SNOW DAY - WA-HOOOOOOOOO!

All this week, we heard of the "Surprise February Storm" that was going to come in like gangbusters Wednesday evening...probably sometime between 4-6 p.m. It was still sunny outside at 5:15 p.m. When I went to bed last night, I was pretty sure it wasn't going to snow because nothing had stuck on the ground (though it did look icy).

But, when we looked out the window this morning...

It was a winter PLAYLAND! So, Caitlin and Codes woke up their Dad at 8 a.m., and he begrudgingly got out of bed to go play in the snow with them. (What a good Dad, eh?)

Cody, our little ice eater, munched happily on new fallen snow. We only let him eat the stuff in the front yard where there are no doggy land mines.

Caitlin was spending time trying to find sticky enough snow to make snowballs.

They both were having fun hanging out in the front yard for a change.

They were able to make some snowballs and toss a few to Casey. She liked eating the snow just as much as Cody.

Casey also loved romping around in this crazy white stuff.

Brian, big and strong man that he is, was able to make this 12 inch high snow man.

Here's Caitlin, inside where it's safe (from snowballs) and warm. We were providing some targets on the window from the inside. I think Codes and Daddo were aiming at the face in between the stuffed animals! heh, heh

At least we got SOME use out of the snow pants we bought at garage sales and clearance racks!

The toes have it...

We went home last summer and I had to have my Dad see all the crazy tricks Caitlin can do with her toes. My Dad showed her up with his trick of somehow "grabbing" the second toe with his first and third toes. Somehow, both kiddos have mastered Grandpa's crazy toe trick.

The Andrusiak's sure have some interesting feet.

I know, I know...

What have we been up to for the past two months, you ask? It's a good question because it LOOKS like I've been too busy to blog, doesn't it? Well, here's a peak at what's been going on!

We've obviously been hanging out with the cat (Raja)!

Which causes the dogs to get jealous, so we had to hang out with them too!
Over Christmas break, we just HAD to go hang out with Uncle Deacon and family at the Sand Ranch. (Who can resist 40 acres of backyard sand fun?)
Of course if we are at Uncle Deacons, we just MUST go on the 4-wheelers!
And, since that is so fun, we just have to beg the cousins to come visit too so we can all bounce around on the trampoline! This is just a brief glimpse of what we've been doing. I will try to make a little time to post about Thanksgiving and Christmas as soon as I get another chance!

The Soup Guy

Last Thanksgiving, when my Dad came, he made lots of different soups. That's pretty traditional in a Polish household (though I didn't really know that until I went to Poland). In my Dad's family, that's the way it always was, so he had many years to practice throwing things into a broth and making a delicious soup out of it all. Well, about the third bowl into the soup fest last year and Brian decided that soup is easy to make, tastes great and should become his newest hobby. ha, ha

He tried a few times after my Dad left and everything was a little bland, or too spicy, or not enough something, and then the soup fever died down a little. Knowing that "winter" was coming and the FEVER would probably hit again soon, one day I happened upon a soup recipe book while standing at the Walgreen's checkout line perusing the checkstand offerings. The book was $4.00 so I thought, why not?

That book is inspiration and contains so many different yummola soups! The first one Brian made was the chicken and rice soup which uses rotisserie chicken (who can argue with that?) and delicious spices. This soup made a believer out of me, even though Brian thought it was "just okay."

Look at this soup!!!! Just okay?????????? No way. It was so good, I didn't even add SALT and I always add salt. I think the best spice in it is tarragon. Who would have thought that tarragon was the spice of the gods? There's also petite peas (petit pois) which I didn't know would be such a great addition to soup!

If any of you have any great soup recipes, send them to us and let us critique them. ha, ha We're enjoying the cold so much more now.

Halloween fun!

What fun would Halloween be without carving pumpkins? None at all (for Brian)! Actually, we held off carving until the very last moment this year. Last year, I'm thinking, we had mushy pumpkins by the time Halloween rolled around. This year, they were fresh and tough (to carve that is).

Brian completed the bulk of the job. However, he let the kiddos dig in with their hands, but he used a utensil. That's what I call cheatin' (if you ask me).

Look at those ooky guts. The kiddos actually were scooping it out to start with (until they got grossed out by the texture).

W0uld he dare? Nope he didn't. But the shot was good so I'm using it.

Caitlin was a "bat" this year. She chose her costume (though we had a few fights about some of the other bat costumes she wanted). What is up with the skimpy costumes for kids? Next year I'm going to encourage the cutting two holes in a sheet idea and wearing a ghost costume. We got Cody's costume from our babysitter Carol. It was a little big on him, but Cody liked it all the same.

Here's a close up of the jack-o-lanterns. Brian tried to make a friendly faced one and a scary faced one, but I'm not sure either of them look frightening. One looks more cross than anything. On the front one, the eyeball popped out, so it looks almost crazy. Ha!

We decorated the walkway a little bit more than usual this year. However, that netting for a spider web is harder to work with than cotton with maple syrup on your hands.

I made the ears for Caitlin because she didn't think people would realize she was a bat!

We took them around the neighborhood and made sure they were good and tired before they filled their little Halloween bags up. (Thanks Grandma Diane!) We had fun though and our teeth are not rotting out of our heads, so it's all good.

Finally that boy is THREE!

Finally, Codes' birthday has arrived! Cody kept saying to me this morning, "When can I have my birthday??" He was getting upset about it when I told him all day was his birthday. Then I figured out he meant the cake and presents. =) Cody seemed really PROUD of being three today. He told everyone that called us!

Brian decided to take the party to S a f a r i Sam's (SS from here on down) because it does allow us to all have fun together and it wears these two out!


Here's a pic of them trying to go through the Black Diamond course. The sign says that in order to be able to try this course, you have to be able to get yourself on top of this blue cube. It's HARD! I always have to get a running start! Cody decided he didn't want to do it (after standing on the rope ladder) so I had to haul him up and out. Caitlin and Daddo were able to make it through though.

We did go through some of the jungle gym and went down the windy slide.

Cody tried to go down headfirst on his back. This is how he came out of the tube.

This is Caitlin's favorite game ever! She loves to try to win candy out of these "try 'til you win" types of arcade games. We did get a lot of loot from it though.

There's also a bouncy area that we've never tried before. The theme in the bouncy area was F i n d i n g Nemo. So this particular bouncy area had some great parts to play on.

See what I mean?

Here's Cody. This is his usual when we first get into SS. He always climbs on this ride (right in his initial line of sight) and pretends to RIDE. It's still a little too big for him, but it sure doesn't stop him.

There's also this SpongeBob driving game. Cody doesn't do too well when you put money in, because he can't remember to keep his foot on the gas. So, we tend to let him think he's playing when it just plays through the game trailer.

Unlike his Dad, Cody seems to like any type of pop. But, he does call them all "Pepsi."

Cody blowing out his three lone candles. Brian doesn't yet know the Andrusiak tradition of always adding "one to grow on."

Bri had to relight these candles because as soon as we starting singing, Cody started to blow them out!

Caitlin and I headed over to Albertson's to pick out a cake for Codes. We decided on cupcakes since there are only a few of us and we didn't want to be eating leftover cake all week long. Caity decided on these Halloween and Birthday ones!

These are the 4-wheelers that Caitlin decided to give him for his birthday. She knows how much he LOVES them and picked them out first.

Here is Codes unwrapping his Medical cart toy. I thought it might help to have him NOT just think about 4 wheelers and motorcycles. I wanted to help promote the idea that someday he might just not want to be an extreme sports athlete, but to consider becoming a doctor. heh, heh

It was a fun day. We hope for many more happy birthdays for all of us!

Pumpkin Patch!!!!!!

We usually go to this family owned pumpkin patch to buy our pumpkins. We had a beautiful sunny day and decided to go play and take a little tractor ride.

They have these wonderful hay bales that the kids love to play on! (They also usually have a hay bale maze for kids, but this year they were just stacked into rectangles.)

Here's Cody having some fun on the hay.

My beautiful little Caito trying to jump up onto the bales. They were a bit high, but she managed to pull herself up!

We were the only ones on the tractor ride, so we got to sit up front by the driver (who had his dog with him). We were also sharing this yummy nectarine!

Caitlin and Codes just chillin'.

Look at all those pumpkins. We couldn't bring ourselves to buy some because it was the very first week of October and we felt we would have mushy, gross pumpkins by Halloween.

They had these crazy fat, but flat pumpkins out front that did look like they could be worn as hats. Not quite though. Hopefully, we will get back there sometime soon (though now it's all busy) and get some pumpkins!!!!

Seattle

{I'm just warning you that these posts are out of order, but alas, you get to see all the latest pics.}

So, we went up to Seattle to visit our friends, James and Tisha. I KEPT forgetting my camera, which was so frustrating! But, I did manage to shoot a few pics of this wonderful TROLL under the Fremont Bridge! I can't remember who the artists were, but it was made out of cement with a shiny metal eye!

Brian, Caitlin and Cody climbing all over the troll. It's really amazing how big this thing is, especially the nose! That's a Volkswagon Beetle under the Troll's hand!

Here is Cody climbing up on the knuckles.

Up close of Caitlin and Codes!

Here's James trying to feed Cody to the Troll! For his efforts, he got all dirty from Cody's constant state of Pigpenishness.

We had a great time and only wish we had taken photos of the fountain, the Children's Museum, the Arcade, Pike's Market, etc. But, maybe next time!

My 100th post!!!!!

Wow! I actually made it to 100! That's pretty amazing to me. Finding time to blog seems difficult, though it's mostly because having time to myself just to relax is SO MUCH MORE desired at the end of my days than doing ONE MORE TASK. Sadly, blogging does often seem like a task, especially when blogger puts the pictures at the top and you have to try to move them and move them and move them. Sheesh.

But, now I'm back for a little bloggin'.

{By the way, still not quite finished with that paint job. Sure is hard to do with two little ones underfoot. BUT, might get finished this weekend!}