the last time. We moved the 2 big arm chairs and the very very very heavy TV from the main level up the attic and made that our new family room.(see top right pic) We love having carpet in our cozy space and we love that the neighbors can't see us watching TV everytime they pull in the driveway. The boys are now bunked in a bedroom on the 2nd floor and love sharing a room closer to us. We made that sunroom into a glorious bright and sunny playroom with all sorts of room for superhero and race car action to take place and a cozy red couch to watch it all from becuase after all.... it still doesn't fit up the stairs.

Starbucks Whore

I pulled into the local Starbucks drive-thru today to get my usual peppermint mocha fix without thinking much of it. As I was paying, the trip Starbucks turned ugly. Quinn decided today was the day to out me as a Starbucks whore. He rolled down his window and from the back seat I hear my 6 year old shout to the lady handing me my lovely cup of coffee, " My mom comes here everyday! She is wasting all her money on coffee!". Horrified, I was clawing at the door panel to get the window rolled up before anymore damage could be done. I smiled a sweet, "I have no idea what he is talking about" smile and promptly drove away. All the while Quinn is telling me how I should have a little more self-control and not have coffee at Starbucks EVERYDAY.

I really should keep that window lock on.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I am always at a loss on how to celebrate New Years Eve with 2 little ones in the house. It seems to be such a fun, big day but all the occurences happen much much too late for our little creatures. This year I decided that we would have a family favorite meal (now named New Years Eve Nachos) and watch our family movies from 2008 and watch a slide show of our pictures from the year as well. The kids loved it and we did too. It was so fun to hear the kids' take on all the happenings in our year and crack up over what gets accidentally caught on camera. We will be doing this again next year with hopefully a little more planning and savvy but for sure, next Dec. 31st you will see the 4 Lynchs cozied up on the couch laughing at themselves once again.

Post a comment-We would love to hear how your family rings in the new year!

{Way to go Hawkeyes on the Outback bow win!}