More snow . . . tons more

I am sick and tired of shoveling snow!!! We're supposed to get 7 - 10" by the morning and I've already shoveled twice and you can't even tell that I did! Ugh! What a waste of naptime! I should have been doing homework. Oh well. That's a downside of winter, right? Funny . . . I don't ever really remember my dad shoveling the driveway. As I recall - the sun pretty much took care of that by the end of the day. Dang 'ol New England!!!

Enough griping . . . the kids are doing great. I was really worried about them getting sick. Unfortunately, Joey's got a cold and Clarissa woke up with a cough yesterday morning. It's not a bad one . . . just here and there occasionally. We went to the doctor this morning just to make sure everything was fine and they're both fine. No fluid. Sounds good to me. I think we'll just take it easy this weekend.

Clarissa got a new toy this week. She got the Bebe Pod and LOVES it! Actually, Joey loves it, too. He's so stinkin' cute sitting in it. He'll run to it as soon as she's out of it and just relax in it. So, I recommend it to anyone who is considering it. It's fun for the whole family! I absolutely love this picture of CJ sitting in it. She really relaxes in it and fell asleep. So sweet and cute. Sorry the picture of Joey is so fuzzy . . . it's really hard getting him to sit still long enough to actually take a picture. I tell him to say "cheese," and he does - but he does it as he's running away from the camera.

Our little helper

Joey really is such a good big brother and a big help to me! He'll get in the car by himself and even go and sit down in his carseat by himself while I'm buckling Clarissa in her's. THAT alone is a big help! He even tried buckling himself once and that was a disaster! He ended up getting his leg where his arm should be and was stuck. Poor guy. His favorite thing lately, though, is to help us grocery shop. The local supermarket has little carts (which I remember using when I was younger) and he's just so stinkin' cute! He gets so excited to help us. The last time we let him push around the cart he made a mad dash towards the cash register and LOADED up on reeses peanut butter cups. Seriously, I think he put probably 15 or so . . . luckily, we distracted him and just bought one.

Clarissa is really starting to babble and it's just so sweet! Keith and I really have the sweetest, most precious babies! She's starting to want to sit by herself. Joey was three months when he first sat by himself. Of course, he wasn't doing it well until five months . . . but I think CJ will be sitting soon, too. CRAZY! I still feel like she should be like a month old. Ugh . . . they're both growing up so quickly!

Our Valentine's Day was nice! Keith, the kids, and I always have lunch together on Thursday's anyway, but it was extra nice since it was V-Day. The kids looked adorable in their Valentine's attire and got lots of presents. I hope everyone else had a wonderful V-Day!!!

Typical Morning

I figured I'd take you through a typical morning in the Truman household.

First, Clarissa and I go and wake Joey from sleeping.





Yes, Joey likes books and always ends up having them everywhere. Sometimes, when we go into his room and he's already awake he'll be sitting in his bed "reading" to himself. So cute.


Next, Joey will ask me to read a book to him. So, I place both kids next to each other so I can read a book to them.

And sometimes he lets Clarissa play the kazoo!


After I finish reading, Joey will get up and have some fun!


Meanwhile, Clarissa will be laughing at how silly her brother is!





Aside from our typical morning today ended up being crazy. Our house started to flood. Luckily, we caught it pretty early. It turns out that 4 inches of snow followed by 2 inches of rain within 24 hours really can be a monster for flooding! Ugh. I called Keith at work as soon as I noticed water and he rushed home. Poor Keith . . . he had a lot of work to do when he came home. We've still got tons of snow on the ground so he had to shovel a trench to allow the water to flow away from the house. Gosh, I'm so ready for summer.

So close!

We've been potty training Joey and he's just soooo close!!! The other day Keith noticed that Joey had turned on his light to his bedroom and decided that he'd turn it off once he knew for certain Joey was sleeping. What he found was very interesting. Joey had stripped off all of his clothes and taken off his diaper. He just didn't want to be wet! You'll be happy to know that luckily he was still dry!


We weren't so fortunate yesterday morning, though. We woke Joey to go to church and instead noticed he got sick. Poor baby. He had a stomach bug all day yesterday. He seems to be doing much better.


Yesterday was just hectic. Once we realized he was sick I headed off to go buy some pedialyte and realized the diaper bag along with my wallet was missing. Unfortunately, it had been left at Target - but luckily it was found with everything in it. CRAZY!!!


Clarissa is doing well. Just getting big! Stll not sleeping in her bassinett . . .

We are AMERICANS!

I just wanted to remind everyone that is eligible to go out and vote today (if you can)! It's Super Tuesday! The way I see it . . . you can't really gripe about who is in or isn't in office if you didn't do anything about it. Right? If you think someone should be able to run for office, but you didn't vote for them . . . why are you griping?

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I went out and voted today. The weather is gross, but I hope that when the kids are older they remember all of the times that I took them out to make sure I voted. Voting with two kids this time was definitely a bit more difficult, though. I only have two hands and I had to get someone to place my ballot in the box. At least it's there, though!

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We went to story time this morning and it was much better this week than last. As soon as we walked to the children's wing Joey saw the books for sale and got excited. He sat through the books and listened very well. He did his craft (and ended up with stickers all over himself) and then we went book shopping! I highly recommend to anyone that buys kids book regularly to check to see if their library sales their old books. I paid a . . . well Joey paid a quarter for this one particular book I've been wanting to buy him. At the stores it's like $8. Kid books are just ridiculously overpriced. My kids love books - so any way I can cut corners I'll do it. Our library also gives away books - but it's usually boring, ol' books.

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We started a new series for our small group Bible Study last night. Keith and I have always been fascinated with prophecy and what better book to study than the book of Revelation. It made me remember a Sunday School class we did while we lived in Lubbock. We sure do miss IABC. We made a lot of great friends there and more importantly grew to love God more. It was such a great Bible-Believing church and I really do miss it! We do love our church here, but that was Keith's & my first church as a married couple. It was OUR church - not our family's, but OURS. I could go on and on about IABC. If anyone lives or will be visiting the Lubbock area, you should check them out one day! (http://iabc.org/)

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Well, I don't remember where I was going with that. I have Clarissa sitting in my lap and she's telling me that she's had enough and is ready to eat! So - everyone go vote! Oh . . . and the pic of the kids (such a funny pose) has Clarissa in the little top that Merle knitted her. Adorable!

Meeting the Family

Margaret was able to come visit the kids for a short visit after her trip to D.C. last week. It was so great and we all enjoyed having her! Joey took to her (after the shock of her coming in to get him from waking up instead of me). He loves his aunt "Gogurt" and especially all of the treats she got him. Clarissa even gave her several smiles and laughed for her.

It sure was a busy weekend, though! We went shopping at Wrentham, Natick, and Ikea. Wow! We got such great deals on so much stuff. It was nice having a shopping buddy!

The weather is absolutely gorgeous today . . . . hmmm, good enough for the Giants to win? We'll see. Here's to hoping . . .

Coffee Money

Yesterday morning before we left to go to the library for story time/craft time I grabbed some change for Joey. The library sales used books and last week he wanted some, but I had no money. I figured I was doing a nice thing for him and thought he'd enjoy it! I put the money in his pocket and off we went. The librarians read books over penguins and Joey was really interested and paying really good attention. Well, he moved a little and the change fell out of his pocket and that was it! He grabbed the money and by this time was only half-listening to the story . . . but still listening. I grabbed the money from him thinking it would help him concentrate on the book fully. I was totally wrong! He started bawling and I quickly gave the money back to him. He did fine for the rest of the story. After the books were all read we got up to go do craft time. Joey had none of that! I had to put his money in his pocket for him to color. We never got to color. Joey ended up getting mad at me for taking away his money and we left. I took him over to the book sale and he didn't want to give up his money. So, no new (used) books. The moral of the story: grab change and put it in mom's wallet until the end of craft time . . . and then let him shop for books! What was I thinking? Coffee money is not meant to be seen until absolutely needed.

In the past couple of weeks Joey has really discovered that he can undress himself. Hence, the pictures of his shirt around his waist. That's how I found him when I went to go wake him from his nap yesterday. What a cutie!

Today I put Clarissa in Joey's old walker. My little lady is getting so big! She really looks like Joey did as an infant, too. I really want to go buy a stationary for her to lounge. Maybe I'll go do that with Margaret . . . and yes! Margaret is coming today! We'll have lots of fun! I can't wait.

Below is a video of Clarissa "talking" among other things. Enjoy!