The storm of the year-Henry.

They've been talking all week about this huge storm that was coming on Friday. All school activities were canceled. The college sent out emails urging students to stay off the roads. We ran to the grocery store to grab the essentials- bananas, milk, beer, and bagels. Then we hunkered down, expecting the worst.

Though it had been 65 degrees and sunny on Thursday, the clouds started rolling in on Friday morning. Mama sent me on a very important mission to the mailbox- my favorite chore. She watches from the front door to make sure I watch for cars- though the only cars that drive by our house is our neighbors'. Our road is a circle and every one on either side of us goes away from our house to get out of the neighborhood.

Mama likes to watch me carry the mail up the driveway because I usually drop it four times. But today, she didn't get to see that because "the mailman closed the lid too tight" and I couldn't get the mailbox open. Instead I dissolved into tears, threw a tantrum and got sent immediately up to bed for a nap.

We spent Saturday lounging around watching BBC dinosaur documentaries on the Netflix. These are our afternoon shows of choice. Sorry, Bob the Builder. Mama didn't realize she looked so rough in this picture. She did drag herself upstairs at 6pm to take a shower and change out of her jammies.

And we continued to munch apples as we watch some pretty graphic dinosaur attacks.

Oh yeah, the storm. Despite our best wishes, it didn't snow on our house, even though just 10 miles north of us got a few inches. Mama and papa dragged us outside to inspect the damage. June showed her true southern roots and cried the whole time, even though she was wearing fleece lined overalls.

We didn't get snow, but we did get ice. And lots of it.

It covered our trees that have already begun to bud.

It must have been warmer when it rained, because the drops all froze.

I was pleased to see the trash can had icicles all over it.

And papa busted all the ice off the lid.

The ice was thick enough that mama was able to peel it off a leaf in one piece.

All this terrible weather made us hungry. Luckily, our steep driveway wasn't covered in ice, so we sent papa out for Chinese food for supper. And we surprised mama by trying some of it! Juner ate a half an egg roll (with sweet and sour sauce, please).

And I ate 2 crab rangoons. They were delicious. Papa even got Chinese donuts for desert and we polished them off.

After we went to sleep tonight, papa came upstairs and woke us up so we could see a miracle- snow! This is probably the most snow we'll see this year. And it will probably be melted when we wake up; it's supposed to be 45 degrees tomorrow.

One final note- papa wants to make it clear that all the yearning and whining for snow are clearly the sentiment of mama and I. He and Juner moved south for one reason alone- so they'd never have to see snow again. He even told me that if it does snow, mama will be taking me sledding, because he's staying inside.

Sunny day- Henry.

Today turned out to be a very nice day, despite the fact that it was 25 degrees this morning and we had to scrape frost off the windshield (with mama in her gym shorts no less). By this afternoon, it had warmed up to 45 degrees. Juner was throwing her normal one hour before supper-time "FEED ME NOW" fit, when she went to the back door and put on her shoes by herself and demanded to go outside. Mama was so impressed that she managed to put on her sandals and get them strapped, she couldn't say no.

Of course, we had to open up the sandbox.

I had some big jobs to do today.

June helped out by burying stones under the sand.

Then she got some practice jumping.

She is already more coordinated than I am. She's our family's only hope for an athlete.

Tonight was Skyline chili night, so mama had to make both spaghetti and hot dogs. She saw an article in her Family Fun magazine where you poke uncooked spaghetti through hot dog chunks, then boil them to make "Squid Dogs." They were pretty funny.

And you can catch a tiny glimpse that I even ate some of them! This is the first supper in a week that hasn't been greeted with tears and a tantrum and probably only the third time in my life that I have willingly eaten pasta.

Mama says this is her proudest moment as a parent. Nothing fills the heart quite like seeing your baby eating a Skyliner. That being said, a special thank you to Skyline Chili for canning your delicious mixture of boiled ground beef and secret spices and making it possible for us to enjoy it here in South Carolina.

Rejuvenated- June.

I'm glad to say I'm feeling much better and decided to give everyone a break on Saturday night. After a full night of uninterrupted sleep, we all awoke refreshed and surprised at how much we liked each other. I am virtually illness-free, with the exception of a runny nose, which is driving me crazy. Any time it runs I wipe it away with my fingers, usually on my cheek. You'd be surprised at how much dirt and lint these cheeks can accumulate with a fine layer of snot.

Today, papa and I had some fun together.

Whenever he's standing around and looking like he needs some fun, I shimmy up backwards to his legs and yell until he throws me in the air.

You can tell I really like this.

Blurry Buggy.

Henry was worried I might kick the lights.

Here's a video of the action. Despite the fact that I refuse to say anything on camera, I really am starting to progress in talking. I'm mimicking sounds more now, and Aunt Jenni heard me say "Bummer" today on the phone. (A truly appropriate response to a broken Scuncii steamer.)

Despite the fact that I'm still not talking, I am busy preparing for my future role as big sister. Apparently, I have made it my duty to take care of all the babies at the gym. Today, there was one little baby sitting in its car seat. It kept throwing its blanket on the floor. Every time this happened, I would run to it, pick up the blanket and wrap it gently back around the baby.


Henry has been enjoying his extra play time after I go down for my nap in the afternoons. Since I still sleep 3+ hours every afternoon, mama lets him stay up until 2 before he goes down for his nap/quiet time. We're not really sure if he's sleeping 100% of the time, but at least when he goes down at 2, mama has most of her chores done around the house (which includes checking her celebrity fashion blogs) and can also go straight down for a nap of her own, ensuring she'll at least get an hour in before he comes downstairs. We're not sure if he's sleeping because we've recently banned the daytime use of monitors. Mama realized she'd just lay on the couch fuming that she could still hear Henry awake in his room and it usually resulted in lost tempers when Henry snuck back downstairs. This new system is really working much better for everyone.

Anyhoo, today during Henry's quiet playtime, he was playing with my Little People fair set. Mama overheard him pretending and caught some of it on video. In this story, the car (of course, no people were involved) was at the top of the roller coaster, but was afraid to go down. But his mama told him he had to because "you're my son." (I can see the therapy sessions now). In the end, the car did come down and ultimately thanked his mother (phew). The best part is that Henry is using his pretend voice for the voices. This voice is also featured when mama pretends to make babies talk and in pretty much every other impression she does. We think it's pretty funny.

Another sick week- Henry.

As soon as we got the stomach bug behind us, we all came down with colds.

Poor Juner got the brunt of it. She's been miserable all week long.

She's been running for three days (none today though) and has just been grumpy all day long.

I've got a cold, too, with a cough that I never forget to mention when mama is handing out medicine. Because June has had such a bad week, everyone is on edge. That means I've been whining more, and mama and papa have taken a hard line on it. So I've spent a lot of in time-out. Mama must have been feeling bad because on Friday she let me get my play-do out, even though she hates how messy it is. But I might finally be old enough to play with it by myself for a long time without making a total mess, so we might get it out more.

Friday was another bad day for Juner. She spent all day crying. When papa got home, she was glad to get a sympathetic hug. The sympathy didn't last long, though, because June slept about 3 hours last night, and only in 2 minute spurts. Mama and papa were up all night with her. And all night, she just didn't want to be in bed. She'd stand up, throw her blankie and nuk and cry to get out. She did this all night until about 6 am when mama took her into her room (papa retreated into bed with me) and let her cry for an hour. Just when mama smelled that June had a dirty diaper, June fell instantly asleep until 11am. Mama felt bad, but wasn't about going to wake her up now that June was actually asleep.

It was just the start to a bad day for our family. Mama and papa were tired and slept on the couches while I watched BBC dinosaur documentaries. Mama was grumpy because she hasn't been working out this week, and she needs her workouts to stay happy. Then she got upset because we all smelled so bad because we haven't had baths in a week (after all the pooping and the barfing, she didn't want us taking baths until she'd cleaned them). She decided that we all needed to get out of the house, so we all pulled on our grossest looking sweats and baseball caps. Then we proceeded to become "those" people that lead others to stop shopping at Walmart. I tried my best to just barely miss hitting everyone we passed with the shopping cart. June threw a fit and ran away. And mama dropped a gallon of milk in the checkout line, spilling it everywhere. But this was only after she declared that if she "had to go through this pregnancy without non-alcoholic beer and starbursts," then she didn't want to do it. Then she turned around and saw a woman laughing out loud and probably taking her picture with her cell phone to post on the "People of Walmart" website.

Mama did get the bathtubs cleaned so we could take baths tonight. I think mama was still upset with Juner for last night, and she decided to cut her hair. She's tired of trying to brush long hair and June hates it all in her face when it's not clipped back at night in bed. Mama cut it with Juner squirming and crying, so we'll she how straight it is when we see it dry in the morning. If all else fails, we'll have Grandma Seibert fix it when she comes down in a couple weeks.

Last week- Henry.

Last week, was an exciting week for us, though we didn't take many pictures- you'll see why soon.

The long, hard winter is over. Apparently, it gets cold down here (and we mean in the thirties), but it doesn't usually stay cold for long. It was in the thirties for almost 3 weeks straight, which was hard on a lot of people. But last week, it started warming up and once it hit 45, I started bugging papa about opening up the new sandbox.

After two nights of begging, we bought some sand and set it up. We filled one side with water, but decided it wasn't as fun, so now both sides have sand.

We played in the garage, which was good for June, as she'd spent the previous day barfing. At least the garage floor would be easy to clean. Luckily, it only lasted about 24 hours. It was also nice for mama, because we played outside for almost 90 minutes while she took a nap after supper.

We should have expected something was up, because by Thursday morning, mama was in a bad way. She dropped me off at school and had every intention of going to the gym, but turned back for home at the last minute. Instead of working out, she turned on the TV for June and fell asleep for 4 hours (off and on). We're not sure what June did the whole time, but she managed to keep herself out of trouble. Papa had to come home and take care of us as mama was sick through Saturday.

On Friday morning, I crawled into bed with mama and papa, announced my belly hurt, and barfed all over their sheets (which mama prefers because it's easier to clean up- plus, we always have two mattress pads on the beds just for this reason). So I didn't have to go to school and papa had to stay home from work to take care of all of us. We got to watch a lot of movies on Friday. It was the best.

On Saturday, we all thought we were feeling better, so we decided to take advantage of the warm weather (fifty degrees) before it started raining for the rest of the weekend. We headed to Nettles Park and played.

We had fun on the swings.

I continue to show that I am not a natural leader because I will follow June anywhere once we get on a playground. Papa says I'm doomed to be a follower. Mama likes to think I'm just very protective on my little sister and it's like having a free babysitter.

We rode the big alligator.

And we all tried out this spinning instrument of torture.

Papa lasted about 10 seconds before he got sick, which is about 9 seconds longer than mama.

Poor Junie wasn't quite recovered from her gastrointestinal maladies because suddenly she started tugging on her pants and mama said, "I think June might have pooped." Understatement of the century. Too keep from getting too graphic, let's just say that it's a good thing no one else was at the park, because the parking lot, June's clothes, the van's carpet, and June's winter coat (an unintentional victim) will never be the same. We had to drive home with the windows open because mama was dry-heaving and poor Guggie was stuck wearing only a diaper.

Amazingly, papa managed to never catch this bug from us, even though he is on medicine that supposed to wipe out his immune system. We're all feeling better finally, though now the three of us have colds and runny noses. Of course, papa is fine. Mama's favorite part of this whole fiasco came on Saturday morning. I was cuddling them in bed and asking repeatedly "Can we get up now?" while a snoozed (a morning tradition in our house). Out of the blue, I climbed on top of mama, took her face in my hands and said, "Mama, I'm sorry I barfed on your bed yesterday."

And despite the fact that he's spent the last 4 days waiting on us hand and foot, cooking all the meals (though we mostly just ate crackers), and doing about 4 loads of laundry a day, Papa offered to take off Monday morning to take us to the zoo. It was 67 degrees and beautiful today and the zoo was packed, because everyone else in the upstate must have had the same idea. It was also a special treat because today was MLK Day and papa usually prefers to work on Federal holidays because his office is always very quiet. He did go into work once we got back home from the zoo.

Thanks so much for taking care of us papa. For your efforts, we promise that you can get that new big TV you've been dreaming about- sometime in the next 15 years.

P.S. thanks for all the congratulations on the new baby, but which of our Wisconsin friends left the comment saying they were having a baby and didn't sign it?!? Please, let us know!

The Coming Attraction-Mama.

We've been alluding to it for a while now and are starting to get inquiring phone calls.

Turner#5 is expected for arrival in mid-August. I had an ultrasound today and though we were all a little sad we weren't having twins (okay, just me), we did get a peak at this handsome fellow (or lady). If you can make it out, it's curled up in a ball facing right, with a little arm and leg sticking out. And if I'm not mistaken, it looks like it's brain is already enormous. This one is going to be the physicist- I already know it.

At 10 weeks, I'm felling great, though exhausted. I require naps every afternoon, which means don't call me between 2 and 4 because I'm not going to pick up the phone (Aunt Jenni). I also haven't had much of an appetite, which means we're eating many more frozen pizzas than usual-to everyone's delight. But, as with both previous pregnancies, I do crave artificially flavored fruit products and have been enjoying my secret stash of Fruit Roll-Ups, something that never crossed our doorstep until now.

Everyone has a name for the baby already. We call it Gus. Aunt Jenni varies between Mariah and Dixie. Uncle Kevin calls it Cap'n Jack. Evie named it Mike Anderson.

Henry has some great questions about the baby. After a talk about how the baby is birthed, he is very concerned that I might drop it while I'm using the toilet, so he often reminds me to be careful. He also went through a time when every time we announced a treat or surprise, he'd scream "Is it the new baby?" Unfortunately, babies take a LONG time to grow.

Fernbank Natural History Museum- Henry.

Despite the fact that we only got home on Wednesday, papa had to leave Thursday to go down to Atlanta for a conference. He had to go back on Saturday for another talk, so we decided to go with him.

While he was off presenting, he dropped us off at the Fernbank Natural History Museum. It had a huge Argentinosaurus that was so big we couldn't fit the whole thing in the picture.

We ate lunch in the cafeteria and spent the afternoon playing in all the kid's rooms. I fished in the pond.

And fed the baby birds worms.

But the best part of the whole museum was the flower pollination game.

You put the wiffle balls in the flowers and they go through a maze and come out the bottom. We easily played with this for over an hour.

We visited the Naturalist Center for a presentation of live animals. Mama was impressed because for the first time in my life I raised my hand and asked a question. ("How old is the snake?" ) Then I got to touch the snake!

After papa was done with his conference, we went out to eat to watch the Bengals lose another playoff game in the first round. Despite the loss, at least mama and papa got to watch the whole thing because both June and I were very good for the whole three hours. Thanks again, Grams and PawPaw for the Leapster video game. It kept me happy for hours.

On Sunday, we bummed around most of the day. Mama spent most of the day sleeping and watching football. The south has changed her because she can't seem to keep warm in our 68 degree house. She was curled up with her hat on under a blanket when I decided this umbrella would probably help her keep warm. I'm just that nice.

The drive home-June.

We left Columbus bright and early and had a good drive through Ohio and Kentucky. When we got to Tennessee, we decided drive through Gatlinburg and straight down to South Carolina instead of driving the detour of 40 an hour east then driving back west.

Good thing we took the back roads, because it was a beautiful drive over the mountains.

Mama and I got out of the car to enjoy the beautiful snow on the north side of the mountains.

And it wasn't even that cold.

Of course, I had to pee at that moment. It was a very scenic rest area.

It was beautiful and the roads were well-plowed (believe it or not), so we didn't have to worry about too much ice.

As soon as we hit the peak (Clingman's Dome) on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, the snow disappeared. All that southern sun.

Though the snow was gone, there were still spectacular icicles all along the road.

If we thought the main road through the Smokies was remote, the drive through Georgia and into South Carolina was twisty and curvy and most of it had to be taken at about 10 miles per hour. We were pretty good, even though I was tired of driving and Henry was mad at mama for not stopping at the Dinosaur museum he saw in Pigeon Forge. (Mama later threw a fit because not only did papa refuse to stop at Dollywood, he also refused to stop at the Steakhouse Cafeteria when we drove threw Wallahalla!).

And thus ended our epic Christmas vacation. We're glad to be back home and very glad the neighbors didn't put it up on the market when we didn't come back. There's a bit of a cold snap down here (highs only in the thirties!), so we've been wearing some of our warmest clothes. Papa and I agree that this sweater is very embarrassing.