Just hanging out at home- Juner.

With all the snow, mama's been putting off laundry day. Mostly because our washer and dryer are in the shed out back and she didn't want to have to drag 5 loads of laundry through the snow. Well, the snow is mostly still here, but it was 45 degrees today, so mama really only had to worry about the large sheets of ice that kept sliding off the roof. She escaped alive, but missed on big sheet by only about a half second.

Henry heard that today was a cleaning up day, so he spent all day dumping out anything he could find then insisting that mama play with him while simultaneously keeping me in a seperate room so she wouldn't mess up his stuff.

I worked on my standing and reaching skills. I can now reach everything in the top bins. I can also open up all the drawers in the kitchen and managed to unroll a half a roll of saran wrap while mama was out doing laundry. I also grabbed the packing tape with the very sharp cutting edge, but luckily, mama saw me grab that and got it away before I hurt myself.

In a surprising turn of events, mama and papa actually got me a toy birthday present. (We're so blessed that mama and papa normally don't like adding to the collection. So most of our presents usually come in car seat or booster seat form. How practical.) Mama scored this at a super sale and loves anything that involves blowing air and balls.

Here's my new toy in action. I've already mastered it.

After pictures yesterday, mama only half changed Buster back into his play clothes. Then she didn't feel like wrestling anymore and let him stay in his dress shirt. As he was running around, she tried to get a picture of him, because she had a vision of what he'd look like in college. With the button up shirt and ripped jeans, Henry is destined to become Jeff Griswold. (He could certainly do worse.)

But we're pretty sure Mister Jeff never had dance moves like this.

Bunny pictures- Henry.

We've been stuck inside avoiding crazy people for the past 5 days, so mama was ready to get out even after they closed school again today. (Don't get mama started on this. They cancel school the night before here and they canceled today due to the cold weather- it was in the 20s this morning. It's supposed to be 45 degrees and sunny tomorrow and the schools are already delayed. This is too much.) Anyhoo, Miss Becky called mama and they both agreed to meet up at the mall to get us all out of the house.

I've been accident-free since Friday and mama decided she needed a reward for her finally getting up the nerve to undertake potty-training. So we got our pictures taken at the picture place in the mall.Yes, I know this is the same outfit I've worn for the past 4 photo sessions I've gone to, but it just works.

Plus, it looked good with Juner's pretty dress.

Since we've been stuck inside, we were both pretty wound up and it took a while to get us to settle down.

But we both cooled it when they brought out the bunnies.

Juner didn't want to touch the bunny.

I really liked holding my gray bunny.

But once the bunnies started hopping around, Juner got really freaked out, so we had to put the bunnies away.

After that, Junebug decided she was too tired and hungry to take any more pictures and pretty much melted down.

She didn't quite recover, even after mama stuffed us with goldfish.

In the end, mama really didn't have any problem picking out which picture to buy. She liked this one the most.

After pictures, mama had to own up to all the bribes she promised. We got to go out to eat in the mall and enjoyed a great lunch from Sonic. Then we got to go to the hobby store and play with the Thomas train set. All the time out of the house must have worked because both Juner and I settled down to bed rather quickly tonight, instead of staying up for 90 minutes after mama put us down.

Weathering the storm.

Well, even a "huge" storm can't keep us in. June had her one year checkup this morning, so we had no choice but to venture out in the frozen tundra. Instead of risking the icy roads, we decided to walk to the doctor's office, which is only about a half mile away.

Like we said, it's a wet heavy snow that stuck to all the trees. It really is quite pretty. Plus, it's about 35 degrees, so it's not too cold to be out. And the sun is out, so it feels like Wisconsin, instead of gray and dark like North Carolina has been for the past week.

We had a good time walking, although there are no bobcats here that come by early to plow the sidewalks, so we had to forge our own path. The tricky part was that the round doesn't freeze down here and it's been raining for 5 days. So every time you stepped off the sidewalk, you sunk about 6 inches into the red mud.

The most exciting part of the walk was watching the idiots drive down our street. Our street is especially "treacherous" because it's hilly, curvy and shady, making for some pretty icy conditions, even in our inflated Northern opinions. And walking home, we discovered there are two types of Southerners. First, there are the kind who lose their minds and stay at home. We like these people. Second are the morons who see the ice as a sort of challenge to prove their manhood and show Dale Earnhardt who really is the best driver. These were the people driving on our street this morning. No kidding, we saw 4 accidents on our way home. We think somewhere someone must have told these people the best way to drive on ice is just to get over it as fast as you can. Henry was pretty excited to see all these cars spinning out and knocking down fences and street signs. Mama was sure we were going to be the unintended victims of these crazy drivers and hurried everyone home as fast as she could.

About 100 yards from home, Henry lost his sense of adventure and spent the rest of the trip whining that the road was too icy and that his underpants were falling down. (On a good note, Henry successfully completed his second trip out of the house with no accidents! We're now on day 3 with no accidents. Too bad the size 2 underpants he inherited are way too big and sag constantly. And if you thought his 24 month pants were too baggy with a diaper, try not to look at Henry from behind now. He makes plumbers look modest.)

June's appointment went great. She seems to have recovered from her stint as a normal sized baby and is back to being a shrimp. She weighed in at 19 pounds 10 ounces (25th percentile), up only 1 pound and 5 ounces since her last check up 10 weeks ago. And she's 28.5 inches tall (25th percentile), 1 inch taller than last time. We thought she'd grown more. But the doctor said that it's normal for kids to grown slower once they get moving around 9 months.

When we got home, Henry demanded to get his wet pants off and to watch the Grinch in honor of the snow. In her estacy over the snow, mama drank two glasses of Cheerwine and made herself sick. So she was more than happy to let Henry watch some videos on the computer while we moaned on the floor. As you can see, Henry really likes the Grinch. If only his pants would stay up.

Many thanks to the numerous people who called this morning to check up on us. Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jenni win the funny message category for the multiple messages hoping that we hadn't started burning our furniture for heat, or resorted to eating the last of the Christmas candy to stay alive (don't worry, it's still in the tupperware in the cupboard). And luckily, no one had to send out the St. Bernard with the barrel of whiskey to save us.

We made it.

In the words of Car Movie- "Thank the manufacturer; you're alive!"

We're glad to report that we made it through the night and still have the appropriate number of limbs and appendages. We did lose electricity for a while, but luckily, we were all wearing our fleece jammies and sleeping under our thick down comforter. Well, Henry just slept in a t-shirt and shorts, but that kid is on fire.

We ended up only getting 2 inches of snow, but it's a very warm snow that is sticking to everything, including the power lines, so even as I update the blog, the power has gone out two more times.

Henry is pretty excited about the prospect of clearing off the back deck with his dump truck and woke up this morning screaming "It snowed! It snowed!" June, has stuck to her southern sensibilities and thinks we should stay inside.

We're going to attempt to walk the half mile to the doctor's office (they were just delayed, not closed) this morning. I'm sure no one plowed the sidewalks, but there are a lot of dog walkers on our street, so there should be a path.

We just got a call from Miss Susan over in Greensboro and she says they got 5 inches! She said that when they found out their work was canceled (last night), they walked to the store for beer and milk. (This is why we like them so much.) Hopefully the road situation clears up and we can all get together for a real hootenanny.

Pictures are coming soon.

Storm watch 2009.

UPDATE: 11:30 pm. It's now snowed an inch and a half. 312 closing have been reported. The doctor's office is closed, so June won't get her one year check up. And Wake Forest is now closed as well. Eat it up Wisconsin students. All the of students at Wake Forest live on campus and can't make it through a couple inches of snow. In our memory, there was one cancellation at Wisconsin and it was only for classes after 5 pm.

The storm of the century- for real this time.

There's a big storm coming to North Carolina tonight. They're forecasting 4 to 6 inches of snow. And not just the same 4 to 6 inches of snow that they're forecasted twice before this winter, but never came. It's really going to happen this time, just like they always say.

And because it's supposed to happen tonight, everything has already been closed for tomorrow. Check out that picture, already 122 closings have been reported, including every school in the state and most businesses. Mama's pretty sure that we're not going to get our picture taken with bunnies tomorrow morning- our appointment is at 9 am and the mall is probably already scheduled to be closed.

The TV stations are all over this story and are issuing some pretty crazy statements (in our opinion). They include "Snow will accumulate most in grassy areas and make driving conditions dangerous." (Dangerous in grassy areas?) "Make sure you have extra food and water on hand and an alternate heat source." (Too bad our condo doesn't have a fire place.) And mama's favorite "Snow will down trees, blocking roadways." Here's hoping that we make it through the night, and that no one gets hurt by the shower of trees falling on the roads. There may be 6 inches of snow after all.

UPDATE: In the time it took me to write this post, 68 more closings were reported. God help us.

Juner's birthday party- Henry.

We celebrated Juner's birthday yesterday with a party! We'd hoped for nice weather for an outdoor party, but a nasty storm has been in North Carolina since Thursday and it's been cold and sleeting for 3 days.

Miss Becky helped June open a present- a book about monkeys!

Juner also got some very cute summer clothes to wear- if it would only get warm! Thanks for the great presents everybody!

June and Audrey played on the floor.

And the big kids got to the important task at hand- decorating their cupcakes.

TJ, Henry, and Gracie did a great job, but were so busy having fun, most of the cupcakes were left behind (after the frosting was licked off, of course).

Since most of our parties in Wisconsin usually involved beer and cheese, we wanted our first
North Carolina party to feel authentic. So mama bought some Cheerwine for everyone to drink (it's a local cherry pop- excuse me- soda). Mister Andy said that he heard you were supposed to drink it with peanuts floating in it. The peanuts helped mellow the super sweetness of it, but at the end of the party, most of us decided we'd stick to Lexington barbeque if we wanted to act local.

Here's the big birthday moment. Don't worry- June didn't touch the candle.

And here's June inhaling her cake.

June by now is an old pro at cake eating and had her birthday cupcake demolished in no time.

She ate the first one so fast, papa gave her another.

And in the end, the only crumbs left were on her bloomers (which washed up well, despite the pink frosting that was ground in).

After a quick bath in the sink, June was ready to rejoin the party.

June and Audrey spent the rest of the afternoon feeding each other apple slices.
Mama was worried that things might got out of hand in our little house, but was pleasantly surprised that the three older kids spent most of their time playing quietly in the front room. She says the only one who was crazy was me. But I've been stuck in this house wince Thursday, hopped up on potty training and pink lemonade. What else could I do but get excited?

After the party, I helped clean up by eating the leftover fruit. Every piece got a clean toothpick and mama found out way too late that every dirty toothpick went right back into the clean toothpick pile.

Happy birthday Juner!

It's hard to believe that it's already been a year since we welcomed June into our family.

Mama, who was convinced she was having a boy, and never made the decision whether to name him Walter or Simon, is still shocked at her little girl and how REALLY different it is raising boys and girls. (By the way, papa always knew he was getting a Junebug, so he never stressed about picking a bay's name.)

Our little family has really changed in the past year. Look at how little Henry was! What were we thinking having another baby so soon?

Back then, Juner didn't do much but lie around and sleep.

But now at one year, she is full-time stinker.

She spends most of her time making messes and emptying out everything, including toy bins, cupboards, and drawers. She's not walking yet, but it getting very sturdy on her two little legs. And she is very proficient in climbing stairs and sliding down on her belly. She also maintains her enormous appetite. She normally eats more than Henry, which isn't really saying much. But as she gets older, she is becoming more picky about what she'll eat. She will still eat pretty much anything, with the exception of the following:
-Avacados
-Green beans
-Hot dogs
-Any kind of bread
Mama's beside herself that June won't eat bread, because it's a big lunchtime staple in the Turner house. Papa thinks that June is joining in a no-starch solidarity with him.
Mama had a few old dresses from when she was a baby and got them out for another photo shoot.
We had to do this one inside because it was raining outside.
June had a great time laughing it up at papa.
And is apparently 1 going on 15, judging by this dirty look she's giving her brother.
We're determined to let her bangs grown out, but after a month of never bothering her hair barrette, Juner now refuses to keep on in.
June LOVES music, so she's very fond of her Little Einstein June doll, which sings classical music when you push her belly. (Henry likes it too and sings along, so now we here "Hi, I'm June. I love to dance." about 300 times a day.)

Henry wanted in on the fun and sat still for about 3 seconds to get his picture taken.

Some of our loyal readers have voiced concern over the fact that Henry is being potty trained with pink training pants. We'll give you the Madison excuse first: We're not pushing gender roles and want Henry to be comfortable in whatever he chooses (he does prefer the pink underpants to the blue ones we have. But so help us if he starts wearing pink polo shirts with the collar popped). But Henry's so entrenched in his cars and construction vehicles, he doesn't have time to worry about what "girl stuff" is. Here's the real reason he's training in Annalise's old underpants: training pants are expensive! They're $7 for 3 pairs! Sorry Henry, but no one else in this family has underpants that expensive, and we don't even have to worry about accidents. So, since they're transitional underpants that will hopefully only last for a few weeks, he gets the pink ones. Then there's a full stock of Thomas and Car movie big boy pants waiting for him.

Since we're on the subject, potty training is going great! In the 4 days we've been working on it, there have only been 2 accidents. And both of them have occurred when Henry was alone while mama or papa were putting Juner to bed. Henry has been told many times that he'd get it if he runs in while Juner was trying to go to sleep, so we think that's the reason for the accidents.

And something huge happened last night! Henry pooped in the potty! We were all very proud of him and made a very big deal out of it. I guess there's a lot to be said for a kid who waits for ever to train. This has really been a very seamless transition.

Back to the photo shoot. Mama loves this dress (Grandma Seibert, did you make this one?). But papa thinks it's a bit old fashioned, even for a 27 year old dress. So he made a lot of wise cracks about it.

"Mama wore this dress for the first time she met Johnny Tremain."

"Paul Revere really liked this dress when mama wore it on her first date."

In the end, June preferred to lose the fancy dresses and just stick with the fancy panties.